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hoak

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Everything posted by hoak

  1. I'm not, but Stallman makes a very strong case in his recitation of how all three are compromised. I agree, but Microsoft does employ some incredible talent, and it is disappointing to see the direction(s) they're taking with so many things we've taken for granted for so long -- and that hasn't exactly hurt them financially... And I'm not so sure Microsoft's decision making is effected much by consumer OS sales or the few of us that use alternatives.
  2. It's not what we can see, trace and measure that concerns me; as I'm sure Microsoft already has some well composed 'plays nice' legal boiler plate about how this is just anonymous information collected for security and 'making your product experience better'. What worries me is what we don't see, that doesn't show up via Windows Performance Counters because it's totally obfuscated by design the Windows network stack -- and the only indication we'll have that anything is going on is something will show up in WireShark (if that)... However annoying you may find him personally, Richard Stallman seems to be hitting on all cylinders with respect to closed source hegemonic OS publisher/developer with big government contracts and the ultimate outcome this has with respect to privacy, security and freedom...
  3. Wholly SHI*! Handsome work Tihiy! Posted about your project on the Server as a Workstation Forums here -- hope you don't mind
  4. While obviously Microsoft will (and already has) lock down ARM platforms it licenses Windows RT with OEM partners as well as ARM hardware it licenses outright -- the good news is ARM licensure is not mitigated by just three licensees, so we'll likely never see Microsoft prevailing on ARM the way it has on x86 -- there are just too many licensees, and anyone that wants to can inexpensively license ARM and build a new system with any BIOS boot configuration, that loads any OS (or excludes any OS) that pleases them. ARM hardware and licensure is and should remain very free market so, and if alternatives to Windows RT are as competitive and credible (as we know them to be), it's a forgone conclusion that Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot with a triple salvo of: 1) a higher price point, 2) exclusivity with their OEM hardware partners, and 3) an even more exclusive Microsoft ecosystem... Who is going to pay more for the same hardware just because it has Windows RT on it, when you can run Linux or Android on it and Run Windows 7 under emulation for substantially less?
  5. While Windows 9 might be the 'tock' that saves us from the cringe fest that is Windows 8, it seems a safe bet that we're not far from Microsoft taking the old 'hamburger scam' t the next level; 'Hambugers 99¢! (cooked and with bun $5.00)'... Or, god forbid, a 'subscription OS'!
  6. Holly Shi...! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! We have arrived here... There has to be a rule of thumb about what it means when a company spends eleven fold on marketing what it spends on product development....
  7. Hmm, no really strongly negative opinions via those links -- mostly just a recitation... The guy blogging at the second link seems more surprised bewildered then disappointed... I wonder who the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese equivalents of John C. Dvorak would be...
  8. Yes jaclaz, 私は理解して -- that was part of my point... What I'm wondering is how is Windows 8 actually perceived in the Asian markets, i.e. do they feel there's any functional usability value in NCI, or think it's as dumb as we do? I also wonder if there's any deliberate motive on Microsoft's part in this direction...
  9. One thing not really discussed in going deeper with the 'deeper impressions'; is that NCI does appear to play nice with Asian Languages... Metro/Modern/NCI looks like it was made for Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana when you see Chinese or Japanese Windows 8 sites. Considering a substantial segment of the U.S. economy is floating on debt to Japan and China, and that China (even with the slow down) is still estimated to be one of if not the largest growth market -- one has to wonder if there's not more here then just Microsoft jumping the shark...
  10. As someone that collaborated on a project that took a similar approach to what Tihiy is doing, that actually became a retail 'product' called 98lite, now hosted and still sold apparently here -- I can offer that we contacted numerous Attorneys and even Microsoft and no one felt there was ground for concern none less legal redress. While Microsoft may have become a more litigious company since then, their attitude toward small independent projects, even those that make money and/or may walk a thin line of legality (like MDL) has ranged from benign curiosity to passive indifference. Many Micrisoft Employees used Mark Russinovich's System Internals Tools before he was hired by the company which he sold (and did require substantial reverse engineering of Windows System Internals); as well even more Microsoft Employees use Nir Sofer's excellent tools and utilities today, some of which take a far more aggressive approach then anything Tihiy has done... I can confidently report there are Microsoft employees that are as pleased with Tihiy's project as Fans in this thread, and if there is ever any contention over Tihiy's work he'd have probably heard from Micosoft already and will have a very generous notice if that changes...
  11. Well 'MERDA' works fine in Portuguese as well, and is close enough to the French and Spanish pronunciation that most will know you're talking about Microsoft new steaming pile of...interface....
  12. Well, I don't know if that's really the largest or object concern with respect to processor platforms; a more realistic concern is Intel/AMD and/or their OEM 'partners' selling out to Microsoft pressure for various exclusive implementations of TPM and UEFI that exclude alternative operating systems (including downgrades) and software like this latest news gem and of course the the 'Secure Boot' Microsoft is mandating from OEM partners... With only 3.2 licensees (Intel, AMD, VIA, and Transmeta) x86 on the surface appears more likely to imperil itself through limited licensure, platform restrictions, DRM, and walled gardens that sours anything that interfaces with Microsoft into 'the' unappealing platform rather then just being run over by ARM. ARM Holdings by contrast will license its architecture(s) to anyone; with over 25 of the biggest names in hardware design development and production, and over 20x that in total licensees at a average license/royalty cost of about 7¢ per processor -- just about anyone that has the means to get a chip in production can license ARM and build anything they want from a phone, to a PC, to a massive multi core servers. And while any OEM that builds on ARM can create their own walled garden (as Apple and Google have), there's no way to exert pressure over the ARM platform for licensure to exclusivity. That ARM architecture has been primarily rolled in low power implementations is in no way a design limitation of the architecture; but that it got it's foot in the market there I think will be a tremendous boon to the platform's success; as the x86 PC is now the most expensive consumer appliance to leave running, surpassing even the refrigerator; with most PC consumers having more processing power then ran Fortune 500 companies just two decades ago, use less then a fraction of a percent of that processing capability and are only enriching power companies... Well as far as the Microsoft OS that certainly appears to be their plan to make it appear that way. But ARM architecture already will run any Microsoft x86 OS and software in a Hyper-Visor, as well as under a number of emulators -- in fact ARM servers are already doing exactly that hosting Microsoft enterprise servers and applications... I suspect if the Microsoft/x86 becomes a really ugly hegemony, by that time we'll have ARM/*NIX machines aplenty, and all the user friendly emulation you'll need to run Windows 7, XP, DOS and concomitant legacy applications will be good to go -- in fact if you're a modestly capable Linux geek this is already a done deal. There's also a cost factor here; ARM and *NIX can easily undercut the Microsoft+Intel/AMD proprietary platform; and with $85 billion in quantitative easing a month with no limit -- inflation and costs are going to prevail on the future of what happens in this market as much or more, then any 'plan' a big mucky muck of a company might have... LOL missed that one, thanks Jorge; "NCI" is certainly going to stick with me! Edit: An interesting article on the Intel/Imagination Technologies/Microsoft collusion just appeard here on Slashdot, and this article on the AMD x86 APU roadmap to Hondo -- sounds like Microsoft is throwing cash from their enormous slush fund out the window before it's devalued by inflation...
  13. LOL Jorge, someone really should do a spoof with that there's so much good material in Windows 8 for it; the 'Charms Bar' is officially just called 'Charms' so there's the confusion over individual items in the bar or the bar itself, Start, the Start Screen, Metro, Window, Windows, Modern -- the list just goes on and it's more fun then a barrel of biting monkeys (but not much)!
  14. Got that? Didn't think so! I doubt that even IBM could have made a more tangled mess. Microsoft Windows 8 : Metro ( Call it what you want, we got nuthin! ) LOL OMG WHAT?! That actually is more convoluted then language in an IBM APAR! I would love it if Microsoft actually tried to use language like this in a television spot, kind of like Kafka meets Escher in OS ad copy writing -- it would be perfect! Metro... What is it? Surreal!
  15. Well obviously not today but the theory is sound; ARM architecture can scale just fine to meet high-power computing requirements, and some software Developer/Publishers might like the idea of a 'reboot' on a new platform, with DRM and a walled garden that works and offers at least the promise of more profitability. However when you factor in that it will be Microsoft's DRM, Microsoft's walled garden, and Microsoft's dysfunctional Metro/Modern/NCI (where did NCI come from?) interface -- it's difficult to understand how any Developer/Publisher without a twenty year contract with Microsoft could find this any more appealing then any rational Consumer that's functioning above the neck...
  16. LOL, nice find Jorge! In fact I'd wager that 0.23% is within the margin of error of measurement of something as complex as OS adoption and market-share, so it could well be flat or even in decline... My own anecdotal observations are that serious desktop/workstation Users while curious about Windows 8, and probably the most capable of actually getting alone with it; are the least likely to see any value or appeal, are indifferent or would rather use a more mature and robust OS. Tech Fashion Weenies, that are typically attracted to flashy passive consumption media toys who gush over every novel thing have some of the worst reactions after actually putting up with Windows 8 for any length of time. It's going to be really interesting to see how this trends; if Microsoft's massive investment in 'focus group think' and market research is going to pay off or fall flat. My gut tells me that Microsoft is no different then a many other big companies where everyone wants to defer to 'committee decisions' as no one is ultimately wants to be accountable. This is a problem only getting worse in a lot of big U.S. companies as the economy worsens, and people fear for their jobs. That there appears to be some egregious structural and functional design gaffs in Windows 8 and Server 2012 only makes the whole story more interesting as it unfolds...
  17. When you warn of the risk of creating security/stability issues, is it stuff like that Metro Remover that you have in mind? Good questions you posted over in BetaArchive, BTW. Too bad nobody's seen fit to answer you. --JorgeA Yes, until we know exactly what Metro Remover does, and how it does it, as well as more about Windows 8 Metro/Modern UI internals -- there is risk involved, and it could be substantial as Metro is now 'the' recovery interface not a command line console. So there's likely a considerable payload of registry entries that could become orphaned (that are frequently deleted on that account) as well as hard links in the file system that may be broken. I can endure and work around most of Windows 8's idiosyncrasies and shortcomings, but the added bloat Metro brings is virtually as much as having a second OS on-board, with the added attack surface, vulnerabilities, and system management with no real benefit like the ability to sandbox applications -- in fact it's the opposite where bugs, issues, and vulnerabilities in Metro/Modern interface can already cripple Windows 8.
  18. I've noticed a lot of applications I install in Windows 8 and even default Windows 8 Applets won't do the 'Show windows side by side' thing properly or at all, in fact they don't even react to the Taskbar command... Is there any known fix for this?
  19. There was an interesting post here on WinUnleaked.info: While this is obviously just heresay (for now), it does corroborate what Microsoft has already announced about their intention to radically shorten their development cycle of the Windows OS; and some of the information in the provided links does imply a big 'update' to Windows 8. Whether this is something trivial, or something that actually reconciles the profound issues like those UI presents some Enterprise Customers -- or just cements the foreseeable future of the Windows OS in it's current dissonant state. Regardless it seems we might find out sooner, rather then later of the negative reaction to Windows 8 has had any effect on Microsoft's intentions for the OS... In other news there's been no follow up to my post about the Metro Remover Jorge mentions here: For anyone that ends up using Windows 8 in a production environment (whether they want to or not), that can't have Metro in their way, I'd suggest using Tihiy's 7 Shell Wrapper as it actually allows for disabling the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" Service, and with it the OpenGL compositer totally shutting down Metro. The Start Menu component of Classic Shell is another excellent solution that is totally non-destructive but only bypasses Metro. The point here is the Windows System Internals for the new Metro/Modern part of the UI are not fully documented or understood at this time, and there are already know security and stability issues when tinkering with the interface; so hacking out 4Gb of bloated, insecure, redundant crap may not be the best solution at this time...
  20. Yep, it can be stopped (disabled). Logon ui would be black and boot gui - likely.Thank you Tihiy! This will likely make you're project essential for a lot of Developers that that use 3D render software, as well as Gamers that are already seeing issues with the default inability to stop the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" Service in Windows 8. Sooner or later (probably later) I'll get a look at how having this Windows Service disabled actually effects configuring and using the Windows 8 restore and recovery options. In the mean time this is probably one thing for people that may jump on board with Tihiy's 7 Explorer Shell just to get this Service out of their way to be aware of; i.e. if you hose something up with the Service disabled you may need to find a way to get it going again to use Window 8 recovery options, or recover your system. Awesome project! Impressive progress!
  21. Unfortunately I just un-installed Windows 8 and forgot to check the following with Tihiy's Windows 7 shell for Windows 8, and if anyone would like to follow up I'd be very interested in what you discover... Windows 8 now requires the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" Service running as it hosts the OpenGL compositer which is now required for the Windows 8 Explorer shell to run. This was not the previously the case in Windows 7 and you'd just get the 'Native Unskinned' UI, could save considerable resource by disabling the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" and "Themes" Services, avoid ssues with some applications and gamas that use OpenGL and/or DirectX, and also see substantial performance improvements with some applications and games... I'm wondering if the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" Service can now be stopped with Tihiy's shell installed/enabled, and if that is the case, if the Metro/Modern boot recover UI requires this Service in order to be accessed?
  22. I'll bring the knives, and we can all get straight to work on Metro and make it really modern...
  23. So impressive, especially so for 'strange hacker who never finishes his work'! When you're satisfied you've gone as far as you can with your wrapper, you might want to consider putting the whole shebang in an installer that asks for the User's Windows 7 or Server 2008R2 DVD, and does the rest for them, and asking for some remuneration or at least donations for your effort!
  24. -- I gather that this sort of sophisticated TWM isn't available to the public on the 'Net for general-purpose computing, be it for sale or free, as a disk or download. Rather, the best TWMs are proprietary ones used in specific settings for limited purposes. Well the coolest TWM features are spread out across a range of projects and applications, there's no single TWM that does it all, and most Linux TWM's are configured with script much like bug.n in the list above, so you have to have some initial sense of what you want your desktop to be able to do and set that up. Other cool TWM features can be found in applications like Adobe Audition (which I use from time to time) that let you organize audio and video data, as well as editing tools, effects, and mixing interfaces for editing in really useful ways that could just was well apply to a desktop environment, and one of the things I mistakenly believed Microsoft was pursuing with Metro's large longitudinal surface... And that; the endless and seamless virtual desktop, that can be scrolled (both horizontally and vertically), snapped, zoomed and configured to do all the things discussed across multiple displays is yet another feature being explored with TWM's like xmonad on Linux running under the compiz compositor. Microsoft took the CWM bull by the horns and set what for many has been a very satisfactory standard by purloining as much as it could from Taligent, which gave us the interfaces we have today that began with Windows 95 and NT 3.1 -- I'd just rather hoped they'd done the same with some of the more exciting and scattered work being done with the TWM...
  25. E'gads, well I'll steer clear of the culinary analogies... Whew! A sentence almost as long as some of mine! And the answer is yes, actually several TWM's are just extension of existing Window Managers, and you can cascade and lay out your desktop just as you can now in Windows 7 for example, and you can also even save those 'layout's even though they're not technically 'tiled'... Jorge you've never come across as a nasty, sarcastic or anything other then an earnest and sincere person; I thorougly enjoy reading your posts! That's an interesting question on several levels, as what is an average PC user? It used to be I felt I had a loose sense of what that might be, but today I don't even have a clue what it means, though I have a feeling that Microsoft has decided the 'average PC user' is an idi*t, and everything must be predicated on that assumption. To answer your question though it depends on what you use your PC for, there are some amazing TWM features in production apps; from finance and stock tracking to audio post production, that when I first saw them it was a 'Holly S***!' moment for me, where I knew if these features were used as part of a file manager or desktop interface no one could deny how cool they were or their utility. The most impressive TWM that are actual desktop setups typically use some highly customized script designed for the applications a person runs, and how that they actually uses their computer -- so what might be obviously impressive for its utility in a demo for one person is completely lack luster for another. Here's one little demo of xmonad on the Arch Linux distro that I like, he's running a minimalist UI with all the control chrome turned and/or with the interface moved into the applications themselves. He moves fast, and that's the point; the UI completely keeps up with him, with manual, automated and context sensitive launching of windows -- displayed in both preconfigured and on the fly manually configured tiled and cascaded layouts. Some of the rudimentary features fo a TWM are even available to Windows users via third party applications like: · bug.n (a favorite) · python-windows-tiler · Windawesome · Plumb · Windawesome · WindowSizer · HashTWM · GridMove · MaxTo · Mizage · Twinsplay · Winsplit-Revolution · HashTWM But note these are not real TWM's, as Microsoft Windows does not even have a real 'Window Manager' and are all far behind even the oldest TWM's for Linux with respect to features and capability....
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