Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

The BIG story just mentioned by MagicAndre1981 ...

Further Changes Coming in Windows "Threshold" ( Thurrott 2013-12-09 )

Windows 'Threshold' may bring back the Start menu ( TechSpot 2013-12-09 )

Start menu may return with Windows Threshold' update ( NeoWin 2013-12-09 )

I just knew Jorge had a scoop earlier and now confirmation is appearing! : The story is really making the rounds after Mary Jo Foley wrote this article here.

That NeoWin article is especially interesting because it contains a disclaimer for the fact that Stardock is involved with NeoWin. This is ironic because the NeoWinnies are such hardcore Metro fanboys and yet a significant portion of Stardock's business has to do with fixing the mess created by Windows 8. (Well, maybe that actually explains it...)

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Looks like @bpalone was right to be skeptical of Microsoft's supposed newfound commitment to privacy:

Microsoft fails to mention Skype in promises to protect users from NSA surveillance

Since Microsoft is "especially alarmed" about reports of NSA "technological brute force" to intercept and collect user data, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith announced several new steps to protect customers from government snooping. "This effort will include our major communications, productivity and developer services such as Outlook.com, Office 365, SkyDrive and Windows Azure, and will provide protection across the full lifecycle of customer-created content." Skype is not mentioned even once in the post.

Microsoft PR damage-control later said "the announcement does 'not exclude' Skype," rather the company "didn't feel the need to mention all products." But Skype is used by millions upon millions for communicating, so if it will also have stronger privacy protections, then why not mention it? After all, Silent Circle charges for such communications to be private and extremely secure; if a free program like Skype intended to do the same, then that would be huge news.

"I agree that Skype's absence here is extremely interesting and concerning," EFF's Kurt Opsahl told TechCrunch. "Microsoft, as the owner of Skype, has totally failed to be transparent about this and it's not surprising that users and security experts come to believe that it has something to hide."

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

And another tidbit from that article...

You know what else wasn't mentioned? Microsoft's antivirus protection aka Security Essentials. Unlike the official denials from ESET, F-Secure, Norman Shark, Kaspersky, Panda and Trend Micro, Microsoft chose to ignore an open letter [pdf] from 25 privacy and security experts. Spawned by the NSA spying scandal, the letter asked vendors whether they had ever detected state-sponsored malware, or received a request to ignore government-sponsored malware, and how the firms would respond to any such requests in the future.

...which ties in to this one:

Do Antivirus Companies Whitelist NSA Malware?

As of two weeks ago, however, only six security vendors -- ESET, F-Secure, Kaspersky Lab, Norman Shark, Panda, and Trend Micro -- had responded to the request for information. Even so, the news was good. "All of the responding companies have confirmed the detection of state sponsored malware, e.g. R2D2 and FinFisher," according to researcher Ton Siedsma at Bits of Freedom. "Furthermore, they claim they have never received a request to not detect malware. And if they were asked by any government to do so in the future, they said they would not comply."

[...]

Hence it's odd that US-based McAfee, Microsoft, and Symantec all failed to respond to Bits of Freedom's letter before the deadline. (Siedsma at Bits of Freedom didn't immediately respond to an emailed question about whether any have done so since then.) Ditto for Agnitum (Russia), Ahnlab (South Korea), Avast (Czech Republic), AVG (Czech Republic), and Bullguard (United Kingdom).

Maybe these companies are prevented by law or court order from even discussing whether they've been told to allow official spyware through. But it's looking increasingly like they ought to be reclassified from "anti-"malware to "pro-malware" products.

--JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I guess Neowin will transform soon into "start menu ain't so bad"-mode, we've-never-been-at-war-with-eurasia style.

Expect some "Microsoft is listening, the others are not!" articles.

Some metrotards will dissent, but not for long.

Yep, and you called it first a while back. Probably just a few dead-enders will refuse. In fact, check out this rabid one ...

I have a Windows 8 hybrid, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One at the moment. If Microsoft brings back the POS start menu I haven't used for anything but typing a search term since goddamn Windows XP and forces it on us I will be getting rid of all my Microsoft devices and going full Apple.

I'm sick of Microsoft crawling up the arse of goddamn legacy lovers who hate progress and improvement. This is why I left the backwards IT industry for something that looks to the future instead of clings to the past. I couldn't deal with supporting one more single computer running XP with half the "new" features turned off and Office 2003, but it seems the same people keeping enterprise in this mindset are ruining the new and improved Microsoft.

Better hide the pills, razor blades and weapons. His "progress" is regression back to Win3x and earlier full-screen single-tasking, a new whack-a-mole GUI, screen display elements that are insulting to the capabilities of modern hardware and a multitude of other devolutionary mistakes. These children missed the CLI era completely or else they wouldn't always fall back on typing out something in a search as the answer to everything.

One person who will jump ship as you predicted is Dot MetroTard, but he will do it stealthily, and gradually, and not at NeoWin at first.

Formfiller, you'll love this. Compare ... A / B ... A / B

EDIT: formatting

Edited December 10, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Microsoft FAT patent loss endangers its Android revenue ( ZDNet SJVN 2013-12-10 )

Some important comments from SJVN on this potentially huge case. He cautions that it is not a certainty and adds a few links to historical background on this issue.

However, if the rumored numbers are correct and are indeed milking BILLIONS out of these patents each quarter, then MSFT could very easily move from swimming in black ink to drowning in red ink overnight. It literally would be a driving force for massive and unprecedented change at Microsoft. And it's not that far-fetched to think that the sudden talk of accommodating Windows users is related to this.

Let's put it this way, if this cash spigot gets turned off, that will really hurt all their marginal products that only exist on the back of Tools, Office and Windows. Remove some of that revenue slack and all those wishful products like Xbox could be sold off or killed instantly. Furthermore, removing that extortion price from the cost to Android and other OEMs would generate a bumper crop of new competitive products nipping at Microsoft's heels, even more than we already see today, because they would instead keep those BILLIONS for themselves.

IMHO ... out of all these incredible developments in the last several days, the file system patents have the most potential to change the landscape by changing Microsoft itself. It is not hyperbole to say this is an Earthquake level event.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Big Changes Are Coming to Windows ( Thurrott 2013-12-10 )

Desktop users will no longer be treated like second-class citizens

That's his own subtitle, but it remains to be seen if there is any truth to that statement. Paul Thurrot posted this article to Windows IT Pro which inexplicably has 0 comments thus far. He offers a few bits of intrigue from his sources, some of which is definitely news to me but cannot be corroborated since Mini-Microsoft is still quiet presently ( has been since the Ballmer retirement announcement ). Let's see some of the tidbits ...

A new team at Microsoft that's responsible for overall OS development has clearly spent the past few months evaluating and then dropping most of the "my way or the highway" silliness that doomed the original Windows 8 release.

Very interesting that bit. Sounds almost like a task force with the assignment of unscrambling the NuMicrosoft omelet. It is a pretty darn sensible idea too. Hopefully that doesn't mean it can't be true because Microsoft has not been flirting with anything vaguely resembling "sense", common or otherwise in at least 3 years.

By necessity, internal politics is a big part of this story.

We might never know exactly why Steven Sinofsky left Microsoft a year ago, but we do know that his departure was both sudden and unexpected. And we suspect that he was ousted as part of the build-up to CEO Steve Ballmer's retirement announcement and issues regarding succession. Sinofsky was an interesting character, brilliant and driven, but also pedantic to a fault and unmerciful if he ever decided you were no use to him. Most of all he was divisive, and many Microsofties fell into one of two camps when it came to Sinofsky: Those whose careers were furthered by the man and those who thought he was scary and dangerous.

Okay, I gotta stop right there to smack Thurrott around a little. For a long time I have been questioning whether he actually has all these "inside sources" he claims, backing that up with the countless examples of being caught as flat-footed as the rest of us. Start Menu, Aero, Sinofsky, Ballmer, all the key events have been missed by his sources. However, as the rest of the article will show and if true, then Paul definitely does have some seriously good sources ( again, if these things are true ). But this begs a rather serious 3-part question - How did he miss the Sinofsky firing, why hasn't he obtained the inside story in the year since, and why hasn't he interviewed Sinofsky by now to get the scoop? I have to first point out that such a scoop would be the highlight of a crack, independent tech writer's career, obviously not quite reaching but certainly vaguely reminiscent of Woodward and Bernstein. A cynic like me will offer one possibility and that is that someone who is not independent and perhaps on the payroll from time to time ( that doesn't mean a company check BTW ) would not want to rock the boat and dig deep. This is why Paul and Ed MicroBott are routinely called shills out here. They are quick to the presses with Microsoft's self-serving announcements, quick to defend, and even quicker to argue against detractors. But they are never there with the important stories that catch everybody off-guard and NEVER follow them up later. Sorry, if the shoe fits you gotta wear it ( or is that 'if the glove fits'? ).

When Sinofsky left, Microsoft temporarily divided his duties between two people, Julie Larson-Green, a top Sinofsky lieutenant, and Tami Reller, who many feel should be in the running for Microsoft's CEO job. But when the software giant announced its massive reorganization this year, both Larson-Green and Reller were out, with the former heading off to a new Devices business and Reller being put in charge of overall marketing at the company.

Well that part we all figured out on our own ( the ladies being pushed aside ).

If you're not closely following Microsoft's internal dramas, you might be wondering: Well, who's running Windows then? The answer to that question is Terry Myerson. And the next obvious question is: Who the heck is Terry Myerson? [...]

He goes on to describe his "vision" for a bit. Again, we can easily size him up for ourselves. But continuing on, here comes the interesting part and if true will confirm that Paul at least has someone for real on the inside ...

I'm not aware of a coup of this magnitude ever happening before at Microsoft, and I'd have to go back to Apple's purchase of Nextalong with Steve Jobsto find a tech industry example as dramatic. As Jobs and his Next cohorts made their presence known inside Apple, some Apple employees began wondering which company had purchased which. I suspect the remaining Sinofsky-era Windows employees are having similar thoughts right now.

And to be clear, there aren't many left. Quietly but quickly, Myerson has removed the remnants of the team Sinofsky put in place. Major Sinofsky-era players Jon DeVaan and Antoine Leblond were left without leadership positions when the reorg was announced. Dean Hachamovitch, who led Internet Explorer development for years, quietly left the IE organization in November to parts unknown. And now Ted Dworkin (Windows Store) and Jensen Harris (user experience) have been shifted to the Bing team. (Which could very well be Microsoft's version of Siberia.)

That's the part that I noticed, particularly Jensen Harris who near as I can tell was most central to the nuts and bolts ( mostly nuts ) of the Microsoft Tiles nonsense and the destruction of the Desktop GUI. He was the one that Sinofsky let make the announcement of the Death Of Aero ( glass, and other things ) in the official Destroying Windows Blog, which clearly marked him as the key destroyer. ( Kind of a landmark thread BTW, with Sinofsky ducking and weaving to dodge the incoming flak once the world caught on and swamped the blog ). Jensen Harris being yanked out of there really means something, well unless the Peter Principle is now in full effect and they are promoting them based on their incompetence.

Personally I would argue about the Apple coup a little but it's really not related to this. Thurrott also goes on about the possible merging of phone and tablet, praising some possible strategy he has heard about, whatever. This next sentence tells me Paul doesn't really get the big issue due to how fast this propaganda rolls off his tongue without thinking ...

Windows 8.1 added back the Start button and made it easier for desktop users to stick within that environment and not be bothered by too much of the "Metro" mobile environment.

Again with this sh!t?! Okay, I'll bite, where was the Start Button "added back" from? The betas? Does he even hear himself? And how does that fake Start Button make anything easier ( as if that's the problem ) or what exactly does it accomplish? Paul is regurgitating propaganda there, word for word, as it has been spewed by fanboys and astroturfers for months now. Zero critical thought here. And who the heck was asking for a Metro Button in the first place?

The ultimate failure of Windows 8 wasn't that Microsoft embraced mobile technologies, it was that it did so without taking into account how poor this experience would be for the 1.5 billion people who use Windows on traditional PCs. And when those people complained about this forced change, they were labeled as whiners.

But they're not whiners, they're customers. And although Myerson's changes might be uncharitably called a step back, doing right by your customers is never the wrong strategy. Windows 8.1 was a step in the right direction. But it looks like Microsoft is on the threshold, if you will, of really doing the right thing.

And Paul steps back yet again from his often displayed "Desktop is Dead" and other mantras displaying of NuMicrosoft bias. Speaking softly and making nice with all of us who are mad enough to chew Neutronium. Fine, whatever. I expect quite a few partisans to do the same depending on what Microsoft sees fit to do here. Personally I don't believe a word of it yet. It's probably them just testing the waters a bit anyway, but who knows. One thing for sure is that their timeline is way off. If they wait until 2015 it is going to be so over it ain't funny. They do not have a year and a half to unscramble this omelet. Next spring at the latest, beyond that it's over for Windows.

[Formfiller]

I'm sick of Microsoft crawling up the arse of goddamn legacy lovers who hate progress and improvement. This is why I left the backwards IT industry for something that looks to the future instead of clings to the past. I couldn't deal with supporting one more single computer running XP with half the "new" features turned off and Office 2003, but it seems the same people keeping enterprise in this mindset are ruining the new and improved Microsoft.

I wonder to what "future" did he go? I haven't seen the car industry talking about trashing all existing automobiles because mini-cars (or SUVs for that matter) were en-vogue for a while. The bread and butter products of Boing and Airbus are several decades old (the 747 is older than most computer companies). The main line-up of pharma companies is even older than that (how ancient is Aspirin again?). Even the space program relies now on the Sojuz workhorse, a space craft originally designed in the 60s by the Soviets.

If IT is "backwards" for him because of XP and the start menu, he is destined for some rough awakening.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Formfiller

[Monroe]

Just reading this about the NSA using tracking cookies ... can it all be that "simple" ? So if a person constantly deletes "cookies" and "flash cookies" as they spend time online, problem solved, right?

Probably not, I'll let you regulars post or talk more about this and the cookies ... perhaps they are "super special" cookies that cannot be easily found or deleted.

New Snowden docs claim NSA uses 'cookies' to select surveillance targets

December 11, 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/12/11/new-snowden-docs-claim-nsa-uses-cookies-to-select-surveillance-targets/?intcmp=latestnews

New documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden say that the agency is using small tracking files, known as "cookies," to help select targets for hacking and broader surveillance.

The Washington Post reports that the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, are using the cookies to identify people browsing the Internet. The files contain numeric codes that enable websites to identify a specific person's browser.

According to slides leaked by Snowden to The Post, a particular cookie can also allow the NSA to single out an individual's online communications and send out software that can hack the person's computer. In particular, the report claims that the NSA has gotten much use out of the Google-specific "PREF" cookie, which is assigned to a browser anytime a connection is made to one of the Google's Web properties or services.

... more at the link, as I asked earlier, can it really be this simple? I mainly use the K-Meleon browser with Cookies Manager and then I have a flash cookie remover program ... periodically I clean out everything while online. Also CCleaner does a cleanup also. In regards to those "flash cookies", sometimes when I check those out, I have some really strange cookies in there, all numbers and letters, weird looking stuff.

Flash Cookies Cleaner 1.2

Removes every Flash Cookie from your system

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Flash-Cookies-Cleaner.shtml

September 21st, 2012

Flash Cookies Cleaner is a compact application designed to scan your computer for the cookies saved by the Adobe Flash Player application in order to remove them. These cookies, also known as Local Shared Objects, are responsible for remembering the volume level on Flash video players and other settings for each website.

If you are not comfortable with having these settings saved on your computer you might want to delete them. The problem is that these cookies are not removed in the same way you clean the cookies saved by your browser. Actually, completely cleaning the browser has no effect on these items.

Edited December 11, 2013 by duffy98

[Formfiller]

One person who will jump ship as you predicted is Dot MetroTard, but he will do it stealthily, and gradually, and not at NeoWin at first.

Formfiller, you'll love this. Compare ... A / B ... A / B

EDIT: formatting

The ZDNet B links don't work.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

One person who will jump ship as you predicted is Dot MetroTard, but he will do it stealthily, and gradually, and not at NeoWin at first.

Formfiller, you'll love this. Compare ... A / B ... A / B

EDIT: formatting

The ZDNet B links don't work.

Ah, I see what happened. Once the comments that I linked to at ZDnet moved off page-1 the #message anchor no longer can find it!

No problem, I'll PM you.

[TELVM]

When Sinofsky left, Microsoft temporarily divided his duties between two people, Julie Larson-Green, a top Sinofsky lieutenant, and Tami Reller, who many feel should be in the running for Microsoft's CEO job. But when the software giant announced its massive reorganization this year, both Larson-Green and Reller were out, with the former heading off to a new Devices business and Reller being put in charge of overall marketing at the company.

Does that mean The Maid of Orleans was put to the stake?

[JorgeA]

The Mozilla/Firefox crowd seems to have developed Google envy and gotten infected by Metro madness:

Firefox debuts new UI that looks like Chrome, but does that mean it can compete with Chrome?

At long last, Mozilla has rolled out a massive UI update to Firefox that makes it look almost exactly like Chrome. Dubbed Australis, this is the biggest ever change to Firefox’s user interface, with much improved streamlining and customization, and the unification of Mozilla’s design language across the desktop, smartphone, and Firefox’s myriad other form factors. Australis will debut in Firefox 28, which just hit the Nightly (alpha testing) channel; if everything goes to plan, the new-look Firefox should be ready for mass consumption at the start of 2014.

Watch the two-minute video further down the page. You will see the key words MODERN and FLUID being used to describe this new version.

Compared to Internet Explorer and Chrome, Firefox was definitely starting to look a bit clunky and dated — Australis fixes that.

I'm surprised the writer didn't say FF was looking "dated and cheesy."

For an uninhibited review of the coming Firefox, check this out:

Welcome to the Firefox s*ckfest!

You'll have to read it for yourself, there are too many quotable passages...

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

For an uninhibited review of the coming Firefox, check this out:

Welcome to the Firefox s*ckfest!

You'll have to read it for yourself, there are too many quotable passages...

--JorgeA

Excellent!

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

Some more information (maybe) on Windows 8.2:

The Start menu will return in new Desktop-optimized version of Windows 8.2

According to Foley’s sources, Threshold will see Windows 8.2 (or Windows 9 perhaps) split into three SKUs (stock-keeping units): a Modern/Metro SKU, a traditional desktop PC SKU, and a traditional enterprise SKU. The Metro version would be focused on the Metro interface, WinRT apps, and the mobile/touchscreen experience. The traditional desktop PC version would be a lot like Windows 7, but with Windows 8′s low-level tweaks.

This is a little confusing. It makes it sound like there will be one particular version of Windows that's Desktop only. Could that really be so?

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

Some more information (maybe) on Windows 8.2:

The Start menu will return in new Desktop-optimized version of Windows 8.2

According to Foley’s sources, Threshold will see Windows 8.2 (or Windows 9 perhaps) split into three SKUs (stock-keeping units): a Modern/Metro SKU, a traditional desktop PC SKU, and a traditional enterprise SKU. The Metro version would be focused on the Metro interface, WinRT apps, and the mobile/touchscreen experience. The traditional desktop PC version would be a lot like Windows 7, but with Windows 8′s low-level tweaks.

This is a little confusing. It makes it sound like there will be one particular version of Windows that's Desktop only. Could that really be so?

--JorgeA

Sounds like it. It would be pretty much a complete reversal of the current "one size fits all strategy". It sounds like metro will be relegated to mobile only, and the desktop would be de-fucked.

Just like iOS/Mac OS.

It sounds too smart for NuMicrosoft however. Almost unbelievable after the last two years of madness.