Formfiller

Well, thanks! If you want to see more patience, read this: http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/New-anti-Win8-video-is-making-rounds?page=7

Well, it's all pretty simple: He is talking crap to justify Microsoft. The software pirate is the only bogey man that he could come up with.

The icing on the cake is that even Office 365 "Home Premium" (the 99$ - 5 devices home version) seems to be somewhat of a ploy to force people onto the more expensive subscriptions. Here are licensing terms: Basically you're only allowed to make your homework with it!

As I said on Channel9, what I find so funny, is that they are at their "most evil" towards the customers, when they have finally got some competition. Quite the strategy.

I find the cutification of corporations (especially the big IT three, MS, Apple, Google, because there it's so prevalent) pretty much disgusting. They make more money than the GDP of most countries on Earth, yet the customers are supposed to feel bad about them supporting a product you paid for. And if they screw up, we're are supposed to cuddle up the poor corp, it's a goodly good conglomerate after all, and promise that we will pay up for the next fabulous product. And if you don't do this, then you're an enabler of "legacy". "Legacy" is the dirty word par excellence anyway. How dare you to let your investment amortize! That's EVIL!

As far as I know yes. Office 365 is splitted into two parts. Web and desktop. The web version is totally gimped, but the desktop version is pretty much Office 2013. Anyway, targetting Office for development is now madness. Oh, Microsoft is making quite a track record in scaring devs!

Imagine the bright future in the biz - Every year a new Office interface, because MS has killed off everything except Office 365. And breaking VBA macros to boot! And breaking third party software! Actually, it would be a liability developing for Office in the first place.

You should read further. The masks come off so to speak. http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Monopoly-Microsoft-was-more-customer-friendly-than-todays-friendly-Microsoft/0de55fa6f1424377a4d6a166015d1c77

The discussion there got interesting. I urge you to read the channel9 thread. Evildictaitor is fanboyish, but apparently quite the insider at MS (I think he has friends there). If you want to know the future of Office, read the thread!

My fruitful discussion about the Office 2013 licensing on channel9: http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Monopoly-Microsoft-was-more-customer-friendly-than-todays-friendly-Microsoft?page=3 I guess you will like that. Don't forget, I am wastingtimewithforums there.

Oh my God, Microsoft's new licensing terms for Office could be even worse than I thought. Some say that the HARD DRIVE constitues a new PC according to MS support: http://winsupersite.com/office-2013/office-2013-gotcha-standalone-products-are-one-pc-only -------- MS usually defined the motherboard as the main PC piece. If you changed that, you got a new computer. But as anyone with a bit of IT knowledge knows, hard drives have usually a shorter life than mainboards. Of all PC components, hard drives are also the most sensitive to physical hits, shaking, jolting (entirely possible with a notebook). If it's true what the sales rep said, then MS has decided to tie Office to the most unreliable piece in a computer. Genius move!

I admit it, I don't quite "get" Paul Thurrott. He makes his money primarily with Windows enthusiasts and Windows IT pros. If Microsoft's plan is to cater primarily to the Angry Birdies, this group of customers will die out. And the Angry Bird people sure won't buy Thurrott's books about Windows' internals, nor go to his websites. So why is he *so* emotionally invested in killing traditional Windows? Isn't that kinda self-defeating? I don't think it's mere "Microsoft bribes". He almost orgasms in this article about the Surface: http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/surface-pro-128-gb-immediately-sells-out

More neotard xbox comments: The publishers got the money with the first sale. Why do they need to get a cut again when the buyer re-sells the item he bought already? Where's the frigging logic in this? So, ok, let's say it's just a right to view content. Why can't you resell that right? It's not like the vendor has any costs associated if you sell that right (unlike movie theater tickets, where the owner needs to pay bills for electricity, employees etc. everytime they show a movie) What I find just fabulous is that these idiots are advocating their own disadvantage. I am actually not a big friend of software piracy, but these masochists almost compel me to donate to pirate bay.

Regarding the new Xbox plans, I just "love" this comment: http://www.neowin.net/news/gamestop-gamers-wont-buy-next-xbox-if-it-blocks-used-games#comment-2095101 Fullblown narcissist. Yea, right, everyone has a 150mbps connection. I like download-only content, everyone else must love it too.

I would love to see these little rascals having a meltdown but I wouldn't count on this. They are the prototypical "Oceania was never at war with.." drones. Some of them will be confused at first, but I am sure that if MS really will paddle back, they will change tune within the minute: "WHAT?! You're still using the metro screen? Stop living in the past, the iPad wannabe GUI is history. They have improved the start menu in Windows 9 and you id*** are still lumbing around with this Fail8 toy-touch interface? Get with the times!"

Commentard there: http://betanews.com/2013/02/08/get-aero-back-in-windows-8/#comment-792795300 Lovable.

Jared wrote a comment under the article, too: Ya sure, Photoshop, CAD, programming, writing, designing, video production, audio production etc. etc. ALL WITH TOUCH! The f***!? By the way, I don't think it's primarily about building Orwell with these "tech" journalists. Remember it's the same ones who touted just a few years ago that the Windows desktop will be replaced by Desktop Linux any minute. (like today, they never factored in applications like Photoshop into this equation) That got old, then it was they will all be converted to web "apps". That got old too. Now it's touch (and again they are acting as if all these applications could work with touch). The only thing that's different this time is W8.. Microsoft is into this madness as well this time around.

Articles like that on PC World make it apparent that the problem is not only Windows 8, but a collective mania of touch-is-thefuturebeitallenditallslicedbreadinventionofthecentury.. They (IT journalists and pundits) are seriously thinking everyone will either convert to touch within two years or a minority-report style interface will come any minute and all businesses will flock to that. Typing on keyboard and using mouse is dead and buried and no one does this anymore. It will take probably one-two years until some sanity returns here (flopping W8 sales will certainly help that). This also gets me thinking - how insane is it that the main working device of this age is in the hands of petty tech hipsters? Imagine car companies would have the same modus operandi: Ditching their workhorse models for weird two-seater-truck-SUV-sportscar hybrids because sports cars are selling currently in other markets, and the industry press even hyping it and demanding that even those hybrids should go next year and all other models besides sports cars need to be trashed right away. Pretty much impossible that this would happen in the car industry. Or in ANY kind industry, besides IT.

Maybe NOT a conspiracy, but let me doubt about how "independent" these tests are and how much they are actually reflecting "real life". jaclaz The way the Neowhiners are talking about it is still disgusting. Neowin comments are like textual equivalents of feces porn.

http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-security-essentials-fails-another-antivirus-test It's a conspiracy! I have violent fantasies when I read their stuff.

Uh, the comments.. Nauseating! They remind me of the pupils in "The Wave". Neowin would be a great platform for a social science/psychology experiment. In a fairer world, the start menu would return just for melting the brains of these little rascals. But you know what? Given how they behave, I don't think that even the return of the start menu would impress them much. I am pretty sure the shock would be pretty short, and they will do a 180-turn within days, maybe even hours: "The start screen sucks! Why aren't you using the start menu already?".

Oh, just fond out about this one: http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/12/my-thoughts-on-sql-server-s-licensing-changes/ SQL Server 2012 licensing got goofed up too (heavy price hike). Gotta love that. It's funny. Now that MS got some serious competition, what do they do? Raise prices! Across the board: Servers, Office, consumer hardware (Windows Notebooks are now more expensive than they were a year ago). Good job. I've never seen a company raising prices of all their products in a competitive situation like this. They are behaving under siege WORSE than they did in the monopoly times. Are they crazy? Ironically, this new Microsoft sucks far more than the old ebill "monopoly" MS ever did. Monopoly (90s) MS was vicious with the competition, but it was a fair deal for the customers (Mac back then crashed as much as Windows 9x did btw, and Netscape 4.0 wasn't exactly a marvel of engineering), while this "nu Microsoft" hipsterama is all about setting the customers themselves up (W8, forced Office subscription and forced MS account-nag everywhere) Anyway, I sure as hell won't ever rent Office, they can suck it. Libre Office is, unfortunately, still a pile of freetard dung, but I would rather use that than signing up for Microsoft's extortion scheme. They are not luring by increasing value, but by making the traditional Office licensing a hassle - non transferable licensing (with the retail version! If you motherboard gets damaged, you need to pay the full price for Office again), one PC only licensing (Office 2010 allowed one install on the desktop PC, and one install on your laptop. That's gone with Office 2013), massive price hike (Home and Student 2010 was installable on 3 PCs for 125$, you need to pay three times as much with 2013). They know fully well that no one would sign-up for Office 365 if the old licensing was still in place. And Windows 8 - well, everything has been said about this guy. The other *wanna-be Office replacements have still not attained full compatibility with the MS Office file format, so if you have complex MS Office documents, you still need the software. A software that got a massive price hike. It's funny - now that they ARE harming the customers with a true monopoly situation (instead of other corps) there is no DOJ and no EU to the rescue. I guess that's because there is no bribe money involved this time. I for one won't upgrade beyond Windows 7 and Office 2010 until they are completely out of life support. And I had absolutely no problems with MS and their products until they went into self-destruct mode in 2011. *After some testing, it appears that Softmaker (http://www.softmaker.com) has far better compatibility than Libre/Open Office by the way. If you need a MS Office replacement, try that. Well, I am sorry for the "colorful" langauge. I needed to vent off.

Oh, it's the creepy touch cover guy. Actual quotes from him in the Surface presentation:

Since the price increase for W8 on Amazon, it fell completely from the sales radar: http://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-software/zgbs/software#1 Windows 7 is now at position 11 (Home Premium System Builder, $91.17), followed by Windows Home Premium retail at position 37 ($167.02). Windows 8 is at position 40! (W8 Professional System Builder, $110.99), followed by the W8 Pro upgrade at 41 (the one that sold for cheap).

Surface Pro reviews are in: http://www.osnews.com/story/26761/Surface_Pro_reviews_are_in