Survey on Microsoft - Customer and Partner Experience
Microsoft wanted me to fill in a survey on what I thought of them. I gave them a "mildly okay" answer to one of their repetitive questions about how much I like the company, and they wanted to know my reasons.
I answered:-
1. Visual Studio is a terrific IDE and the .NET framework enables some powerful software to be written relatively straightforwardly.
2. The .NET tooling to handle WSDL and XSD is woefully shite when it comes to dealing with the output of Java toolsets.
3. The .NET libraries are cluttered with history and thus too many alternative ways to achieve the same things without guidance on best practices. An example is how best to make an HTTP web request. I can think of three options, each subtly different.
4. Instead of consolidating the toolsets and libraries developed, Microsoft instead has historically chosen to dump technologies an invent something new, without explain the roadmap to the user base.
5. Microsoft royally shat on the goodwill of their loyal user base of Windows Phone users. The extended corporate silence on the plan for Windows 10 Mobile was excruciating for those of us who had been sold on and bought into the Windows ecosystem. When the users were finally dumped, and indeed before that, Microsoft barely acknowledged it and it was as if Windows Phone had never happened. This was a betrayal of loyalty and Microsoft deserve no more goodwill from their user base.
6. The recent changes to Microsoft licensing for SQL Server are a disgrace to any relationship they might claim to want with SMEs.
You asked.
I answered:-
1. Visual Studio is a terrific IDE and the .NET framework enables some powerful software to be written relatively straightforwardly.
2. The .NET tooling to handle WSDL and XSD is woefully shite when it comes to dealing with the output of Java toolsets.
3. The .NET libraries are cluttered with history and thus too many alternative ways to achieve the same things without guidance on best practices. An example is how best to make an HTTP web request. I can think of three options, each subtly different.
4. Instead of consolidating the toolsets and libraries developed, Microsoft instead has historically chosen to dump technologies an invent something new, without explain the roadmap to the user base.
5. Microsoft royally shat on the goodwill of their loyal user base of Windows Phone users. The extended corporate silence on the plan for Windows 10 Mobile was excruciating for those of us who had been sold on and bought into the Windows ecosystem. When the users were finally dumped, and indeed before that, Microsoft barely acknowledged it and it was as if Windows Phone had never happened. This was a betrayal of loyalty and Microsoft deserve no more goodwill from their user base.
6. The recent changes to Microsoft licensing for SQL Server are a disgrace to any relationship they might claim to want with SMEs.
You asked.