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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-9-build-9319-spotted-in-the-wild-kernel-gets-bumped-to-63 "Windows 9 build 9319 spotted in the wild, kernel gets bumped to 6.3Windows 9 build 9319 spotted in the wild, kernel gets bumped to 6.3" ...bwhahhahahha... Windows 8 is sooo bad, I think they started to talk about Windows 9 to prevent a disaster perhaps.
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http://www.pcpro.co....-of-british-pcs "Windows 7 still being sold on up to 93% of British PCs"

"When Windows 8 was first released, as per Microsoft's requests, we sold our systems with Windows 8," said Redford, who thought it would "soon become the standard".

Customers struggle to find their way around. I've had a few people ask why Microsoft didn't include a tutorial.

His customers quickly began to specify systems with Windows 7, and said Windows 8 customers "took delivery and wanted to change back to Windows 7" – a process Redford described as a "nightmare".

Edited by ciHnoN
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http://www.pcpro.co....-of-british-pcs "Windows 7 still being sold on up to 93% of British PCs"

Another pertinent couple of quotes from that article:

Another [spokesman for a different company] said: "[Microsoft] has blamed system builders – but it's out of touch, and doesn't understand that our customers are savvy" with regards to the new OS.

Good to know that not everyone is a sheep eager to accept whatever they're given. MS may have understimated its customer base. And they're still casting about for anyone to blame other than themselves.

A Microsoft spokesman said: "Windows 8 has sold 60 million licences to date, and this represents the cumulative sales of Windows 8 including upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices."

The spokesman added that Windows 8 is following "a similar sales trajectory" to Windows 7.

For how long have they been touting that same 60 miliion figure now? And the last sentence we know to be false. Win7 took off steeply at once and never looked back. Win8 -- umm, not so much.

--JorgeA

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Paul Thurrott having an identity crisis:

[...]

My personal guess ist that deep down he doesn't like W8, but needs to praise it to keep his gig. He's incapable to run this charade at all time though.

I get the same sense. Thurrott's view of Windows 8 seems to turn around 180 degrees unpredictably, and then he makes up for his negative assessments by being especially shrill when in a positive phase.

--JorgeA

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For how long have they been touting that same 60 miliion figure now?

That stuck out to me, too. It's been about 43 days:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852252/microsoft-windows-8-60-million-licenses

The implications of this are pretty extreme. This means that every channel is oversupplied: OEM, system builder, retail, etc. and that Windows 8 is not a success on ANY front if they cannot move any incremental quantity in a month and a half. Is Microsoft allowed to sell to itself to generate this number, i.e. from the "Windows Team" to the "Distribution Team", or are these licenses literally sitting around at the likes of Dell, Newegg, and Best Buy? If the latter is true retailers must be freaking out. Commodities like Windows are supposed to move quickly, not sitting around tying up cash. Another possibility is that Microsoft accepted returns and, while technically true, the 60 million number is misleading.

EDIT:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/oh-come-microsoft-60-million-copies-of-windows-8-210442

Right now we have three official data points for Windows 8 license sales.

On Oct. 31, 2012, just days after Windows 8 hit General Availability, Steve Ballmer was quoted at the Build conference as saying that "tens of millions" of copies of Windows 8 had shipped to hardware manufacturing partners, and "more than 4 million upgrade copies" had been sold. If we take him at his word, Microsoft sold at least 24 million copies of Windows 8 that first fateful weekend.

Tami Reller told us in a speech at Credit Suisse on Nov. 27, 2012 that Microsoft had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses. Then on Jan. 8, she said the number was up to 60 million. In her Nov. 27 speech, Reller gave zero details about what she meant by "sold Windows licenses." In the more recent speech (transcript), she said, "t's similar to -- it's identical, in fact, to how we talked about Windows 7 licenses. So it's OEMs. It's sell-in to OEMs for new PCs as well as upgrades. So, it's upgrades and OEM licenses."

Edited by HalloweenDocument12
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Maybe "60 million" is Microsoft's default answer to everything:

http://newyork.newsday.com/business/technology/microsoft-outlook-com-gains-60m-users-some-from-gmail-1.4671107

Microsoft Corp. said its free Outlook.com Web-based e-mail service has gained 60 million active users in its first six months, with a third of those switching from Google Inc.'s Gmail.

I guess next month we'll hear about Windows Phone gaining 60 million users since October.

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The amount of memory commonly installed was the worst part. 128 MB was just becoming the standard, and 64 was the budget option. That's a pathetic amount of memory for XP but it was a lot for Windows 98. K-6s were still around and not all of them used SDRAM or they had some hybrid system of SDRAM and EDO. Most people with 256 MB or more RAM were building their own.

I remember being mystified at how slowly PC specs rose to meet demand during this period. What we should have seen was a jump in RAM spec from 64-128 to 256-512 but instead it increased at the same pace as if a dramatic change in computer operation didn't happen. RAM was cheap back then, too. Even the "premium" computers cheaped out on RAM. It was very strange.

Absolutely spot on. I was reminiscing about this very thing in the Happy Birthday XP thread.

You are exactly right about RAM. With 128 MB SDRAM it was torture. Lots of machines had 3 DIMM slots so they might get 128, 256, or 384. If you could afford a couple of matched 256 SDRAM DIMMs ( once they became available ) it was worth it. In my opinion, at that time Windows XP needed 512 just to be able to manage the interface and themes while staying out of disk swapping. If you left disk indexing on and system restore it ate up whatever headroom you had left. Add in the 3rd party AV and assorted crapware and things could not possibly have been worse in 2001. In a sense, this is what gave Win9x a 2nd wind because it positively flew on computers from 2001-2004.

I see Windows XP as having three distinct eras or lifetimes. The RTM era on the horrible hardware of 2001 ( a nightmare ), then another around 2004 when we got well into 3+ GHz single-core processors and DDR-1 and SATA I and USB 2 ( brute force horsepower ), and the "Golden Era" of 2006-present era when the Core2 gave those of us using them a huge boost. XP could be maxed out with 4 GB DDR-2 and 3+GHz Core2 and SATA II on pretty amazing motherboards.

While it has always been true that using the previous Microsoft Windows was much better performance than whatever was currently released ( that is until 7 and 8 ), it was never clearer than in the Windows XP days. What that writer says about Windows 8 being restrained by hardware is beyond nonsensical. He has no idea what under-powered means.

EDIT: typos

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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Microsoft offers clarity on Office 2013 and Office 365 install rights ( NeoWin 2013-02-19 )

Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER. Can't be transferred, even to yourself ( UK Register 2013-02-20 )

Microsoft says Office 2013 licensing is nothing new, but it's a price hike in disguise ( TechSpot 2013-02-20 )

And yet another amazingly arrogant and insulting stunt! Do you believe this? Microsoft responds to the criticism by saying: "Office 2010 had the same limitations" :blink: That's an answer? "We screwed you in the past and you didn't complain then so why are you complaining now? Shut up and let us screw you some more!" Sounds almost political. But get this, if you read the article and look at the chart they are comparing it to Office 2010 PKC Edition ( Wait, what? ), this PKC Edition is apparently a low-budget media-less distribution that no-one is even thinking about. These guys cannot even admit or acknowledge any mistake, ever! Deception and Obfuscation, that's the new paradigm. Welcome to our

.

Going Pro: Surface Pen. With Surface Pen, it's 2002 all over again ( Thurrott 2013-02-19 )

Surface Pen also includes a unique magnetic latch that lets you “clip” the pen to the side of the Surface, using the power supply connector. This works OK, I guess, but it has a couple of ramifications. First, it means you can’t connect the power supply and pen at the same time. And second, it means there is no way to insert the pen into Surface Pro, as is the case on virtually all other Tablet PCs (and Windows 8-era devices with electromagnetic pens, including the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T). So you’re going to lose this pen. It’s just a matter of time.

Paul Thurrott with another installment in his ongoing milking of the Surface Pro release. He confirms something I noticed a while back ( Post #1746 ), a really silly compromise where Microsoft chose to simply let the pen attach magnetically to the side, rather then build in a simple slot so that the thing cannot possibly get lost. I hate that kind of compromise. It is the little things that signify quality, paying attention to details. Tsk Tsk.

Rumor: Google Preparing to Open Retail Stores ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-19 )

For First Time Ever, Google Stock Surpasses $800 ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-19 )

These two stories should do wonders for MicroZealot self-esteem :lol: Now we might see some shopping malls with all three stores side-by-side, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, with a wonderful opportunity for real journalism with video recordings of customer demand. iPad vs Nexus vs Surface. Apple-eny and Google-envy FTW.

EDIT: clarity, added more links

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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Microsoft offers clarity on Office 2013 and Office 365 install rights ( NeoWin 2013-02-19 )

And yet another amazingly arrogant and insulting stunt! Do you believe this? Microsoft responds to the criticism by saying: "Office 2010 had the same limitations" :blink: That's an answer? "We screwed you in the past and you didn't complain then so why are you complaining now? Shut up and let us screw you some more!" Sounds almost political. But get this, if you read the article and look at the chart they are comparing it to Office 2010 PKC Edition ( Wait, what? ), this PKC Edition is apparently a low-budget media-less distribution that no-one is even thinking about. These guys cannot even admit or acknowledge any mistake, ever! Deception and Obfuscation, that's the new paradigm. Welcome to our

...

That is not only deception and obfuscation... it is also filthy, nasty, disgusting, rotten, ugly, vile and repulsive.

Brave New World... one of my all time favorite albums. :thumbup

Edited by ciHnoN
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Bill Gates discusses Steve Ballmer's leadership role, mobile mistake ( TechSpot 2013-02-18 )

Bill Gates 'Not Satisfied' With Microsoft's Innovations ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-19 )

Bill Gates calls for more innovation at Microsoft after past mobile 'mistake' ( The Verge 2013-02-18 )

Bill Gates admits Microsoft made "a mistake" in the smartphone business ( NeoWin 2013-02-18 )

Bill Gates Rips Microsoft’s Mobile Strategy, Not Windows Phone (Thurrott 2013-02-19 )

The Internet is once again flooded with stories of a softball interview by pretend journalists complete with jolly publicity photos ...

2013-02-18-image-6.pngbillgatescbs_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg

I pretty much stopped the reading at this highly publicized quote, which is obviously easy to nitpick ...

“There are a lot of things—like cell phones—where we didn’t get out in the lead very early,” he said. “We didn’t miss cell phones, but the way we went about it didn’t allow us to get the leadership. It’s clearly a mistake.”

... especially the bolded part, what lead would that be? But why bother. The interview is another publicity stunt, to paint a happy face on the tumult that surrounds Microsoft, an alleged Wall Street behemoth.

Amazingly, Thurrott is the only tech journalist that takes him on, criticizing him more than usual in his article. Most of the other sites give him way to much deference as some kind of pioneer. Yes, Gates was a pioneer all right, but it is pretty much limited to being a business pioneer, the youngest billionaire at that time. I'm embarrassed now to think back to the early 1980's when us techies were the only people that knew his name and we often retold the legend of Gates herculean programming feat of writing out BASIC for the Altair on a yellow legal pad in his hotel room while Allen waited and then finally entered it in via toggle switches and it immediately worked. These days I'm starting to think we were had, that the story is apocryphal ( although here is one possible confirmation ), and that he never really was one of us ( programmers ) at all. How could he be while watching the core Microsoft developer tools and Windows itself morph into a childish Playskool pale reflection of their former selves? This is not to say that Microsoft has no business creating and selling childish Playskool products in their own right, of course they should do this, they have always done this. But who on Earth would obliterate their non-Playskool products intentionally? ~sigh~

So you get a chance to interview one of the richest and most powerful people on Earth who just happens to be the founder of Microsoft, so what do you ask him? Anything of consequence? No. Just fluff. Just softballs. Ridiculous! The guy is Chairman of the Board at Microsoft and has responsibilities to at least the shareholders ( but much more than that in reality ), their company is NASDAQ listed, it is a DJIA and S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 component. It is present in countless stock funds and trusts and is capable of moving the markets through success and mistakes alike. For a decade the company has had controversy surrounding it and most importantly, it is responsible for the operating system for 700 million or 1.3 billion or whatever computers on planet Earth. If it were up to me he would be waterboarded for answers, not given a cozy interview like a movie star.

So, just in case there are any real journalists left out there, here are a list of admittedly loaded questions for the next time the Pope grants you an audience ...


  • Exactly who are the people responsible for radical changes to the Windows GUI? Who green-lit the removal of the 17 year old Start Menu and making the default GUI the Metro Start Screen? Why was it not left as an option? Are you Bill Gates even vaguely aware of the controversy of the past year and a half? Was this a plan to force the people into the Metro interface and assimilate them into the "reimagined" Microsoft ecosystem? Is this ethical in your opinion or is it a monopolistic attempt at converting the captive Windows user base into a future Apple-esque locked-down walled-garden business model? Does Microsoft have the right to do this without having any real competition on the field as an alternative? Would Microsoft agree to spin-off the Windows division, ( who allegedly produce a neutral platform available to all developers ) to a firewalled separate entity? Would Microsoft ever consider simply releasing the "legacy" x86 Windows source code and related patents to the community to prevent further accusations of anti-competitive behavior?
  • Is Microsoft, which has supplied the operating system for 90% or more of the all the computers on Earth now modifying and capitalizing on this allegedly neutral business? Is it ethical to first monopolize such a huge percentage of the core component in all computers, eliminating all competition, clearing the playing field and then suddenly switch gears converting that platform into a facilitator for a Microsoft eco-system?
  • How is it possible for the Windows "platform" to obsolete software that worked in previous versions of the Windows "platform"? Does this not defeat the entire concept of a software platform or an operating system? Who specifically decided that backwards compatibility can be sacrificed? Is planned obsolescence now the de facto business plan? Do you have a separate definition for an operating system and for software, or are they now interchangeable? What significance to you Bill Gates place on backward compatibility?
  • Is Microsoft officially transitioning to an exit of the retail software business and moving to subscription based services?
  • Over twelve years ago you introduced "Activation" in Microsoft products, which instead of reducing privacy has popularized and reinvigorated it. Meanwhile legitimate owners rarely if ever get actual install media and are usually stuck with recovery partitions that obviously die along with a dead HDD and have no legal way to download replacement ISOs to this very day. Why do you not maintain a server open to all customers that archives setup distributions for all products? Since they are "Activation" based what could possibly be the harm in this? Is it because you have anticipated that some customers will just say "Screw It" and buy another copy instead of finding a setup distribution? Do you consider it ethical to leave paying customers in a lurch when their computer dies or gets stolen?
  • Bill, just what is it with this childish, petty and very public feud with Google? Was this authorized by you or the board of directors? Do you support it or disagree with it? Who hired that DC political hack to run this operation? Is financing a controversial attack campaign a wise use of company resources? What do you have to say about Ballmer's famous Google outburst: "He threw a chair against the wall. “F*cking Eric Schmidt is a f*cking p*ssy!” Ballmer yelled, according to the court document. “I’m going to f*cking bury that guy! I have done it before and I will do it again. I’m going to f*cking kill Google.” ? Are you looking forward to the inevitable retaliation where Google might mention Bing was using Google search results or criticize Microsoft for simply copying-pasting every single thing that Apple and Google does?
  • What's with all the sudden Draconian anti-consumer EULA changes on so many different Microsoft products? Changes that thwart class-action lawsuits, reduce privileges for developers on MSDN and Technet, and severely restrict use of purchased software to as few as one given computer even if it dies or gets stolen? Are you looking forward to yet another round of FTC and Court scrutiny and heavy fines and penalization? How exactly do you Bill Gates, and Microsoft itself actually view your customers? Do they own the software that they spend so much money on? Do you really want to force them to buy another expensive copy if their computer dies or gets stolen? Do consumers have any rights in your opinion?
  • Why was Steven Sinofsky fired? Was this authorized by you Bill Gates and the board of directors? Sinofsky was absolute head of Windows and the main driver for the reimagining of the company's most important software products so there must have been a very good reason. Was he in conflict with Ballmer? Did he do something wrong? Did he destroy Windows too badly or not enough? Do you think that stockholders deserve an explanation when something of this magnitude occurs at such a high-profile public company?
  • Do you believe Steve Ballmer is an adequate CEO and public face for Microsoft? Does he ever embarrass you or other Board members? Is it true that Board of Directors at Microsoft are a hand-picked rubber-stamp committee subordinate to the the CEO and Chairman? Who actually has final say on controversial issues? Is there a vote? Do any controversial issues ever reach the Boardroom? Did they get to vote on the radical changes to the Windows GUI? Are they aware of the worldwide controversy? Did the Board approve of the $45 billion offer to acquire Yahoo? Did you approve this? Do you now feel lucky that Yahoo rejected it? Is Microsoft planning a stock buyback or a move to go private again? Are there any plans to return the many tens of billions in cash to shareholders in bonus dividends?

Well those are the questions that I would ask :lol: I'm sure there are many more others will think of, those just happened to flood right out once I started writing them.

EDIT: typos

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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Microsoft offers clarity on Office 2013 and Office 365 install rights ( NeoWin 2013-02-19 )

These guys cannot even admit or acknowledge any mistake, ever! Deception and Obfuscation, that's the new paradigm. Welcome to our

.

Oh, well. All too familiar.

Here evildictaitor even denials the (obvious) demise of XNA:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/What-is-happening-with-XNA

That guy is very close to MS, as you can see here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Microsoft-spoof?page=2

I am pretty sure that his stance reflects the corporate policy of this "nu Microsoft" thing very very well. Because all their public mudslinging now was visible prior in his posts. Thus he's a valuable insight (and one reason why I still dabble there). Apparently, the internal mantra at MS currently is "Whatever we do it's going to be unpopular, so we might as well do X" and "haters gonna hate".

Here's the relevent quote from EvilD: (I don't agree with him of course, but I think it illustrates the current thinking at MS)

You might think that, but it's the prevailing attitude in Redmond. I routinely hear PMs say stuff like "Whatever we do it's going to be unpopular, so we might as well do X", or dismissing concerns as "haters gonna hate". The bit that's not funny is that whilst some journalists and commentators seem to have enjoyed Microsoft-baiting - indeed it's commonplace for developers to assume that Microsoft is evil and that their software is terrible - that this leads to worse products for them in the end.

How many people have been online saying "Oh, actually Microsoft, Metro has some really nice apps, like Fruit Ninja, like the Bing news reader app, and the videos app - that's actually pretty neat" compared with how many people have just spread FUD by stating that it's the end of the Desktop, that not having a button in the bottom left is "so unintuitive as to make the OS unusable" or that "there is no demand for Metro".

And what percentage of people condemning Windows8 have actually used it on real hardware?

Exactly. It's almost a competitive sport online to see who can hate at Microsoft the most. And people wonder why Microsoft doesn't listen.

If you refuse to give Microsoft credit for the stuff they do right, they'll not pay attention to you when you complain when stuff is wrong. That's human nature. If you complain constantly, people tune you out.

Charlotte, you've wrote here here that Ballmer cracked. I agree. It appears that it went even further and Microsoft collectively cracked, maybe indeed in part because of the media favoring Linux, Google and then Apple. So they decided to wage war against everyone, even the consumers.

If you want to know how Microsoft's PR will behave in the future, read those two linked Channel9 threads. Short version: Expect even more obfuscation.

Edited by Formfiller
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-dell-earnings-idUSBRE91I17F20130220

Dell's worldwide PC shipments fell nearly 21 percent to 9.48 million in the last three months of 2012 from 11.97 million in the same period a year ago, according to IDC.

Ho hum, maybe it has something to do with WIndows 8? The amazon bestseller listings are pretty obvious. Even refurbished P4s with Windows XP sell better. Man, even DOS devices sell better!

One would think this would tell the CEOs something.. apparently not. But even let's tout strictly the party-line and assume W8 had nothing to do with it, and it's really all just because of tablets.. wasn't Windows 8 supposed to repair this? PC sales are tanking more than ever, and W8 tablets are flopping even harder. So even if we go strictly by the party-line argumentation, EVEN THEN W8 IS A FAILURE.

Edited by Formfiller
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So, I would like Outlook to use Opera when opening URLs... check out this beauty... I am only allowed to either "Keep using Internet Explorer" or "Look for an App in store" ...Windows 8 locked prison:

( It is for my own safety of course. Silly me. Here I was thinking it was my PC rather than Microsoft's PC.) :ph34r:

win8locked.png

jailed-windows-rt.png

Edited by ciHnoN
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