[Formfiller]

Since the price increase for W8 on Amazon, it fell completely from the sales radar:

http://www.amazon.co...zgbs/software#1

Windows 7 is now at position 11 (Home Premium System Builder, $91.17), followed by Windows Home Premium retail at position 37 ($167.02).

Windows 8 is at position 40! (W8 Professional System Builder, $110.99), followed by the W8 Pro upgrade at 41 (the one that sold for cheap).

This post has been edited by Formfiller: 07 February 2013 - 06:58 AM

[ciHnoN]

Formfiller, on 07 February 2013 - 06:55 AM, said:

Since the price increase for W8 on Amazon, it fell completely from the sales radar:

http://www.amazon.co...zgbs/software#1

Windows 7 is now at position 11 (Home Premium System Builder, $91.17), followed by Windows Home Premium retail at position 37 ($167.02).
Windows 8 is at position 40! (W8 Professional System Builder, $110.99), followed by the W8 Pro upgrade at 41 (the one that sold for cheap).

It's even on "sale!"

Quote

List Price: $176.85

Price: $110.99

You Save: $65.86 (37%)

COME'ON COME'ON HURRY UP... THIS STUFF IS GOOD! *sounding like a salesman from 1920s*
hahaha

This post has been edited by ciHnoN: 07 February 2013 - 07:18 AM

[Formfiller]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on 06 February 2013 - 10:32 PM, said:

Microsoft Addresses Surface Pro Concerns ( Thurrott 2013-02-06 )

Oh, it's the creepy touch cover guy.

Who needs youporn when you have Touch Cover?

Actual quotes from him in the Surface presentation:

Quote

"When you touch, you wanna gonna hold it. I promise you"

"Nothing stirrs me more, nothing gets me more excited than Touch Cover!"

"My Surface knows what is connected to it"

"It also had to be a cover you wanted to connect. Something you always had with you, something that gave you confidence"

"You can't miss, we force you do not miss!"

"feels like a book, holds like book, organically like a book, carries like a book!" [Bookasm?]

"it just feels... perfect."

"you gonna fall in love with Touch Cover, I know I have. I am seriously in love with it, and besides my wife, Touch Cover is my number two. It's very important to me. I never want to take Touch Cover off."

"you never have to take it off, and underneath your fingertips.. it feels GREAT!"

"an experience like no other"

This post has been edited by Formfiller: 07 February 2013 - 10:26 AM

[Formfiller]

Oh, just fond out about this one:

http://www.brentozar...ensing-changes/

SQL Server 2012 licensing got goofed up too (heavy price hike).

Gotta love that. It's funny. Now that MS got some serious competition, what do they do? Raise prices! Across the board: Servers, Office, consumer hardware (Windows Notebooks are now more expensive than they were a year ago).

Good job. I've never seen a company raising prices of all their products in a competitive situation like this. They are behaving under siege WORSE than they did in the monopoly times. Are they crazy?

Ironically, this new Microsoft sucks far more than the old ebill "monopoly" MS ever did.

Monopoly (90s) MS was vicious with the competition, but it was a fair deal for the customers (Mac back then crashed as much as Windows 9x did btw, and Netscape 4.0 wasn't exactly a marvel of engineering), while this "nu Microsoft" hipsterama is all about setting the customers themselves up (W8, forced Office subscription and forced MS account-nag everywhere)

Anyway, I sure as hell won't ever rent Office, they can suck it. Libre Office is, unfortunately, still a pile of freetard dung, but I would rather use that than signing up for Microsoft's extortion scheme. They are not luring by increasing value, but by making the traditional Office licensing a hassle - non transferable licensing (with the retail version! If you motherboard gets damaged, you need to pay the full price for Office again), one PC only licensing (Office 2010 allowed one install on the desktop PC, and one install on your laptop. That's gone with Office 2013), massive price hike (Home and Student 2010 was installable on 3 PCs for 125$, you need to pay three times as much with 2013).

They know fully well that no one would sign-up for Office 365 if the old licensing was still in place.

And Windows 8 - well, everything has been said about this guy.

The other *wanna-be Office replacements have still not attained full compatibility with the MS Office file format, so if you have complex MS Office documents, you still need the software. A software that got a massive price hike. It's funny - now that they ARE harming the customers with a true monopoly situation (instead of other corps) there is no DOJ and no EU to the rescue. I guess that's because there is no bribe money involved this time.

I for one won't upgrade beyond Windows 7 and Office 2010 until they are completely out of life support. And I had absolutely no problems with MS and their products until they went into self-destruct mode in 2011.

*After some testing, it appears that Softmaker (http://www.softmaker.com) has far better compatibility than Libre/Open Office by the way. If you need a MS Office replacement, try that.

Well, I am sorry for the "colorful" langauge. I needed to vent off.

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 07 February 2013 - 04:07 PM

[TELVM]

The Most Honest Windows 8 Criticism Comes From A Drunk

Spoiler

[Tripredacus]

Formfiller, on 07 February 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Well, I am sorry for the "colorful" langauge. I needed to vent off.

Don't do it again.

[ciHnoN]

Formfiller, on 07 February 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

...Well, I am sorry for the "colorful" langauge. I needed to vent off.

Personally, I don't mind it at all. Windows 8 deserves worse.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

ComScore: Microsoft lost US smartphone market share in December 2012 ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 )



That is a quick spreadsheet I whipped up from the data in their chart ( NeoWin images have a bad habit of disappearing when embedded here ). This represents USA smartphone subscribers for 2012 in Q3 vs Q4. Most notable is that WP8 was for sale for 2/3 of that last quarter during the peak shopping season. The Blackberry of course was not yet available, and still isn't in the USA, so the comparative drops between WP and BB make sense. I would expect 2013 Q1 to be similar and by Q2 BB to start rising versus WP. There really is no way for Windows Phone to ever rise past 3rd place, but most likely the positions of 3rd to 5th or 6th place will be constantly in flux. The math department in Microsoft's front office needs serious work because it just does not add up. Destroying Windows was not called for by any possible reasonable projection for gaining marketshare. Also consider a few previous stories where it was noted that if you merely consider Nokia alone, Microsoft is even losing marketshare there within their very own handpicked surrogate ( "4.4 million Lumia smartphones were sold, along with 9.3 million Asha full-touch handsets and 2.2 million Symbian devices" ). Finally, what if Microsoft somehow took over all the slave labor factories in China and manufactured 150 million phones every quarter going forwards? ( remember: "Samsung sold about 62 million handsets in the quarter, compared with Apple’s 45 million" ). Well, the market would definitely hit saturation and race to the bottom where Microsoft cannot possibly compete for long without bleeding cash. So once again, who can possibly see a scenario where WP becomes anything other than a bit player, never gaining a position of strength enough to be profitable to justify the absolute reckless destruction of their lifeblood "Windows" brand?


Microsoft warns: "Don't get Scroogled by Gmail" ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 )

Hmmm. That is at least the 4th 5th story of this nature in short order ...

• Microsoft exec slams low Google+ interaction rate ( NeoWin 2013-02-01 )
  
• Microsoft's corporate PR head calls out Google PR exec on Twitter ( NeoWin 2012-12-17 )
  
• Microsoft slams Android on Twitter; response is mixed ( NeoWin 2012-12-05 )
  
• Microsoft slams Google again, warns shoppers not to get "Scroogled” [Update] ( NeoWin 2012-11-28 )

I'm no prude but I see this as very ugly and unprofessional. They hired a DC political hack as hatchet-man ( Microsoft's DC insider could throw the kitchen sink at Google ) charged with doing nothing but attacking Google. Ironically it changes Microsoft into Apple, and Google into Microsoft resulting in a repeat of the past few decades where Apple did this type of nonsense routinely. Furthermore, Microsoft is really asking for it because there are so many things that Google could easily run an ad campaign on, most notably: Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it. Not to mention Microsoft embedding ads in their Windows 8 non-free paid-for operating system, and the vast amount of telemetry it collects such as how many minutes elapse before you modify Metro tiles, install from the app store or use the desktop. This is but the tip of the iceberg of items that Google could publicize, and if they chose to could produce fabulous advertising using Microsoft as the Titanic about to crash into it. Tacky, unprofessional and definitely NOT smart.


Rumor: Microsoft looking into a 2014 Office for Linux release ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 )

Yes, another rumor. Completely believable to me, but NOT to the NeoWhiners in the comments. The reason that this is perfectly logical for Microsoft is because it buys them inexpensive cover from FTC and other governmental scrutiny. If they are ever brought to court or Congress, they conveniently pull out these stories about developing for Linux the same way they did with Apple Mac OS. It is plausible deniability for suckers. Let's see them develop Office for Chrome Then we could say that Microsoft is actually not afraid of competition. I don't mean Office in the cloud, but a native version of Office on Chrome OS, non-cloud living on the HDD ( didn't say it would be easy, but it is possible ) , it would be a killer app and would probably torpedo both Google Docs and Office 364. Ironically, Office Chrome might end up being the most safe and secure version ever released: Google offers $3.14159 million in cash rewards to any hacker who can crack its Chrome operating system.


Microsoft Surface Pro launch event in NYC cancelled ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 )

Quote

Microsoft has decided not to hold its planned launch event on Friday in New York City due to the incoming snowstorm that could bring up to a foot of snow in the city.

Just saw this story. somehow appropriate speaking of Icebergs and Titanics above. Karma

EDIT: typos, added snowstorm article! updated image URL, and again

This post has been edited by CharlotteTheHarlot: 06 May 2013 - 07:27 AM

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Paul "The Desktop Must Die" Thurrott is back with yet another milking of the Surface Pro release, this time a real Journey to Fantasyland titled ...

Going Pro: Replacing the Desktop: Using the Surface Pro as a desktop replacement proves problematic ( Thurrott 2013-02-07 )

... where we are treated to the ultimate demonstration of pounding square pegs into round holes - using Microsoft's penultimate super-tablet, the Surface Pro as a replacement workstation. No, really. However, I will give him some real credit for documenting this lost cause, and for being willing to spell out the obvious ways it fails. This is a good summary of the experiment ...

Quote

... the Surface Pro is a perfectly reasonable desktop solution. It’s Core i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM are woefully inadequate compared to the high-end Core i7 processor and 8 GB of RAM my tower PC uses ...

He has it right, well, until this very next statement ...

Quote

... but in real world use, I see no performance differences.

Clearly the CPU alone will easily contradict that last sentence, not to mention limitless storage and using a real GPU on a workstation. Surface Pro has so many hardware compromises that it is practically its defining characteristic. In an earlier comment I pointed out the customer-unfriendly decision of using a magnetically connected pen on the side of the chassis rather than a nice internal slot. Little things like this drive me crazy. Another thing is that this Surface Pro shares the same keyboard options as the Surface RT which as noted way back in Post #1204, have their own little crazy problem.

And that is even before considering the ReTarded x86 version of the childish Windows 8 operating system. Curiously Thurrott and all others fail to mention the strange selection of 4GB of RAM for the device coupled with 64-bit Windows, of which large RAM amounts was one of the critically important selling points for stopping the presses and leaping into 64-bit in the first place ( in reality it was all about squeezing another Windows sale out of the customer ) which thanks to needless planned obsolescence kills all native 16-bit support and naturally nearly doubles the footprint of the operating system on disk. So why use 64-bit Windows when the hardware ships with just 4GB of RAM? It is the worst combination of choices: Windows 8 and its Metro nightmare, only 4GB of RAM, no 16-bit apps and the largest possible Windows footprint on disk.

Some of the other flaws that he does cover are the lack of extra USB ports, small display, lack of docking and many other things that I would NOT expect in the top-of-the-line showcase device meant to shake up the world. The deal-breaker IMHO is that when all is said and done, this is still only a 10.6 inch baby-laptop ( or laplet? ). 10 inches!. I won't even touch a 14-15" inch screen except under gunpoint, so going to 10" and then calling it a laptop replacer, let alone a desktop replacer, is borderline crazy in the literal sense. So he uses his desktop display instead ( and keyboard and everything else ) which already makes the whole purpose of this exercise also crazy, in the literal sense. Square pegs and round holes. Also noteworthy is that he slips into MetroTard mode again ...

Quote

Metro will save us from all this

In the future, this won’t be a problem. The desktop scaling issues I’m desperately trying not to mention in more detail here are indeed desktop scaling issues only. The new Metro environment handles display scaling far more elegantly, and while it’s not truly resolution independent, it may as well be. Metro-style apps look great—with clean, readable text and properly sized, scaled, and positioned graphical elements—on both the internal display and my external monitor. All is well.

Or, all will be well. The reason I’m connecting this thing to a dock, external display, and other peripherals is that I can’t yet use only Metro apps. I need desktop applications like Word, OneNote, Chrome, Photoshop and Skype to get work done each day. And I still use many other desktop applications—iTunes, Windows Photo Gallery, and even Paint—preferring them to whatever Metro alternatives now exist. The desktop may be going away. But it’s not happening overnight.

~sigh~ This is the result of Microsoft brainwashing - completely reversing all common sense about using the right tool for the job. That is all out the window in the new Microsoft paradigm where any crazy idea is acceptable as long as it results in rationalizing a crazy product. If you need to carve a slot on the head of a standard screw in order to use a phillips head screwdriver by all means do it! Why have cars and trucks on the road if we can just rip out the seats in the car and make believe it's really a truck. ( Insert your own ridiculous example here! ).



EDIT: typos

This post has been edited by CharlotteTheHarlot: 07 February 2013 - 09:39 PM

[TELVM]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on 07 February 2013 - 09:34 PM, said:

Sublime!!!

[ciHnoN]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on 07 February 2013 - 09:34 PM, said:

...So he uses his desktop display instead ( and keyboard and everything else ) which already makes the whole purpose of this exercise also crazy, in the literal sense...

That thing is basically a thin client... an OVER PRICED "thin client" because it's useless for anything else. Basically, I could just hook up my Hyper-V server into one of these things http://dx.com/p/andr...hite-4gb-137012 ...$50!!! *loool* and do the same job as "Surface ReTard" or "Perverss Retard Oooo"(PRO lol). I had one of those 10" mini "laptops"... it's 100% useless. It's only good to use as a thin client.

Not saying I like Android though, but like... yeah, you guys see my point I'm sure.

Another even better idea is that ( which I actually do ) to use a smartphone, Android or Windows will do... hook it up to a monitor + keyboard + mouse... with Remote Desktop on it connected to your Hyper-V... EVERYTHING in your pocket. ... including your phone.Surface is an overpriced piece of junk... I especially like one of the points you mention about using magnets to attach the pen instead of sliding it into the device. I mean, how the heck did they think we would HOLD this HANDHELD "thing" when having that pen on side of it, risking it to drop any second not to mention how uncomfortable it would be. haha

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Few more articles just popped up at NeoWin so I'd figure I'd mention them before we get wiped out by the snowstorm up here in the Northeast ( looks like we are in for a real bad week and we can expect to lose power for some time ). Wish us luck because we're gonna need it. Update: most recent report has us in for 20" in the next 24 hours, and then 5 degree F temps following that. Ugggh. See you on the other side of this thing, hopefully!


Bing falls to #5 search engine, Yandex takes #4 ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 )

Ouch, now that's gonna leave a mark. And after spending a gazillion dollars in Bing advertising and negative attacks on Google.


Windows 8 users still want a Start menu and a Facebook app ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 )

Yet another honeypot for MetroTards ( and it's working ). Don't mess with our toys!


Want the aero look back in the Windows 8 desktop? Try this program out ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 )

Article about the Aero Glass for Win8 project by bigmuscle right here at MSFN. Someone might want to mention this to him. MetroTards haven't invaded this one yet, but they will.


EDIT: typos, latest weather

This post has been edited by CharlotteTheHarlot: 08 February 2013 - 07:31 AM

[Formfiller]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on 08 February 2013 - 07:10 AM, said:

Windows 8 users still want a Start menu and a Facebook app ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 )

Yet another honeypot for MetroTards ( and it's working ). Don't mess with our toys!

Uh, the comments.. Nauseating!

They remind me of the pupils in "The Wave". Neowin would be a great platform for a social science/psychology experiment. In a fairer world, the start menu would return just for melting the brains of these little rascals.

But you know what? Given how they behave, I don't think that even the return of the start menu would impress them much. I am pretty sure the shock would be pretty short, and they will do a 180-turn within days, maybe even hours: "The start screen sucks! Why aren't you using the start menu already?".

This post has been edited by Formfiller: 08 February 2013 - 08:01 AM

[Formfiller]

http://www.neowin.ne...-antivirus-test

It's a conspiracy!

Quote

That's what this fake test backed up by antivirus companies want you to think.

Quote

So? Thank god for IE's sandboxing. Took them 1,5 years to break through IE8's sandboxing, around 7 months before IE9's sandboxing was broken and IE10's sandboxing is still unchallenged (earlier exploit did NOT work on IE10 modern).
Whereas for comparison, Chrome's sandboxing continiously gets broken and needs constant updates to stay ahead. IE does one security update and the fences stay up for months.
Smartscreen stops allot, so does inprivate mode and if i really dont trust a site, i open it in modern IE10. Knowing that even IF my browser gets compromised, my system will not.

Quote

Why should MS add those features in? It comes NATIVELY with the OS MSE is designed for...
It is just a virusscanner enhancement for Windows 7/vista/XP, it comes default with Win8 now under Windows Defender.
Why dont they take Windows Defender on a fully updated Win8 machine into the statistics? Or even MSE on a fully updated Windows 7.
Why specifically for an OS that is close to retirement? An OS even MS wants to get rid of.

I have violent fantasies when I read their stuff.

This post has been edited by Formfiller: 08 February 2013 - 08:31 AM

[TELVM]

This hits the nail in the head, literally :

Spoiler

[jaclaz]

Formfiller, on 08 February 2013 - 08:28 AM, said:

It's a conspiracy!

Maybe NOT a conspiracy, but let me doubt about how "independent" these tests are and how much they are actually reflecting "real life".

jaclaz

[TheBigBang]

TELVM, on 08 February 2013 - 09:11 AM, said:

This hits the nail in the head, literally :

Spoiler

This 1 is straight in a head.

[Formfiller]

jaclaz, on 08 February 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

Formfiller, on 08 February 2013 - 08:28 AM, said:

It's a conspiracy!

Maybe NOT a conspiracy, but let me doubt about how "independent" these tests are and how much they are actually reflecting "real life".

jaclaz

The way the Neowhiners are talking about it is still disgusting.

Neowin comments are like textual equivalents of feces porn.

[jaclaz]

TELVM, on 08 February 2013 - 09:11 AM, said:

This hits the nail in the head, literally :

GREAT!

and OT , but not much , of course:

Abraham Maslow said:

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

though the concept of "Birminhgham screwdriver" dates much back:
http://www.urbandict...m%20screwdriver
http://en.wikipedia...._the_instrument
and has - I believe - other traditional national versions.

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

Formfiller, on 07 February 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

I for one won't upgrade beyond Windows 7 and Office 2010 until they are completely out of life support. And I had absolutely no problems with MS and their products until they went into self-destruct mode in 2011.

My sentiments exactly!

Formfiller, on 07 February 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

*After some testing, it appears that Softmaker (http://www.softmaker.com) has far better compatibility than Libre/Open Office by the way. If you need a MS Office replacement, try that.

Huh, that sounds interesting. I'll look into it, thanks.

--JorgeA