Hacker News Reader

Comment by swalsh | Hacker News Reader

" no one really _needs_ them"

Facebook? Sure, people can live without that. But Microsoft, Google, i'd argue even Amazon are integral parts of the economy. Trying building a modern business without the business software Microsoft maintains. Try doing work without Google. Amazon is a part of our modern shopping habits.

Do they need to be as big as they were? Probably some room to go down, but they're an essential part of the economy now.

View on HN

Microsoft is not FAANG, at least not part of the acronym i was strictly referring to.

The world needs a search engine, but the moment a new, competent, one pops up all you need to do is switch a URL and you are done with google. All other services google provides are replaceable.

Amazon is a cool marketplace, infested by scams and low quality products, an alibaba of the west. It is an integral part of the economy by I manage to do just fine without it. AWS is a wake up call away from trending out of fashion.

Google is integreated in nearly every university and large company across the US. They aren't going anywhere.

Microsoft isn't FAANG because they generally pay a bit lower. But they're still a worldwide powerhouse. Windows is extremely popular, and so is their office suite. You just can't license osx on non-apple machines and linux options are just not as popular yet.

Microsoft, even if i don't much like their products, are a grown-up company. That's probably why they haven't gone crazy with pay, which is still decent.

It's great for the area they're located in. If you keep getting step raises and stock refreshers every year you can actually end up doing quite well. Your initial comp isn't going going to be super impressive though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com