Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[Flasche]

The Russian government is clamping down on the Internet:

Russian 'anti-terrorism' laws will ban Skype, Facebook, Gmail if companies don't comply

Russia has passed a series of new 'anti-terrorism' laws that will make services like Skype illegal unless companies change their practices within six months.

The new laws require that service operators such as Skype, Facebook and Google's Gmail store Russian user data on servers that are located in the country. Why? Well, if Russian authorities want access to this data, they need the servers to be located on their soil so that they can legally request the information.

--JorgeA

Not going to happen. Russia has to much pressure on them already. (Like it would do anything but still) Besides those companies have a nice deal with the NSA already and probably dont want to lose it.

[JorgeA]

I know it's no news, but looking at Neowin it's somewhat dumbfounding how blatantly they are a Microsoft outpost.

A few years ago they at least tried to appear somewhat independent, now that site looks like a blog on blogs.technet.com. Sure, other "fansites", like AppleInsider.com, have their loyalties too, but Neowin has even mastered the typical corporate-speak to the letter. They should be just done with it and let MS officially acquire them.

Yeah, really. They didn't even seem to skip a beat when the Party Line did a 180 from anti-Start Menu back to pro-Start Menu. This is a much more trivial example of what happened when Stalin signed a pact with Hitler. (They were to split Poland and the Baltic states between them.) The propaganda switched from calling the Nazis evil reactionaries to brother revolutionaries, and communists all over the world immediately fell into line.

Pretty scary aspect of the human mind, if you ask me.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

The Russian government is clamping down on the Internet:

Russian 'anti-terrorism' laws will ban Skype, Facebook, Gmail if companies don't comply

Russia has passed a series of new 'anti-terrorism' laws that will make services like Skype illegal unless companies change their practices within six months.

The new laws require that service operators such as Skype, Facebook and Google's Gmail store Russian user data on servers that are located in the country. Why? Well, if Russian authorities want access to this data, they need the servers to be located on their soil so that they can legally request the information.

--JorgeA

Not going to happen. Russia has to much pressure on them already. (Like it would do anything but still) Besides those companies have a nice deal with the NSA already and probably dont want to lose it.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Google and Yahoo caved in to the Chinese government some years ago when it wanted more control over what Chinese users of the Internet could see (although IIRC Google later moved its China servers to Hong Kong).

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Paul Thurrott is really coming around. Check out what he said about Microsoft's excuse that Windows 8 failed because OEMs weren't supporting it with enough touch-enabled devices (a notion long ago refuted and debunked on these pages). The exchange starts at 45:12:

PT: Remember when Windows 8 first came out it was selling slow right out of the bag, the thing that they complained about privately -- and then publicly, amazingly, Tammi Reller did this twice -- was PC makers didn't ship enough touch machines to the market. That was the complaint, right? Well, guess what: touch machines are everywhere now, and it's not selling, so that wasn't it. The problem wasn't the PC makers, the problem was Windows 8, period.

Also well worth listening to is the preceding discussion about how Microsoft should forego the consumer space and focus on its strength in business -- something else that we've been saying here for a couple of years.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

An incisive analysis of Microsoft's tribulations:

Say Goodbye To Microsoft

Steve Ballmer has often said his goal was to make money. And he did. But making money is the means, not the ends.

[...]

Microsoft desperately tried to get into phones, tablets, watches and TVs but they missed and they missed badly. This is where their subtle shift from “a computer running a Microsoft operating system on every desk” to “a computer running Windows on every desk” came back to haunt them.

[...]

Rather than try to create an operating system right for the various emerging form factors, Microsoft insisted — over and over and over again — on trying to shoehorn Windows onto every form factor. The results were disastrous.

And here's an apt illustration for what ails the company:

Microsoft didn’t want to narrow its options. Instead, they wanted to be everything to everybody. They didn’t want to be anything in particular so they produced nothing anybody particularly wanted.

Also a good read is the companion piece, which elaborates on MSFT's strategy shift:

Say Hello To Microsoft 2.0

Microsoft is going to a horizontal business model with a services layer above device platforms that isn’t dependent on any one operating system and provides Cloud services to all operating systems. Microsoft 1.0 was about Windows on every computer. Microsoft 2.0 is about MICROSOFT on every computer. It’s a subtle distinction with huge implications.

Horizontal business models thrive on cooperation and abhor confrontation with their vertical partners. Microsoft 2.0 — and its horizontal business model — wants its products to run almost everywhere, therefore it wants to be friendly with almost everyone.

.

We can’t quite be sure yet exactly WHERE the good ship Microsoft is headed, but we can be very sure that Microsoft’s new Captain, Satya Nadella, is steering Microsoft in a radically different direction.

Microsoft is no longer pretending that its Office software suite will help it sell more Surface tablets. They have accepted the reality that Office should be untethered from their Windows operating system and from their Surface tablets so that it can be free to reside on Microsoft devices, Apple devices, Google Chrome devices…and as many other personal computing devices as possible.

--JorgeA

[Flasche]

Say Hello To Microsoft 2.0

Microsoft is going to a horizontal business model with a services layer above device platforms that isn’t dependent on any one operating system and provides Cloud services to all operating systems. Microsoft 1.0 was about Windows on every computer. Microsoft 2.0 is about MICROSOFT on every computer. It’s a subtle distinction with huge implications.

Horizontal business models thrive on cooperation and abhor confrontation with their vertical partners. Microsoft 2.0 — and its horizontal business model — wants its products to run almost everywhere, therefore it wants to be friendly with almost everyone.

.

We can’t quite be sure yet exactly WHERE the good ship Microsoft is headed, but we can be very sure that Microsoft’s new Captain, Satya Nadella, is steering Microsoft in a radically different direction.

Microsoft is no longer pretending that its Office software suite will help it sell more Surface tablets. They have accepted the reality that Office should be untethered from their Windows operating system and from their Surface tablets so that it can be free to reside on Microsoft devices, Apple devices, Google Chrome devices…and as many other personal computing devices as possible.

--JorgeA

With the route they are going, there wont be a Microsoft anymore.

[JorgeA]

Xbox news. As was said about Windows 8, it looks like MSFT might be playing semantic games again with what it counts as "sales ":

Microsoft attempts to hide anemic Xbox One sales amid lackluster quarterly earnings

Microsoft reports that it “sold in” two million Xbox consoles this quarter, including 1.2 million Xbox One consoles.[...]

As for the Xbox One, shifting 1.2 million consoles this quarter and five million to-date is reasonably good, but there’s a lot of questions about what “sold in” means versus “sold through.” The term “sell in” is used when a manufacturer sells parts into the channel. “Sell through” is used when a company sells products directly to the end customer.

When Microsoft sells an Xbox console to GameStop, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart, in other words, it classifies that as sell in. When it sells you a Surface tablet directly from its own website, that’s sell through. This has led to charges that Microsoft is only recognizing the impact of consoles it has “shipped,” with accompanying squabbles over what the real figures are. Sony, in contrast, has specifically reported a sell through of seven million PS4s as of April 6.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

As we observed some weeks ago, Firefox has now officially joined the idiocracy fad, dumbing down its UI:

Firefox sports major facelift, improved Sync tool

Firefox, Chromified. The outrage is overflowing in the comments section:

Christ that is so dam ugly!!!!

.

Fire the UI designer.

I use firefox because it is firefox. I do NOT like chrome's UI, and definitely do not want Firefox looking like chrome. If I did...I'd use chrome.

Installing Palemoon as soon as I get to my PC. That dev said they wont be implementing this terrible ui. So long Firefox!

.

This chromification of Firefox show that these developers have more time on their hands that should be used finding solutions to problems already there, instead of worrying about changing to look trendy.

And so on.

Fortunately, there are some things FF users can do to regain most of the former UI.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

ExtremeTalk: What would you pay for a Windows 8 or 9 subscription?

What do you think? Would you accept a subscription OS model where your Windows system would get crippled or deactivated entirely if you stopped paying tribute at each specified period?

I know, I know, I've loaded the question...

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Let me think.

Need to pay a periodical fee not really linked/proportional to the actual use of the goods/service offered.

What do we have that feels like that?

Ah...ha!

I have it, taxes!

That is exactly the way (in Italy, but in a number of EU countries as well) one pays for public television, an actual tax for the possession of any device suitable to receive radio and TV signals.

You own a TV, no matter how old it is, or if you never watch it, still you have to pay for this, or, you buy a TV without any intention to ever connect to an antenna and still you have to pay, see:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171012-monitor-for-playing-videos-directly-from-an-usb-in-a-loop/

jaclaz

[ZortMcGort11]

No, I would not pay for a Windows 8 or 9 subscription. Ever.

How much more can consumers get bilked on literally everything they purchase?

For one thing, you will be permanently locked into their support/upgrade lifecycle until the end of time. Need a new computer? No, you say? Oh well, too bad, the life cycle is ended... time to chuck another perfectly working computer into the landfill.

Brilliant!

@jaclaz

Does that apply to radios as well?

Edited April 29, 2014 by LostInSpace2012

[ZortMcGort11]

As we observed some weeks ago, Firefox has now officially joined the idiocracy fad, dumbing down its UI

@JorgeA

Anything that hastens the demise of Firefox is a good thing in my opinion. The ensuing backlash over the new UI is excellent news as far as I'm concerned.

Bunch of fascists at Mozilla anyway. They obviously don't believe in freedom of religion over there, or freedom of speech, or have any tolerance of opposing beliefs.... otherwise you get shjtcanned like Brendan Eich. What they need is more diversity over at Mozilla. You can't just put all left-wing atheists together under one roof, and consider yourselves the absolute moral center of the universe. Having a right-wing CEO would have met this diversity quota, and it would have been a good exercise in tolerance, which is something they allegedly pride themselves on.

Edited April 29, 2014 by LostInSpace2012

[TELVM]

ExtremeTalk: What would you pay for a Windows 8 or 9 subscription?

Fortunately, there are some things FF users can do to regain most of the former UI.

Nah, polishing turds is a waste of time. It's much easier to purge the crap and switch to Pale Moon.

[JorgeA]

Let me think.

Need to pay a periodical fee not really linked/proportional to the actual use of the goods/service offered.

What do we have that feels like that?

Ah...ha!

I have it, taxes!

That is exactly the way (in Italy, but in a number of EU countries as well) one pays for public television, an actual tax for the possession of any device suitable to receive radio and TV signals.

You own a TV, no matter how old it is, or if you never watch it, still you have to pay for this, or, you buy a TV without any intention to ever connect to an antenna and still you have to pay, see:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/171012-monitor-for-playing-videos-directly-from-an-usb-in-a-loop/

jaclaz

An apt comparison IMO.

Thanks for the link to the other thread. BTW, you mentioned over there that this wonderful law to prop up government broadcasting has been in place since 1938. Umm, who was in charge in Italy in 1938?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

No, I would not pay for a Windows 8 or 9 subscription. Ever.

How much more can consumers get bilked on literally everything they purchase?

For one thing, you will be permanently locked into their support/upgrade lifecycle until the end of time. Need a new computer? No, you say? Oh well, too bad, the life cycle is ended... time to chuck another perfectly working computer into the landfill.

Brilliant!

I had thought something similar, that this would make users totally dependent on Microsoft to keep their computers operable.

Needless to say (so why am I saying it? ), I wouldn't go in for a subscription OS either. With all the official and unofficial fixes, I might accept Windows 8 just to put off the inevitable switch, but that's it.

+1 on your other post.

--JorgeA