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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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When Android entered the market many years ago, it was an underdog at that time but it's clear that their strategy to keep their product open, has worked.

Many years ago?! I know that these kiddies have a skewed timeframe, but still..

Android is just two years younger than Windows Phone. They act as if it's on the market for ten years or something, BS.

And when Android appeared, the market was pretty stuffed with WinMobile (irony), IOS and Symbian. Yet Android was able to not only to create a market for it, but to outpace all competitors.

If WP would be any better, it would had a sizable marketshare by now. Android's headstart isn't that huge, unlike what the shills pretend.

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Wisdom:

These numbers are so meaningless.. If held to the same conditions Android has quite a way to go before catching up to Nokia who has at least three times as many.

Obviously also a bogus claim, but just making a point here..

http://www.neowin.net/news/google-900-million-android-activations-48-billion-app-installs#comment-2200275

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Western European PC market sees a 20% decline in Q1, Windows 8 blamed (again) ( NeoWin 2013-05-16 )

... and this does not make the MicroZealots very happy. :lol: "It was declining before Windows 8!" ... "But Apple declined too!" ... blah, blah, blah.

Apple declined?

westeuropepcq12013.jpg

There's also a nice cognitive dissonance going at with the metrotards here. They acknowledge that the PC market is declining (they blame everything else except W8 for this though), yet they believe that Microsoft sells as many Windows 8 licenses per month as they did with Windows 7! Doesn't compute.

If the market is declining, Microsoft can't sell the same amount of Windows licenses like they did one year ago. Most of the "sold licenses" are on computers that are still sitting at warehouses.

Edited by Formfiller
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Microsoft opened up a gem of a website:

whymicrosoft.com

It teaches why you should chose Microsoft over Google and other competitors.

That one is quite funny:

http://www.whymicrosoft.com/pages/google-apps.aspx

"One size fits none"

Google customers are given an ultimatum when it comes to delivery options and licensing availability. And because Google Apps delivers its solutions online only, clients are left with no choice but to move to the cloud immediately.
Microsoft offers licensing options designed for organizations of all size so you can select only the features you need and control your costs.

◦Not ready to fully embrace the cloud? No problem—Microsoft provides the flexibility to build a hybrid solution so your people can share information on premise or in the cloud.

Irony explosion right here, given that they are doing everything to kill their traditional solutions - killing off Small Business Server, price-hiking the normal Office versions. And "one size fits none"? Look who's talking!

Edited by Formfiller
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Irony parade:

http://www.whymicrosoft.com/Pages/vmware.aspx

Lacks a clear vision and product roadmap

◦VMware currently offers no public cloud solution of its own and has changed direction on its public cloud roadmap on multiple occasions.

◦VMware has publically changed its product roadmaps several times over the last few years. VMware touts these changes as product evolution, but existing customers are left behind with a product that might be unsupported or unfit for the future.

...

In the last two years, VMware has significantly changed their pricing twice, first introducing both memory based and per-VM pricing in an attempt to tax its loyal customers, and then scrapping both charges when faced with a significant customer backlash.

Microsoft is far above such practices and mismanagements however.

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Windows 8 in action! :angry: That was a great description of a real-life use scenario, in contrast to the general, ivory-tower claims that Win8 apologists will throw at you without thinking how it actually works in practice.

--JorgeA

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There's also a nice cognitive dissonance going at with the metrotards here. They acknowledge that the PC market is declining (they blame everything else except W8 for this though), yet they believe that Microsoft sells as many Windows 8 licenses per month as they did with Windows 7! Doesn't compute.

If the market is declining, Microsoft can't sell the same amount of Windows licenses like they did one year ago. Most of the "sold licenses" are on computers that are still sitting at warehouses.

Shhh, quiet -- you don't want to be making too much sense! ;)

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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Irony parade:

http://www.whymicrosoft.com/Pages/vmware.aspx

Lacks a clear vision and product roadmap

◦VMware currently offers no public cloud solution of its own and has changed direction on its public cloud roadmap on multiple occasions.

◦VMware has publically changed its product roadmaps several times over the last few years. VMware touts these changes as product evolution, but existing customers are left behind with a product that might be unsupported or unfit for the future.

...

In the last two years, VMware has significantly changed their pricing twice, first introducing both memory based and per-VM pricing in an attempt to tax its loyal customers, and then scrapping both charges when faced with a significant customer backlash.

Microsoft is far above such practices and mismanagements however.

(Also a comment on the Google cloud angle) I wonder if the people who put together this "whymicrosoft" website even realize that the pot is calling the kettle black?

Or maybe they did, and don't care because it's all part of a "perception" campaign. Just make the other guys look bad, and let them worry about trying to make you look bad in return.

If I were in charge at Google, I'd be having such a ball blasting Microsoft out of the water for their hypocritical campaigns.

--JorgeA

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While looking for something else, I came across the following paragraph in the book Windows 7 Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2010, p. 7):

There is one even worse called Starter Edition. See the table here. The post-XP releases really were the penultimate example of MicroMarketing! Just unbelievable.

Yeah, it's just that it hit me that what MSFT is trying to sell everyone on these days, is in many ways equivalent to the plain-Jane, feature-limited edition of their previous Windows version.

--JorgeA

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Forgive me if this was brought up already... It seems that those who use Windows 8 Pro VLK are not allowed to install or use Windows Media Player. The issue seems to be those companies that use certain License contracts for Windows, the education, government, etc. Some selected quotes...

It seems rather strange to me that Microsoft would stop VL customers from having WMC in a new version of Windows then offer it as a Windows add-on, which VL customers cannot use with the Windows license they are already paying for. Essentially giving (presumably valued) VL customers an inferior version of Windows 8 compared to an equivalent retail edition.
Media Center extensions are not included in any version of Windows 8. Furthermore, Media Center cannot be installed on volume licensed media installations of Windows 8, or Windows RT. To workaround this, reinstall the windows with a Retail Media (or install a new fresh Retail Media); install the media center feature and then activate the Media Center using the media center key.
So why are there two editions of windows with the same name "Windows 8 Pro" that have different limitations on licensing? STOP CONFUSING YOUR CUSTOMERS. Call one Windows 8 Pro, then call the other Windows 8 Something-Else. Don't leave two different versions with the same name - what a load of poo!

I giggled. :D

I work for a college and we just paid big bucks for our volume licensing again. We were scheduled to start planning for summer desktop upgrades/deployments this week. After looking at the media options, upgrading our campus to Windows 8 is not a viable option. After getting feedback from several other colleges, I am not alone in making this decision. Our classrooms and some business departments use media as a core extension for education. In fact, many colleges and businesses seem to be analyzing the viability of maintaining Microsoft as a desktop solution because we fear what will be removed or changed next. The fact is that Microsoft has a Media Center available but not for Volume License Customers. Bad timing for us to find out the option is not available even though there is a purchase option for all other customers. Because of the Metro UI addition, most colleges and businesses are required to train staff on the new interface and Microsoft has abandoned their volume licensing customers with no options. So why should we not abandon Microsoft and turn to a different desktop environment? If there is no media center for our campus, we will consider converting to a different stable desktop environment for all of our classroom and student computing needs.
Here is what i dont understand: why would microsoft make features that are available to retail users unavailable to EA customers, who provide the majority of the money that Microsoft makes, in this case the ability to playback DVD and Blu ray, and why would they prevent the ability to use an extremely useful business tool like Direct Access from the Pro version, when the kernels for these versions is exactly the same, and costs them nothing, since they throw Enterprise edition in for free to EA customers?

You can read the whole thing here:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itproinstall/thread/da8b1554-af4a-467b-a93b-0d18f079f19c

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Download Porteus 2.0, burn it to a CD and give it a try. It's as good an itroduction to slackware as you'll ever get, in a ready-to-run form.

Now, having read the links you gave, I feel I must point out that the astonishing graphs you like are related to KDE 4 (the K desktop environment), not the underlying distribution. That is a difficult concept to grasp, since there's no such dichotomy under Windows (NT-Family, of course), for which the windowing system is an inseparable part of the OS. I'd say setting up Gentoo on a computer is somewhat like building your own car, and having to lathe some of the connecting pieces from bare steel in the mean-time, on top of it. :) Slackware is gentler than that. But boots to the console if plain-vanilla, until you give it a desktop environment, which may be KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce, Trinity, CDE or any of many others I'm not familiar with. Linux, after all, is about choice! :yes:

I looked at the screenshots for Porteus and I have to say that it looks very attractive. Even the LXDE that they show sports a convex taskbar, which is one of my favorite Vista features.

Will give this a whirl off a Live CD. I notice that they say that if you want to install the OS on a hard drive, they recommend installing full-blown Slackware instead. But like you said, this should be good enough to get a feel for the OS.

Got a chance to try Porteus (x64 with KDE), and the desktop is a thing of beauty. Dare I say that "Porteus is gorgeous"...? :) (Sorry, couldn't resist that one.)

If and when I make the switch to Linux, I'll definitely go for a flavor with KDE.

--JorgeA

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If I could add to the news Tripredacus just posted, it seems like everyone like the Windows 8 Phone guys and the Google/Not only Google Android guys (in their senseless desire to break things that work) are removing the possibility to have phones working as "Mass Storage Devices" when USB connected, using MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) instead.

The Android guys (and I presume as well the Windows Phone ones) have their reasons (basically avoiding altering objects on a filesystem already mounted by the device OS and "live", but instead of providing one of the possible solutions (file-based or sector-based protection, temporary RAM based storage, read only access to system partition, etc.) they downright removed the possibility, making the device working only with MTP (which has a long history of failures, semi-failures) or however forcing the user to use specific tools instead of the "normal" file manager (be it "plain" explorer or another preferred one).

Basically you have a device which is a Mass Storage Device, which you want to store files to or retrieve files from, and more generally treat exactly like you would treat any USB stick or SD card, etc, BUT that you are forced to treat and use like a "web storage" or "Nas", but only thorugh a given (limited) specific tool or interface. :(

And this of course creates issues with "not-latest" OS's, like:

Some reference:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/18/impromptu-qa-session-with-android-engineer-dan-morrill-brings-to-light-reasons-behind-galaxy-nexus-lack-of-usb-mass-storage/

Of course each and every user of Android phones is GREATLY pi§§ed off by this, examples:

http://www.androidannoyances.com/post/152

http://ficksworkshop.com/blog/21-life/113-htc-one-x-mass-storage-on-jellybean

https://forums.motorola.com/posts/1c41c22485

Please understand how you have a device, you use it along your own (right or wrong, doesn't matter) way, that way works (and it is one of the "main" function or "desired features" for a "smart" phone device) and suddenly they pull it from under you through a (I belive not-so-vital) OS upgrade... :realmad:

jaclaz

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Looks like Google finally noticed that Eclipse sucks and they are switching to a far better (free) product for Android development:

http://android-developers.blogspot.de/2013/05/android-studio-ide-built-for-android.html

The Jetbrains stuff runs circles around Eclipse. And isn't too far away from Visual Studio. VS is one of the main things keeping Microsoft afloat. If that falls..

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Samsung shipped six million Galaxy S4s in less than three weeks ( TechSpot 2013-05-16 )

As of May 10, Samsung said they have sold more than six million units and could easily top the 10 million mark by the end of this month. That’s pretty impressive for a smartphone that didn’t begin shipping until April 26 and is outpacing previous Samsung launches by a large margin. But how does it stack up to previous launches?

In 2010, it took Samsung 85 days to ship three million Galaxy SI handsets. A year later the company was able to ship three million Galaxy SIIs in 55 days and in 2012 it took just 21 days to move three million Galaxy SIIIs. And for 2013, it took just 19 days to move six million Galaxy S 4s.

Man, I wish this story was posted at NeoWin just to see their heads explode. :yes:

Microsoft Issues Another Warning of XP's Demise ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-16 )

Extraordinary amount of FUD. Microsoft and their sycophants are literally the textbook definition of FUD spreaders. Too funny to even quote. These people actually believe there is a magical switch that will be thrown! Their understanding seems to be that there are some magic bits that travel down the wire "supporting" the OS from Redmond. I hurt my neck shaking my head in disbelief :lol:

Please call their bluff! I am begging SysAdmins and managers. All you people that made fun of Y2k have a chance to prove your mettle now. Tell them to screw off and keep on running XP ( as long as it works for you naturally ). It's not like you have these machines exposed to the internet without a gateway and hardware firewall. It's not like your employees spend their time on the clock clicking on random web links and file downloaders! If you want to save money, just terminate your support contracts with Microsoft and keep running in perpetuity. Do you buy a new car when the warranty runs out? I mean really. Microsoft has one of the greatest FUD operations going. Just read through the comments and marvel at the state of of modern logic.

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  1. It's not like you have these machines exposed to the internet without a gateway and hardware firewall.
  2. It's not like your employees spend their time on the clock clicking on random web links and file downloaders!

A couple points:

  1. Oh, yes it is. (in much more cases that you might think :ph34r: )
  2. No, not yet, BTW your employees are doing exactly that, but only part-time :w00t: . While using XP they still use some of their time to do some little work, the switch will happen when you will adopt Windows 8 that will help in making clicking on random web links and file downloaders the main activity :yes: . Most probably they will be able to do that "more securely" than before :unsure: , and thus your data will possibly be safer, but this won't make any difference, since you will have not any data (no new data produced) to be worried about :no: .

jaclaz

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