Top all-time · #1930
Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision
Personal blog · hal2020.combusinesshardwarestartups
Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision is a personal blog at hal2020.com about business, hardware and startups. Since 2011, 39 different Hacker News readers have linked it 85 times, most often “Why SQL server was never ported to Unix”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 31 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Hal Berenson's blog, written by a former Microsoft GM, for Microsoft strategy, org structure and history, including the WinFS series, SQL Server, and crapware posts.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 31 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Comments about the state of the technology world and its future
Most-linked posts?
- Why SQL server was never ported to Unix4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-07-28
- /2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-storage-and-microsoft-part-4/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-05-16
- /2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-05-15
- Dear Developer, excuse me while I slap you silly2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-02-15
- Acknowledging the aQuantive Mistake2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-07-03
- The Future of Microsoft – Part 22 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-10
- My Mobile Phone Is Sacrosanct2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-29
What Hacker News says?
http://hal2020.com/2013/07/12/doing-the-successor-speculatio...
Comment linking /2013/07/12/doing-the-successor-speculation-shuffle/
on “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months”Submitted WinFS, Integrated/Unified Storage, and Microsoft as a story · 87 points
HN discussionYea, I mentioned it in my wishlist for Satya: http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/...
Comment linking /2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/
on ““This presentation can’t be opened because it’s too old””Submitted Why SQL server was never ported to Unix as a story · 79 points
HN discussionNote that SQM telemetry is separate from any ad tracking. I think part of the problem is declining PC sales. I recommend that you read this: https://hal2020.com/2013/03/07/what-if-microsoft-had-done-wi...
Comment linking /2013/03/07/what-if-microsoft-had-done-windows-8-differently/
on “Microsoft Edge WebGL engine open-sourced”Submitted SteveB’s Retirement Announcement as a story · 59 points
HN discussionI think this blog post by a former Microsoftee (Hal Berenson) is also worth reading - http://hal2020.com/2012/07/03/acknowledging-the-aquantive-mi...
Comment linking /2012/07/03/acknowledging-the-aquantive-mistake/
on “Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant”Submitted Porting Microsoft SQL Server to Linux as a story · 44 points
HN discussionI was researching WinFS recently and came across this series of posts explaining its vision: * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/25/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-stora...
Comment linking /2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-storage-and-microsoft-part-4/
on “Show HN: FSQL – Search through your file system with SQL-esque queries”Submitted The consumer guys at Microsoft are just plain wrong as a story · 38 points
HN discussionhttp://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/...
Comment linking /2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/
on “Microsoft won't stop forcing companies to pay for its bogus Android patents”Submitted Understanding the Microsoft Surface (a sort of Review) as a story · 6 points
HN discussionPS is just a piece of the puzzle. In fact, if I were to automate things on Windows, I would pick perl/python/ruby(on linux, I use shell scripts only for jobs which are less than 50 lines). The major question is does the objects which are to be automated lend themselves to automation? Here is one of the results I found while looking for 'sql server automate' http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187061.aspx If I…
Comment linking /2011/07/27/porting-microsoft-sql-server-to-linux/
on “Windows 8 OEM specs may block Linux booting”Submitted Developers, ignore creating Windows apps at your peril as a story · 5 points
HN discussionIf you want to understand Microsoft, you could do a lot worse than reading http://hal2020.com/ , by a former General Manager at Microsoft. I learn something from pretty much every blog post he writes. For instance, in his most recent post he discusses how the lack of coordination between the divisions after the 2005 reorg can be viewed as a feature rather than a bug, but also something that now needs to be changed.
Comment linking /
on “Microsoft reorganizes”Submitted Adblockers are the new AntiVirus as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThat discussion doesn't contain any high quality posts, why not link the actual article? http://hal2020.com/2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-storag...
Comment linking /2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-storage-and-microsoft-part-1/
on “A dream of an ultimate OS (1995)”Submitted “FAT/exFAT patents seem to be responsible for $1B+ in revenue” (2014) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere is a series of blog posts that gives a retrospective on WinFS: * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/14/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/02/25/winfs-integratedunified-stora... * https://hal2020.com/2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-stora...
Comment linking /2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-storage-and-microsoft-part-4/
on “Designing better file organization around tags, not hierarchies (2017)”Submitted I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThey aren't losing much money because most Windows sales are OEM sales. I recommend that you read this: https://hal2020.com/2013/03/07/what-if-microsoft-had-done-wi...
Comment linking /2013/03/07/what-if-microsoft-had-done-windows-8-differently/
on “FreeBSD 10.3 officially supported on Microsoft Azure”Submitted WinFS, Integrated/Unified Storage, and Microsoft as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI have these two links, the second link has my wishlist for Satya and Android patents is on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7281319 http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/...
Comment linking /2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/
on “Chinese government reveals Microsoft’s secret list of Android-killer patents”Submitted The Future of Microsoft – Part 1 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMS tried it [0] and failed. It was not easy. This was in the days of Whistler, Blackcomb and Longhorn and always an interesting read if you've the time. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS [1] https://hal2020.com/2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-stora...
Comment linking /2013/03/10/winfs-integratedunified-storage-and-microsoft-part-4/
on “Yet another hot take on “folders versus tags””Submitted Dear Developer, excuse me while I slap you silly as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI remember this article: https://hal2020.com/2013/07/09/on-org-structures-goals-and-m...
Comment linking /2013/07/09/on-org-structures-goals-and-metrics/
on “Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem”Submitted OLE DB and SQL Server: History, End-Game, and some Microsoft “dirt” as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI wrote a wishlist for Satya sometimes ago on Hal Berenson's blog (I even suggested MS withdraw the OOXML standard while not changing the format itself): http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/...
Comment linking /2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-leadership/
on “Open-source Libraries for Working with Open XML Documents (docx, xlsx, pptx)”Submitted Microsoft Phone (Part 1) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
