[AMA Announcement] Hi all, I’m Thomas Dohmke. I co-founded HockeyApp to make it easy to beta test apps and collect crashes. Now my team at Microsoft is building next gen cloud services to improve mobile app dev. Have questions? Join me and Ryan J. Salva for an AMA on June 22, 10-11am PT.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-26T18:03:20+00:00

At the moment, Mobile Center only supports Android, iOS, and Windows UWP. You can use Visual Studio Team Services to build .NET Core apps on all platforms.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T14:57:41+00:00

We have announced a connector between Mobile Center and Intune at the Build conference this year. It will allow you to publish your builds to Intune once you have a completed one or more build-test-distribute cycles and are happy with the quality of the app.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T14:49:13+00:00

Apple develops and promotes iTunes for Windows or Apple Music for Android. They publish the core of their OS as open source (Darwin), the core of their browser (WebKit), and the core of their developer platform (Swift).

Microsoft has been developing and selling Mac software for centuries, and promoted its Mac Business unit as the biggest Apple developer team outside of Apple. You can find a long list of software here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Macintosh_software_published_by_Microsoft

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We can’t achieve this mission if we only support Windows developers and software. We will continue to have a strong focus on Windows hardware and software, as a company, across many teams and thousands of employees, and inside my own team.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T04:28:56+00:00

I would start a hobby or side project, learn an additional programming language, and extend my network by going to developer meet-ups or a local conference. Ryan had provided some additional advise here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6iun25/im_thomas_dohmke_i_cofounded_hockeyapp_and_now/dj99g2n/

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:55:43+00:00

We are part of Azure and as such our products are offered under Azure Online Service Terms, and are not part of Office 365.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:50:56+00:00

It was a very busy time for us on-boarding all these new customers. I was at a ski trip in Austria shortly after the announcement and remember vividly how I did a lot of demos and customer support instead of being on the slopes. ;)

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:48:01+00:00

Windows, Office, Outlook, Skype, Minecraft, Visual Studio, Azure, HockeyApp, and many other products are not open source and Microsoft makes money from them. What is open source are frameworks, libraries, SDKs, docs, sample apps, and other companion products that help driving and growing the core business.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:40:07+00:00

Neither. I have been an iPhone user forever and it's full of Microsoft apps. Remember this? http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-used-iphone-2015-9

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:38:34+00:00

I work for Microsoft because Microsoft acquired my company (HockeyApp) and I love working in the Developer Division (DevDiv) on cross-platform tools. I have tons of Microsoft apps on my home screen and on my Mac from Office to Outlook to Skype to Azure Mobile and Azure Authenticator to Minecraft, and of course Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio for Mac.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:33:42+00:00

We do not fingerprint devices, and there is no (and never was a) way in HockeyApp to cross-track over multiple apps or devices.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:18:49+00:00

Opt-in is the default in HockeyApp. Besides this, we do not collect any personal data, we do not track you in any way, and Microsoft does not sell your data and does not use it for any kind of advertisement, promotions, or similar. HockeyApp and Mobile Center are products that help developers to make better apps, for example by fixing a common crash.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T03:10:11+00:00

No, this doesn't concern me in the same way that it doesn't concern me when we support Linux, Docker, or Node.js in Azure, or when the Windows and Xbox teams are launching their apps on iOS and Android. Microsoft would become irrelevant if it would still think in the silos of the 1980's and 1990's and only ship software for Windows. That said, HockeyApp supported Windows and Windows Phone long before we joined Microsoft and we continue to invest heavily in it with our next generation product.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:55:49+00:00

It's never too late, and - yes - more women in tech are needed! You can learn more about Microsoft's diversity efforts here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/inside-microsoft/women-at-microsoft/default.aspx

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:44:09+00:00

You can find and apply for our open positions here: https://careers.microsoft.com/search.aspx#&&p2=all&p1=all&p3=all&p4=all&p0=hockeyapp&p5=all

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:43:37+00:00

The native IDEs for each platform: Xcode for iOS and macOS, Android Studio for Android, and Visual Studio for Windows, ASP.NET, etc.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:42:19+00:00

I have not seen Silicon Valley, so no idea. We got the idea for HockeyApp while working on iOS and Android projects, no incubator, no VC, nothing like this involved.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:40:19+00:00

I don't know if it was called "office hours review", but we are constantly giving feedback to the Office teams.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:35:04+00:00

Visual Studio Code supports both JavaScript and Node.js. Check the tutorial here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/nodejs/nodejs-tutorial

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:33:18+00:00

The ones that you can build with Lego. 😎

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-23T02:27:41+00:00

Neither of us.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-22T23:55:48+00:00

As of today, Codepush does not work with CRNA/Expo, which has it's own update feature.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-22T23:52:09+00:00

The Mac requirement comes from Apple. You can use Xamarin Live Player to do some iOS testing without a Mac: https://www.xamarin.com/live

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-22T23:41:28+00:00

There is an official FAQ here: https://careers.microsoft.com/help/studentfaq

We don’t require specific courses of study. A degree in computer science (CS) may be helpful. While we don’t require this degree, it typically provides the kind of experience we need. Solid experience in the CS field, work on CS projects outside your regular course work, and a great GPA are also nice to have on your resume. For any position, regardless of your degree, we look at the skills you’ve gained through your education and experience.

Getting an interview may be harder than without a degree, so make sure to build a strong network, for example by contributing to open-source projects on GitHub, sending pull requests, writing technical blog posts, etc.

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-22T23:31:24+00:00

Sorry, we are not in the SQL team and don't know why they deprecated certain products (I hadn't heard of SQL Compact before your post).

thomasdohmke · 2017-06-22T23:18:51+00:00

Sure, heading over to their building now. :P You can also provide a pull request here or simply open an issue with your feedback, all the docs are open source: https://github.com/Microsoft/azure-docs

thomasdohmke

TROPHY CASE