Microsoft Follows LinkedIn Acquisition With Chatbot-Based 'Wand' Buyout

[sudo1996]

Its not a gimmick and as these bots get more robust, they become more helpful. Just look at Google Now vs. Cortana vs. Siri. The latter is the least robust, and Google, MS have a feature rich product that puts apple to shame.

Even the robust ones are useless.
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I thought Linkedin was making a loss?
Why would Microsoft buy them, they know they are a hated company and fools will leave Linkedin just for the fact big M bought it.

As a fan it raises eye brows especially when they have pretty much said they are not going aggresive with electric cars and just want to sell software.

I don't get it, they tried this with phones, computers and gaming consoles with the end result being the same it's just better if they make their own.

Aaarrrrggghhhh

Uh, does anyone like LinkedIn either? They're even crappier than MS. All they do is spam everyone with emails about people's bogus profiles, like Facebook but pretending to be something better.

 

[Alenore]

Doubtful. Windows is dying and these moves by Microsoft reek of desperation. Right now, the consumer space is where it is at and Microsoft is completely out of it. What has most of the executives for Microsoft up at night is the fact that the new generations are growing up on Apple and Google technology. These folks will be the next CEO and CIOs. Microsoft may already be irrelevant and don't know it yet. They are becoming IBM.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
Sooooo dead. 87% marketshare on Windows, Office, Skype, good laptop line up, competitive cloud service, and other products still widely used in the professional world (Azure, business solutions, OneDrive, powerful languages / IDE, SQLServer, Exchange, ...).

Consumer space isn't everything. Besides, even if you consider only communication/content consumption : XBox, Skype, Windows. Poof.
Xbox is still popular, Skype has a fair share of the communication software marketshare and windows is still the clear leader.

 

[Black Magic]

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
Sooooo dead. 87% marketshare on Windows, Office, Skype, good laptop line up, competitive cloud service, and other products still widely used in the professional world (Azure, business solutions, OneDrive, powerful languages / IDE, SQLServer, Exchange, ...).

Consumer space isn't everything. Besides, even if you consider only communication/content consumption : XBox, Skype, Windows. Poof.
Xbox is still popular, Skype has a fair share of the communication software marketshare and windows is still the clear leader.

Microsoft isn't going to disappear and they are trying to transform into a services company. What I am saying is Microsoft is becoming irrelevant in the consumer space. Enterprise they have locked up for now, but how long until someone blind sides them in that space?

You seem to forget that Microsoft had mobile and tablets before Google an Apple. Microsoft lacked vision and focus which resulted in there current predicament. X-Box is losing to the PS4 because once again Microsoft decided to get cute and focus on living room features versus gaming, You see the trend there? Microsoft currently tries to copy Apple every chance it can get because it has an identity crisis. Yes, I said it! Windows Store, SurfaceBook, Cortana, and many more.

 

[niun]

Microsoft isn't going to disappear and they are trying to transform into a services company. What I am saying is Microsoft is becoming irrelevant in the consumer space. Enterprise they have locked up for now, but how long until someone blind sides them in that space?

You seem to forget that Microsoft had mobile and tablets before Google an Apple. Microsoft lacked vision and focus which resulted in there current predicament. X-Box is losing to the PS4 because once again Microsoft decided to get cute and focus on living room features versus gaming, You see the trend there? Microsoft currently tries to copy Apple every chance it can get because it has an identity crisis. Yes, I said it! Windows Store, SurfaceBook, Cortana, and many more.

MS tries to copy Apple!!
Really.? BS.

Its Apple that are having to find ways of iOS and macOS to play nice and I've been using Cortana on my Surface for a while.

MS are taking chances. Actually really exciting ones that are maybe a decade away from being the next big thing. Maybe. But taking that chance takes balls, ideas and innovation.

Apple have caught up with emojis and stickers and Siri.

How long before iPhones become dull and Apple lose that cash cow?

Oh. It already happened.


Oh I should point out that my move to windows was born out of frustration at Apple not getting their ***** together years ago.
The transition was painless.

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Uh, does anyone like LinkedIn either? They're even crappier than MS. All they do is spam everyone with emails about people's bogus profiles, like Facebook but pretending to be something better.

Actually this is interesting. I deleted my linkedIn account due to spamming. However the spam was due to desperation on linkedIn's part.
With the massive cash cow of MS behind them they will be able to focus on whatever it is they do, according to friends of mine it's huge in the professional market - I know professional is a forgotten word in the Apple world.

So, who knows. Could end badly, could be interesting.
Whatever happens I doubt I'll be back. Removing myself from any and all social networks has made the past 8 years pretty awesome.

 

[Black Magic]

MS tries to copy Apple!!
Really.? BS.

Its Apple that are having to find ways of iOS and macOS to play nice and I've been using Cortana on my Surface for a while.

MS are taking chances. Actually really exciting ones that are maybe a decade away from being the next big thing. Maybe. But taking that chance takes balls, ideas and innovation.

Apple have caught up with emojis and stickers and Siri.

How long before iPhones become dull and Apple lose that cash cow?

Oh. It already happened.


Oh I should point out that my move to windows was born out of frustration at Apple not getting their ***** together years ago.
The transition was painless.

Seriously? You transitioned from the best platform (arguably) to the worst and you say it was easy? Surely you jest! iPhones are still the cash cow king so I'm not sure why you say otherwise? Apple is in the process of transitioning into a service company as well. The difference between Apple and Microsoft is Apple doesn't lose focus and once they dominate a particular area, they keep it. Microsoft will dominate, lose focus, lose the marketshare then try to copy what's hot to get back in it. Rinse and repeat. This time Microsoft can't buy out companies to eliminate competition and they are now being pushed to the sidelines for enterprise only moves. #Facts.

How many Windows Phone reboots are they gonna do? How many IDEs will they promise to make developing Android and iOS apps on Windows super easy only to turn around and cancel mid flight?

To sum up Microsoft, so much potential yet no clear direction.

 

[niun]

Seriously? You transitioned from the best platform (arguably) to the worst and you say it was easy? Surely you jest! iPhones are still the cash cow king so I'm not sure why you say otherwise? Apple is in the process of transitioning into a service company as well. The difference between Apple and Microsoft is Apple doesn't lose focus and once they dominate a particular area, they keep it. Microsoft will dominate, lose focus, lose the marketshare then try to copy what's hot to get back in it. Rinse and repeat. This time Microsoft can't buy out companies to eliminate competition and they are now being pushed to the sidelines for enterprise only moves. #Facts.

How many Windows Phone reboots are they gonna do? How many IDEs will they promise to make developing Android and iOS apps on Windows super easy only to turn around and cancel mid flight?

To sum up Microsoft, so much potential yet no clear direction.

I'm going to say this once... The transition was not only painless but a breath of fresh air... This is coming from El Cap which has been a nightmare.

You say Apple doesn't lose focus.. Interesting. That was the old Apple. Now they are playing catch-up and it's a total change to what used to happen. They no longer lead, they follow. Blatantly.

To sum up.. MS used to have no focus.. From what I'm looking at it appears they've done a complete 180.

Did I imagine Apple losing iPhone sales recently? I didn't imagine my share value plummeting.

 

[Rocketman]

$26.2 B for LinkedIn? Can we chat for free now?

 

[sudo1996]

Actually this is interesting. I deleted my linkedIn account due to spamming. However the spam was due to desperation on linkedIn's part.
With the massive cash cow of MS behind them they will be able to focus on whatever it is they do, according to friends of mine it's huge in the professional market - I know professional is a forgotten word in the Apple world.

So, who knows. Could end badly, could be interesting.
Whatever happens I doubt I'll be back. Removing myself from any and all social networks has made the past 8 years pretty awesome.

That's a good point. I agree, seemed like LinkedIn was doing that stuff to try and stay relevant until acquisition.

 

[MH01]

Apple siphons basically all the profits in smartphones, tablets, smartwatches (and much of the money in the beleaguered PC market), advertising is a Facebook/Google affair.

So, Microsoft is left with a vision of the future when they could eventually be relevant again (AI bots). That's why their recent moves look so odd and desperate.

How the tables have turned!

Tables have turned ? How? AppLe have been far far ahead of Microsoft in idevices, if anything Microsoft has closed the gap with thier surface offerings, and while apple have gone to 12 month release cycles of OS X , resulting in software that struggle to be complete for each release, Microsoft have been sorting thier OS out, and become very stable.

Tables have turned, but it's Microsoft what has quietly in the background done the right things.

These companies are going in different directions . Apple is going down the consumer path , Microsoft is very much a tech company.

 

[Rocketman]

Microsoft has the cloud advantage and that is a growth business. Oracle, Amazon, Alphabet and others too.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

That's incorrect, the Ubuntu environment has full access to the file system. It is automounted under "/mnt".

Here are some pretty good overviews of what they've done and what you can do at the moment: https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/03/30/run-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows/
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2016/03...-the-ubuntu-userspace-for-windows-developers/

This is "native" Ubuntu binaries running directly on Windows. The subsystem that Microsoft built lets this happen. It's currently geared toward developers. So unlike Cygwin, it requires no recompile to run.

Okay. That's good. But I'm still confused by this part from the Microsoft blog:

Bash and Linux tools cannot interact with Windows applications and tools, and vice-versa. So you won’t be able to run Notepad from Bash, or run Ruby in Bash from PowerShell.

Why not? It seems rather limited to me without that...

Also, making it only available to developers and not part of a standard install of Windows is super lame. I love distributing little patches where all I have to do is tell the person who wants it "open terminal, paste this in, hit enter", and the command is just downloading a script and piping it to a Python interpreter.