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CoffeeFiend

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Everything posted by CoffeeFiend

  1. (emphasis mine) I'm well aware of that migration. I don't think they're really telling us the whole story (exactly like MS "factually" told us Vista was their best selling OS ever after its release), and keep in mind that it's pretty much a best-case scenario, and that they've been planning it since 2003 (9 years ago). They are well over time and budget (even though they're talking about savings now). Of course, they say nothing about the percentage of Windows PCs left (still 20%?) or for what reasons, they haven't released documents that show their (likely creative) accounting (and if they're comparing to non-discounted licenses), how it affected user productivity, etc. But then again, it wasn't easy at all, and they would likely have saved a lot too just by moving to a sane setup. I mean, they had one IT staff per 15 PCs (yes, really!), and their setup was pretty much a complete and unadulterated disaster. They had nowhere to go but up. No, it's not completely impossible for 100% of businesses but it's hardly like the completely clueless Ubuntu cheerleaders seem to think it is. You know the "just install Ubuntu instead of XP then just keep working as usual!" mentality which is completely detached from reality. Been there, done that Well, pretty involved with the Win2k -> XP desktop migration at least, and moving servers from NT4 to 2003 (moving from NT domains to AD, etc). It was a major undertaking, costing millions and taking well over a year too. And we're talking about a migration between alike OS'es without too many differences (Win2k->XP is nothing like XP->Unbuntu for sure!) And while I wasn't part of the previous migration to Win2k, I can recall lots of problems we were having at that time, like applications all requiring admin rights (writing to folders regular users shouldn't be able to, having to track down the problem with filemon and regmon, and granting special permissions to users of each specific software through scripts) and similar things. I mean, it's already enough work and complex enough as it is... We also recently finished our XP->7 migration at my current job, where lots of programs used on XP were Win98-era programs that were patched to barely run on XP and that just didn't work on 7. Like imagecraft 6, used for some old codebases where we only have to make minor changes occasionally. Or 64 bit drivers being unavailable for some necessary hardware... We had a whole lot of small issues to deal with, even if we were migrating to an OS that's very much compatible. Pretty much, yes. But if Win8 turns out to be a complete disaster I don't see how MS could simple do nothing about it and aim for a even worse disaster. Do you really think they could have released a 2nd "Vista" (another problematic and poorly received OS) straight? And by the time Win 9 is out, lots more companies could have ported their software to run on OS X too, and maybe that the virtualization & terminal server-like solutions will improve significantly*. I don't know. It's hard to accurately predict the future of technology a decade ahead I guess. The batteries on my crystal ball are dead. * Right now it mostly means moving your software from cheap "desktop" commodity hardware to enterprise-grade servers that cost tens of thousands of dollars (while still still being accessed from the exact same commodity desktop hardware, so no real savings there typically), then having to pay for the virtual instances of the OS that runs on it (many very expensive Windows server licenses to buy!), then user CALs (~$30/user), then having to buy terminal server CALs ($800 for 5 users) on top of that, then perhaps Citrix CALs too ($945 per 5 users for XenApp Fundamentals), assuming those server instances aren't running virtualized under something like vSphere (starts at $995 per CPU), it typically requires some new networking hardware, perhaps an expensive upgrade to an existing SAN (a 5 or 6 digit amount of money), new backup software for those new servers (expensive Backup Exec and/or Veeam licenses) and a medium to backup to, often getting expensive paid support on a lot of things, a lot of planning being required by highly paid experts and so on. So yeah, it's definitely not a cheap option. And in the end, it's not as easy or responsive as just running the app itself on your PC. In my opinion, it just moves the "problem" somewhere far more expensive.
  2. Yes, assuming they don't extend it. It's really not a big deal right now. I already have one, but it's still not as nice as Win7 in my opinion, and limited for what I do. Yes. But I don't think MS could successfully pull that anytime soon (getting rid of the desktop and Win32 compatibility altogether). Replacing the start menu with a crappy smartphone interface is one thing (it makes using it a pain) but dropping compatibility with virtually 100% of the software your OS runs is quite another. Well, not completely. Macs still run MS Office, everything Adobe (Photoshop and others) and many others. It's not quite Windows but it's a LOT better than Linux as for commercial software. 8 years to come up with a drop-in replacement for active directory, group policies, a complete replacement for exchange + outlook, full compatibility with MS Office formats and proper replacements for the entire suite (including Visio, OneNote and Project, not just Word and Excel!), all the big commercial software like Photoshop or AutoCAD, offering developer tools on par with Visual Studio and SQL Server, etc. That would also require changing ActiveX-based web apps (which are often extremely expensive enterprise apps like our ERP System) which require a LOT of time, energy, planning and money to replace, and also rewriting most if not all of "in-house" line-of-business apps which can require more man-hours and cost more than anyone might imagine (assuming you already have a small army of programmers around doing nothing) and *so many* more things! At that point, people just start offering suggestions like running everything you need under WINE (yeah, like a business will rely on that!), or basically moving everything to terminal servers (massive servers that cost LOTS of $, with *massive* software licensing fees, which aren't all that good at running many types of apps), running everything under vmware and other similar "solutions"... And even if you somehow managed to do all that, then you'd still have TONS of specialized stuff that needs proprietary software that only runs on Windows (from medical imagery machines, CNC machines, industrial automation equipment, various photography gear, programming/embedded/lab equipment and what not). Or if you want a simple and common example of that, we got a couple "specialized" label printers (the latest being a Brady). No Linux drivers exist for the thing, much less the software (which is very crappy, expensive and requires a hardware dongle) to design & print the labels. And even if that already existed somehow, then we'd have thousands of labels to redesign or recreate still... Cases like these are extremely common in businesses. As an IT manager, would you rather pay about $150 per PC for a Win7 Pro license (you're done, the problem's solved until 2020 or more!), or deal with all of the above, including the user training (you'd not only replace the OS but also all of the software), the user complaints, the loss of productivity, the incredible amount of planning required, the high risks associated with it and everything else? It's quite an easy choice to make. Then in 5 years from now, you'll see what Win8's successor looks like and start planning your next migration. Until then you have a solid OS that does the job great, and you can't really plan for 2020, trying to predict how things might change over almost a decade...
  3. That's really hilarious! Priceless, even. Ready in what way? Because it seems anything BUT ready to me! Except that the numbers just don't look that good once you factor in all the costs. And that's assuming it can even do the job in the first place which is quite unlikely. I mean, no good Exchange Client (hope you didn't need email), no ActiveX-compatible browser (that's not an uncommon requirement in big businesses or gov't), not being able to run any of the existing software (just find suitable replacements for 100% of the software used by every single of the 100000+ employees), supporting all of the incredibly diverse hardware you find in an organization of that size, etc. I don't see how it would be a problem. If they threaten to switch, they will get better prices. It seems like a well known strategy, and I don't see how a supplier offering a better deal would be a problem. The only "problem" here is for MS, who would get less money per license. The rest of the article is pretty much one big joke... ...which is exactly when the current version of Ubuntu (the one they're talking about) loses support, so not a single day is gained. Unless you stick to the LTS, where you just push your problem back by a couple years instead (vs Win7 SP1 which gets support until January 2020 at least and might be extended like XP's date was) Yes, as if Ubuntu (Linux with Unity and now HUD too) which people are abandoning for Mint and Arch is any less uncertain! If anything it's even more confusing (and again, no binary compatibility, etc) They're pushing for a drastic change which is almost certain to turn into complete and massive failure which very well might even cost more, when a very good (and really not THAT expensive) solution already exists in the form of Win7, which most of the market is moving to already, and with great success. The interface is still pretty familiar, it still runs all the software you need and so on. Sometimes I wonder if any of these people ever worked in a business environment. Because they clearly seem not to understand the millions of ways people are just locked in to MS products, and their one and only argument seems to be that Linux makes you save the Windows license, while disregarding absolutely *everything* else (like not being able to do the job in the first place). They don't seem to get just how massive such a migration would be, the amount of planning required and the time it takes (it's already too late to even think of a staged migration). It only makes them seem amateurish IMO, and that's just one more reason not to trust them.
  4. Some x64 apps run significantly faster. Enough to really feel it. For instance, I remember that the first x64 version of winrar was noticeably faster. But some apps drastically benefit from it.
  5. And that's just a memory-intensive benchmark, which is very unlike most software people will use. For example, since you mention games, here's the real-life performance gains you can expect: The biggest improvement, from DDR3 2133 CL9 vs DDR3 1333 CL9 in Metro 2033 is 1% gained. In your case it would be far less. There's essentially zero gains to be made here. But 16GB vs 8GB is a decent boost for many. If you use any memory hungry apps (vmware workstation, most CAD apps, photoshop on large images, etc) and especially if you heavily multitask, and keep in mind things like superfetch still benefit from it quite a lot too. And sure, why not ramdisks as well...
  6. The adoption rate is pathetic compared to Win7 at a similar stage, and out of these poor bast early adopters, 75% prefer another OS as we've seen in the news recently (the forumswindows8 survey) Everything about Win8 screams of failure on a very large scale...
  7. Perhaps because it somewhat lowers the barrier to entry (we've all seen the results of "classic" VB) but on the other hand it lets you create better and more advanced things faster too. Given skilled programmers, on the same budget and time frame, it far improves the quality IMHO. And given infinite resources, then it's mainly a matter of programming-related skills (and things like understanding the problem domain better, etc) Either ways, as much of a C# fanboy as I am (it's my fav language for Windows development by far), if Windows continues in the same direction as it did with Win8 then Windows is dead to me, and I'll move on to a "lesser" language (and toolchain/IDE/...) but on an OS that's not absurdly nonsensical (that means either Objective C or C++/Qt and OS X) As for Windows Phone pricing, it's just really funny. It didn't stand a chance at half that price anyway.
  8. I haven't really compared Android vs iPhone ease of use (both are pretty user friendly), but so far all Android phones I've seen were bought basically because it's cheaper (free with the plan), not based on technical merit in any way. It's basically what you get if you don't want to spend the money to get the iPhone. It's not the user interface that's the main differentiator for me either, and I don't see how some people here think it attracts different age groups or whatever based on that. It mainly needs to be non-horrible unlike the WP8 phone which I can't see anybody buying but the most extreme MS fanboys (and possibly only the blind ones... I mean, no-contrast white on yellow?) Most people would be perfectly happy with the other two. I've seen some users who had issues with Android phones (performance, spam, malware, etc) that I haven't seen iPhone users experience. Meanwhile, I know that the iPhone has a pretty good program to sync music (with smart playlists and all -- using the same software as our ipods) which is a very big deal for me, it has by far a better app selection (that's where the money is, so that's where the devs go, and the iDevice devs typically value things like user experience more) which is also very important to me (Apple's store is better too), and if you buy an app for your iPhone then it'll also work on your iPod and iPad (everything just works between your devices). I also know for a fact that it works great in an enterprise setup: you can very easily check your emails from exchange server (we replaced our BlackBerries by iPhones). It also has a lot of "premium" features, like Siri and FaceTime, a far better LCD display, arguably a somewhat better OS, the battery life is better than most Android devices, the on screen keyboard typically works better, etc. An iPhone gets iOS updates (if you have a 4S, you're getting iOS 6 now), unlike if I bought some Android 2.x device from my phone company in which case it'll run Android 2.x forever. The hardware is awesome but yes, it's expensive for sure. I just view it as a very good but premium phone (which pretty much just works). If I wanted a great smartphone and that I had the budget, that's what I'd get. And if I basically wanted that and didn't have the money then I'd get an Android phone. As simple as that. Just my $0.02 (we're pretty off-topic, BTW)
  9. The WP8 phone is beyond awful, much like Windows 8 I'd sooner pay more for an Android phone even if out of the 3 I prefer the iPhone.
  10. When you run it, it says one of the options is: That's the only difference.
  11. At first glance (a very quick glance) it would. But I don't see why you'd even bother with this script. All it does is run preliminary checks and you want to bypass them. Why not just run the updater directly then? FWUpdLcl.exe -F ME171176.BIN or FWUpdLcl.exe -F ME171176.BIN -FORCERESET
  12. While I've never tried that one, I have to say that Sapien makes some pretty rad stuff. PrimalScript is a great little tool for those who still do VBScript. I haven't tried their PowerShell utils though.
  13. Pics or it aint true... It's really not that hard to get such a score today. Even this several years old Core 2 Duo (not OC'ed or anything) I'm typing from isn't all that far from it: 6.5 for CPU and RAM, 7.2 and 7.2 graphics (a Radeon 4850 from 2008), and 5.9 for a plain old hard drive. I mean, if you took a PC from 2007 with a Q6600 CPU and threw a modern-ish video card in it around $100 as the sole upgrade (let's pick a Radeon 7750), you'd be pretty darn close to that score: 7.2 (CPU), 7.2 (RAM), 7.5 and 7.5 (video) and 5.9 (standard HD) If you take any new system with a i5 or i7, a fast GPU and a SSD you're going to get a really high score obviously.
  14. For a while I was thinking about "derper impressions", but yeah. Just like you said.
  15. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I'd say all versions are universally useless for numerous reasons, from no RAW support at all in old versions (pre-2011) and no support for PSD files either, to extremely limited tagging/organizing/retouching options and numerous other missing features (nevermind the awful interface) If I was really stuck using it (the very last resort), I'd use version 2011 because at least it has support for RAW files (so it's not as useless) Either ways, I have zero use for any of the Live apps.
  16. That it's a truly awful program. There's far better photo managers and viewers out there (Adobe Bridge, Acdsee, Bibble, etc)
  17. Those are the same people that own a Windows Phone, a brown Zune with a Zune pass, who will buy a Surface on day one, and that praised Vista as the 2nd coming of Ballmer (their idea of a deity). And a handful of people that have no need for a computer and just want a tablet instead. And I'll say it: astroturfers and paid shills. Unfortunately for MS, that tiny minority of the population won't make any statistically relevant change in sales figures. Edit: Windows Server 2012 has also been leaked, and non-N versions of Win 8 too.
  18. Pretty much the same here. Don't have it installed anywhere, be it at home or work (none of our work PCs have it). I don't think I'm really missing out on anything. The kids haven't asked me to install it either. Seemingly all kids chat on facebook instead, some people still use old fashionned IRC (group chat / support mostly) and everybody I see that wants audio / video chatting uses Skype instead. Unfortunately, the poll doesn't have a "I don't give a F" option, nor a "Why would I want to use either?" option so no vote.
  19. Indeed... All I feel like saying is "duh!". Of course it'll fail... All it'll manage is make the other Win RT tablets seem even less attractive, and that's quite a feat in itself. MS managed to repeatedly fail in the mobile world (WM, Zune, Kin, WP, ...) when it's a market with huge growth, and that, with devices that had a very similar interface. In fact, their one and only non-failure (if you can call it that) on the hardware side besides the usual keyboards & mice is the Xbox. And that's because they're selling the hardware at a loss, and that they sunk over 30 billions into it (which they might never recoup -- they're basically already due for a new design) and consumers have still been plagued with the RROD. You also get to pay for online gaming unlike all other consoles, the dashboard also has ads, and there's not that many exclusive titles either. Nevermind that the Wii clearly outsold it, and that they're *barely* ahead of the latecomer and hard-to-code-for PS3. Now, add to that the usual poor launch, like missing the back to school period with Win8. Or the lack of the Apple "cool factor". The unavoidable x86/ARM confusion in customers. The people stuck with a touch UI on their desktops who will quickly learn to hate everything Metro (or whatever you're supposed to call it now) which is already abundantly clear... There's simply no way it's not going to be a huge flop.
  20. John Carmack from id software (Doom) . Seemingly he doesn't care too much for it either.
  21. If anything, the EU shouldn't force them to help other people to chose another browser or media player (it's easy enough to install and use something else). They should rather force MS to allow disabling their retarded tablet/smartphone UI (which you can't actually disable). They're effectively making use of that desktop OS monopoly to try to get traction in the tablet & phone market. You'd think that would be a huge no-no. I'd sooner upgrade to Vista than run Win8. In other news, I am now the owner of a Mac Mini It was cheap enough, even if just for the learning experience (and getting to try Xcode 4 and Objective C). It'll definitely take some time getting used to but I can already see a few things it does better than Windows.
  22. Win8 officially RTM'ed, the build is 9200.16384.win8_rtm.120725-1247 Now hopefully they can get around to fire Ballmer and Sinofsky for this disaster. Then they can create a version of Windows that doesn't suck so badly -- one that isn't for people who like to pretend their PC is a smartphone. As for 27" LCDs, I've got an eye on inexpensive Shimian LCDs on ebay: 27", S-IPS panel and 2560x1440 for around $300! Sure, there's only the one DVI input, it doesn't support HDCP (who cares?) and there's no OSD menus, but similar monitors with these features cost about 3x that...
  23. While I can't speak for everyone, nor can I guess the intentions of every person or company developing software, the effective level of interest I've noticed, be in real life or in various places online, has been effectively 0%. Many well known developers spoke against it recently, including key people from Valve (Gabe Newell), Blizzard (Rob Pardo) and Sony Online Entertainment (John Smedley). On our side (be it myself as a dev, or the company I work for) there are absolutely no plans to develop for Metro/WinRT anytime soon.
  24. Hmm, my memory might be failing me here, but the only things I've seen from them in that era was crappy old BASIC (not sure how far back MASM goes). That's where Borland came in with Turbo C/C++/Pascal/ASM/Vision/etc. Ralf Brown's interrupt list was the best reference IMO. Along with a few good books... Good times for sure, toying with a DIY ISA card with 24 TTL I/Os (from a plain old 8255 PPI). </nostalgia> I sure remember that. Everything was so pricey... and so little existed for that architecture compared to plain old ISA slots. Thanks god EISA won. Totally. Or at least some way to disable it. Precisely.
  25. Sure, MS wouldn't be what it is today... But the IBM PC/XT wasn't exactly what I'd call open. Yes, there were a lot of clones, but cloning such a simple design was very simple (it wasn't exactly a groundbreaking design) and they had to reverse engineer the BIOS to make their own. But yes, it was open in the sense that everyone could easily make their own ISA expansion cards and such (good times). I think price was one of the major reasons why it won (and that largely because of the use of a cheap 16 bit CPU, the 8088), along with cheap clones, enough software early on (including a familiar OS, VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, and everything else), etc. It seems like they got everything right, and the upgrades were even better. Them sources still contain a lot of complaints, and I do know for sure that they've heavily censoring the comments too. Not that it's going to make any difference. There were Zune fanboys back then, just like there are WP fanboys now, and both are very much dead regardless. A handful of fanboys never saved a product. I see "regular" people everyday who are still trying to learn Win7 basics years after it was released (still stuck on XP in their heads)... Just imagine how they'll adapt to Win8 on a desktop. It's just not gonna fly.
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