Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[submix8c]

Interesting thread - (see last post).

www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1112185-msfn-forumite-calls-neowin-fanboy-central/

One wonders why there's an affiliation on our Main Forum page when clearly RyanVM is affiliated... Even Wincert is more useful.

(apologies for interjection - stumbledupon)

[JorgeA]

submix8c,

Welcome to this discussion! Not a problem you joining in.

Can you elaborate on what you said? I'm not sure what RyanVM has to do with our main forum page OR that neowin thread. (I'm probably missing something here.)

--JorgeA

[submix8c]

Didn't read that page fully? Seems they don't like us much, especially "Charlotte". I had done a Google

msfn site:neowin.net

to show another user how "useful" they now are (not very). Doing the reverse yields a lot as well. My point being, since "Charlotte" popped on them about being "Windows 8 Fanboys", I thought I would chirp in about it. Funny, they look to US for Win8 "fixes" too, not to mention MANY other tools, tips, (etc). Seems our website is NOT to be discussed over there (note the LAST post and topic LOCKED).

Just funny that the REAL techie sites (like RVM, MSFN) get the recognition, but not "high hit counts" but Fanboy Websites do.

Oh, well, who cares - found an MSFN thread that basically said (sic) "ignore them - they send non-Fanboys to us". (Main Forum "Affiliated" - no RVM...)

P.S. I have no burning desire for Win8/2012 - have only "battled" (de-trojan'ed) someone else' Win7 so far (will go for that one or maybe 2k8).

Edited March 11, 2013 by submix8c

[ricktendo]

I am neither a Windows 8 fanboy nor a frequent visitor to neowin and I also cant stand CharlotteTheHarlot

STFU troll

[HalloweenDocument12]

[JorgeA]

Didn't read that page fully? Seems they don't like us much, especially "Charlotte". I had done a Google

msfn site:neowin.net

to show another user how "useful" they now are (not very). Doing the reverse yields a lot as well. My point being, since "Charlotte" popped on them about being "Windows 8 Fanboys", I thought I would chirp in about it. Funny, they look to US for Win8 "fixes" too, not to mention MANY other tools, tips, (etc). Seems our website is NOT to be discussed over there (note the LAST post and topic LOCKED).

Just funny that the REAL techie sites (like RVM, MSFN) get the recognition, but not "high hit counts" but Fanboy Websites do.

Oh, well, who cares - found an MSFN thread that basically said (sic) "ignore them - they send non-Fanboys to us". (Main Forum "Affiliated" - no RVM...)

P.S. I have no burning desire for Win8/2012 - have only "battled" (de-trojan'ed) someone else' Win7 so far (will go for that one or maybe 2k8).

[trying to de-escalate...]

Yeah, I did read the thread but what threw me was the part about "RyanVM." I'd never heard of this (him? it?) and it sounded like somebody's nickname, so when you mentioned it I went looking for a "RyanVM" in that Neowin thread to see what they had said about us. (I didn't have a clear idea of the affiliation thing, either.) Of course I didn't find anybody posting under that name, which left me confused. Now I know better.

Thanks for explaining.

--JorgeA

P.S. For the record, I enjoy and value Charlotte's frequent, in-depth, and incisive reporting/analysis.

Edited March 12, 2013 by JorgeA

[HalloweenDocument12]

Yeah, I did read the thread but what threw me was the part about "RyanVM." I'd never heard of this (him? it?)

RyanVM was one of the major Windows XP deployment products associated with MSFN, along with nLite and HFSLIP. Until this thread, I didn't associate MSFN with anything else.

Edited March 12, 2013 by HalloweenDocument12

[submix8c]

@ricktendo -

Dude! Chill! Like/dislike anyone you want!

I just found it "interesting reading". The posts weren't MEANT for anything else. They DO have a tendency to knock any other Forum - and NOT just a "single user". Google told me that.

Personally, I frequent what I consider "useful" Forums, almost exclusively this one. Others are Reboot, RVM, Wincert ,(etc) - you know, those that HELP you with CORRECT info and nifty tools/tips.

The POINT was the hateful attitude found over at neowin. (paraphrased example - "HAHA! MSFN doesn't have news on their front page like WE do!" Childish, yes?) Indeed, at ONE point in time on MSFN "neowin = <<spam>>" and vice-versa. (see last comment on the given link before it was locked for attitude example).

Google

msfn spam site:neowin.net

and the filter was (as at MSFN) finally removed. Who knows (and who really cares) what the "deal" was?

I've already (troll) posted in this Topic already as follows -

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1000896

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1001207

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1001636

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1001845

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1002366

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1028206

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=155290&view=findpost&p=1029243

It SEEMS as if you may have misinterpreted my post comment based upon the content of yours. Please be so kind as to not take such offense. Personally, I admire your expertise and have learned a few things from you and thank you for it.

Until such time I actually encounter Windows 8 "hands on" I guess I'll just bow out.

[Formfiller]

This thread just derailed since it got moved.

Good job.

[HalloweenDocument12]

Maybe some new material is needed. How about a little discussed venture: the retiring of Hotmail and rolling the assets into Outlook.com? Even if it is objectively better, why destroy the legendary Hotmail branding? It's amazing how strong Hotmail continued to be given how each of the last half dozen interface revisions was worse than what proceeded it. Microsoft's "hide the buttons" flat look seen in Office 2013 started here.

Hotmail

Outlook.com

Outlook.com looks like yet another Hotmail interface revision, so why the rename? It's not like Outlook is well known outside of business, especially since the killing of Outlook Express in 2006, and both Outlook and OE, where known, are strongly associated with local software. Outlook.com looks like neither but bears a striking resemblance to what Hotmail has become the past few years.

Maybe at least they'll fix it so that the delete button doesn't move around depending on which folder you're in. It's been years and I still can't find it without effort. In fact, pretty much all the buttons rearrange with each different view.

I think this may surprise some, but if Gmail ever caught up to Hotmail and Yahoo! it happened in the past few months:

Email and webmail statistics

As the article mentions, it's likely that Gmail was able to catch up by forcing Gmail registration on Android devices. Gmail is also a popular authentication mechanism. It's probably more prevalent in this area than Passport and OpenID. Facebook is an even bigger authenticator, though.

[HalloweenDocument12]

There's also the shutting down of MSN Messenger and rolling everything into Skype. Why bother? Why not just let MSN die a slow death like ICQ did? The way they're doing it is probably more expensive than the slow death method, and the remaining users, estimated to be about 30% of MSN's peak, are likely the lowest value assuming Microsoft is looking for people who are tech hip and have disposable income. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure most of those remaining users are in China because Microsoft is keeping the service active there.

I really don't think people are going to start buying Skype credits just because they were forced over from MSN. It's really confusing, too, since they're doing this at the same time as the Outlook.com move. You can sign into Skype with your MSN ID, but it's going to be @outlook.com now or soon instead of @hotmail.com (or @msn.com or @passport.com assuming those still work).

Edit: I forgot until after this posting that AOL had more or less rolled ICQ into AIM after its acquisition so the comparison isn't so great. However, IM was still very much "in" when this was done and was probably at its peak, so the landscape was much different.

Edited March 12, 2013 by HalloweenDocument12

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

- sympathy snip -

Rick clearly just forgot the sarc tag there.

Or maybe he was referring to my handle here. There are couple of better songs on the 1st Iron Maiden album. I tried for both Phantom Of The Opera and Prowler but I believe they were already taken.

[JorgeA]

This thread just derailed since it got moved.

Good job.

Yeah, at the very least the move caused a hiccup in the discussion as some people dropped out in anger and others saw that the thread was locked (if only for a few hours, as it turned out).

Most (AFAIK) of those who dropped out in anger are now back. With any luck, the discussion will slowly keep getting back on track. Just before typing this, I saw that we had 26 people reading the thread. EDIT: 37 after submitting this post. (of course, not specifically because I posted, but because people decided to come see what's up)

And then OTOH, spring is in the air and the weather outside's getting nice.

--JorgeA

Edited March 12, 2013 by JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Interesting thread - (see last post).

www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1112185-msfn-forumite-calls-neowin-fanboy-central/

One wonders why there's an affiliation on our Main Forum page when clearly RyanVM is affiliated... Even Wincert is more useful.

(apologies for interjection - stumbledupon)

Didn't read that page fully? Seems they don't like us much, especially "Charlotte". I had done a Google

msfn site:neowin.net

to show another user how "useful" they now are (not very). Doing the reverse yields a lot as well. My point being, since "Charlotte" popped on them about being "Windows 8 Fanboys", I thought I would chirp in about it. Funny, they look to US for Win8 "fixes" too, not to mention MANY other tools, tips, (etc). Seems our website is NOT to be discussed over there (note the LAST post and topic LOCKED).

Yeah, FormFiller mentioned it back around Post #1722. I would have brought that thread up back in October if it had kept on going but a moderator over there locked it up quickly. I think one of them thought they were being clever trying to flush out my NeoWin handle.

Note that around that same time one of the mods here politely and correctly asked us to stop using that term so we all made this "concession" because we really don't want to stoop way down to their very low level ( although everyone using that phrase is really only referring to that vocal minority of children anyway, not the entire NeoWin site obviously ).

[JorgeA]

An Ars Technica reviewer isn't bowled over by the touch feature in a new Windows 8 Ultrabook:

Practically speaking, it's hard to get used to integrating the touch screen into a work flow, especially when the touchpad, buttons, and even Lenovo's characteristic touchpoint are within closer reach than the screen. These aspects are just easier to use for the relatively small desktop elements (moving, resizing, closing windows, opening applications). The only time I felt myself compelled to swipe was when waking up the computer and needing to get through the lock screen, which needs to be swiped or pulled away. The gesture is easier with a swipe, but so long as I'm not dealing with the metro interface, the existence of the touch screen has no bearing on my use.

And, echoing something we've pointed out before, the additional hardware cost for touch capability is brought into question:

The Ugly

Touch premium cost is a little hard to stomach when it has no compelling use case

Once again (and again, as we've said here before), the OEM shows that it has a better handle than does MSFT on end users' needs and preferences, by including its own Start Menu replacement.

--JorgeA

Edited March 12, 2013 by JorgeA