Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Some SkyDrive users currently experiencing access issues ( NeoWin 2013-09-24 )

If you have been trying to access your SkyDrive account in the last few hours and have not had much success, you are not alone. Microsoft's cloud data storage service is currently experiencing issues that are preventing some people from seeing or modifying their files.

The Live Status page posted an alert at 4 pm Eastern time today that stated, "SkyDrive is having problems accessing and modifying files. You might not be able to view, change, upload, or delete files." There's no word yet on what could be causing the problems.

This is the latest extended issue that has hit Microsoft's online services in recent times. In August, the company got hit with problems that affected SkyDrive, Outlook.com and People services. The Outlook.com problems extended over a period of days as users could not sync their email with mobile devices.

Naturally, we will update this story when the current situation with SkyDrive changes.

Oopsie. Another cloudy day for SpyDrive. And this story is now over 7 hours old with no update. So just imagine that you were dumb enough to trust your files to the cloud and you cannot touch them. I'd be pretty pss'd off.

Microsoft silent on its reasons for discontinuing original Surface Pro ( NeoWin 2013-09-24 )

Even with the high initial demand for the first Surface Pro, Microsoft has decided to stop selling the tablet, even though it continues to sell the almost year old Surface RT for a lower price. We asked Microsoft to give us a reason why they have suddenly discontinued the sale of the original Surface Pro, even at a lower price, and received this statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:

When Surface Pro 2 becomes available, Surface Pro will no longer be available for purchase from Microsoft or its retail partners. Our goal is to help as many customers as possible experience all the benefits Surface has to offer. Starting at $349 for Surface RT 32GB, its extremely easy to join the Surface family.

Yes, that statement does not really offer a specific reason why the Surface Pro is no longer being sold. We were told that's the only comment that Microsoft will give officially on this subject.

Now let me try ... Maybe because nobody wants them? Flashback to Post #3770 ...

IDC: 300,000 Microsoft Surfaces shipped last quarter ( NeoWin 2013-08-14 )

An analyst may have worked out the actual sales numbers for Surfaces for the last quarter. According to him, in the calendar Q2 2013 Microsoft actually shipped only 300,000 total, of which 200,000 were Pro and the remaining 100,000 were the ReTard Edition. At that phenomenal rate it will take 5 quarters or 1.25 years to sell a single million Pros or 2.5 years for a million RT models. Contrast that to the 14.6 million iPads sold last quarter ( that's the same time-frame ) and the problem for the wannabe MicroApple is clear: 300,000 versus 14.6 million. Ain't never gonna happen.

Once again, 300,000 versus 14.6 million. And that is just iPads, not Android tablets. For this they destroyed Windows. The board should have fired everybody, and then fired themselves.

EDITORIAL: Surface 2 sends mixed messages about Microsoft's long-term Windows strategy ( NeoWin 2013-09-24 )

Consumers arent the only ones who have noticed the odd dichotomy between Microsofts actions and statements. Windows 8 tablets have been plentiful, but Windows RT tablets are few and far between largely because Microsofts hardware partners see little room for a tablet that has the traditional Windows interface but cant run any desktop apps, save for the ones that come with it. Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba and more have all said they have no immediate plans for Windows RT tablets.

Acer President Jim Wong went so far as to say Windows RT has no value, and Toshiba executives have said Microsoft confused consumers with the ARM-based operating system.

A Microsoft representative told Neowin at Mondays Surface event that silver was chosen as the sole color for the Surface 2 to differentiate it from the Surface Pro 2, which runs x86 applications. Yet despite intentions to differentiate the ARM-powered tablet from the Intel-powered tablet, Microsofts done little to alleviate the confusion regarding their operating systems; in fact, the company may have added to the confusion.

While the version of the operating system found in the Surface RT was referred to as simply Windows RT, Microsofts taken to referring to the version found in Surface 2 as Windows RT 8.1, a name Panay used repeatedly during his presentation Monday. Why the name needs to be changed is anyones guess. Windows 8 an operating system that can be installed on devices by users, unlike Windows RT faced consumer derision because the Metro interface doesnt lend itself to non-touchscreen desktop computers, an issue irrelevant to Windows RT, which isnt found on any desktop computer.

Okay then, here's my guess ... It's another cynical and contemptuous kick in the teeth of their customers. They did it with the "Start Button" tying it to Metro. in one of the most blatant examples of user abuse yet seen. So now they have this rotting corpse called Windows ReTard Edition and rather than bury it they rename it! How close am I Steve and Julie?

EDIT: fixed quote and spacing from insane IPB editor

Edited September 25, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

News from the competition ...

Who Wants SteamOS? ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-23 )

Between online services, security software and whatever mail and chat programs you forget to close, a standard Windows PC or Mac can wind up running between 20 and 100 other processes before you ever click the Steam icon. That's a lot of wasted system resources.

Linux users have a little more leeway with controlling how many processes function at once, but Linux also has a more limited selection of games that work through Steam.

Because SteamOS will focus almost exclusively on running games, a state-of-the-art gaming PC will most likely not be necessary for a smooth experience. Fewer resources invested elsewhere could mean more resources for rendering graphics and processing gameplay.

Yep, that sounds like a logical plan to me. A near bare metal game OS open to all developers. If things do go smoothly wouldn't it be ironic if Gabe Newell does more good for Linux than Shuttleworth and all the other pretenders combined?

The pros and cons of SteamOS ( PC Gamer 2013-09-24 )

Quick and dirty rundown of the pluses and minuses with the announced SteamOS. Naturally since little is known there is much lively speculation in the comments which are definitely worth a read to see what everyone thinks at this early date.

Leaving aside the expected SteamBox units which will also be produced, the SteamOS itself isn't tied to hardware so it can presumably be used on almost any PC. I think the best ideas so far from a PC perspective involves simply multibooting a separate SteamOS partition or separate HDD with SteamOS installed. This will likely be close to a bare metal gaming system as we have seen, possibly even better than consoles because of their DRM overhead and housekeeping.

This could get very interesting. I can't wait to see how OpenGL and DirectX gets sorted out. I mean, Gabe could really tick off Microsoft by including an emulator that allows DirectX only games to also run ( I doubt he will but one can dream ). Even if it is only OpenGL it can still be very fruitful to the community and tick off Microsoft who have only ever offered halfhearted support for it.

SteamOS Uses Nvidia's Streaming Tech; Ref Design on Weds ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-24 )

A supposed Valve Software employee has jumped on popular site 4chan to spill the beans on what the company plans to reveal on Wednesday and Friday. Posting only as Anonymous, he also discusses why Valve chose to use Linux as the foundation, dishes out a few insults towards Microsoft ...

[...]

The update also goes into how Linux is faster than a Windows platform, and how Microsoft is extremely lazy and greedy. We've already heard Gabe Newell thrash the Windows 8 platform, so it's no surprise hearing similar talk from supposed employees. Windows is the real cancer killing PC gaming, not consoles, he claims.

Note that these are all unofficial rumors so far. But one interesting thing in the article concerns Intel who supposedly is NOT involved here at all because they allegedly asked for money in addition to the free advertising, consequently nVidia and AMD are the core partners, GPU and CPU respectively. If this is true then Intel has got to get rid of that CEO before it is too late. Both Intel and Canonical are apparently run by executives that are sleeping on the job and missing a huge opportunity while Microsoft voluntarily buries itself and gives them an opening wide enough to drive a truck through. Wake up!

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

More news from the competition ...

BlackBerry confirmed to go private in deal valued at $4.7 billion ( TechSpot 2013-09-23 )

BlackBerry agrees to sell to Fairfax for $4.7 billion ( NeoWin 2013-09-23 )

A whole lot of doomsaying in these articles but Blackberry/RIM going private could be a good thing. They should easily be able to become a high-end boutique phone-maker possibly even seeing big success in corporate and government circles. They will no longer need to meet the "Street" expectations and will be flexible enough to meet the exact demands of their customers instead. They could still fail, sure, but I'll bet they are much better off after this.

Verizon CEO says unlimited data plans simply aren't feasible ( TechSpot 2013-09-24 )

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam had some interesting comments to share with investors during a recent conference call. Among them was the admission that unlimited data plans just arent feasible as you eventually run out of gas due to the limited amount of spectrum available.

Both Verizon and AT&T the nations top two wireless providers have done away with unlimited data in recent years. Rivals T-Mobile and Sprint continue to offer unlimited options with Sprint going as far as to guarantee the service for life. Thats a pretty bold offering, especially if McAdams belief that bandwidth-hogging video will make it difficult for carriers to sustain unlimited plans proves true.

There really is no hope in our current system with favored monopolies everywhere here in the States, quite probably granted favored status on condition they cooperate with government spooks. This CEO is a special class of weasel in that he seems to enjoy rubbing our noses in it. Here's some more ...

The CEO said Verizon never has and never will lead on price, promising not to stoop to Sprints level with regard to an unlimited data plan for life. Instead, the executive touted his company's LTE offering as being about a year ahead of AT&T and three to four years ahead of T-Mobile and Sprint.

Yeah, that's for sure! Verizon is the worst of the lot with layers of extra charges. It really is pathetic because after they broke up AT&T almost all of the babies merged again anyway. And besides, it's not like they were really competing with each other anyway, they just became regional monopolies. This particular baby bell needs to smashed into grandbabies.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Microsoft relents: 'Go ahead, install Windows 8.1 on clean PCs' ( UK Register 2013-09-17 )

In a blog post on Tuesday, however, Microsoft announced that it will loosen this policy once Windows 8.1 reaches general availability. From that point onward, packaged retail Windows 8.1 DVDs will be "full version software" that can be installed on any computer, whether it has an earlier version of Windows installed or not.

Almost forgot this one from earlier. Another bit of backtracking that I believe shows they are coming to the realization that the "team" botched up every possible thing from top to bottom, including the basics like making it difficult to install the thing in the first place.

My guess is that the Start Menu and Aero Glass are also on the itinerary, we just haven't been told yet ( which is itself the most egregious of their countless mistakes ). Like I said just above, the board shouldn't have stopped with Ballmer, the entire strategic braintrust that gambled with the mighty "Windows" reputation should be fired. Then they should fire themselves for negligence for allowing this last 2.5 years of disasters.

Devices + Services? What About Software? Is Microsoft's devices and services strategy just a pipe dream? ( Thurrott 2013-09-24 )

Thurrott is back on the seesaw, this time making almost perfect sense. Literally he writes a column that IMHO is entirely comprehensible and accurate, unlike that ridiculous article a week ago.

I won't bother quoting it since it pretty much is one continuous, cohesive read that others should check out for themselves.

EDIT: fixed spacing from defective IPB editor

Edited September 25, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[jaclaz]

Can you remember how in the good ol'times a software feature comparison chart had and ?

Well, forget about it:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/windows-8-1/compare/default.aspx

If you cannot see a small grey cross on a dirty white background, it is essentially your problem.

Older Cats Lack Focus, unfortunately :

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/mobile-usability-cats/

Older Cats Lack Focus

One surprising discovery was the complete lack of attention from the seniors in the study. It was as if older cats didn't even care. One cat, Stephen Pawking, a 16-year-old British Shorthair, stared at the website for Cat Fancy magazine with total disregard, despite its stunning Flash intro. We thus modified the research protocol and gave Mr. Pawking a mouse-catching app, but — due to a life spent solely indoors — he lacked the necessary predatory skills and failed to react. We were, however, able to gain a rather positive reaction to the Call-A-Cat app, which repeatedly plays the sound of a can opener. This simply underlines the importance of sound.

EDIT, BTW, a flashback from 2009:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/oh-you-wanted-awesome-edition.html

leading to a flashback from 2007:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/02/02/

jaclaz

Edited September 25, 2013 by jaclaz

[JorgeA]

One of the computing industry's more colorful figures plots a comeback:

Exclusive: John McAfee vows to make Internet 'impossible to hack' in Silicon Valley return

"My new technology is going to provide a new type of Internet, a decentralized, floating and moving Internet that is impossible to hack, impossible to penetrate and vastly superior in terms of its facility and neutrality. It solves all of our security concerns," McAfee said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

EDITORIAL: Surface 2 sends mixed messages about Microsoft's long-term Windows strategy ( NeoWin 2013-09-24 )

[...]

While the version of the operating system found in the Surface RT was referred to as simply Windows RT, Microsofts taken to referring to the version found in Surface 2 as Windows RT 8.1, a name Panay used repeatedly during his presentation Monday. Why the name needs to be changed is anyones guess. Windows 8 an operating system that can be installed on devices by users, unlike Windows RT faced consumer derision because the Metro interface doesnt lend itself to non-touchscreen desktop computers, an issue irrelevant to Windows RT, which isnt found on any desktop computer.

At first I thought that maybe Panay was misspeaking, but according to the hard-to-read chart that @jaclaz linked to , this is indeed the official name for the thing.

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

I see no reason to guess.

When there was ONLY a Windows RT (version 8) "windows RT" and "Windows 8 RT" were synonyms and the latest a pleonasm.

Now that there are Windows 8 RT and Windows 8.1 RT adding the 8.1 seems like intelligent to avoid confusion.

What you may have not noticed in the linked to comparison chart, is that the concept of pleonasm is not very clear at MS.

If you title a comparison chart "Compare Windows 8.1 Editions", it means that on tabular data each column represents an "edition", and you DO NOT add "edition" to the column title OR you don't know what pleonasm means and add without need "edition" to EACH column title, and OF COURSE if you do not have another attribute for the edition it looks "queer", but the only thing you cannot do is use "mixed mode":

• Windows 8.1 RT<- this is then NOT an "edition", BUT ONLY a "RT"
• Windows 8.1 Edition <- this is an "edition" BUT NOT "qualified", maybe it should be read "none Edition"?
• Windows 8.1 Pro Edition <- this is "Pro" edition. OK
• Windows 8.1 Enterprise Edition <- this is "Enterprise" edition, OK

This is like lesson #1 (or maybe #2) at comparison charting elementary school, and like lesson #3 at "naming your product properly" seminaries.

jaclaz

[TELVM]

... Once again, 300,000 versus 14.6 million. And that is just iPads, not Android tablets. For this they destroyed Windows ...

[JorgeA]

That's pretty funny (and fitting)!

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

Devices + Services? What About Software? Is Microsoft's devices and services strategy just a pipe dream? ( Thurrott 2013-09-24 )

Thurrott is back on the seesaw, this time making almost perfect sense. Literally he writes a column that IMHO is entirely comprehensible and accurate, unlike that ridiculous article a week ago.

I won't bother quoting it since it pretty much is one continuous, cohesive read that others should check out for themselves.

EDIT: fixed spacing from defective IPB Editor

Thurrott is on his meds again (or off, - whatever is causing the switches).

Here's a good comment from the article:

Microsoft may be the best in the world at software, but they should prove it, not force it on people. Make the Windows 8.x that people want (essentially Windows 7 + the under-the-hood improvements) along side of the current metro version, and let the best UI win.

Convince us that it's the best. We did fine moving through various start menus and taskbars over the years despite having the option to use older flavors, because the new ones were better, not because we had no choice.

If the Windows 8 (and server 2012) UI is the example of a flagship project of the best software company in the world, then I'd say the world is really bad at software.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Formfiller

[Formfiller]

Cute story:

http://www.neowin.net/news/report-nokia-asked-stephen-elop-to-reduce-his-bonus-but-he-refused

Now a new report from Finland's Helsingin Sanomat claims, via unnamed sources, that Nokia's board has been urging Elop to accept a smaller amount for his severance package in an effort to stop the growing amount of hate towards the company. The report claims that Elop has refused that request. Apparently, Elop is getting a divorce from his current wife and he has told Nokia's board his wife would not accept a reduced payout.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Microsoft trying to keep its top execs with bonuses of up to 150 percent ( NeoWin 2013-09-25 )

They spin this as trying to keep their execs from being poached by other companies but there is a bit of closing the barn door after the horses have going on here. Google and Amazon and others have already picked off lots of talent, the formerly loyal employees who cared about Microsoft and Windows and their hard fought reputation. Secondly, Ballmer himself has depleted the ranks in almost Stalinesque fashion by removing any possible challenger to his throne. Between the exodus and Ballmer's manipulations they have the lightest bench of any company. Now what do they do? Throw money around for show.

Report: Nokia asked Stephen Elop to reduce his bonus but he refused ( NeoWin 2013-09-25 )

That large amount of money, which in some circles is called a "golden parachute" has since generated a ton of negative press for Nokia in their home country of Finland. Matters got even worse when it was revealed this week that Elop's severance contract was very different than what other former Nokia CEOs have received in the past, despite what the company's chairman Risto Siilasmaa told the press last week. Elop will return to Microsoft, where he led Office development prior to being named Nokia's chief executive, when the deal completes.

Now a new report from Finland's Helsingin Sanomat claims, via unnamed sources, that Nokia's board has been urging Elop to accept a smaller amount for his severance package in an effort to stop the growing amount of hate towards the company. The report claims that Elop has refused that request. Apparently, Elop is getting a divorce from his current wife and he has told Nokia's board his wife would not accept a reduced payout.

Wow, just when you thought things couldn't get any more strange! I still don't get how you ride a golden parachute into the company that is buying you. If Microsoft promotes Elop to anything, let alone CEO, they are finished. It will be among the dumbest moves in history. What they should do is fire him. He makes Ballmer and Sinofsky look competent and has nowhere near their experience in the company.

Oh, and just check out this insane fanboy logic ...

the finns should be grateful that under elop,microsoft kept the company alive with its support payments,or nokia would have ceased to exist a long time ago from the previous leadership that destroyed the company. at least now they have a network infrastructure company.

Nokia hints PureView brand could be dropped with Microsoft acquisition ( NeoWin 2013-09-26 )

The information is still sparse here but it is enough to get the fanboys worrying. PureView is one of the primary talking points that they trumpet in every 'MicroNokia versus the world' argument they engage in. Things are not so clear-cut now for their superiority complex.

Microsoft: Security Essentials provides "baseline" protection ( NeoWin 2013-09-26 )

Microsoft Security Essentials has been having a tough time with AV tests for quite some time and now, Microsoft has finally admitted that the security software is not sufficient to protect users from high-level threats.

High level my butt. Any level threat is more like it from what I have seen.

Holly Stewart, senior program manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, has told Dennis Technology Labs in an interview that Security Essentials is intended to provide "baseline" protection and recommended that users install an anti-virus on top of it for better security from advanced threats.

Stewart said,

"Its not as efficient to have one kind of weapon. Like anything you must have that diversity. Its a weakness to just have one."

In truth though, MSE ( ummm wouldn't "MSSE" be a more logical acronym? ) is probably no worse than anyone else out there. They all demand that you sacrifice a huge chunk of CPU performance on realtime protection and yet you still get infected or compromised.

The comments naturally are full of clueless sheeple who just happen to be the target audience for MSSE anyway. Many are on about the "a hardware firewall is no protection". Where do these people come from? A hardware firewall is no protection for sheeple, that is true, but it is a critical layer. Meanwhile the customer machines pile up here containing malware to be removed. Keep up the good work Microsoft, and AVG, and Norton, and Intel/McAfee, and Avira, and ...

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

eBay agrees to buy PayPal competitor Braintree for $800 million ( TechSpot 2013-09-26 )

And the regulatory agencies of the world continue to snooze. Consolidation baby, that's the ticket.

Joke Of The Day winner ...

iPhone users fall for fake iOS 7 'waterproof feature' ad, rage ensues ( NeoWin 2013-09-25 )

4chan, which is notorious for its mean pranks, can claim another victory. This time against the more gullible iPhone owners who believed that the recent iOS 7 software update actually waterproofs the device, yes a software update, due to a fake ad circulated by the community.

[...]

People like @Pretty_Ricky33 who fell for the prank displayed his anger with the following tweet "Whoever said iOS 7 is Waterproof your phone.... F*** You", as well as many others, whose tweets aren't much different from "Pretty Ricky's". Others (like the tweet below) simply admitted defeat and are simply looking for a replacement iPhone.

I'm sorry but that is simply hysterical. Imagine what they can do to the MicroZealots and MetroTards.

RealNetworks launches RealPlayer Cloud, cross-platform storage and video playback service ( TechSpot 2013-09-25 )

Could you possibly set about to design a worse nightmare than this! Every bad idea rolled into one.

Okay, now remember how RealPlayer pioneered the concept of taking away user privacy in return for some lame tradeoff ( a crappy media player that was the only one to show those .rv and .ra files ) and see where it has led to ...

Facebook Sparks Debate on Right to Use Teens in Ads ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-25 )

Advocacy groups oppose Facebook's latest initiative, which they believe compromises teens' rights. If the changes go through, teens could find their likenesses used for any ad that Facebook's partners find fitting.

"Things like your name, profile picture and content may be used in connection with ads or commercial content," Facebook's proposal states. "You are granting Facebook permission for this use when you use our services."

To be clear, Facebook already engages in this kind of behavior with teens and adults alike. The Center for Digital Democracy, a Washington, D.C. digital-rights group, says the time for action is now because Facebook is about to codify this practice in its "Rights and Responsibilities" section.

Facebook is like Real Networks on steroids. They're doing everything and more and rubbing your nose in it. What a disaster. And the compliant sheeple will drag us right down the toilet bowl with them

Yahoo! Users Receiving Emails Meant for Past Users ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-25 )

One man reported receiving Facebook emails, as well as various messages from the older user's phone provider (which included their account number and a pin), emails regarding an investment account, and their Pandora account information.

"I can gain access to their Pandora account, but I won't. I can gain access to their Facebook account, but I won't. I know their name, address and phone number. I know where their child goes to school, I know the last four digits of their social security number. I know they had an eye doctor's appointment last week and I was just invited to their friend's wedding," IT security professional Tom Jenkins told Information Week. "The identity theft potential here is kind of crazy."

Jenkins isn't alone. Others have received everything from funeral announcements to airline confirmations, as well as more mundane (but still annoying) emails like newsletters and catalogs. Yahoo! told IW that it's received minimal complaints from users of these new, recycled IDs, but that it's continuing to work with companies to ensure they implement an RRVS email header in any correspondence. This would check the age of an account before delivering an email and cause messages sent to the recycled account to bounce.

TechCrunch reports that Yahoo! is also planning the introduction of a 'Not My Email' button that users can click when they receive an email meant for the former user (or anyone else). It also plans to reach out to users of old accounts by phone and email, extend the grace period for inactive accounts, and offer users a way to reclaim their old accounts.

Who didn't foresee this? Well apparently Yahoo didn't. It's like we are living in CrazyLand now. It's like people actually need to stick their hands into the stove to see if it burns. When something is so obvious and is right in front of your face and yet we still need to go through the motions to see it through, well, humanity is doomed. Why don't we all drink some cyanide next?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

And from the competition, the 2nd of three Valve announcements ...

Valve's Steam Box made official as 'Steam Machines', beta coming soon, final hardware in early 2014 ( TechSpot 2013-09-25 )

Valve's Second Big Reveal is a Steam Box Prototype with Third Party Steam Machines to Follow ( Maximum PC 2013-09-25 )

Valve announces Steam Machines, coming in 2014 from multiple hardware manufacturers ( PC Gamer 2013-09-25 )

Valve announces Steam Machines; opens beta testing sign-ups ( NeoWin 2013-09-25 )

Valve Reveals Steam Machines Program, Protoype Testing ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-25 )

Nvidia pledge to help Linuxs open source driver community ( PC Gamer 2013-09-25 )

Nvidia Played a Part in SteamOS Development ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-25 )

NVIDIA helping Valve with SteamOS development ( NeoWin 2013-09-25 )

Some Reaction pieces ...

Multiple Manufacturers May Confuse Steam Machine Buyers ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-25 )

Valves SteamOS and Steam Machines announcements: developers react ( PC Gamer 2013-09-25 )

Ken Levine: SteamOS is a brave and powerful idea ( PC Gamer 2013-09-25 )

Lots of confused commenters, mostly at NeoWin who see threats against their Xbox under every rock, but they are blind to what is pretty obvious to me. Rather than a single Valve "product", a SteamBox, Valve has chosen to put its weight behind something completely different, a new "platform". That makes it comparable to the concept of a Windows platform which became a reality in the wake of the late 1980's PC wars around 1990-1993 with Win3x.

The difference between a computer and a platform is clearly lost on fanboys of any particular device but I think it is a stroke of genius myself. Using upgradeable parts, hardware and software, the Steam boxes and OS already have rolled back the very thing that Microsoft has been fighting for, planned obsolescence for both. By getting both nVidia and AMD to cooperate they have performed a miracle it seems and only Microsoft could bring about all these events.

A "platform" actually is about the future, unlike Microsoft's cynical walled garden dreams, those very dreams that Gabe has famously commented against, so now his remarks come into focus. A lot of people discounted what he said thinking he was just making a competing console, but the real plan was to start a new platform that could grow on its own. Another stroke of genius here is the concept of streaming any PC or Mac ( or PS4 or Xbox ) to a user's SteamBox whether or not it was purchased or built from scratch. You can think of this as transitional backwards compatibility during the period that sees the selfish walled gardens hopefully fail under their own weight.

What is not said is also very important - and that is that the SteamBox or GameBox, an upgradeable non walled Garden being Steam-based, is a fertile platform for eventual Linux non-gaming growth. It is not hard to imagine a few killer non-gaming apps being used here natively and then the exodus from the lock-ins can begin. One successful email program, one killer office suite and one good web browser will siphon off a lot of the sheeple that Microsoft is exploiting. That is true competition. The question then becomes will Microsoft do the smart thing and kill its illegal walled garden fantasies? I doubt it.

That last article with the thoughts of one developer is very good. It is quite interesting to follow the thoughts of the devs as they process this early information just two days into the new platform reveal. This is a bit like the Windows 3.0 period in 1990 IMHO, nothing was truly certain back then until Win32, WFW and Windows 3.1 finally sealed the deal by 1993.