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There used to be this thing called Windows Gadgets. But I guess that wasn't cool and trendy enough.

Well, they were memory hogs, and completely insecure.

In other words, they might have been a good idea at the time, but I stopped using them after a few days because they used up so much damned memory. Seriously guys, a clock widget doesn't take 200+ MB of RAM. Or, at least, it shouldn't in any sane world.

And, from the sounds of it, Microsoft didn't make a framework which was secure or safe.

A little single-purpose widget should be a small, lightweight thing that does one thing. But even the ones Microsoft shipped were overly bloated things which shouldn't have existed.

I don't think "cool and trendy" were what defined the failure of those. Bloated and insecure, but not cool and trendy.

XP was legally sold on netbooks made as late as October 22, 2010 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/e... ). Those computers were still in the sales pipeline into early 2011.

IBM was still shipping ThinkPads with WinXP until the end of 2013. They only stopped because the new models have magic pixie dust that prevent XP from running.

Windows 8 is even more expensive to buy a worthwhile edition of.

Windows 8 Pro costs less in fact (£110), and if you can live without Hyper-V or Bitlocker (which you obviously are living in XP world) you can go with normal Windows 8 for (£72.99). This is all besides the point that calling ~£100 for an OS that will last ~10 years "horrific" is a pretty gross exaggeration.

For Windows 8, if you buy it and you install it, you can reinstall and reactivate as many times as you want. Change the motherboard, put it on a whole different PC, whatever. Only one PC at a time.
And you don't have to 'revoke' anything. Just remove it from the old drive.

If it is preinstalled, then it is tied to that original hardware.

MS licensing terms here : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us...

There is one for 8.

Wow, you have *no* fucking idea what you're talking about, do you?

Maybe not....

Let's see... there is simply nothing equivalent to the Mandatory Integrity Control system in NT versions before 6.0 (Vista/Server 2008). You can't build that on top of the existing ACL system, because the existing ACL system didn't support anything that behaves that way.

The ACL system was a user space component? I'm not overley familiar with how security is implemented in NT as well as later Windows, but doesn't the application say "I want to do this" and the response is either OK or not? The application doesn't give a hoot how that decision is implemented. It's allowed or denied.

ASLR is a major change in the way processes start and load libraries.

You're kidding, right? ASLR is a change in the how the loader chooses a base address. The loader in XP already has to be able to handle relocations in DLLs. ASLR is an extension of that.

The "split token" model for UAC - where the same account can usually be a non-Admin but sometimes be an Admin without actually changing to a different user - is also completely new and wasn't possible before, because that kind of group membership used to be tied to the user's identity.

A neat feature, but again, does this require changes in the API/ABI? Or is it just implemented in the background. Anything that operates as a black box, *should* be relative simple to change.

Then there's all the tons of other stuff that changed. One good example is the removal of the global scheduler lock, which substantially improves performance on machines with multiple hardware threads when making frequent context switches (as desktop OSes often do).

Implementation detail. The Linux kernel did a similar change between 2.4 and 2.6, but it had zero impact from an API/ABI point of view.

The switch to user-mode drivers for most things - including video drivers, which were one of the primary causes of BSODs on XP - is another big deal; the video driver model of XP requires kernel-mode drivers and it was a major effort to re-architect the driver model so that the kernel could simply restart a crashed video driver.

User mode drivers are available for WinXP too:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-u...

But perhaps not for video drivers. I haven't checked.

Full IPv6 support required substantial changes to the network driver interface.

What? IPv6 sends ethernet packets differently to IPv4 packets?

Does that also mean WinXP doesn't have full IPv6 support? Perhaps not. Can it not support IPv6? I doubt it.

The fact that the ABI hasn't changed *more* is a testament to Microsoft's backward compatibility efforts - usually in the form of leaving legacy interfaces in place for legacy code to use, but deprecating them for new code - but it has definitely changed. Leaving aside the stuff that is purely additions to the ABI, you still have things like the updated NDIS requirement causing some legacy WiFi drivers to be unable to get IP addresses, and the removal of the XP video driver model in Win8+ makes anything pre-WDDM incompatible at the binary level.

Most of the work in security patching apears to be in the user level components. Things like .NET updates, browser updates, Silverlight updates. These transcend the Windows versions, and don't rely on any changes in driver models and such like.

Kernel level updates are usually bug fixes in things like standard drivers. Sure, a driver bug could open a privilege escalation hole, but access to the machine is required first, and that usually comes from attacking the user space components or duping the user into running a trojan.

All the stuff you listed is

It was the thoroughness that people complained about.

Thoroughness? [chuckles] Look at any element or attribute with "Like" in the name: the behavior used to be defined as "whatever this other proprietary program does, and we're refusing to describe this behavior in detail in the present specification." I'll grant that the behavior of things like w:autoSpaceLikeWord95 and w:truncateFontHeightsLikeWP6 and w:lineWrapLikeWord6 is better documented nowadays, but I'm pretty sure it took a lot of FUD against OOXML on the part of ODF advocates to get Microsoft to document what those back-compatibility tags actually mean.

Microsoft has not really been all that informative about their end-of-life policy for their operations systems

They seem pretty clear to me: http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

So, Microsoft, live with the consequences of your greed and offer free upgrades, it's not going to hurt the bottom line - hell, it might even prop up those dismal sales figures for Win8.

How is a free upgrade a sale?

A Google search shows that Microsoft have already established EOL for Windows 8. It is literally plotted out NINE YEARS IN ADVANCE.

OOXML isn't an API and in any case, is thoroughly documented. It was the thoroughness that people complained about.

Microsoft's APIs for Windows are very well documented. Start here then post when you're done.

XP was legally sold on netbooks made as late as October 22, 2010 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/e... ). Those computers were still in the sales pipeline into early 2011.

So...which of those titles are included with every copy of Windows?

Why does it have to come with the OS? What does that even matter these days, when everything is a download away.Almost half the products I listed are available direct from MS without going through Dreamspark:

• Robotics Studio
• XNA Game Studio
• Kinect for Windows SDK
• Kodu Game Lab
• Small Basic

Just a simple download away. You can even download Visual Studio Express for free to develop for web, desktop, or Windows Phone. This is a great place for kids to start. When they're ready for advanced features, they can move over to the full version through Dreamspark.

Which of those provide kids with a simple and powerful way to create something impressive?

Take your pick. There's something for all levels. Smallbasic and Kodu Game Lab are products for beginners. Next level up they can use Robotics studio or XNA Game Lab. Kinect SDK is very powerful and easy to use as well with lots of example code.

If Bill Gates was a teenager now, he would be on xbox live and there never would have been any Microsoft.

Many gamers are very keen to make their own games, but they don't know how. MS provides tools for this. I've taught many middle / high school students how to program robots using MS Robotics studio and the Kinect SDK, and they love it. It's amazing the kind of stuff they come up with.

So...which of those titles are included with every copy of Windows?

Why does it have to come with the OS? What does that even matter these days, when everything is a download away.Almost half the products I listed are available direct from MS without going through Dreamspark:

• Robotics Studio
• XNA Game Studio
• Kinect for Windows SDK
• Kodu Game Lab
• Small Basic

Just a simple download away. You can even download Visual Studio Express for free to develop for web, desktop, or Windows Phone. This is a great place for kids to start. When they're ready for advanced features, they can move over to the full version through Dreamspark.

Which of those provide kids with a simple and powerful way to create something impressive?

Take your pick. There's something for all levels. Smallbasic and Kodu Game Lab are products for beginners. Next level up they can use Robotics studio or XNA Game Lab. Kinect SDK is very powerful and easy to use as well with lots of example code.

If Bill Gates was a teenager now, he would be on xbox live and there never would have been any Microsoft.

Many gamers are very keen to make their own games, but they don't know how. MS provides tools for this. I've taught many middle / high school students how to program robots using MS Robotics studio and the Kinect SDK, and they love it. It's amazing the kind of stuff they come up with.

So...which of those titles are included with every copy of Windows?

Why does it have to come with the OS? What does that even matter these days, when everything is a download away.Almost half the products I listed are available direct from MS without going through Dreamspark:

• Robotics Studio
• XNA Game Studio
• Kinect for Windows SDK
• Kodu Game Lab
• Small Basic

Just a simple download away. You can even download Visual Studio Express for free to develop for web, desktop, or Windows Phone. This is a great place for kids to start. When they're ready for advanced features, they can move over to the full version through Dreamspark.

Which of those provide kids with a simple and powerful way to create something impressive?

Take your pick. There's something for all levels. Smallbasic and Kodu Game Lab are products for beginners. Next level up they can use Robotics studio or XNA Game Lab. Kinect SDK is very powerful and easy to use as well with lots of example code.

If Bill Gates was a teenager now, he would be on xbox live and there never would have been any Microsoft.

Many gamers are very keen to make their own games, but they don't know how. MS provides tools for this. I've taught many middle / high school students how to program robots using MS Robotics studio and the Kinect SDK, and they love it. It's amazing the kind of stuff they come up with.

So...which of those titles are included with every copy of Windows?

Why does it have to come with the OS? What does that even matter these days, when everything is a download away.Almost half the products I listed are available direct from MS without going through Dreamspark:

• Robotics Studio
• XNA Game Studio
• Kinect for Windows SDK
• Kodu Game Lab
• Small Basic

Just a simple download away. You can even download Visual Studio Express for free to develop for web, desktop, or Windows Phone. This is a great place for kids to start. When they're ready for advanced features, they can move over to the full version through Dreamspark.

Which of those provide kids with a simple and powerful way to create something impressive?

Take your pick. There's something for all levels. Smallbasic and Kodu Game Lab are products for beginners. Next level up they can use Robotics studio or XNA Game Lab. Kinect SDK is very powerful and easy to use as well with lots of example code.

If Bill Gates was a teenager now, he would be on xbox live and there never would have been any Microsoft.

Many gamers are very keen to make their own games, but they don't know how. MS provides tools for this. I've taught many middle / high school students how to program robots using MS Robotics studio and the Kinect SDK, and they love it. It's amazing the kind of stuff they come up with.

Not like I can call them up and get questions answered. Claims that continuing to support XP would be some enormous financial burden on the company are pretty absurd.

You can call Microsoft for tech support. Technically, they call you, but you can talk to and get support from a real actual person.

The problem is a bit more complex than that. Microsoft has not really been all that informative about their end-of-life policy for their operations systems, and it is certainly nowhere to be found in the EULA or the contracts they happily signed for $$$ with the companies, that are now in a pickle because of it.

If so, those companies must be extraordinarily clueless, because Microsoft are very open and up front at a very early stage about their official and public end of life policies. Much much more so than Apple and Google and most other software vendors. http://windows.microsoft.com/e... . In a few cases, as with XP, they have later extended the official EOL date, but that doesn't change the fact that they from the launch of the OS had an official support lifetime.

Plain text files aren't necessarily possible as the crash means everything is suspect and any writing to the disk a) might fail or b) might cause data loss by corrupting the filesystem

How does Windows do it then?

If any DLL listed in an application's imports section has an hourglass, the app has an hourglass. While an assembly cache rebuild is in progress, the OS can traverse this graph of imports to see what apps need the hourglass.

Bing Bar nothing. Windows 8 includes an unavoidable banner ad for the Windows Store.

pfffft. .NET 4 - obsolete. In a few years, you'll be the first saying "which Linux/FOSS distro is fully compliant with .NET native WinRT spec?", conveniently forgetting that you were advocating .NET 4 in 2014.

Type providers are pretty nice.

For those of us lacking in perspective on how Fun! kernel debugging is, here is a voice from the MS side of things. Dangerous curveballs ahead.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mickens/thenightwatch.pdf

OK. That was GREAT!

Global optimisation has been in VC++ for years.

Most people don't care that it works - you pass source and libs to the 'compile suite' and it does its magic in some black-box kind of way. As long as you get a binary at the end, you're happy,

See the msdn blog for more info

This is actually fucking awesome. They've got native compilation of Win32/64 desktop and server apps on the road-map. You're right, nobody cares about the Windows Store, which is why they targeted those apps first (you know, developers, developers, developers and all that shit).

The FAQ clearly states that they're planning to propagate this feature to all .Net apps.

Desktop apps are a very important part of our strategy. Initially, we are focusing on Windows Store apps with .NET Native. In the longer term we will continue to improve native compilation for all .NET applications.

I'm guessing that means .Net 4.5+ apps, which in turn means Windows 8+. So here's for hoping that Windows 9 is not gonna suck so much donkey ball, that we can actually expect to be able to upgrade 7 -> 9 without relinquishing part of our soul to the UX demon-child they hired to "improve the user experience".

Maybe you mean C++ Redistributables?

No, they didn't.

Wasn't Gmail the first to introduce the conversational layout? I remember the first time I saw it I was blown away over how simple the idea was yet how much impact it made on UX.

Not quite, Microsoft Outlook had conversational layout in 2003. There are probably other programs that had it even earlier than that, but Outlook was probably one of the most mainstream.

The improvement that Google made was that the conversation included the emails you sent, not just the ones you received. Sadly, it took another 7 years before Microsoft got around to updating Outlook to include that feature.

I assume the software vendor is either defunct or is staunchly unwilling to support the product on a newer OS. If the system(s) can be isolated from the internet, then perhaps there is little urgency. You might consider requesting enhanced LPT port access from the VM vendor/maintainers. Maybe there's even some undocumented configuration option already. It sounds like that might be all you need, so maybe you can afford to wait for it.

Otherwise, have you already investigated everything here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-u...

If the MS ACT can't get you past the installer, then you might try modifying it. Another poster suggested using a hex editor, but that usually won't work on installers as they tend to verify their own signature. However, if the installer is MSI-based, you might be able to use orca and related MSI tools from MS (should still be available for free download) to alter the version-checking in the installer and repackage it. I have done this before. If the installer appears to be MSI-based yet is still shipped as an EXE, you should be able to unpack the MSI file from the EXE with administrative installation switches passed to the EXE (memory fails me; google is your friend). Also, some InstallShield installers are actually MSI installers built with IS, so similar techniques might work with those (but not with InstallScript-based IS installers). Most other installer types, such as Inno Setup installers, are not MSI-based.

If the installer is MSI but signed, then you're probably hosed. However, it might be possible to reverse engineer it if you can find a copy of an old tool called InCtrl5. It has a mode where it will take a snapshot of the WinXP system, then you run the installer, then run InCtrl5 again to determine what has changed and get a report detailing files, registry keys, and so on. If the application's installation is simple or you have exceptional patience and diligence, you might be able to achieve a manual installation on Win7 through copying files and editing the registry by hand (or building your own installer). Note that the InCtrl5 report won't reveal the order of changes, which can sometimes be important. If you're not intimately familiar with the guts of Windows installation, find someone who is, unless the installation is dead simple.

Once you work around the installer, you still might need to use the ACT to allow the application to run properly on Win7 (or later) with access to the LPT port for the stupid dongle. If you achieve that and also need to run this application on multiple systems, you can use the ACT to create an SDB file which can be applied to other systems using the sdbinst tool. Here's a reasonably good walk-through:

http://www.techradar.com/us/ne...

Keep in mind that some dongles allow having part of the application functionality embedded in them. If you've got one of those, and it also does an OS-specific verification within the dongle-embedded code, you're probably hosed. At that point you have to hire someone to crack the application, which probably won't make it past the legal team.

HTH. Good Luck.

- T

go Windows

familiarity with being handicapped.

Might want to visit Control Panel sometime. There's an entire Ease of Access Center with rich selection of accessibility options.

Your doubts don't count for much given that Microsoft has also released MS Office for Android already. Check out the tabs for the platforms supported.

http://office.microsoft.com/en...

XP Embedded's support doesn't end when XP does.

Windows XP Embedded (Toolkit and Runtime), all versions - January 12, 2016

From https://www.microsoft.com/wind...

But that's hard to do with Microsoft dictating the software upgrade timetable.

Looking at the lifecycle fact sheet, Microsoft are currently giving 9 years notice on when 8.1 will end extended support.

How many years do they want? If they cannot manage with nine years notice, realistically how will a few extra years help?

Secondly, what makes them think that if they installed Linux that they wouldn't need to do any further upgrades?

Some languages do have what you want, e.g. F#. Others allow this to be done as a library, like C++.

But this feature is sufficiently niche that I wouldn't expect it in PHP.

The man deserves it. He rocks. I've loved the precision of his engagement with fundamental assumptions since my first encounter with the Baker's algorithm.

My Writings is a good time killer. One of my favorite passages is this one:

Writing the proofs turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected. I worked very hard to make them as short and easy to understand as I could. So, I was rather annoyed when a referee said that the proofs seemed to have been written quickly and could be simplified with a little effort. In my replies to the reviews, I referred to that referee as a "supercilious bastard". Some time later, Nancy Lynch confessed to being that referee. She had by then written her own proofs of clock synchronization and realized how hard they were.

They did a fair amount of work together, judging by all the other places her name appears.

And still has some nifty features to support pen computing.

Other apps in the space:

Xournal --- more like Microsoft Journal as the name implies (OneNote has more organizational features such as tabs &c.) (see also Jarnal)
Flash --- in its rôle as the tool which succeeds the the pen drawing tool FutureWave SmartSketch ---
Mage Software's InkBook --- (Mac OS X)
EverNote
Treenote, if I'm remembering correctly was quite interesting, but there's a placeholder page for now.
sBook --- (Mac OS X) --- nifty A.I. driven freeform address book which can be used as a general-purpose notetaking tool --- I'm still bummed the Windows version crashed when one tried to write into it on a Tablet PC and wish it had better support for graphics --- opensource: http://simson.net/ref/sbook5/

The odd thing is, I loved Millenium Software's Notebook.app on NeXTstep, but haven't found occasion to buy Circus Ponies' Notebook

Mostly though, I just use Macromedia FreeHand for drawings and am trying InkSeine for notes on a ThinkPad X61 Tablet: http://research.microsoft.com/...

Yeah, whoever comes up with names at Microsoft really needs to get promoted to somewhere useless. The Xbox One, which is not the same as the Xbox one, and is in fact the Xbox three, being the sequel to the Xbox 360... that one is so stupid it makes me angry.

They have a history of terrible names:

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs: (Replaced by Windows 7 based "Windows Thin PC ")

Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP before someone thankfully gave it a real name: Windows SteadyState

Their consumer AV is called "Microsoft Security Essentials". At least the business version has a real name: "Forefront"

Windows Live Essentials

Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Messenger service (source of SPAM).

VLC just put the first ModernUI betal on the Windows store: http://apps.microsoft.com/wind...

Replying to the second part. All functions are members of something in VB. At the very least, they are members of ModuleName. So if you have a module "Frank", that has a function "Cheese", it can be (and is underneath) via "Frank.Cheese()". In terms of the DoCmd object, it is the way VBA communicates/interacts WITH Office. A list of members can be found here. You can also bring up the object browser via F2 when inside the VBA IDE

It's possible to actually write good code in VB?

If that's the case, can someone finally explain to me how to figure out when operations are functions, and when they're methods of the 'DoCmd' object in VBA?

(I'm serious ... this has bugged me for years ... and I haven't had to do VB programming since about 1999 ... that experience has told me that I should walk away from any job offer or interview that mentions VB, and has tainted my views of .NET as well)

A file browser likely can't be done, since apps are sandboxed.

The operating system itself has a FolderPicker that lets the user choose to add a particular path to the application's sandbox. If the user chooses to add an entire Videos folder, then the application can retain this entire folder as one of 1,000 items in the application's sandbox.

A file browser likely can't be done, since apps are sandboxed.

The operating system itself has a FolderPicker that lets the user choose to add a particular path to the application's sandbox. If the user chooses to add an entire Videos folder, then the application can retain this entire folder as one of 1,000 items in the application's sandbox.

In the world of Metro, I can get the same app for $3.99

http://apps.microsoft.com/wind...

Says its free? Is there a plan to charge 3.99 at some point? I'm confused.

Obviously trolling, but kind of an interesting question as the hardware isn't bad. I don't know why anyone would buy it with the intention of windows-izing it, but maybe the build quality is better than what the send windows in? Any case there are a million reasons for doing anything.

http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

Only 32 bit windows would fit, due to the 16 GB of storage.

Also not sure if the open source Coreboot will work with windows 8.1. You'd need to install seabios first, that's supposed to work for earlier versions of windows. Not sure about 8.

http://www.coreboot.org/SeaBIO...

it's a lot harder to actually steal money online then people think.

If you're going to be nitpicky, then yes, it's SDL+OpenGL.

However, the only DirectX system still relevant in Win8.1 is Direct3D. Everything else has been removed;

DirectDraw - Repaced by Direct2D
DirectInput - Replaced by XInput
DirectSound - Replaced by XAudio2
DirectMusic - Legacy MIDI format - also replaced by XAudio2
DirectPlay - A complete joke, replaced by Games for Windows Live and XB Live.
DirectX Media/Media Objects: Deprecated and replaced/removed by all of above

That leaves DirectWrite and Direct2D as the only relevant (and minor) DIrectX components left. So yes, DX is more than a graphics API; these days and for gaming though, the only thing being used is D3D in DX.

If you're going to be nitpicky, then yes, it's SDL+OpenGL.

However, the only DirectX system still relevant in Win8.1 is Direct3D. Everything else has been removed;

DirectDraw - Repaced by Direct2D
DirectInput - Replaced by XInput
DirectSound - Replaced by XAudio2
DirectMusic - Legacy MIDI format - also replaced by XAudio2
DirectPlay - A complete joke, replaced by Games for Windows Live and XB Live.
DirectX Media/Media Objects: Deprecated and replaced/removed by all of above

That leaves DirectWrite and Direct2D as the only relevant (and minor) DIrectX components left. So yes, DX is more than a graphics API; these days and for gaming though, the only thing being used is D3D in DX.

If you're going to be nitpicky, then yes, it's SDL+OpenGL.

However, the only DirectX system still relevant in Win8.1 is Direct3D. Everything else has been removed;

DirectDraw - Repaced by Direct2D
DirectInput - Replaced by XInput
DirectSound - Replaced by XAudio2
DirectMusic - Legacy MIDI format - also replaced by XAudio2
DirectPlay - A complete joke, replaced by Games for Windows Live and XB Live.
DirectX Media/Media Objects: Deprecated and replaced/removed by all of above

That leaves DirectWrite and Direct2D as the only relevant (and minor) DIrectX components left. So yes, DX is more than a graphics API; these days and for gaming though, the only thing being used is D3D in DX.

If you are interested in the Microsoft offerings, particuarly those widely used in the private sector, I would suggest the following starting points:

* Learn powershell. You need to know at least one scripting language to get stuff done effectively and this is the best one for Windows administration. It has modules for manipulating Exchange, Active Directory, Hyper-V etc: Learn Powershell

* Understand virtualisation. Virtualisation and "cloud computing" are the current buzz. I like Citrix Xenserver or VMWare but you will find HyperV deployed in many Windows houses. The MS Azure platform is built on top of Hyper-V: Hyper-V

* Understand Active Directory. MSAD is widely deployed, where ever you find Windows workstations in significant numbers you nearly always find AD: Active Directory

* Learn Sharepoint: MS Sharepoint is a "private cloud" type colaboration product, again it is widely used: Sharepoint

* Learn Exchange: MS Exchange is the Microsoft Mailserver. It may not be as prevalent on the internet as Exim or Postfix but most Microsoft centric businesses will be running exchange in house even if their public MX for spam filtering etc is running an opensource alternative: Exchange Server

* Learn IIS: Get a basic understanding of administering IIS, the webserer that is included with Windows Server.

If you can acquire a basic understanding of the above technologies then I think you could confidently demonstrate knowledge at interviews and become a member of an IT team in a Windows centric environment.

For full disclosure; I prefer working with Linux and typically use the following alternative technologies (ordered as above):
* Python / BaSH
* Citrix Xenserver
* OpenLDAP + MIT Kerberos
* Alfresco
* Postfix + Dovecot
* Apache2

I am sorry, but I don't understand: why is it okay for Microsoft to use to BSD code, without giving BSD any credit, but not Linux?

Where did you get that idea? Microsoft used the BSD-based TCP stack on previous versions of windows, and the disclaimers are fairly well documented, even on the header files. The BSD clause is let intact, as required. The Microsoft Services For Unix was (AFAIK) based on OpenBSD tools and some GPL stuff, all also in compliance with the license (an old version is described in http://technet.microsoft.com/e...)

y understanding is: the ISC, MIT and BSD-licenses allow for sublicensing without making any modifications so the Linux devs are perfectly within the license when they sublicense the original code under the GPL

You CANNOT rip the BSD disclaimer. Its right there on the license. Theo is right.
And tecnically, you CANNOT dual-license a BSD file with GPL without any change. If you do it, the less restrictive license takes precedence. You can change the file and have your own modifications under GPL if you want, but for the rest of the code, the GPL clauses are void because BSD is less restrictive and the content is ALSO licensed under BSD.

Also, I am not sure that Theo is justified in ranting about "the Linux people" when this was one incident that happened about 15 years ago, and was corrected.

Another guy already replied to this. If a guy chooses GPL because he thinks its a better license, he should at least have the same respect for other licenses. More often than not, this doesn't happen. The fallacy of repeating RMS GPL bullshit as facts doesn't make them come to reality, and it hurts the OSS ecosystem as a whole.

Later on...guess what? Microsoft decided to allow DX11 to run as well: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us...

Wrong... the update you linked only installs the latest updates to DX9.0c when installed on XP. It does not add DX10 or DX11 to XP. When installed on Vista or 7 it includes DX10 and DX11.