JorgeA

Good question. One theory is that they were trying to replicate the Apple model. Kind of a silly idea, as Apple is a bit of a cult whose followers appear to be willing to shell out almost any amount so long as it has a half-eaten fruit stamped on it somewhere. So far, that does seem to be the bottom line! --JorgeA

Independently of how one might feel about this particular device or about tablets in general, it's hard to imagine how the Surface (Pro or RT) could possibly hope to compete with a $65 tablet. --JorgeA

LOL WHAT I HAVE YET TO FIGURE OUT, IS WHETHER THEY'RE DOING THIS BECAUSE THEY THINK WE ARE CRETINS SIMPLETONS, OR BECAUSE THEY'RE TRYING TO HELP TURN US INTO SIMPLETONS. --JORGEA

Ugh, that picture WAS disturbing! This is one of my favorite items: http://www.foolsdesign.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43. It's as if somebody took the Office design templates and left them out in the sun for a month -- all washed out. Try looking at that on your screen for 8 hours a day. What were they thinking?? ...Oh yeah, they forgot the thinking part. You are doing fantastic work over there, BTW -- very visual, gets the point across directly. --JorgeA

That's pretty remarkable, considering all the marketing and "buzz" buildup that's gone into pushing the new children's blocks interface. --JorgeA

Yup! Once you make the marketing mistake you have to bend over backwards to compensate, not simply correct the original error. Otherwise customers are left with the bitter taste in their mouth. --JorgeA

Veteran Windows observer Woody Leonhard is underwhelmed by the newest version of Office: Surviving your first hour with Office 2013 Summary: Some lowlights: (emphasis added) There's more, and the whole review is worth a read. --JorgeA

@jaclaz predicted (way back when) that, thanks to the Surface, somebody would come out with something like this: TouchScreen Cleaner What jaclaz could not have known, is that ALREADY this product is being offered at a 50% discount. --JorgeA

Apropos of a couple of topics we discussed in the last few days: Microsoft: Expect Another Major Anti-Google Attack From Us Looks like instead of backing off, MS is doubling down on its anti-Google strategy. Will Google respond in kind? This could get really ugly really fast. Windows 8 OEM Prices Reportedly Set For A Slash What notebooks run on 10- or 11-inch screens? Don't they mean netbooks? More seriously, with the free Office 2013, Surface Pros are starting to come closer to the Surface RT sales model. Other than that, a $20 discount on the OS, even if passed entirely along to the buyer, isn't going to make a whole lot of difference. --JorgeA

Very cool, especially the part about enabling the title bar so that you can actually close the apps. One sometimes gets the impression that MS may be content with letting third parties fix their UI for them. I wonder if @bigmuscle's Aero Glass reviver would work with these windowed apps. --JorgeA

The clear implication that using Google search is a bad habit. Tut Tut MrWeicz .... Good point. I hadn't noticed that! So we could use the same tactic and say, "using Windows 8 is a bad habit"... --JorgeA

The article is well worth reading. For readers in a hurry, here are the five reasons (explanations in the article). Most of them echo points we have made in this thread: --JorgeA

Oh great, the problem is even worse than I thought. --JorgeA

Yeah, I posted that in line with our earlier warnings against putting ever more of our information in the cloud. Certainly (sad to say) there's already a lot of our personal and confidential data online. IMO, though, the risks of deliberately adding to it outweigh any benefits by far! Here's a related article. The link may not work unless one is a subscriber to the online edition (I retyped the quote from the printed version), but it speaks to this trend of people relying increasingly on cloud services: --JorgeA EDIT: typo

--JorgeA

Go ahead, get yourself that 32GB Windows RT device and put your whole life in the Cloud: Add to Hacked List: Listmaking Company Evernote --JorgeA

I (think I) remember Leo reacting sympathetically to a number of fanboyish things that Paul Thurrott has said about Windows 8 in another Leo podcast, "Windows Weekly." Maybe he was just playing the role of genial host? Or maybe he was keeping neutral and I interpreted it as sympathy. Will do! --JorgeA

.Actually , the prediction was right. There are plenty of copies of 8 at the promo price or less still available - even now - on Amazon UK and elsewhere. Clearly they still can't shift it even at that price. Windows 8 Pro, Upgrade Edition [upgrade from Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7] (PC): Amazon.co.uk: Software Now MS UK has dropped their Pro price back to the promo price again.To be fair - it is just above the promo price ( 4.99 more including media ). I expect that is because they do not want to undercut the poor retailers who are stiil trying to shift the inventory they already bought . Windows 8 Pro price slashed to £45 | News | PC Pro Wow, that's remarkable. Just waiting for the tech press on this side of the pond to pick up on what's going on with Win8 sales in the UK. --JorgeA

Yeah, I think that a lot of people underestimated the degree of bull-headed "see no evil, hear no evil" incompetence that a certain newly-styled "devices and services" company has displayed with respect to Windows 8. More and more in the tech press seem to be coming around. Read (or listen to) this exchange between host Leo Laporte (founder of This Week in Tech) and security specialist Steve Gibson in a recent "Security Now!" podcast. It starts at about 44:15: The specific prediction didn't come true, but Leo's larger point about Win8 sales is still bearing out. --JorgeA

Thanks very much for the link! And of course for contributing... Maybe Google offered to give Microsoft the same kind of treatment, based on the latter's own privacy record as we've seen in this thread. --JorgeA

That is incredibly bizarre. Also opens up "interesting" new possibilities for messing with people's computers, if a way can be figured out to make that deactivation stick even after unplugging the phone. Or to deliberately make the same sort of nasty thing happen with other devices that normally get plugged into a PC. --JorgeA

Not a problem about the rant, that's what we're here for. Anything you get a chance to contribute will be welcome! --JorgeA

Word is getting out that Windows 8 hasn't done anything to stem the decline in PC sales (and may even be contributing to it): Another Annual Decline for PC Sales So the holiday quarter (i.e., when Win8 came out) is the worst one on record -- while emerging markets, instead of growing as anticipated, actually declined. Hmm... Not conclusive of course, but certainly suggestive. --JorgeA

Unbelievable!! Personally, I don't think there was a conspiracy or an inside job or influence from outside. Although, for a while last Monday, the thread did get closed to new comments -- instead of simply relocated as it ultimately was. It was the drastic measure of closing the thread that gave rise to various theories about nefarious forces getting into the act. Anyway, we did manage to bring it back to life and I'm glad that the discussion has resumed, although we do seem to have suffered significant casualties in terms of frequent thread posters. I'm also DELIGHTED to see all the expressions of support in the last week from folks who've been mainly following the discussion without posting. It gives a sense of satisfaction to find out that we're providing something that people find valuable! --JorgeA

I take the lazy approach and enter the forum here, that always shows me all new posts that have occurred over a time frame I can choose, no matter where in the forum the posts are. That's pretty neat. B) I didn't even know you could do that! I come in mainly by getting automated notifications of new posts in the threads that I subscribe to, and secondarily by then looking around once I'm done with the new posts. Your way should not make a difference which subforum the thread is in. As long as people keep posting, it'll keep showing up. --JorgeA Yep, that's the idea. Cheers and Regards There IS one potential problem area, that I just realized. Anyone who would check the thread by browsing to the Windows 8 subforum (let's say, because they put the subforum in their Favorites) will now see the Deeper Impressions thread redirect sinking down the listingss, with the most recent post reported to be by Tripredacus on February 25. From that it's easy for a reader to conclude that there's nothing new and that the thread is dying, or has died. I wonder what percentage of readers come into the forum that way. So the thread move could really put a crimp on the conversation here. Personally, when not coming directly to a thread via an e-mail notification, that IS the way that I browse MSFN: I go to the overall board index and go down the list of subforum names for areas of interest to me (Vista, Win9x, Security and Internet, etc.). I had never gone into the "General Discussion" subforum before this week! Request to mods: is there any way to have that redirect provide the date and time of the most recent post in the continuing thread, as if it were a normal thread link? --JorgeA