"Jason" wrote

| This is probably paywalled. Someone sent me a copy.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/t...ogy/microsoft-
| reorganizes-to-fuel-cloud-and-ai-businesses.html

Worked for me with cookies enabled. NYT is an interesting
example of how few people know anything about how to use
their computer. I think they allow something like 6 articles
before sending you to the signup page. And it never occurs to
anyone to delete their cookies before going to article #7.

I read that article as a typical press release. It's not
really an article. The salespeople at the company write
it. A company like the NYT will run it because 1) it's
a pro-business ad and they run all the pro-business
"news", whether it's fit to print or not. They want
Microsoft ad dollars. 2) It's pre-digested journalism, which
saves them money. The NYT fills 1/4 of a page and all
they have to do is maybe make some minor edits and
sign a reporter's name to it.
(I remember reading a number of years ago that a study
had found 52% of news articles are actually just ads
written as press releases.)

As Paul said, a nothing burger, or a periodic excretion
from Redmond to keep Microsoft in the news with a
good image.

The reporter obviously knows nothing. I wouldn't
be surprised if he never even read the article. He's
a big shot who puts his name on things. The editor
was probably some underpaid college student.

It goes on about how successful cloud has been
and then says, "Microsoft has successfully rewritten
its popular Office productivity products as web-based
applications running on the cloud."

They're successfully selling it. (To my surprise.)
But it's not cloud by any stretch. It's locally installed
spyware with Web storage included. An interesting
twist on that:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03...ve_langua ge/

Microsoft have changed their "services agreement"
to give them authority to police their services for
anything that might offend someone. They may have
done it for good reason, following the legal change
that allows websites to be punished for content.
(See the Backpage, prostitution discussion in the news.)
But whatever their motive, it's a glaring example of
what people give up with cloud. All your data are
belong to them. And the US Congress want it that way.

So if you use Libre Office or buy an office suite, you
can write what you want and embed nude pictures to
your lover. If you do it on Office 365 it's no longer only
your document. Microsoft co-owns it and may revoke
your access to their products altogether if someone
complains about what you wrote!


I think the press release "takeaway" is something like:
"We're pushing on with Windows as a service, by
hook or by crook. (Mostly by crook.... Watch out for
those Windows Mail links going to Edge, you suckers.)
And, you know... we need to come up with an Alexa
competitor. This AI-ordering-pizza stuff looks like it
might really take off."

Maybe it's not all bleak. I look forward to the new
teen hobby of getting an Alexa tower and a Cortana
box to enter into nasty catfights. It could be a new
craze in party entertainment. And if Alexa can get
Cortana to call her a whore then Cortana might be
banned from MS services for "misdemeanor MeToo
infringement", assuming Alexa can prove that the
insult forced her into psychotherapy.