JorgeA

That's being worked on separately. In case you haven't discovered it already, see this thread. In one of the posts there, Tihiy (the creator of StartIsBack) offered to help with that project, so we'll see what happens. Good luck! --JorgeA

Nice Freudian slip! At least it points to how many of us feel about Microsoft taking out glass! I was thinking the same thing and then saw your post! --JorgeA

Staying in the aumotive analogy: what's happened is that, by leaving out factory parts that a lot of customers want (Start Button/Menu, Aero Glass, etc.), Microsoft has given a boost to the aftermarket. Unfortunately, that screeching noise known as Metro/Modern UI is factory-installed and (AFAIK) can't be removed or switched out for something better. (Although it looks like Tihiy has covered up the noise pretty well with StartIsBack.) But maybe they'll take a hint from the auto industry and bake features like Aero Glass and the Start Menu back into Win8 (or 9). --JorgeA

Microsoft Windows 8 Sales Lacking; Mum On Surface The following tidtbit might dampen talk about how, by offering a common interface, Windows 8 and Win8 "devices" would synergistically help each other to reach new sales heights: At least, it hasn't happened yet. --JorgeA

Three months after launch, PCWorld issues a (second) report card on Windows 8. Some highlights: Speaking of the Start Button, I was at my favorite PC retailer the other day and got into separate conversations with the manager and a salesman. They agreed that Win8 is a disaster for users, but the salesman claimed that the Start Button was going to be revived this summer in a Win8 "Service Pack 1." Unless someone here knows otherwise, I'm going to count that as an example of, umm, salesmanship. --JorgeA

Ballmer's statement reminds me a little of Baghdad Bob: --JorgeA

That's probably the whole idea of what MSFT is doing with Metro/Win8: They're trying to turn our PCs into TVs. Fantastic analysis in the OP, BTW. I suspect it hasn't generated more responses because it covers everything so well already. --JorgeA

I have that album!! On LP!!! Hadn't listened to it in a looooong time, thanks for bring it back to the top! --JorgeA

From another forum, more Windows 8 headaches. --JorgeA P.S. (and OT): From much later in that thread, there is this: Is that correct?

Oh, interesting. They're slowly separating the user from the guts of the OS, leaving him/her to interact only with a pre-selected outer, umm, surface... --JorgeA

I looked at that Outlook 2013 preview shot, and inside of a minute the procession of Ribbon elements with just the faintest separation by teeny gray lines already had me feeling anxious and unsettled. Who could work in such an environment?? Oh, wait -- that's right, Modern design is for play, not work. I'm expected to be a consumer drone flitting constantly from screen to screen, not a producer who needs to actually focus on what he's doing... BTW, funny image with the Teletubbies superimposed on the Metro Start Screen! --JorgeA

Oh, I love the pseudo-critical tone of that article! The same trolls who wish a walled-garden for Windows act suddenly concerned. Hypocritical bunch! That's the difference between owning your own home (hard disk) and renting somebody else's (the Cloud) -- in the latter case, somebody else is in control of the resource, and you are not, except in some indirect or minuscule way. These fans of Win8 and "devices" boasting tiny flash drives are fast marching into eSerfdomTM. --JorgeA

Great point that hasn't been paid nearly enough attention to. The metrotards will tell you to "just hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE" or the Windows key or some other key combination to do what you could easily do before with a couple of clicks. But this misses the point of the mouse interface: in all versions of Windows prior to Metro, I don't have to remember all sorts of disparate key combinations anymore, I can simply point and click. I don't have to take up brain space trying to remember arcane commands -- I can simply do what I need to do, and go on to the next thing. This immediacy of the command interface (there may be a better term for the idea I'm trying to express) enabled users to do increasingly complex and sophisticated things with their computers, because they could focus on the task itself instead of the command sequence. That was the genius of Windows, which now they are trying so hard to destroy. --JorgeA

ciHnoN, Welcome to the thread! If you have seen my posts, you'll know that I completely agree with what you're saying. I would definitely like to hear your thoughts on the excerpt I quoted at the top of this post. As the OP , I'd say that a brief description of what's going on with Unity would be OK here, if it helps to guide readers on the choice of an alternative OS down the road. People (like myself ) who are considering making a switch because of what Microsoft is doing with to Windows would also find it relevant to know if the Canonical folks are walking down the same route as Microsoft. So, please do let us know what's going on with Ubuntu! --JorgeA

Your discussion over this with @Charlotte made me think of something. Consider how everything Microsoft is suddenly becoming simpler in design -- now down to the point where the logo is a single color and barely any interior lines. Now consider how Microsoft is pushing this concept of the "consumption" device. I wonder whether this is intended to reflect (or promote ) the growing atrophy of users' brain cells as they incessantly surf the Web and mindlessly go clicking from video to video, to where their minds can't even process multicolor logos or -- gasp! -- windows with rounded corners and 3D buttons. I could imagine a biting TV take on Microsoft's Surface (and the Apple iPad) featuring cavemen (real primitive ones, not the sophisticated GEICO cavemen) really getting into a tablet with their grubby fat fingers... --JorgeA

--JorgeA

That's great to hear, thanks for the link! I'll go in and try that. It'll be a nice "excuse" to fire up IE6 again. --JorgeA

Avast continues to release definitions for 4.8, despite their official announcement of not releasing new definitions after May 2012. I have installations of Avast! 4.8 Home Edition on two different Win98 systems, installed months apart. On one of them the virus database last updated on December 29, on the other it was January 2. When I click to manually update the database, they hang as if they can't connect to the server. Are you using Avast! 4.8, and are you still getting virus database updates? --JorgeA

That statement put me in action. And I have good news: the following procedure works. I have just tested it for you. Disconnect the machine physically from the internet. Reset the machine date to some day (I used 19) in January, 2009. Turn off the machine. Wait 10 minutes. Turn it on and boot Win 9x (if it runs Scandisk or NDD, abort the scan or it'll find many "wrong dated" files). Once at the desktop, run Norton_Removal_Tool_9x.exe and it'll run OK. Nothing will be installed, the Norton_Removal_Tool_9x.exe is stand-alone. It removed all Norton products all right, except the Norton CrashGuard, which it didn't touch (then again, I'm possibly the last user of the much maligned CrashGuard, but it works all right for me)! This sounds VERY promising. I ran into this Norton problem with lingering remnants the last time I had to reinstall Win98FE -- couldn't reinstall Norton Internet Security, no matter what I tried with that Removal Tool or how many references to Symantec/Norton I deleted from the Registry. Ended up installing Avast! 4.8 instead, but as of the end of 2012 that's no longer receiving updates (must have been due to the Mayan Calendar) so I may as well uninstall that and try your procedure. Thanks very much for reporting it. --JorgeA

We are talking of a "closed doors" preview offered at CES 2013 to a technical writer of one of the most influential PC magazines in the US, preview being patronized DIRECTLY by Microsoft, and the guys/gals there cannot answer to a "plain enough" technical question? There is no reference to that question being asked as a "test" with no possibility for the MS representatives there to "phone home" and get the answer, apparently besides not knowing straight away the answer to a "normal" question (VERY normal when you are offering a preview on a pen-based tablet) they seemingly did not have the capabilities (or the will) to get it from some of the engineers (that SHOULD know it). I would like to underline the fact that in this case it is not "third party" hardware .... Redmond, we have a problem. jaclaz This is just mind-boggling. How could they not know?? Or maybe they didn't want to say. Nice catch, jaclaz! --JorgeA

You evidently greatly underestimate the price for giving away your moral integrity. jaclaz LOL, what I had in mind with that sentence is to illustrate the fact that (from an economics perspective) for me Windows 8 has negative value. It's not just worthless (zero value), it's actually worse than nothing. Eventually, Microsoft may start bragging about the hundreds of millions of Win8 "sales." But there's a conceptual problem with this: when a unit comes as part of a larger bundle (the PC), it's hard to tease out the actual value of the individual parts of the bundle. Years ago I worked at a company that published a monthly guide for cable television. The guide came as part of the subscription. One time, as a test the publisher arranged with several cable companies to offer subscribers the choice of paying either X amount for their current channel lineup plus the magazine, or (X - Y) amount for the channels only. IIRC, the difference was around $1.50 a month. When the results came back, something like 9 percent of the cable subscribers who'd been given the choice had opted to pay for the magazine. Not exactly a ringing endorsement! The same logic applies to Windows 8. Because it comes (mainly) as part of a package, it's harder for the market to establish the OS's actual value. --JorgeA

Great points! I guess we'll be getting our answer over the next few months. I agree with @vinifera. Maybe if MS paid me $40 -- or $200 -- then I might think about it... --JorgeA

Why Windows RT is hurtling toward disaster --JorgeA

This news is pretty remarkable, showing considerable initiative by millions of Windows users who've suddenly been presented with a Desktop stripped of two of its main features (the Start Button and Start Menu) and no advertised way to get them back. There's overlap in these figures of course, as one person can download multiple Start Menu alternatives; but if there were a way to determine this it would be interesting to know what percentage of Windows 8 users have downloaded a Start Menu replacement. (As well as the percent of users who would do that if they knew how.) --JorgeA

Apropos of what we've said before about the rush to cloud computing, a trend both illustrated and promoted by Microsoft's Windows 8/RT Surface: Avoiding the Hidden Costs of the Cloud Here's the link to the article where I found this. And now for the full text of the report. --JorgeA