JorgeA

I just read about this: Microsoft puts Docker on Windows clients Is anybody here familiar with this technology? I'm curious as to what possibilities (if any) it might present for, say, running Windows applications in a non-Windows OS. Now, or eventually. --JorgeA P.S. Mods: Please move if there is a more appropriate sub-forum for this, thanks.

Epic comments indeed!! Just one quibble about the one I picked out above. If and as users find these flat websites harders to navigate, they will tend to drift away from them and the owners' profits will drop. This will still be the case (though to a lesser degree) even if all websites adopt flat design, as some folks will simply surf the Web less if it gets harder to use. That said, de gustibus non est disputandum. Eventually this fashion will fizzle out as developers (re)discover the wonders of lifelike 3D design... or lose their jobs as website traffic drops below projections. --JorgeA

On a brighter note, I discovered today that the Windows Gadgets offered in 8GadgetPack, do work in the TP. I actually hesitated to post this, for fear that somebody at Microsoft might pick up on the "omission" and make it impossible to install Gadgets in Windows 10. Gadgets are so much better than Metro/Modern/Universal/whatever tile apps: you can run a program (or two, or four, or seven) in smaller windows and at the same time keep track of what the Gadgets are telling you. Used one today to monitor network activity, and another one to monitor CPU usage, while running a certain program, while still being able to get other stuff done. --JorgeA

You know it's bad when your UI screw-up makes it into the popular culture. Check out this excerpt from a column by humorist Joe Queenan: :angrym: --JorgeA

Is there a public source for this news, or did the Classic Shell folks find out on their own? One way or another, right now I couldn't give them feedback on the Start Menu anyway (see post #105 upthread), so this is adding insult to injury. --JorgeA

LOL Yeah, it's so transparent that you can't even tell if it's working!! --JorgeA

Along the lines of what you said, the Feedback app in my 10TP doesn't work anymore. Ever since I came back this week, it has stopped registering my votes and showing any new feedback that I submit. It was also showing a drastically reduced list of feedback suggestions in the various categories. Now as of this morning, it isn't even showing ANY feedback from anybody in any category! I guess that's an illustration of just how interested MSFT is in getting feedback from its testers. Oh, and the situation is a fine showcase of the, umm, capabilities of Metro apps. --JorgeA

Speaking of the Win10 UI, here's a point about the looking-glass search that I had not come across before. It has to do with the ridiculous "Trending Now" news items on the right side of the box: People are clamoring for a way to turn off this aspect of the search box, without necessarily removing or unpinning the search box itself. --JorgeA

That's very fitting. In terms of the UI, it's like going back 20-30 years and then coming back to the present. --JorgeA

For future readers, here's what DominicP replied: What a convoluted procedure. So they are considered different OSes, but then you not only have to input a temporary key but also have to type in the key for the "old" OS. Who's the genius who thought this up?? Amazing! Thanks for clarifying, and for the heads-up about what they'll mark as an "answer" over there... --JorgeA

And additional cogent observations, mirroring some of what we've been saying here: Also... --JorgeA

^^ Sheesh. Could they make it more complicated to (re)install your own licensed OS? Speaking of a complete operating system, did you see this comment over at the Microsoft Community -- Funny and trenchant. --JorgeA

That is really outrageous. People coming back from lunch to black monitors and data plans over the limit, just because Microsoft has decided they should move to 8.1. The amount of arrogance and paternalism ("we know what's best for you") is unbelievable. Any properly designed upgrade program would avoid sneaking this "update to upgrade" into the normal Patch Tuesday flow. Non-techie users should not have to keep on top of what Microsoft intends to do for to them, in order to keep their computers running as they set them up. --JorgeA

OK thanks, NoelC. --JorgeA

More indications of MSFT's growing user-hostility: Is it possible to create an installation media for windows 8.1 as update version of Windows 8 Q: A: And: Computer is trying to dowload Windows 8.1 without giving me an option Q: Comment: Bearing that comment in mind, it's curious that at least one anti-virus suite flagged TP updates as malware. --JorgeA

Microsoft's Windows Update woes continue: Microsoft patches Windows, IE; holds back two updates Unless Microsoft gets a handle on these growing problems with Windows Updates, it will lead to disaster if and when they get around to implementing their vision of "Windows as a service" automatic updates keeping everybody on the same (numberless) version of Windows. In a possibly related development, yesterday I manually went into my Win10TP Windows Updates, and it reported four available updates (not for Windows Defender). But I held off on installing them because the "More information" links led to error pages and I'm no longer in the habit of installing Windows Updates willy-nilly without knowing what they're about. Next time I checked for updates, they were no longer listed. Nor do they show up in the list of installed updates or in Update History. Very strange, and not very reassuring. Also, check out this thread in the Microsoft Community: [boldface in original; underline added] Maybe MSFT is trying sneakily to kill off Aero Glass even in those versions that have it... --JorgeA

Thanks for the info. I just looked there, and no new build is available for me (not yet, anyway). FWIW, I'm on the "slow" track for new builds. Are you on the "fast" track? --JorgeA

And that was the first problem I noticed with the Metro Start Screen three years ago: it covers everything up when you're trying to follow complicated instructions that tell you (for example) to open this or that application and then select X or Y choice there. Short-term memory being what it is, it's useful to be able to still see the instructions with the Start Menu open, to refresh your memory as to what to do after opening the program so that you can proceed without interruption. --JorgeA

LOL I'd be afraid of leaving that stuff in the cloud... --JorgeA

With any luck, the ClassicShell folks (are you listening, XPclient? ) will be on top of this very quickly. --JorgeA P.S. So the new build (9879) is out? I haven't seen anything. Matter of fact, yesterday I saw the Patch Tuesday updates, but as the "more information" links led to error pages, I opted to hold off on installing those updates. Now they're no longer available, all I keep getting when checking for updates are Defender files (and Update History doesn't show any other kind of updates installed since last month).

Not surprising with the xbox one practices and some of the horror stories I read of people using xbox live and the cloud, then getting royally screwed by MS automated stuff. (Like being banned from all ms accounts for uploading family pics that the filter caught as child porn and then being auto reported to the feds) They were just pics that had children in swimsuits in some of them in that case.... MS never admitted any wrong and the people were still banned from all of their ms accounts and their cloud stuff was deleted (Or so was said) during the "investigation" A real "selling" point for the SkyDrive and Office365 style of computing: store your vacation pics and end up unable to get your work done! This sort of incident needs to be shouted out at all and sundry. Enough of it, and the cloud computing model will be stopped in its sleazy little tracks. --JorgeA

ubuntu took off mainly because its used for android development otherwise it would have still been a dinosaur and it doesnt seem like they are going anywhere with thei ubiquity interface either... the hardware requirement like windows is only going up tho.. linux is right up their with windows now. There are (fortunately) some decent Linux desktops out there, like KDE. But IMO Linux will never become anything other than a plaything for enthusiasts or a tool for IT pros until they stop asking people to reinstall everything every six months. They need to come up with a more practical update method, like that of Windows. I can't see regular people, who have lives outside of the latest Linux version, adopting this in any numbers. And those three-year "long"-term releases don't hold a candle to Windows either, where hundreds of millions of users can still run their up-to-date Win7 and Vista systems five and eight years after the OSes came out. I don't like what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8 and 10, but I have to hand it to them that historically they've made it easy and relatively convenient to stay up to date when using Windows. --JorgeA

LOL Years ago David Bowie had a concert based on his then-new song, "Fashion." Models marching across the stage while the background singers made the title word sound almost like "fascism." Now that will come to mind every time I read some Metro shill lecturing others about getting with the program, being "modern," blah blah blah. --JorgeA

That's a great question. One that's clear to me is that whoever is (supposed to be) doing the listening, deserves to be fired. --JorgeA

On the Win10 Microsoft forums, there's a new rising star in the ranks of Windows 8.x critics. IMO she (he? could be a pseudonym) offers some of the most cogent and incisive critiques of the Win8 worldview that I've seen to date. An example: Almost every sentence in there deserves to be highlighted. --JorgeA