CharlotteTheHarlot

The world is currently drowning in Google news and announcements. Google: 900 million Android activations, 48 billion app installs ( NeoWin 2013-05-15 ) Google: Chrome now has 750 million active users ( NeoWin 2013-05-15 ) Microsoft gets cease and desist letter from Google over YouTube Windows Phone app ( NeoWin 2013-05-15 ) Microsoft: We will put ads in Windows Phone YouTube app if we can use Google's APIs ( NeoWin 2013-05-15 ) If you got nothing better to do, check out the comments in these four threads. You will get to experience the real hate, the hate that has been drummed up by Microsoft in their MicroZealots and MetroTards against Google, hate that was formerly reserved for Apple alone. Here is how it began ... ... the comments will verify that hate can be taught. They now have lots of angry sheep under their spell.

There is one even worse called Starter Edition. See the table here. The post-XP releases really were the penultimate example of MicroMarketing! Just unbelievable. Start Menu Reviver brings a free, touch-friendly Menu to Windows 8 ( NeoWin 2013-05-16 ) ( I see this was already mentioned on the Ways to get back the Start Menu/Button in Win8 thread ). Interesting look, almost like a Nokia phone. I think it is unsuitable as a Start Menu replacement though. Perhaps as a supplement it might work. You have the proper Start Button in the normal location for classic functions and something like this next to it for Metro app related stuff. Done! Dear Microsoft, see how simple it was? Well as long as Aero and the normal Windows 7 desktop features were in place ( shadows, chrome, 3D, rounded corners, etc ) and as long as Metro apps ran in a window. Hmmm, this is exactly what we mentioned way back in this very thread.

Western European PC market sees a 20% decline in Q1, Windows 8 blamed (again) ( NeoWin 2013-05-16 ) ... and this does not make the MicroZealots very happy. "It was declining before Windows 8!" ... "But Apple declined too!" ... blah, blah, blah. The truth is not difficult to understand. Strike-1 - when you have a declining market because of saturation and customers chasing the mobile fad, and Strike-2 - you are still in a 4-year old horrible worldwide economy, well, what you don't do is give these fickle and hurting customers a reason to NOT buy the product. And that is exactly what Windows 8 was! You couldn't be more stuck on stupid than to sabotage the hopes of a recovery. The fanboys only see Strike-1 or Strike-2 and then their brains shut off before realizing Microsoft's huge mistake here. Straw meet camel. Latest SkyDrive TV ad has destructive high-fiving robot ( NeoWin 2013-05-16 ) Some of the commenters liken this to Robocop out of mere resemblance. But what about Terminator and SkyNet? That's what I first thought about. And smashing the laptop? What! Imagine Arnold's voice: "Give me your data here!". I'm not sure this association is what they should be going for. Microsoft UK offering free Touch or Type Cover with Surface RT purchase ( NeoWin 2013-05-16 ) Ummm, exactly what we said here 6 months ago. That little trick they played using $499 without the cover was just to grab headlines as a stunning sub-$500 price. If it was $250 or $300 with everything it might have a chance, maybe, 6 months ago. Things have changed however and there is a tidal wave of low budget tablets so they missed the window of opportunity by a mile, as usual. Their last chance now would be to firesale it for $199. But it still might not work out. Great plan Ballmer, disrupt the computer universe for this!

Dear Microsoft: Windows 8 Is Great ( Dvorak PC Magazine 2013-05-13 ) Dvorak tongue-in-cheek playing off the Microsoft executive complaining about recent press coverage. I suspect we might see some good-cop bad-cop marketing now. This guy Frank X. Shaw, and the valley girls Tammi and Julie will be the good ones. Then they'll unleash Ballmer and we'll get something like this ... EDIT: typo

Well done!

Dell cuts price of Windows RT XPS 10 tablet to $300 ( NeoWin 2013-05-15 ) The price is just about right - for 6 months ago. Actually if it was maybe $250 and that was Surface RT it would be competitive. The Dell should probably be closer to $199 to compete now. But hey, this is still the ReTard Edition, so who really wants it anyway? Windows Phone doubles global marketshare, but still far behind ( NeoWin 2013-05-14 ) Wait what? Read that lying headline again and look at the actual charts here ... ( source here ) Math is supposed to be easy in the age of computers! Table-3 has all Microsoft at 2.9% ( ) which is up from 1.9% one year ago. Jeez. Ironically it is still behind Blackberry ( ) too. Ouch. Note: Gartner is not clear if that "1Q13 Market Share (%)" is total cumulative or merely for that quarter. Presumably that is current total marketshare ( in their estimation ). If I were in the phone division I would really be ticked off. First they kill off the previous platform, then Sinofsky Windows div steal the interface and all their marketing money, and finally force it onto all computers generating astounding amounts of anger against Metro and now the platform is teetering on the brink of oblivion. Ironically, this is the worst possible thing that could have happened because this platform is where it belonged all the time. EDIT: typo

More articles about the Windows 8 Blew announcement mentioned above by MagicAndre1981. Confirmed: Windows 8.1 is Windows Blue, free upgrade due later this year ( TechSpot 2013-05-14 ) Microsoft: Windows Blue to be named Windows 8.1, will be free ( NeoWin 2013-05-14 ) Microsoft: Windows 8.1 is an update, not a service pack ( NeoWin 2013-05-14 ) Windows 8.1, formerly known as Windows Blue, will be a free update ( PC Gamer 2013-05-14 ) Microsoft: YES! You can have your desktop back again for FREE! ( UK Register 2013-05-14 ) In the comments there are so many arguments and debates over terminology! is it a service pack? Is it an update? Do tile-pressing MetroTards even need to know the difference? No. But ... this time Microsoft has chosen once again to be different just for the sake of change. They are apparently officially incrementing the kernel version ( ya, like they are doing work there that merits this ). From earlier speculation ... Now with our updated information ... Windows 6.1 ... 6 + 1.0 = 7 Windows 6.2 ... 6 + 2.0 = 8 Windows 6.3 ... 6 + 2.1 = 8.1 ... ( they added Windows 2.1 to Vista! ) Therefore ... Vista + Windows 2.1 = Windows 8 Blew Of course, any sensible person would have pressed for ... Windows 6.2.1 ... or ... 6.21 It's all kind of a moot point since they botched it all up with the "Windows 7" marketing term. I mean, I understand that Vista got a point update to 6.0 from 5.x, but the marketing nonsense of "Windows 7" is ridiculous. I think it demonstrates the siege mentality that Microsoft began not long after Vista and they believed that they could just wish the fail away using marketing nonsense. However, dropping sensible use of numbers by a software company that is supposed to respect numbers is a very bad sign. Any Softies that still care at all about Microsoft should do some research into what happened at that point in time, by those in management that green-lit this break in tradition and common sense. It is clearly when things went right off the rails, apparently forever. So officially, what we got here is a point update ( 6.2 to 6.3 ) which ironically mirrors the Vista to 7 ( 6.0 to 6.1 ) which was the big "fix" to shut everybody up about the Vista fiasco. "Hey we listened!" Hey, it's either that, or in addition to their certifiable Apple-envy and Google-envy they have perhaps developed a case of Firefox-envy and have thrown the version conventions to the four winds forever. So barring any last minute changes, our table of consumer releases looks like this now ... Real Name ---- Marketing Windows 5.0 ... Windows 2000 Windows 5.1 ... Windows XP Windows 5.2 ... Windows XP-64 Windows 6.0 ... Windows Vista Windows 6.1 ... Windows 7 Windows 6.2 ... Windows 8 Windows 6.3 ... Windows 8 Blew So we can pretty much add this normally simple task of naming the freaking operating system, to the growing list of Microsoft FUBAR decisions. No-one can possibly justify bumping the kernel as a point upgrade knowing what we know today. Lipstick-on-a-pig release. P.S. but I will point out that it apparently will be free, so that is a surprisingly sensible decision. They dodged a bullet for once. EDIT: added article

At first I thought they were having a go at the NeoWhiners over the typical confusing blend of terminology - Windows Store and Microsoft Store, one is a tile on Metro ( and the gateway to walled garden ) and the other is brick and mortar. But maybe I was wrong and they were really just confused. Either way, it's bad for Microsoft. Training a bunch of tile monkeys that cannot figure it out is just as bad as re-using naming and terms causing confusion that jokesters will exploit.

Yes, it will run fine. "Win3x software" is generally meant to mean 16-bit Windows software but in actuality can also mean DOS software ( 16-bit naturally ) which is what most software was in the early Windows era. They are two separate things Windows 16-bit and DOS software, but they all will run fine in Win9x. Almost everything used in the 16-bit Windows 3.x era was eventually re-written to 32-bit Windows ( maybe a few games were not ) so I would be curious as to what you still have that is 16-bit.

In case anyone is wondering, Sinofsky is still around and still posts on his blog called: Learning By Shipping. Conversation #38– disrupt or die ( Sinofsky 2013-05-08 ) It is IMHO a veiled commentary on his destruction of Classic Windows, with piles and piles of marketdroid propaganda and, well, whatever. If he could be bottled up and marketed in drug stores he could replace Sominex, ZzzQuil, and alcohol because he is the perfect cure for insomnia. When he launched the blog lots of people went over to see what he would say, unfortunately the answer is still - nothing at all. He still won't even use the word "Windows" or "Microsoft" from what I can see. He will mention "Apple" and "Linux" though and other companies as well. Very strange! The people out here seem to have realized this because that post is dated May 08, nearly one week ago and there are eleven comments! And most of them are taking him to task. This one I thought was funny ... I'm kinda ticked off he got fired though, because I had made a whole bunch of pictures starring him. Here is one of them ... ( feel free to use it at will, maybe someone can get it to him, he needs some hits on his blog! )

Check out the MicroZealots attacking this anonymous source over at the article by SJVN ... Anonymous MSFT developer admits Linux is faster than Windows ( ZDNet 2013-05-12 ) Such blasphemy must not go unpunished!

In the midst of all the Stalinist cr*p written before and after that paragraph (he's a World War II buff), in the middle of it there is this one nugget which contradicts everything else he says -- and which represents the core of what I (we) have been asking for all along. He says "in a perfect world," but what exactly is so technically difficult to accomplish here? Isn't it the case that, upon installation, Windows can tell (or you can tell Windows) if you're using a laptop vs. a desktop PC? So, what's so hard about being able to tell between a tablet/phone vs. a laptop/desktop, that the idea needs to be relegated to an "in a perfect world" wish list? What am I missing here? You're missing nothing, but he's missing his bipolar medication, or it was starting to wear off while he wrote that article. But he's back on it again for his next entry ... New Coke? Calling out critics only makes sense when those critics are wrong ( Thurrott 2013-05-12 ) ... where he is on the opposite side again, defending two articles he believes are the reason that the Microsoft executive is out disputing the New Coke analogy. He is also defending his so-called criticism of Windows 8 and also Mary Jo Foley. Background articles: Microsoft prepares rethink on Windows 8 flagship software ( Financial Times 2013-05-07 ) Microsoft blues ( The Economist 2013-05-11 ) With Windows Blue, Microsoft may (finally) do the right thing ( Mary Jo Foley ZDNet 2013-05-12 ) Thing is, we're being played by all of them. I've seen this movie before, it was called Vista. We are right now unwilling participants in another Mojave Experiment, and why not, the last one worked too. The Vista issues exploded when we discovered that Microsoft bent over for Hollywood and facilitated DRM to affect the operating system. Microsoft opened the door to our computers and said to the Hollywood mafia: "Come on in, the water's fine!". Meanwhile they changed the subject to UAC prompts and other things and promised to fix them. Then they feasted on the good will for Windows 7 and managed to rationalize away the lesson they should have learned. That was over six years ago, and common sense says Microsoft has not gotten better, in fact we have learned from the inside that things are far far worse in Redmond. As the link by ciHnoN shows, itself a followup to the famous Vanity Fair article ( Microsoft’s Lost Decade August 2012 ) and the important Mini-Microsoft blog ( where Softies and ex-Softies go to vent ), the company is FUBAR with respect to morale, direction, and most importantly the will do the right thing for the customers. Yes they are making money hand over fist, but that is from one thing only, converting the corporation into a leeching parasite, that skims money off everything they touch like a parody of the Sopranos. Now Ed Bott, Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley are right in the middle of this and they don't even realize it. They are the presumably unwitting mouthpieces for Redmond, and are used in targeted propaganda when Microsoft tries to "get out in front of" an issue. Countless words are written and comments fly around and it all serves to distract from whatever the real issue is, like the pea shell game. As has been detailed in this thread, Microsoft is prone to making huge miscalculations, and they have yet another one on-deck. If they release a Start Button that points back at Metro be prepared for an accompanying wave of political-style propaganda statements declaring "They fixed it!" and many dutiful articles that attempt to tamp down the criticism they are expecting. And it will be well-deserved criticism because I simply cannot dream up a bigger FU to their customers than that. EDIT: added link

Didn't want to let this one pass us by uncriticized. This Thurrott post was inspired by that Julie interview a few days back. (Re)Start Me Up: The Great Windows 8 Debate ( Thurrott 2013-05-09 ) SubTitle: Everyone has an opinion about the “missing” Start menu and Start button in Windows 8. Here’s mine Ah, what a fine little dictator you would make. Off your meds again? Anyway Paul, here's what you just said: "The Start Menu should not be present on people's personal computers". You would say that because you are under the mistaken impression that these are Microsoft's computers, like Macs are Apple computers. But you're wrong. These are not Microsoft's computers. They never were. Ever. No-one gets to tell them what to put on their personal computers. Wrong! The best app launcher is whatever works best at a particular moment in time according to the human being using the computer, not some dimwitted valley girl in Redmond or a shill blogger. As we should be doing? Who the he!! are you to say that? Using any of the four standard launchers: Start Menu, Quicklaunch, Desktop, Taskbar, depends entirely on the situation. There are fine reasons for each. Personally I have always used the Start Menu as a fallback, a constant, a permanent source for links and shortcuts not found anywhere else. The desktop is designed for and perfectly suited for current jobs, especially on large monitors where quasi-groups of related things are mingled and later deleted when complete. The Superbar-Taskbar launching is redundant but is very handy for commonly launched apps. Quicklaunch gets the most use because it is simultaneously both a launcher and as targets for dropped files and folders. Only complete n00bs would try to uninvent these long-time practices. Only an authoritarian psychopath would try to dictate to others how to work on their computers. Only a certifiable shill would back Microsoft in their insanity. That is perhaps the lamest of all fanboy lines. One thing Microsoft did was attack the aestetics which is none of their business in the first place. Who do they think they are trying to pick out out the "themes" that people use on their computers? Killing Aero glass and flattening the GUI and removing chrome and shadows and soft geometry was a blatant insult to those that care about visuals. When your wife drives home the new hot pink family automobile she bought and tells you 'there is no loss of functionality!..." you will finally figure out the problem. Or maybe not, because I suspect she picks out your clothes for you too, am I right? Well if she doesn't, would you let her? Application launching only works the same as before in those places that Microsoft didn't remove them. Oh sure, they kept the 6-year old Taskbar pinning but removed the 17-year old Start Menu and still you feign disbelief at the controversy? Clueless Knucklehead. Now about that pinning. Having numerous things pinned to the Taskbar as shortcuts quickly gets unwieldy because of its primary jobs of being a "Taskbar" showing running apps, and each subsequent running app results in smaller Taskbar buttons and eventually you cannot distinguish running programs from unlaunched icons. Yes, that's very helpful. And then there's the obvious problem of running out of space. I guess this is what Thurrott and other Microsoft sycophants envision for power users that do more than Angry Birds and Twitter ... ( original source ) Certainly not. One thing you can say about the Start Menu ( circa WinXP ) is that everything was at your fingertips and one click away ... Correction, unlike most of the complainers you are still using Windows 8. And of course you are still using it, it was designed for you, a n00b masquerading as a power user. This one really ticks me off. They have no intentions of responding and you know it. Microsoft is about to deliver the most incredible insult to the criticism imaginable - installing a Start Button that points back at Metro. This will literally be the biggest FU ever in the history of customer feedback. There is no parallel. Yet this shill still has the chutzpah to write the above quote, presumably with a straight face. Naturally Paul gets decimated in the comments by haterz. He pretty much goes off the deep-end trying to respond, especially when some question his integrity by pointing out his obvious fanboyism and likely shilling for Microsoft money. Here he is replying to the first accusation ... Hehe. Why are you angry Paul? Are you a hater hater? It's not like you haven't been hearing this for years, it's just that things are amped up now because you know Microsoft is FUBAR these days and still you vent on the innocent victims of Microsoft who do not want their work habits dictated to them. You are angry at the wrong people. And here's another reply to another accusation of shilling ... Too bad crybaby. You better learn to blame the perpetrator, not the victim. Your beloved Redmond braintrust has done this and people are not happy. The reason they are not happy is that Microsoft wants them to shut up and be good little children and play with their colored blocks and you sycophantic shills are enabling them. If you want to prove them wrong you should be skewering Microsoft. But you are a pretend journalist anyway. Here we are six months since they fired Sinofsky and you still haven't found out from your "sources" what happened. I'll bet you haven't even asked Sinofsky for an interview, have you? Some journalist. ( inspiration )

Recall the earlier story ... Two Windows 8 Start menu apps bring in 8 million total downloads ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) They have added another ... Classic Shell sees 4.3 million downloads since Windows 8 launch ( NeoWin 2013-05-11 ) Unsurprisingly, NeoWhiners who choose to believe Microsoft statistics suddenly become skeptical. Microsoft reveals that Windows Phone only has 145,000 apps, growth starts to slow ( NeoWin 2013-05-11 ) I wonder how long before the Windows Phone division revolts over their thunder and user interface being stolen by the Windows gang. All of the oxygen was sucked out the room leaving them seemingly floundering. Perhaps the ensuing internal civil war will leave some heads on pikes. Microsoft critical of city of Boston's switch to Google Apps ( NeoWin 2013-05-11 ) Comments can be summarized as either "Google Sucks" or "Money isn't everything." Carl Icahn would like to merge HP and Dell; thinks PC industry is 'going downhill' ( NeoWin 2013-05-11 ) Heck, why not. We're left with three HDD manufacturers after all their mergers. If this rumor has any shred of truth to it we just might see Microsoft make one of their patented kneejerk reactions and try to buy Dell or HP themselves. Something tells me that the industry is not going to be recognizable in a couple of years.

Microsoft: Subscription-only apps? Not for us, yet. Give it a decade or so, then we'll talk ( UK Register 2013-05-08 ) Coke? Windows 8 is Microsoft's 'Vista moment'. Again. PCs built for people not designed by data ( UK Register 2013-05-08 ) Microsoft honcho pleads with media: 'Stop picking on us!'. 'Windows 8 is a good product ... really!' ( UK Register 2013-05-10 ) Last three articles at El Reg. Really loving that website these days.

well, there are several meanings for "support " used in these Windows conversations. The Softie that Formfiller is sparring with, and Microsoft itself push the illusion that they are little worker bees toiling away each day keeping Windows going, and without them it would grind to a halt. Me, I think they support squat, spend all their time spreading FUD about threats and responding to theoretical exploits which keeps them busy and the customers placated. The quoted Softie used the word "support" in the sentence: "And motor vehicle companies continue to pump out new versions of cars and eventually stop supporting old vehicles" and I think this is FUBAR because auto companies never "supported" the car in the first place. He goes on and on with this myth implying that Microsoft is different: "Microsoft already has a vastly longer service agreement for Windows than any other product on the market." and also: "Microsoft is alone in the market for supporting Windows XP for 10 years.". Windows XP is NOT running on a bunch of my computers because of anything Microsoft has done. It is running despite everything they have done. But the analogy clearly falls apart because the car makers certainly are responsible for their mistakes and have authorized reps and service centers all over the place. Microsoft has cleverly offloaded all her responsibility to everyone except themselves: the vast unpaid non-Microsoft user base fixing each others computers and the huge assortment of forums like this. Phone calls go to the OEM system manufacturers ( some racket that monopoly is, get the OEMs to install Windows at the factory and then also field the irate phone calls ). For those remainders that try to go to Microsoft they get someone in India. Quite a scam really. Anyway, that's why I think his auto analogy is ridiculous, because they're mostly opposite. I do like auto analogies in general because almost everybody can relate to them and many are perfectly adequate. In this case I wish it were true because if Microsoft cared about customers no matter how small ( and they don't ) they wouldn't require government urging or peer pressure or criticism or bad press to shake a leg and fix bugs regardless of age of the operating system or size of user base. They would do it because it is the right thing to do. They would do it because ( cue Godfather II ) "this is the business they've chosen" i.e., Operating Systems, a fundamental piece of the technology. Unfortunately they want to just reap the rewards of a monopoly and do as little as possible. And since we know full well that they are using planned obsolescence, meaning they are NOT fixing previous versions in order to make you upgrade it is borderline evil. Imagine Toyota saying "Sorry, that airbag might malfunction, time to get a new car". Now that auto analogy is apples to apples IMHO. I'm not kidding when I suggest that the x86 operating systems should now be taken out of their hands and all related patents rescinded. All the backroom deals that led to this situation of installing their stuff on 3rd party computers should be exposed and any collusion should be prosecuted, particularly cases where hardware drivers became obsolete from version to version. Governments have a cow when sports teams collude to limit salaries or any number of things, and they go nuts if players take steroids. Yet here we have software that makes over a billion computers work or lie still, and they rigged it so there is no choice but to upgrade. It is very ugly. Drastic action would send a clear message that huge outfits like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook ( ... ) that corner a market better behave and do the right thing or there will be consequences. EDIT: typo

@FormFiller ... I read through the There is no end-of-life XP problem, wow, just wow. So what does that crazy evil Softie mean by: "They did. It was XP SP4. Also, it wasn't $30, it was free."? I must have missed that one And I should mention that he has inadvertently pointed out another crime Microsoft continually gets away with: "And motor vehicle companies continue to pump out new versions of cars and eventually stop supporting old vehicles.". Ummm, that is certainly not true, his analogy is FUBAR. Cars are recalled all the time long out of warranty for manufacturing flaws and defective parts. That's the analogy he ignores ... Toyota Joins Honda, Nissan in Car Recall on Airbag Fault ( Bloomberg 2013-04-13 ) Note the timeframe, preceding the Windows XP RTM. Microsoft, thanks to it's lobbying, has gotten off incredibly easy over the years. Leaving innumerable bugs in Windows ignored, and with security flaws discovered weekly they go on about their merry way and cheerleaders like that thick-headed Softie keep twirling their batons. God help them if the FTC and other alphabet agencies ever wake up and apply the same standards on them that they use for almost everyone else. EDIT: typo

EDIT: Another double post! MSFN driver error again. Deleted. Here's a random substitute picture I made that I don't think was used yet ...

1stFone, the mobile phone designed for 4-year-olds ( NeoWin 2013-05-10 ) Oh I won't say anything except that these things just write themsleves.

And some people dutifully cheer even these! I like how at the NeoWin thread yesterday they are arguing whether the language was Japanese, Chinese or Korean too. They finally settled upon a slightly insulting "They're for Asians" phrasing I don't know any of those languages myself, but you would think that there might be an overlay specifying the target market or something. Microsoft's Windows 8 Commercials for Asia Are Awesome ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-10 ) I don't know what this author is smoking! An interesting little tidbit though ... Some mistake. Imagine the Softie that uploaded them: "Oh Crap! I posted them to the wrong part of the planet!" Lots of amateur mistakes happening up there these days so it's par for the course.

Agreed, cash register appliances as in point of sale, plugged right into every individual wallet. What is astounding is that this is as old as dirt. Even the touchscreen aspect of POS is old news. When you look at it this way there is nothing new here except for one thing - that Microsoft has hatched a scheme to monetize their x86 "user base", the one they believe are leaving them anyway ( incorrectly though, because people buying tablets and small form factors to replace or supplement the workstation they have is not the end of the x86 home PC ) and turn them into cash cows and golden geese in their walled garden. When we first talked about this scenario two thousand posts and almost a year ago it may have sounded conspiratorial, but I ask if anyone has anymore doubts now? The x86 PC, largely thanks to the clones due to the reverse engineered BIOS and freewheeling independent developers made this universe what it is ( and ironically made Microsoft rich in the process ). Microsoft believes that party is over and is going all in to kidnap as many of the 1.something billion users they call their own ( which is insulting because we are not theirs, they just think so, imagine the arrogance to consider those computers part of their empire when only a small handful were actually manufactured by Microsoft, unlike Apple. This is really the story in a nutshell. There should not be a single x86 developer that does not get this, the few that are throwing in with Microsoft just think they can make a few bucks. all the rest are considered scabs. You have accurately summed up the feeling in 1981 when IBM announced their platform and the race to collect 5.25" floppy disks full of an infinite variety of software began. They really could have accurately called it the Personal Workstation because that is what it really was, and has remained up until Microsoft sentenced it to death. All one has to do is put all the clues together, Microsoft Tiles, cloud, subscriptions, no install media, ... ad nauseum. All the while they are sugar coating each gulp of their medicine with marketdroid propaganda and Wall Street weasel words. People better start connecting the dots before they wake up and find a new world re-imagined by NuMicrosoft. Microsoft to web developers: "For everything you've done, thank you" ( NeoWin 2013-05-10 ) The only people they really should be thanking are those scabs that they despise so much, the independent x86 often-anonymous software authors who are responsible for the interest in their buggy and slow-crawling operating system. Thanking the web-slingers?

Microsoft will make $3.4 billion from Android in 2013 ( NeoWin 2013-05-09 ) Microsoft will pocket $3.4 billion from Android this year ( TechSpot 2013-05-10 ) The article says they are parasitically leeching $8 off every Android device, possibly from using exFAT, but we cannot be sure because the agreements are apparently kept confidential. If these companies really want to destroy the illegal and immoral Microsoft monopoly, this is a good place to start. Cleanroom reverse engineer these file systems and release pitch perfect compatible FAT, exFAT, NTFS for free. That's how it is done. That's how it was done way back when Phoenix and Compaq snaked the BIOS and IBM PC Compatibles were born. The whole world benefited from it and it's safe to say that everything would be different today without it. What Microsoft is doing here is acting like a slimey drug dealer. Thanks to their illegal monopoly they got everyone hooked on their file systems and now they are going in for the kill, like a crack dealer bleeding every last cent out of the victim even if it kills them. Naturally the governments are all paid off through lobbying so they continue to look the other way rather than forcing the release of the source code for both the Operating System and File Systems into the public domain as a necessary public utility being used as an extortion tool. MicroZealots would cry foul naturally but they would miss the point. This isn't about software, we're not talking about Office or Flight Simulator which is software that itself requires an Operating System and File System. I remember when Adobe pulled this with making PDF a "special" proprietary thing ( possibly the first case on the PC but I might be wrong ), lots of people laughed and ridiculed them too, but this is much much bigger. IMHO it is exactly an example of what Antitrust and Monopoly laws were meant to destroy. Google must have 10,000 programmers sitting on their butts that could be put into a task force to destroy this monopoly by freeing the file systems from Microsoft extortion. What are you waiting for? Git 'er Done! Note to MetroTards: this does NOT mean all Operating Systems and File Systems should be open source or forcibly released to the public from radical government action. No, only the ones that become ubiquitous and critical to worldwide technological infrastructure thanks to a monopoly from backroom deals causing them to be installed at the factory on almost all computers that are built. International Space Station dumps Windows XP for Linux ( NeoWin 2013-05-09 ) Fine example of NeoWin spin. As Windows XP leaves "support" ( yeah, as if Microsoft "supports" anything ) thanks to all the FUD about not being safe and protected under Microsoft's warm embrace naturally they are looking to do something. Well it seems to me that the headline should say International Space Station dumps Microsoft for Linux. Right? Apparently they are choosing Linux over Microsoft's dead dog so the headline could also read: International Space Station chooses Linux over Windows 8. EDIT: added article, clarity

Acer CEO: Microsoft is coming back down to earth with Windows 8.1 ( TechSpot 2013-05-09 ) Acer: Windows 8.1 will see Microsoft come 'down to earth' ( NeoWin 2013-05-09 ) PC Makers Hopeful on Windows 8 Changes ( Wall Street Journal 2013-05-09 ) Man, these two Acer honchos Wang and Wong ( no I'm serious, Chairman Wang and President Wong ) are all over the map, but mostly coming down hard on Microsoft. It's almost like they are running a psy-ops campaign to drive MetroTards crazy. It is succeeding too. NVIDIA backs Windows RT, multiple tablets coming ( NeoWin 2013-05-10 ) Nvidia behind Windows RT with plans to launch multiple tablets ( TechSpot 2013-05-10 ) Hmmm, yesterday it was Qualcomm, today nVidia, they must have something in common, what could it be? Oh yeah, they make ARM chips. Windows 8 ReTard Edition runs on ARM. No wonder NeoWin digs up these fluff articles. And a PC transition to what? ARM? You gotta be kidding. Use Windows 7 but want the Windows 8 task manager? Here is your download ( NeoWin 2013-05-09 ) Ummm, how about NO. There already is a real task manager for both called Process Explorer. Anyway, this is NOT a backport from Windows 8 to Windows 7 which the headline kind of implies. This is a user created facsimile of it for Windows 7. HTML+CSS colored boxes. Big whoop. EDIT: added article(s)

Two Windows 8 Start menu apps bring in 8 million total downloads ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) And without even getting them listed in the Windows Store I see that both Tihiy and someone from Classic Shell drop by to mention that StartIsBack has a million downloads and Classic Shell has over 6 million. Microsoft to Adobe: People not ready to give up on stand-alone software ( TechSpot 2013-05-08 ) Microsoft to Adobe: It's too early to dump stand-alone software ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) Wow, that's some chutzpah right there! Maybe what they really meant to say was "Shhhh, keep this on the down-low. Rope them in quietly and don't let them know! Slow cooking frogs dude.". In a way they already got us. If you bought a new $500 Office or $200 Windows version every three years ( coincidence? ) you already subscribed annually for $166 or $66 respectively. BTW: using those admittedly round numbers comes out to Number Of The Beast worthy prices of $166.666666(...) and $66.666666(...), I kid you not. There is a pretty good comment there IMHO ...

New Windows 8 TV ads are weird, don't show Windows 8 [update] ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) Microsoft's crazy Windows 8 video campaign swaps watermelons for features ( The Verge 2013-05-09 ) I didn't get to see them before they got locked but the commenters describe them as breathtakingly bad, perhaps the worst ever. Toshiba: Microsoft confused PC buyers with Windows 8 and RT ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) Naturally that very mild and accurate statement does not please the fanboys. Almost everybody in the OEM biz has said the same thing now, they must all be wrong! Bill Gates: Tablets Frustrating Without Keyboards, Office ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-08 ) Yeah that's for sure. Monetize everything and stick a catheter directly into the consumer wallets. In a sense they turn everyone into volume license customers, without the TLC customer service naturally. Say what? That's not gonna go over well. And what about that 7 inch surface that's in the pipeline? Will they be able to type on that? Now I wonder how he can even comment on Apple products anyway since he has banned them from his home and even his kids cannot use them. We're expected to believe he knows something about iPads? Go back to sleep billg. EDIT: added article(s)