What is Digg?107 Comments
- makingtheswitch, on 10/12/2007, -14/+174It is my blog, about that you are right. I was trying to figure out how to add Digg links to WordPress hosted blogs and the instructions said you needed to Digg it first - so I did. But the content is true. I am a MS employee. I have been using Linux for about 30 *hours*. I don't know if I'll be a fanboy or not. So far I like it but I haven't tried doing much more then just getting it to work how I want and trying to install some development tools to figure out what the world looks like. And Ubuntu is in the title because by the time I added the Digg post I had already settled on and installed Ubuntu. I didn't want to submit every post though so I started with the first since the others are just me working through the steps.
- Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -8/+79Interesting. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
Just watch your back around the office......Steve Ballmer may be lurking in the shadows with an office chair. - makingtheswitch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+66Yoshi39,
Yes - I am still a full-time employee (FTE) at Microsoft working as a software development engineer in one of the major product groups (where major groups are Windows, Office and Developer Division [i.e. VS and SQL]). - makingtheswitch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+51I'm cautious enough not to advertise my name/team but I think I'm more OK than not - I'm not trashing MS, it's products or revealing IP. But I don't want to be the next Mark Jens. People have been fired for drinking the wrong beer (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7890791/) - who knows what the wrong OS could result in.
- makingtheswitch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+50Fair enough. I'm not going to reveal enough info to prove I work at MS.
- Yoshi39, on 10/12/2007, -6/+46I'm sorry if it was stated in the article and I missed it but are you still a Microsoft employee?
- Mejogid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+29@makingtheswitch
I've only read the bottom few posts, but from what I've seen your blog appears sincere, well researched, objective and interesting. It's great to see a personal blog that seems to be out for anything more than a quick bit of adsense money. Hope you keep it up, and congrats on a job well done so far. - Anakashar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+31No, but I know someone who has the same problem
- meshman, on 10/12/2007, -13/+40"Six years ago I began working for Microsoft."
I noticed this as well. Not working FOR Microsoft but with its products. I used to be an up-beat, positive thinking and creative individual. But that, along with any other shred of life has been sucked out of me until I have become a bitter, angry and spiteful version of myself. My life now consists of solving Microsoft problems. Not "how do I bold this" but "why am I getting a .Net Framework error when trying to debug?"
That should be easy, I have an error # and a ton of places I can look it up. Not here, not on this forum, not on this message board. Here, I'll post for help. Hmmm.. No repl.. wait! Somebody replied! It's a miracle from the Gods!!! "I have the same problem, have you found a solution". Oh fer... but here's a google link with exactly my question! (click) 3 responses; "I'm having the same problem..." How about forums.microsoft.com? Nope, no replies there since I posted the question 6 months ago except 6 people asking "I have the same problem"...
Oh my god!!! This guy on this message board found a link to a newsgroup where someone posted a link to a blog where somone had this exact problem! He's supplied a link to a MS document with step by step instructions! Finally!!! (follows all steps, same error)
I get a call. "My calculator says 2+2=5." Right. Sure it does. Try it and sure enough, type in 2+2, hit = and it says "5". W.T.F. Enter that into google. Nothing. support.microsoft.com. Nothing. forums.microsoft.com. A post!!! "I'm having the same problem. Have you found a solution?" Jesus H. Christ!
No. I don't have a solution. Nor do I have a solution to the stack of other problems that are piling up. "Z" key doesn't work? Oh, don't replace the keyboard, that won't help. Try the scanner driver. Why? I don't know and neither does anybody else but it fixed the problem. Can't print? Try changing your resolution to 800x600. Why? I don't know, but after 16 white papers (I freaking HATE whitepapers), 32 support documents, 8 message boards and 5 newsgroup postings, my system crashed having all those windows opened, the resolution got changed and the problem went away. Why? Because it's me. That's why. It can't be the "Z" key. It can't be the printer driver. No, it's got the be the last possible thing anyone would think of and must require at least 5 days of continuous research or $245US. Oh, there aren't articles on this. It's never happened before but it happened to me. The installer can't tell me it needs the .Net Framework, no. It'll spew undocumented .Net Framework errors at me for pages.
So yeah. I hear ya. You can only be beaten with this ***** for so long until you become a bitter, remourseful shell of the human being you once were. The phone rings and you cringe; "Hi! I can't access the S: Drive". Mapped drive missing? No server share? No. It's much more of a flaming 2 week nightmare than that. You're saving for retirement not so you'll have peaceful last years but to become the 'get off my lawn' old man nobody talks to because he's a bitter, self-involved loner. 'How did he get that way?' people ask.
Working with Microsoft technologies has given him mental problems. Do you have a solution? - scabbers, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28I'm sure there's an office in Microsoft dedicated to playing with Linux distros in case there's something worth stealing or suing over... ask for a transfer.
- shlolz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23I like it, it's well-written and interesting to read. Keep up the good work!
- GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19One thing, I read your post about re-ordering grub. If a new kernel comes in it will trash the original menu.lst file and will probably lose the menu option to Windows altogether. I suggest a back up or fiddling the default option instead. You would have to make changes come a kernel update in any case but there is less damage this way. Another solution would be to leave the autogenerated Windows menu option there and add another at the top. This may look weird but would at least preserve the original option come update time.
Note that if you alter the default option you can set grub to hide the menu by default. Then your family won't even see the menu and it would jump straight into Windows unless they hit esc. - championchap, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22uhh not quite..
The installation of Linux was more symbolic than anything.. it even says in the comments that he was thinking of getting a Mac.
Hardly a rampant Linux fanboy. - loves2spooge, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22Or a keyboa.... HOMEROWED!!!
- championchap, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Oh god.. Budweiser..
How can they expect their employees not to drink a rival beer? Budweiser is *****! - bobbyi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Where have you worked other than Microsoft that you didn't feel this way? It seems like most of what you are describing is a general result of having a time-consuming and tiring job rather than something about Microsoft in particular.
- mccord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13just ignore it or hit the bury button if these articles annoy you.
you don't have to bitch about it in the comment section. - Adma1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12looks like (for this guy) it's simply the result of having a single job that for anyone can feel repetitive after 6 years. While I wouldn't say anything drastic about the fact that someone who works at MS uses Linux, I mean they have how many employees?
I think it will be good for this guy, just to have something different and new, completely off the wall from what you've been used to.
Good luck buddy - deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16I'm with you. When I was working with Microsoft products I found my days were mostly doing monkey work. Problems? Try rebooting. Hmm didn't work. Try reinstalling the app. Hmmm still didn't work. Try to remove recent hotfixes/updates Still didn't work. Check system logs? Nothing useful here. Check google to see if anyone else is having the same problem? Get 50,000,000 results when I look for " random program crash Windows XP" Still nothing. Roll my eyes, grit my teeth, find my install CD's and rebuild the machine from scratch. 3 hours later everything is working again. REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT.
- bmxboy661, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I think change is good.
I used to use Windows XP, and I still use it at college, but my preference would be Mac OS X. I've tried out Linux, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as OS X. I think that we should respect others opinions, unless they haven't experienced whatever they are complaining about. - hagbard72, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11A friend worked for MS back in the early days, and was employed to work with Unix. So, no sin.
- Phocion55, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Just reread your comment a few times and reconsider who doesn't want to be like who.
- Megatog615, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11makingtheswitch: Ubuntu is always looking for developers :).
- cculver, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Quote: "makingtheswitch is a faker. I'd be a lot more convinced that he worked at MS if he was able to identify the divisions at Microsoft. There is no Office division, Developer division doesn't produce SQL and Windows is spread across more than one division / group."
Unless he's management, I highly doubt he has all of that memorized. Microsoft is a hugely complex company in terms of organization, and even though I have worked there (as a software development engineer), I cannot for the life of me tell you the beginnings or the endings of management chain without pulling up headtrax to actually see it. Even in the team I worked in, I couldn't tell you which branch of the company I even worked under without consulting one of the management types, or again, headtrax. The great thing about working for Microsoft is the developers are insulated from even needing that type of information. You have work you have to do, and you don't have a lot getting in your way of doing it.
As for the rest of it, *shrug*. I doubt he would get in serious trouble. Remember, there is an entire Mac division at Microsoft. Microsoft Office for the Macs didn't just appear out of thin air. I saw people walking around with Mac laptops on Microsoft campus. It wasn't common by any stretch of the imagination, but they are definitely there. I'm sure somewhere within the company there are people running Linux on their home desktops or laptops. There are certainly people who run open source software on their work desktops. Developers are STRICTLY forbidden to look at open source code while working for Microsoft, but nothing is stopping them from actually using the software.
Then again, a blog which extols the virtues of a competitor might raise the ire of some management types. So it goes. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Coors is why they fired him, I mean if he had been caught drinking Guiness... who could have blamed him?
- endersshadow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@makingtheswitch: I hope you utilize the vast amount of community resources (http://ubuntuforums.org, #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net, http://ubuntuguide.org) when trying to tackle your problems or just find cool stuff to do. http://doc.gwos.org has good stuff, too. All too often, new converts who decide to tell everybody about it (for one reason or another, and yours actually seems pretty interesting...which is a nice refresher) always freak out at a problem, can't find a support phone number and find out that there's no support.ubuntu.com and declare Linux unsupported, adolescent, etc. While Linux isn't really a philosophical journey, just know support works differently.
Haha, maybe that'd make a good post...one's shock of having to ask random users for help instead of calling up "Chris" in India. - thirtysixbelow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The fact that he cheated on Bud with Coors makes it even worse. If you are going to lose your job at least do it while drinking a good beer.
- ordminute, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7OS X is pretty great but comes with a few major shortcomings and perhaps misses the point when what you're after is increased freedom.
Don't get me wrong, aside from a few performance issues compared to Linux it's a pretty reliable OS. I still use OS X but less and less since using Ubuntu. I only use it for Final Cut now. WinXP->OS X really one vice for another: it's still lock-in at the end of a day.
OS X doesn't have whole system upgrades, real package management (Fink and MacPorts don't really work), it is locked to hardware so you can't take it with you to another computer, system upgrades cost and it has a closed-source approach to dealing with security issues.
If you really want your computer back - to be free off all this - then you need to look at Linux or a BSD. - Megatog615, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6FanGIRLS? Where?
- radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -2/+86 years ago wasn't exactly a good time to be joining Microsoft - you should have known what you were getting into. Hey, whatever gets you off of Windows and out of Microsoft. Good luck.
- nestafett, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@make,
i do appreciate that your on the comment boards talking about what you posted, thanks, i wish more people would do that =) - radiofrequency, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Microsoft is a company whose executives discussed, in great detail, how to violate antitrust law and limit choices to consumers in order to gain traction for their products.
No article will ever be as annoying as one praising Microsoft because it's probably written under duress or for compensation. - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5They could buy Canonical, can't see it for some reason. The brilliant thing is if Shuttleworth sold Canonical to them they could just fork the code base, alter the branding and continue as if nothing happened. The only point of buying out a company is to take their IP, since Canonical don't own most of the IP and what IP they do have is GPL'd (excluding Launchpad) there is little business sense in doing so.
- coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Read the article.
Its not the OS, its the company culture.
Hes switching to Linux as a way to start dabbling in pet projects again. - andymuk, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12makingtheswitch is a faker. I'd be a lot more convinced that he worked at MS if he was able to identify the divisions at Microsoft. There is no Office division, Developer division doesn't produce SQL and Windows is spread across more than one division / group.
Things are clearly spelled out at "Directions on Microsoft" (http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/sample/orgchart.html) and it would be second nature for anyone with 6 years service. - nroose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Didn't MS restructure since that 2004 directions diagram?
- tiffany98121, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I have seen people on campus many times that had Macs or various flavors of *nix on their laptops. I don't think this is really news. I don't think anyone really thinks twice about people using other OS'es. In my group it's actually encouraged, because knowing and understanding the competition is a good thing.
- papayiya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I read a couple articles in EGM a couple months ago, about gaming companies hiring PR firms to do VERY strategic marketing. If this was one of those times, it would be genius. Get all these people on Digg behind him, then after a while of using *nix, the blogger claims Windows is in fact better, and goes back to his trusty XP. I really hope this is a single person and not a very creative marketing ploy.
- j4200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You've got to be 17-19 kind of range. You've got alot to learn about life son
- sleepyness, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hmm maybe I'll try Feisty Fawn..I like how everyone else dug me down and decided not to help.
- OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8[quote]Yes - I am still a full-time employee (FTE) at Microsoft[/quote]
Not for long...
I suspect Darth Ballmer will be paying you a personal visit soon. - ouorama, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Let me get this straight. The man starts working for Microsoft and that's responsible for him stopping with the piano? This man sorely needs to get a life and screw his head on if he honestly believes the OS he uses prevents him from creating music or doing other creative things in his personal life.
- kingace, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4If you're cool with it, then why are you bitching?
- coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I enjoyed the read and i've never used Linux.
And its already been dugg by around 500 people. - j4200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If anyone finds a solution to this problem please email me. Kthnx!
- KoZo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Events Viewer dude, save my life a dozen of times
- ninjathis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well done
- SouLFacE, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Hmmm, in an wordpress blog, someone claiming he is a microsoft employee & switched to linux. then we'll see another wordpress blog & someone claming he is bill gates who switched to Mac. LOL
- Darcy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, if Wired says it, it must be true!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6STFU
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