JorgeA

Yeah, I too am curious to see what this blizzard of white on white looks like. --JorgeA

Rooting around the Group Policy Editor, I found the following setting: Wondering three things: What are some examples of the "alternate interface" programs mentioned in the first long paragraph of the description? Will any such alternate programs actually work in Windows 10? Could this setting (assuming that it's not ignored) be used to install and use an Aero Glass-style UI? --JorgeA

My next step will be to test PDF editors for Linux and their compatibility with Adobe Acrobat. Is there any PDF software for Linux out there that offers its own PDF printer drivers? In my limited testing so far, the native Linux PDF printer driver (Netrunner 16.16) seems to create enormously-sized PDFs of webpages printed into PDF. IIRC the same sample article from a newspaper website printed into a 27KB file in Adobe on Windows, but into a 4.1MB file in Linux. Linux will look more and more attractive, if and as these kinks get ironed out. I can hardly wait. --JorgeA

Is Satya Nadella hurting Microsoft in the long-run or is he the saviour that Bill Gates initially believed? With the hideous UI and the "our way or the highway" attitude to running Windows, is it any wonder that Microsoft is struggling in so many aspects of its business? --JorgeA

Considering that (for example) MS Office is at present the standard for business applications, then business software for a new OS would need to be fully compatible with Office files. Compatibility tests that I've read between LibreOffice and MS Office have not been very encouraging. LibreOffice seems to often make a mess of the formatting. In my own experience, with Change Tracking set to On, deletions made from a .DOC file in Word are frequently not recognized by LibreOffice, such that when the file comes back from the LibreOffice user you see both the text that you had deleted and the new text that you added all running together -- making it necessary to delete the unwanted text all over again. I've also run into CR/LF issues, where deletions of unwanted CR/LFs are ignored. It's these sorts of niggling issues that need to be ironed out before Linux (or any other non-Windows OS) becomes a viable alternative for business. And boy do I want a viable Windows alternative! --JorgeA

I suspect that it will take a sufficiently concerned tech billionaire (Steve Wozniak?) to jump-start any alternative OS for it to become a viable competitor to Windows. And actually less important than the OS itself will be the existence of standards-compliant software for it. A "deep pockets" sponsor would have the wherewithal to fund the development of applications for the new OS that could handle files created in Windows. --JorgeA

Doesn't it just want to make you puke!!! This has nothing to do with whether we have something to hide or not...just plain wrong...how ever you word it... bookie32 "If you have nothing to hide..." -- what a load of baloney. Increasing surveillance of that sort would not only make it ever harder for a movement such as the American Revolutionaries to coordinate their activities, but even in more ordinary (democratic) political circumstances would give the party in charge of the government an additional and growing advantage over the opposition, as they could keep tabs on who in the other party is talking to whom, where they're meeting, and what they're saying to each other. --JorgeA

I do remember reading somewhere that MSFT let go of a big portion of the team that used to test Windows Updates, in favor of having Windows users serve as guinea pigs. Apropos of these last few posts, here's another commenter on Woody's website: --JorgeA

Another insightful observation from a commenter on Woody's website about yet another Windows 10 update screw-up: --JorgeA

Mary Jo Foley came up with some figures from Microsoft as to the proportion of Windows users who downgraded their machines to Windows 10 as a result of the company's Win10 push (starts at 9:45): If this percentage is anywhere near the truth, it speaks very well of the ability of non-techie users to defend their computing preferences against the lures, the nagging, and even the trickery of their Redmond overlords. --JorgeA

I'm curious -- where is the FUD in the Betanews article? Your post actually agrees with major points made there. --JorgeA

Besides apps for a failing mobile UI, Windows Hello is another ballyhooed Windows 10 feature whose rationale is looking increasingly dubious: Biometrics are less secure than passwords -- this is why "Windows Hello"? No, thanks -- goodbye! --JorgeA

Speaking of Cortana, this just hit me last night. Here's the Cortana logo: And here is the "eye" of the all-seeing, control-freak computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey: Is it a simple case of sci-fi geekiness, or perhaps a statement of ultimate intent? Cortana's quest to monitor everything about Windows 10 users to better "help" them comes uncomfortably close to "life imitating art." --JorgeA

One of these notifications popped up when I came in here, so I had the chance real quick to get a screenshot (see at the bottom): --JorgeA

If we have reached stasis, then that means it's time for the Forum Software Gods to start messing with things again... Some things are better, some are worse. For example, we don't have nested quotes, so if you quote me to comment on something I said and then I quote you to comment on your comment, the context is lost and we have to start scrolling up and down the page to get the full idea of what's going on. Also, there seem to be fewer fonts to pick from, and AFAIK there's no guide (as there used to be) listing the various kinds of [] and [/] toggles that one can use. OTOH, the Like button helps to cut down on the number of short posts since we no longer feel compelled to type "+1" when we liked something that a member said but have nothing to add to it. I'm not crazy about the blip notifications that pop up in black at the bottom of the screen when you have MSFN showing and someone posts in a subscribed thread. Clicking on them before they (quickly) disappear doesn't seem to do anything. I can see how that could be of some value in a fast-moving Twitter conversation, but not in a slow-motion discussion of the kind that normally takes place on MSFN. --JorgeA

Yes sir, we have all the tools we need... except the one to COMPLETELY TURN OFF the snooping. Like we had before. It's a bit like having a TV where you can set the volume to any level of loudness, except Off, and the faintest you can set it to is an annoying murmur that interferes with your phone calls. --JorgeA

It appears to be a "hidden" control now, as opposed to a removed control. Firefox has done that sort of thing, too. They used to have a check-box to turn off Javascript in the settings UI; they removed that box but you can still turn off Javascript in "about:config". Needless to say, I'd rather have a visible setting so that the user doesn't need to be an uber-geek in order to modify the software to suit his policy preferences. --JorgeA

And now for the funniest statement to date by a Microsoft apologist (quote begins at 22:29): --JorgeA

Here's one of the best analogies I've come across to explain why it doesn't make sense to compare snooping by other tech companies to snooping by Microsoft: --JorgeA

[emphasis added] This is just mind-boggling. How many things will they break and how many people will they have to p*ss off before they get a clue that the new Windows Update model is not working? --JorgeA

Bummer, I've tried to watch this half a dozen times since Wednesday and I keep getting "An error occurred, Please try again later." Hey YouTube, how much later?? --JorgeA

Cortana: The spy in Windows 10 It looks like it may still in fact be possible to disable Cortana completely, it's "just" that the UI for doing that has been removed: --JorgeA

--JorgeA

My money is on the latter. --JorgeA

With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy: A Deep Dive The EFF weighs in on Win10 and Microsoft's campaign to push it on users of earlier versions of Windows. One angle that's totally new (to me, at least): [emphasis added] --JorgeA