JorgeA

Fanboy Central has an article where the writer and a pack of groupies gloat over the fact that most elements of Aero still remain in Windows 8. Most elements --- except for the most distinctive one, which is the transparent glass border around windows. --JorgeA

My heart jumped when I first saw the list of headlines! And then I read through some of the articles, and realized that it was only the Metro name that's being eliminated... --JorgeA

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jaclaz, Apropos of that, there is this new analysis from Woody Leonhard: And then there's this from ZDNet: Is there an emoticon for a face with hands clasped in prayer to heaven? --JorgeA

+1 to that! Happy B-day!! --JorgeA

Ahh children. You gotta love 'em. Is there really any difference between Generation iPod and Generation Xbox? Heck no. At least there are still a few adults left over there ... I'm with the last commenter -- it's just more and more hideous every time. Excellent connection you've made to Art Deco, BTW. Incidentally, have you noticed how annoying the Windows Update function is in the Consumer Preview? If you're in the Desktop (and have updates set to nofity instead of automatically downloading), you'll never know that there is an update available unless you go looking for them by hand. No update notifications ever appear in the, umm, Notification Area. The only time you see any indication of it is when you boot up (and didn't MS now want us to keep our systems always on?) and then you get only a vague message that something's available, with no details unless you go into the real Control Panel. Oh, and then the updates application is really aggressive about pushing "optional" updates. My CP has been offering an "optional" Nvidia driver update for weeks now. Since I have no need for it, and since I'm cured of the habit of risking driver updates just for the heck of it, I've been ignoring this update. But if I click on the "Optional updates available" link to see what they are, then uncheck the Nvidia driver update, and then hit the back arrow -- it tells me that that "optional" update is selected for download! In order to avoid this 193MB download while getting the "important" ones, I have to to uncheck it and then hit "install" right from that same screen, without going back to the summary updates window. I shouldn't have to hide the update, nor should I have to know that one can right-click to hide the update: Windows should simply respect my choice and leave it the @#$% alone. (As it used to in previous versions.) Will check to see if the same annoyances apply to the Release Preview. --JorgeA

CoffeeFiend, That's encouraging! As jaclaz points out -- with respect to Metro apps, MS doesn't exactly seem to be courting the most sophisticated sort of thinking. --JorgeA

Good questions, jaclaz. I guess time will tell what the answers are. From the developer's perspective, we have to wonder why one would choose to work in an environment that limits scope for creativity in terms of the functionality that one can (1) work with and (2) offer to the user. But, what if enough professionals sense that that's where the money is going, so they'd better tag along? That image was simply delicious!! --JorgeA

jaclaz, Apropos of that, I found the following analysis on the social.technet.microsoft website: If there is anything to this, then we may be facing a critical choice (whether to stick with Win7, submit to Win8, or switch to another OS) sooner than we'd thought. The key is whether MS gets enough developers to switch over to WinRT. I guess @CoffeeFiend would say, NO WAY!! --JorgeA

LOL, jaclaz Thanks for elaborating. And it does give pause to see just how simplistic is MS's explanation of Metro apps. Who do they think will be writing them? --JorgeA

Gotta wonder who, exactly, it is that MS hopes to reach with the Metro tiles. They've already sold, what, 600 million Windows 7 licenses, 88 million Vista licenses, and how many more of XP. So, who's left? Mainly, people who either can't afford a computer, or who have zero interest in getting one. Tablets don't address either of those conditions. The iPad of course is even more expensive than many modern desktop PCs, and Windows 8 tablets are shaping up to be about as pricey, so affordability is a moot argument; whereas (if I understand it correctly) in order to make use of a tablet, you need to have a WiFi connection -- but in order to have that, you need to have a PC or at least a router to provide the WiFie signal, and that requires a certain level of IT expertise so we can rule out the folks who have little interest in or aptitude for tech. So, who's left? People who already own PCs and have some undestanding of them, correct? Maybe I need my morning coffee, but I can't think of a scenario where a tablet enables you to do anything that you can't do with a laptop or netbook computer. Unless you're going to start actually walking around town with your eyes and fingers on the tablet... --JorgeA

jaclaz, I've noticed that, too. Trouble is, by going with a lighter OS (Win8) that's designed to work on lower-spec hardware, you can bet your bottom lira that they're going to remove useful features to get the software to "work" on tablets and similar toys. I do like Foxit Reader; I'm using version 4.3.0.1110. I'd always used Adobe Reader, but when I updated it to Reader X two things happened: (1) the interface changed drastically in ways that I didn't care for (such as having the Search box hidden by default); and (2) the Search function was almost completely broken. You'd type in a term and it might, or might not, take you to a page that contained the term -- and if it did, you'd still have to look for it yourself on that page. It took Adobe months to fix that bug, and then they issued the fix as only a regularly scheduled update (instead of an emergency fix), which did not speak well for their level of dedication or concern. In the meantime I discovered and started using Foxit Reader, which moreover had adopted "yellow sticky notes" as a comment feature. Adobe incorporated that in X, but I discovered the broken Search and stoped using X before I discovered that they had sticky notes; so now I'm converted to Foxit. --JorgeA

You might want to rephrase the question, as is it might imply that they actually know what they are doing . So I wouldn't focus on what the intend to do, but rather on what they are actually doing (mindlessly) which yes, it is the depauperating of the Win32 codebase, IF "third party developers" are demented enough to follow this lead. jaclaz, Well, yes -- you're right. I did assume that the folks at MS know what they're doing. Given what they've been doing, I guess that's a big assumption. But whether or not they realize the consequences of what they're doing, surely they must know if ultimately they intend to go "all WinRT"? That's what I'd like to know -- if that's the goal, foolish though it may be. Looks like I wasn't quick enough! The first of your four links redirected me somewhere else, and the second one said that the content had been removed. --JorgeA

I jut had to add the following quote from ADRz, one of the most perceptive participants on that Windows forum: If something like this does happen, computing will have come full circle. In the beginning, people had terminals that couldn't do anything by themselves, but were tethered to a central mainfame that handled operations and stored the data. Then the PERSONAL computer came along and revolutionized IT, giving the individual complete control over his work and his output. The vision (nightmare) of a simple OS, functioning merely to connect your dumb workstation to cloud servers, erases all of that and -- operationally speaking -- constitutes a reversion to the mainframe era. Worst of all, while the process is well underway in the large-organization sphere, this new development that ADRz describes would extend the "dumb terminal" concept to the home. Fully cloud-based computing would change the experience from what's essentially a "private property" model, where once we pay for our land and implements we can use them indefinitely, to a "feudal" model where we must render regular tribute and get kicked off the (software) manor if we refuse. --JorgeA

I just discovered an interesting exchange, from back in March, on the Windows IT Pro forum. A poster complained about the crippled Desktop and the "god-awful" Metro start screen, and wanted to complain to the powers-that-be at Microsoft. This is the first reply he got: The final sentence in item (b ) caught my eye. Any thoughts on that? Have there been direct indications or confirmation that that's what MS intends to do? --JorgeA

From the Grown Man Discovers that Fire Is Hot news department: Headline -- The Voice of Genius and Insight has spoken! --JorgeA

Yup! --JorgeA

xpclient, Huh -- I didn't realize that! So, if your Win8 has gotten sluggish, then simply shutting down won't help, as it will only resume from hibernation into the same borked session. So it's misleading when we read all these claims about how much faster Win8 is at booting up. (Wonder if some of the people who are touting Win8's bootup time even realize what's going on.) Nice find. --JorgeA

Thanks, erpdude8! I have a new (in the last few months) Win98FE install that I couldn't update at all via Microsoft. I still have the relevant file so I'll try this on it. --JorgeA

Fredledingue, This is GREAT! Where did you find this image? I've installed the DP, the CP, and the RP, and I don't remember seeing an option like that during the installation of any of them. Let's hope that it does exist as a "secret" option in some Win8 build, that it will be possible to activate somehow. It would be ironic to have to pay more for a version that DISACTIVATES an aspect of the OS. But you know, even if it costs more to have that version, it might be worth it to me not to have to deal with the Metro start screen. Better yet would be a version that disabled all of Metro... Very interesting, thanks! I'll try it as soon as I get the chance to. Yeah, I got a couple of those new-style blue screens when I was trying out the Developer Preview. It WAS pretty insulting. This newest version seems to give a little more information, but the "sad face" is just plain childish. Fits right in with the whole Metro attitude, I guess. --JorgeA

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. I never knew the details, but I distinctly remember that back then the IBM PC's success was attributed to its being an "open architecture" system that users could open up and modify to their heart's content, whereas the Apple machines were described as "closed architecture" that discouraged (maybe even made it impossible? I don't know) opening up the case to tinker with the insides. This was viewed as a limitation of user choice that crippled Apple in its competition with the PC and clones. As for software compatibiity, I don't know about the Apple II because I don't remember there being any clones of it (see above), but I can tell you that my business partner and I put out a magazine with him working on one of the original IBM models, while I had my "semi-compatible" Sanyo MBC-555 running WordStar and MS-DOS 1.25: we never had trouble reading files and disks back and forth. And I do remember those thick computing magazines -- may even still have some in a box somewhere. I'd go out to the newsstand every Sunday to buy the NY Times, just to read the 47th Street Photo two-page spread top-to-bottom for prices dropping and new models coming out. It was an early type of computer p0rn. --JorgeA

A ray of hope,quickly dashed (see posts 1, 5, and 6). (Interestingly, to judge from his postings elsewhere on that site, the OP in that thread seems to be a Win8 enthusiast.) The incident also speaks to what folks around here have been saying about MS 1) suppressing alternative visions for the OS, and 2) doubling down on Metro. --JorgeA

Charlotte, Another FANTASTIC post, thank you! This was a crucial factor in the IBM PC's (and therefore Microsoft's) triumph over Apple back in 1980-83. Apple specializes in closed platforms, and although they were in the lead early on, they were quickly overtaken by the PC because customers wanted to be able to adapt their systems to their own needs, and not what Apple decided that they needed. Customization is king. As a result, Apple receded into the background and nearly disappeared. Even today, despite the new Apple chic, the Macintosh in its various flavors accounts for barely one-eighth of the OS market. Apple's had better success recently with the iPad because no one takes a tablet seriously. How you run a toy and what goes inside it are not critical matters. But as tablet makers try to push their wares out into more serious markets, their popularity will run into the hard facts of tablets' physical and ergonomic limitations, as well as their nature as closed systems in terms of both hardware and software. To repeat for the umpteenth time: A PC is not a tablet, and a tablet is not a PC. --JorgeA

+1 BTW, just to test the process for getting downgrade rights -- I'm thinking of going into a computer store to shop for a new Windows 7 PC, and then asking the salesman if I can get downgrade rights to Vista. --JorgeA

do you also have this issues with IE9, metro, Office 2013 and VS2012? This font rendering is a personal injury Now that Office 2007 has (I think) received its final updates package, and considering the way that Office 2013 is shaping up , I'm thinking of buying a copy of Office 2010 before the '13 version goes retail. It will give me several more years of full Office support in an interface that I can tolerate. --JorgeA