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Ask HN: If MS spun off Windows, would it be forgiven?

15 points by daxfohl ↗ HN
Just hypothetically, say MS for whatever reason spun off Windows into its own company. Or kills Windows and releases the source to PC vendors et al to do as they will. Then it's just a company that does Office (a productivity suite for all OSes), Azure (cloud supporting all OSes), XBox, HoloLens (misc), and other products and research. And maybe or maybe not has some OS that runs the Surface line, but independent of the "Windows" it let go of. All somewhat "trendy" stuff (if any other company were doing it) with none of the vestiges of the past.

Does this gain any kind of acceptance factor among the anti-MS crowd? If not, would anything along this line do so, or is it just a lost cause?

7 comments

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viraptor
The product itself doesn't matter here. The way it was marketed, distributed, developed matters. MS did some bad stuff on all fronts, regardless of which software was involved. IE, Windows, Office, consoles all had their bad days because someone decided to force or bundle software in questionable ways. On the other hand there were some amazing projects done by MS teams: Singularity, security research (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/research-area/secur...), and many others.

Being pro/anti whole MS without exceptions is silly.

(also even new Office has a lot of "vestiges of the past")

taneq
I think the issue for me is their overwhelming lack of respect for their users during the Windows 10 "free upgrade" push. The heavy-handed GWX nagware push, the use of dark patterns like switching 'Install' and 'Cancel' buttons, repeated re-issues of the update which installs GWX. Then there was the telemetry built into Windows 10, which "could be turned off" but mysteriously kept re-enabling itself. Then pushing that telemetry into earlier versions of Windows via updates. Now rolling updates into monthly undocumented blobs.

To regain any kind of trust from me, they'd need to begin with a public apology for their approach, and a commitment to a far more open, accountable, and respectful approach in future towards their users' privacy and autonomy over their own systems.

yuhong
MS admitted from the beginning that the None/Security level was for Win10 Enterprise only for example.
Sylos
I mean, it's still the same company. Just because they stop developing one of their products where most of their malice manifested, doesn't mean that they let go of the idea that doing these things was acceptable in the first place. So, I'd still be very much wary of their intentions.
ksherlock
Letting PC vendors do as they will sounds like a bad idea. Superfish will look like Little Nemo compared to the Candiru/Piranha hybrids that would follow.
fuqted
Let's not forget LinkedIn
UK-AL
Only is for FSF fanatics is this an issue.