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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

JorgeA

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CharlotteTheHarlot

CharlotteTheHarlot

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Xbox 'Durango' XDK leak "confirms" always-online, mandatory HDD installs, required Kinect 2 ( NeoWin 2013-03-19 )

Xbox 'Durango' leak claims console is 'always connected,' games must be installed to hard disk ( The Verge 2013-03-20 )

FUD alert: "always connected" Xbox 720 rumors are mostly paranoia ( TechSpot 2013-03-20 )

Report: Next Xbox Will Be Always-On, Games Run off HDD ( Tom's Hardware 2013-03-24 )

Mentioned by others upthread, some of this is in dispute, maybe. But seriously, is there any remaining customer base that Microsoft isn't screwing around with? They have pretty much done a clean sweep now. They had already p!ssed off Windows veteran users by butchering the GUI, server administrators with the childish Metro interface, the developers by ruining Visual Studio and reducing benefits for MSDN/TechNet subscribers, Office loyalists with both the GUI and licensing, earlier Windows Phone users left high and dry, and of course aborting the favorite product for Zune die-hards. Perhaps now some members of Generation Xbox will come to their senses?

1600 Microsoft Points offered to UK residents affected by website error ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 )

We have removed the "Xbox LIVE Awards Programme Competition" element of the Xbox Entertainment Awards and have closed this Facebook prize promotion. To apologise for any inconvenience this technical issue and the withdrawal of the Xbox LIVE Awards Programme Competition may have caused we are, as a gesture of goodwill, providing you with 1600 Microsoft Points which can be redeemed for TV shows, movies and games to enjoy on your Xbox 360 console, tablet or PC.

The email added that Microsoft "took immediate steps to remove the application from its UK Facebook page and sincerely apologise for the error." It's estimated that close to 3,000 UK residents had their information exposed as part of the error, which included the person's real name, email and birthday and Xbox Live Gamertag.

Well how about that, 1600 points to wash their hands of the matter. A cynical person would say the victims had their personal info sold to spammers around the world for a grand total of, wait for it, $20 USA ( converter ). Yep, that's worth it. :no:

Latest roundup of articles about Microsoft Xbox related destruction ...

EDIT: added articles

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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HalloweenDocument12

HalloweenDocument12

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What is more important on October 26th:

That there be a giant number of apps available in the Windows Store?

That there be a handful of truly compelling, unique apps on the Windows Store?

False dichotomy and too often repeated by 8tards. The point of having a huge number of apps is to increase the likelihood that one exists for whatever specific purpose. Attempting to "focus" on creating a smaller number of higher quality apps fails because a single entity doesn't have control over these disparate resources (separate companies) and consolidation reduces specialization and competition.

Anyone willing to count (on his/her own "real" PC) HOW MANY (roughly):

  1. programs are installed
  2. programs are actually used (daily or often enough)
  3. programs you couldn't live without

I have "only" 117 installed at the moment according to the Programs dialog, but this doesn't count the stuff without installers and i'm reasonably good about pruning the list.

One of my favorite features of Windows 7 is the "iconization" of the taskbar. The reason is that, with 16 GB RAM, I don't bother shutting things off. There are constantly 15-20 things running and probably 25-50 browser tabs going. In previous versions of Windows the Taskbar became practically unusable after about 7 open windows. Not applications: windows.

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HalloweenDocument12

HalloweenDocument12

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The Elop interview reminds me of a 60 Minutes interview with Howard Stringer, former Sony CEO. Looking it up, it looks like the interview was done in 2006, so before the iPhone. During the interview, Leslie Stahl whips out an iPod. Stringer doesn't throw it, but he looks like he wants to. After Leslie presses him a bit, Howard says "You can take iPod and beat us over the head with it, but it's only one product. And we have a thousand products. Apple has two or three." Sorry, can't find a clip of this. There is a 2 minute recap but it edits out all the Apple talk.

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JorgeA

JorgeA

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Anyone willing to count (on his/her own "real" PC) HOW MANY (roughly):

  1. programs are installed
  2. programs are actually used (daily or often enough)
  3. programs you couldn't live without

Mine:

  1. more than 200
  2. 35, maybe 40
  3. 10 to 15, maybe 20

My numbers in each category are smaller, but the proportions are comparable.

Imagine paging through a Start Screen containing 100-200 installed programs and their associated sub-programs and uninstallers :w00t: , plus default-installed Metro apps. That's one reason that the dated, cheesy, old-hat Start Menu is superior: you can hide most of the clutter beneath nested folders (or flyout menus, if you prefer the 98/XP style menu) and speed up your visual scan. And there's no need to manually rearrange everything if you don't want: it's automatically alphabetized for you.

--JorgeA

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jaclaz

jaclaz

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Yes "my" 200 take care of the ones just dropped on the hd (without needing install).

What I wanted to say is that given a n number of applications on one's hard disk, that in the case of a long time PC user are/were selected out of (say) n*10 tested apps (over several years) what you actually "use commonly" is 0,20*n and those that you actually couldn't do without (i.e. whose functions/features are NOT replaceable through another similar app that you already have on the disk) are maybe 0,10*n.

So, 1,000,000 US$ / 100 would in theory produce 10,000 apps.

This makes no sense. :ph34r:

After having examined the apps, they would result (in a perfect world) at the most in 1,000 "original" apps and 9,000 clones/copies/same, whilst most probably in the real world (and being optimistic) they would more likely be 500 "original" and 9,500 (bad) copies or unneeded duplicates.

I would say even less than that as, objectively, there are quite a few things that you (or the average tablet user) won't do on it.

jaclaz

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JorgeA

JorgeA

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The Elop interview reminds me of a 60 Minutes interview with Howard Stringer, former Sony CEO. Looking it up, it looks like the interview was done in 2006, so before the iPhone. During the interview, Leslie Stahl whips out an iPod. Stringer doesn't throw it, but he looks like he wants to. After Leslie presses him a bit, Howard says "You can take iPod and beat us over the head with it, but it's only one product. And we have a thousand products. Apple has two or three." Sorry, can't find a clip of this. There is a 2 minute recap but it edits out all the Apple talk.

Hmm, and how did that work out for Sony?

Which reminds me of a laptop I saw at a Sony store in a mall a couple of years ago. Before I give the price, let me say that it made me curious to see what the heck there was in it to justify the asking price. It had an SSD with (I think) 240GB, a secondary HDD (1TB IIRC) for storage, 8GB of RAM, and some flavor of an i7 processor. 17" screen. Good graphics card, but I can't remember anything about it. The machine did look visually attractive. But the price tag said $6295!!! :w00t:

You can emulate Apple's overpricing model to some degree, but not THAT much.

--JorgeA

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JorgeA

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But seriously, is there any remaining customer base that Microsoft isn't screwing around with? They have pretty much done a clean sweep now. They had already p!ssed off Windows veteran users by butchering the GUI, server administrators with the childish Metro interface, the developers by ruining Visual Studio and reducing benefits for MSDN/TechNet subscribers, Office loyalists with both the GUI and licensing, earlier Windows Phone users left high and dry, and of course aborting the favorite product for Zune die-hards. Perhaps now some members of Generation Xbox will come to their senses?

It IS amazing. You'd think that Microsoft's competitors had infiltrated the company's executive ranks for the purpose of destroying it by alienating as many customers as possible.

Putting this together with other articles we've seen recently, it looks like the ultimate "vision" is for people to end up with dumb terminals that can't do anything by themselves such that they need to be connected to the 'Net -- which then facilitates keeping an eye on them with the built-in cameras and phoning home with the information.

If I had the skills, time, and patience, I'd write a novel based on this theme.

But then, maybe Microsoft will destroy itself completely before this ultimate Big Brother vision comes to pass.

--JorgeA

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CharlotteTheHarlot

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Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe attempt to justify 'price gouging' to Australian hearing ( The Verge 2013-03-22 )

Adobe, Apple and Microsoft address price gouging in Australia ( TechSpot 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft, Adobe, Apple poorly justify Australian price gouging ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft: Australians think our pricing is fair ( ZDNet 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft failed to soundly justify the pricing discrepancy for the full suite of Office at the hearing, which sees the Professional edition retail for AU$599 compared to just $399 in the States (a 55% premium). Microsoft Australia's managing director Pip Marlow claimed that if the prices for products were too high then "customers will vote with their wallets", while she also pointed to the more fairly-priced Office 365 cloud subscriptions.

However that didn't stop Australian MPs from calling out Marlow on the dodgy local practices: MP Stephen Jones claimed that Microsoft charges "as much as the market can bear", and refuted claims the market was highly competitive. "Microsoft can charge what it likes and the small businesses of this country have to pay because there is little alternative" said Jones.

Busted. All these companies ( and more ) have long been screwing over residents of Oz, gouging them because they can. And now hopefully they're all going to be screwed right back for copycating the higher prices that hardware makers must charge for the higher shipping costs they endure. You know, think about this: Australia was an opportunity for a righteous company to step up and vocally buck this gouging trend and set a good example with equal pricing regardless of geography. Guess what would have happened? All the others would have fallen in line because they would have been exposed. But instead, I suspect there is a kind of collusion in play here. The question is, will the politicians and business people in Oz have the ability to nail them for it? Or will they just accept bribes like some other places recently in the news?

Microsoft got over 75,000 law enforcement info requests in 2012 ( NeoWin 2013-03-21 )

Microsoft's transparency report details law enforcement requests ( TechSpot 2013-03-21 )

Microsoft publishes Law Enforcement Requests Report, cites 70,665 inquiries worldwide ( The Verge 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft said that 18 percent of the requests resulted in no information being given to law enforcement authorities, "either because Microsoft rejected the request or because no customer information was found." Microsoft did disclose what it called "non content information" for 79.8 percent of the law enforcement requests in 2012. Actual content disclosures were given to authorities for 1,558 requests, which comprised 2.2 percent of the total law enforcement requests.

Privacy advocates may applaud the fact that Microsoft only disclosed information on 1,558 requests, or about 2.1 percent. Of those requests, more than 99 percent were handed over only in response to a warrant from a US court.

There are those that think this is perfectly fine. Not me. The government has in effect erected a middleman in the ISPs and Server owners, insulating themselves from getting their hands dirty. These precedents are only the first step, later they whittle it down further and further until all privacy is emasculated. The so-called court warrants will be little more than rubber stamps, and probably completely removed in the future. And if they ( the Government or Microsoft or various ISPs ) make a mistake, who ya gonna complain to? Orwell wasn't off by much with '1984'.

Office Garage: Ode to a User-Based Office ( Thurrott 2013-03-20 )

Microsoft quietly ends Office 2010 sales ( NeoWin 2013-03-21 )

Hmmm. Step-1: create cloud version called Office 364. Step-2: destroy the GUI for regular Office and sour the license terms and name it Office 2013. Step-3: Yank previous version of Office from market. Accomplishment: Office transformation from a workstation professional business suite to a Playskool tablet friendly shell of its former self. All done in steps while denying all along that a sea-change was underway and while all the MicroZealots and MetroTards cheered them on.

BTW: at the Thurrott link is a video where the the interviewer takes a car ride with the great Mark Russinovich and does an impromptu interview while driving. Problem is, you cannot hear it over the noise! What kind of rinky-dink operation is that Microsoft Office Garage video series anyway? Don't they know anything about microphones and ambient noise levels? Very unprofessional. As best as I can tell, Mark is somehow involved with "security" for Office products. What a waste. Give him Sinofsky's job, not those two under-achievers whose only claim to fame is the Office ribbon. :yes:

Anyway, we can add more items to the growing list of tactical and strategic mistakes from the incompetent Microsoft braintrust during the post-WinXP era, most of which are arrogant attacks on their loyal customers, and on their long respected professional reputation ...


  • Vista "Windows Ready" labeling controversy.
  • Insulting customers with Vista Mojave Project, 'You're doing it wrong'
  • Half-hearted Zune development and later cancellation
  • Almost flushing $45 Billion down the toilet on Yahoo!
  • Blowing $6+ Billion on aQuantive
  • Win7sp1 Browser Ballot screwup resulting in $700+ Million fine
  • Mindlessly changing well-known Logos for both "Microsoft" and "Windows"
  • Removing the Start Menu from Windows 8 CP, and not restoring it to RP or RTM despite worldwide criticism
  • Removing Aero Glass from Windows 8 RP, and not restoring it to RTM despite worldwide criticism
  • Including Metro on Server editions of Windows 8
  • Spreading the horrific flat colorless GUI across product lines including Visual Studio and Office
  • Radically altering various product EULAs to prevent customer lawsuits
  • Further ruining MSDN membership benefits
  • Metro naming fiasco conflicting with Germany-based Metro AG
  • Windows RT branding deception with ARM vs x86 Incompatibility
  • Windows 8 Mojave Project sequel, 'So easy, a child will show you how to use it'
  • High profile and unprofessional Scroogle campaign
  • Orwellian patent implies in-home spying with Kinect
  • Major changes to Office licensing affecting loyal customers
  • Significant Xbox rumors: Always-On, Always-Connected, DRM, no optical play, HDD installs only, Kinect required
  • Significant Xbox rumors: no resale of pre-owned, previous games not compatible, Xbox live security breach
  • EU and China Bribery Allegations
  • Selling out Chinese citizens through Skype collaboration with regime turning in customers using various keywords
  • Selling out American citizens complying with requests for customer information
  • Withdrawing Office 2010 leaving only the horrific Office 2013 available

EDIT: added article

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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CharlotteTheHarlot

CharlotteTheHarlot

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The Archos Gaming Tablet is Now For Sale ( Tom's Hardware 2013-03-22 )

Archos confirmed on Friday that its Android-based 7-inch gaming tablet, the Archos GamePad, is now shipping here in the States for $179 USD. This was the cool gadget we saw during CES 2013 back in January sporting a Sony-like PSP form factor, placing physical controls on each side of the screen.

WwJf4R2.jpg

More bad news for Microsoft. Just one drop of water from the coming tsunami of small form factor mobile devices. Mobile devices that make up that magic market that Microsoft desires to become a player in, so much so that they created Plan-A to Destroy Windows to gain entry. Their only presence here is in the fact that they are collecting royalty payments from most of these Android deployments from use of their so-called intellectual property, things like the ex-FAT file system. Problem for them, that gets them a few bucks but no marketshare.

StatCounter: Windows 8 now installed on 3.77 percent of PCs that surf the web ( NeoWin 2013-03-20 )

Microsoft defends Windows RT, fails to answer criticisms ( The Verge 2013-03-22 )

Evernote, Box executives warn developers not to avoid Windows platforms ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 )

Intel vs. Microsoft: was Windows RT a mistake? ( The Verge 2013-03-21 )

Microsoft defends Windows RT, says it'll get better with time ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft defends Windows RT as necessary disruption ( CNet 2013-03-22 )

Microsoft Comes Out in Defense of Windows RT ( Thurrott 2013-03-22 )

Let me summarize some of the commenters at the articles: Move along. Nothing to see here. All is good. What me worry? Don't worry, be happy!

"iWatch" could come with iOS and make Apple $6 billion a year, says analyst ( NeoWin 2013-03-08 )

Samsung is making a smartwatch ( NeoWin 2013-03-19 )

Google joining the party, reportedly making a smartwatch ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 )

9rptvS5.jpg

If history is a guide, Microsoft should notice this market in approximately 5 years :lol: In the meantime they will continue chasing the previous fads of cellphones and tablets and continue to Destroy Windows against all advice.

EDIT: updated image URLs

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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vinifera

vinifera

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the RC 3 of "Blue" leaked

I find it hilarious that in install UI they still use AERO glassy controls and rounded corners

yet they push still that fugly flat UI as main

some s***ty contradiction there

Edited by vinifera
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JorgeA

JorgeA

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the RC 3 of "Blue" leaked

I find it hilarious that in install UI they still use AERO glassy controls and rounded corners

yet they push still that fugly flat UI as main

some s***ty contradiction there

Thanks for letting us know! :thumbup

WinBeta has a whole series of articles on the leaked build (9 when I wrote this), including a video:

Looks like the Desktop is still alive in that version. Check out the hideous purple+green combo at about 2:25. They must have hired 3-year-olds to select their color scheme.

--JorgeA

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CharlotteTheHarlot

CharlotteTheHarlot

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Windows Blue Leaks! ( Thurrott 2013-03-24 )

Windows Blue leaks online, includes smaller Live Tiles, new side-by-side Snap Views, and IE 11 ( The Verge 2013-03-24 )

Windows Blue build 9364 shows smaller & larger Tiles, better multi-tasking and more ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

Windows Blue build 9364 leaked to the internet ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

From The Forums: Reactions to the Windows Blue build leak ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

Windows Blue (build 9364) installation screenshots ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

And it is as barf-worthy as ever ...

r1oTCGq.jpg

How about this. NeoWin shows us a Metro Calculator app, That's right a full screen calculator which on my screen winds up at 20" across, hehe :lol: ...

OIXrcmY.jpgrotflmao.gif

The comments at all the articles are beyond pathetic. They are plumbing the depths of zealotry now. Countless MetroTards are besides themselves with glee, temporarily reprieved from all the bad news in general about Windows 8, that they are vocally praising Microsoft for not back-pedaling on the destruction of the GUI and Windows itself. I was gonna quote a bunch of them, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Now hear this... Windows 8 Metro ... I hereby re-christen thee ... Windows Blew

P.S. I was still typing this while Jorge and vinifera posts appeared! I see he noticed the calculator too. :thumbup

EDIT: updated image URLs

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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CharlotteTheHarlot

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Canonical Teams With China to Create National OS ( Tom's Hardware 2013-03-24 )

"[CISP] has selected Canonical’s Ubuntu as the basis for that reference architecture in order to provide a flexible, open, widely-used and standardized operating system," the company said. "The announcement is part of the Chinese government’s five year plan to promote open source software and accelerate the growth of the open source ecosystem within China."

Ruh Roh :whistle: Only the post-WinXP Nu-Microsoft could have accomplished such a feat. They have made Windows 8 Metro Blew positively pirate proof! It sucks so bad that a billion+ potential customer market would rather go Linux than buying or stealing their Playskool Toy Edition. :lol:

IE11 to appear as Firefox to avoid legacy IE CSS ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

This is a new fact discovered from the MSIE v11 included in the Windows 8 Blew leaked build. MSIE will report itself as Mozilla, allegedly to thwart browser sniffing that serves up CSS style sheets designed to kludge away ancient mistakes in MSIE v6. There are too many levels of irony and boomerang karma here to describe.

But here's a thought. Next thing they're gonna tell us is ...

  • Windows 8 is actually reporting itself as Windows 7
  • Windows ReTard Edition is actually reporting itself as Android
  • WP8 is actually reporting itself as iOS

... all in order to explain away the epic fail that they all have brought down upon themselves. :lol:

Bill Gates wants to help make a new and better condom ( NeoWin 2013-03-24 )

the foundation, through its Grand Challenges for Global Heath program, is offering a $100,000 grant to students, scientists or entrepreneurs to make a condom that "significantly preserves or enhances pleasure

No, it's not April Fool's Day, not yet. This is for real ( and heck, it is the weekend ).

But I was just thinking. If his goal is to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, why doesn't he just release Windows 8 to them for free. That should do the trick. All the customers will be too infuriated and confused to get busy. :yes:

EDIT: typo

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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