this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Microsoft has always been terrible at naming things. And at developing things. And at literally everything.
I'd say the one thing they've been decent at is input devices, oddly enough. I was pretty happy with my SideWinder 3D Pro joystick and my Intellimouse Explorer back in the day. I also still (very occasionally) use an Xbox 360 controller attached to my Linux PC.
No credit for Xboxes themselves, let alone other hardware like Zunes and Windows Phones and shit, of course.
They were historically good at input devices because they were the only ones with enough weight to get manufacturers to stop fucking around and use xinput, which guaranteed their hegemony with normal controllers for a long time. 5-10 years ago, it was basically impossible to get a normal controller (ie Xbox or ps layout) that was not approved by Microsoft, working in all games.
LOL, my Microsoft joystick is so old it connected to the gameport on my sound card -- I'm pretty sure XInput didn't even exist yet.
I think I had the same thing that we played Duke Nukem 3D with
I love Xbox 360 controllers, I always use the wired ones so you don't have to fuck about with batteries which I always find annoying to deal with, you also don't need the receiver thing either. And latency is lower.
I find 360 controllers seem to be the most comfortable to hold in my hands, as well as being pretty well built. You can get them used on eBay for like ยฃ15/$20
Shout out to the Sculpt ergonomic keyboard too, my go-to for many years.
Windows phone was their best product
Except VSCode for some reason. VSCode is great.
Say that to the face of a hardcore Vim or Emacs user and enjoy the essay.
Learning vim motions in VSCode with the vim plugin was the best decision I made this year. Made programming even more fun and after a year of learning I actually feel that I finally reached a point where I'm a lot more productive. I set up neovim too, but I'm missing some things to fully switch from VSCode and I have to research my options (git integration and debugging are my pet peeves), which I haven't had time for lately.
I like vim, but I'm not a power user, so trying to code with it sounds...painful. I've never cracked emacs, although it has piqued my curiosity.
mostly because all the good stuff in vscode comes from open source community
And themselves, generally
As well as their founder.