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Yeah, Microsoft USED TO offer a update CD:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/c d/order.mspx

No questions asked either. I ordered one of these CD's when I worked as a tech, and it was great to have for fixing machines.

However, I will bet that you can still find images of the update CD around - mind you it won't have ALL the patches anymore. Also, if the copy of windows is pirated and has a well known serial number, it will refuse to install (which only makes sense).

You should see if you can track down a image of one of these CD's, or, perhaps Slipstream a copy once you have the patches. Pain in the ass? Yes.

Unless VISTA has Widgets like these

good idea!

I officially declare VISTA the troll miscapitilization of Longhorn to counteract the MAC miscapitalization of Mac(intosh)

on topic:
Some early builds of longhorn had the stupid sidebar that took up 1/6 of a normal (1024x768) screen for things like a clock, and a webcam viewer... think of it as a separate area of the screen (like the taskbar) reserved for konfabulator widgets. It was hyped for a while too. (example)

Is it that I'm here only one who remembers that Microsoft betas of OS (especially early betas) don't look like their final versions? Just take a peak at Windows XP betas.
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/whistler_previ ew_2250.asp

I'm in awe of how quick Gamespot is to dismiss the idea of a game, or multiple games, being preinstalled on the Xbox 360. One of Microsoft's big plans is for their Xbox Live Marketplace and the Xbox Live Arcade for more "casual" gaming. I would refer folks over to this article which is one fellow's introduction to a bunch of the 360's Xbox Live capabilities (the article reads somewhat like a fanboyish droolfest but there are some interesting tidbits about the 360 UI). It's specifically mentioned that there will be free games available through the Xbox Live service (checkers is mentioned as an example) and it's not a stretch to think that the initial versions of those games could be pre-installed on the X360 hard drive. We're not talking free Halo 2 here, but dismissing the possibility of any pre-installed games is very premature.

Try running OpenGL-based animation with texturing, full screen DVD playback, or full screen TV capture.
Okay, point taken. I'm not a gamer (though blender is nice), I'm not about to try to watch a DVD on a 17" monitor, and I don't have a TV capture card.

OSS's dependency hell is really snowballing
I'm not sure what a dependency is (I use Debian/apt and Gentoo/portage) though, so you're rant confuses me.

Apparently, Bill's wet dreams land in fertil soil (though they take longer than the usual 9 months). For stories on Longhorn, see Paul Thurrott

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

...because there is a good chance that the upcoming beta releases will look completely different. And the final release will then look completely different than the betas.

For comparison, here are some links that illustrate the evolution of the Windows XP UI:

Whistler preview
Another Whistler preview
Yet another Whistler preview
Whistler beta 1
Beta 1, another build
XP Beta 2
XP RC1

Here's a solution.

*dodges flying tomatos*

OK, OK, here's a patch.

*runs*

http://winsupersite.com/images/showcase/xbox360_gu iderev_06.jpg.

This is, I think, what MS is really talking about when they play up their efforts to make the Xbox360 more "mainstream" and capturing a large segment of the market that doesn't traditionally buy consoles. Just how big that market really is, though - well, that's anyone's guess.

As I've said a billion times, Microsoft program managers don't do anything without usability testing.

Well that does not explain the "Shut Do" button on the Longhorn Start Panel, or the fact that they've put a scroll bar inside the Start Panel. When you use the Start Panel it's the only thing on the screen -- it doesn't take a genius to just make it bigger.
Now I don't know whether they're doing usability testing or not, but I can tell you that it is not working.

>[Longhorn] will run with a reduced graphics interface and various other portions of the system will not work at all on non-Trusted hardware

Do you have a citation for this?

I don't recall my original source(s), but I was able to Google this:

Windows "Longhorn" FAQ
In Longhorn, users hoping to take advantage of the system's exciting new capabilities will only be able to use signed drivers.

Microsoft also explains system security enforment requirements to obtain a driver signature. The new interface will refuse to work at all without signed drivers.

Is that adaquate? Do you need me to dig up more on it?

-

I understand your issues about what is involved but the procedure is almost indentical to slipstreaming a service pack and people do that all the time.

For anyone who doesn't know how to slipstream a service pack, here is Paul Thurrott's slipstreaming tutorial.

Windows NT 3.51 was dubbed the Power PC release, because it was designed around the Power PC version of NT, which was originally supposed to ship in version 3.5.
From an article on Paul Thurrott's site.

I am sure NT has been ported to a lot more architectures than x86 alone.

You can protect individual user directories in Windows XP if you set up permissions correctly, just the same as how you can protect individual user directories on Linux if you set up permissions correctly.

The most obvious difference is security, which is vastly simplified in Home Edition. Each interactive user in XP Home is assumed to be a member of the Owners local group, which is the Windows XP equivalent of the Windows 2000 Administrator account

I would argue that there are quite a few new Linux users who foolishly make liberal use of the root account to make certain tasks easier. While maybe a competent Linux user would not make such mistakes, theres no reason to expect that a competent user would make the same kinds of mistakes on a Windows machine.

it's not helpful when Linux extremists like you warp the truth to fit your agenda.

You should be ashamed.

Well, it's crippled in some ways, but it does offer some functionality not in the standard versions of Windows. It's designed specifically with ease of use in mind. Take a look at some screenshots before you bash it too much.

Is there any truth that this project was initiated on the success of Project: Paul Thurrott?

Didn't Microsoft just recently get upset that someone posted screenshots of a recent build of Longhorn? Why would anyone suddenly jump at the chance to get a DMCA-style shutdown of their blog just to review a damned Longhorn beta?

Wish they'd make up their minds. A guy who (misguided or not) seems to run a legitimate Windows fan site (ye gods, that's insane :) gushes about their product and the company slams him down for it. What happens when some blogger with no love for Windows (I fit in this category, though I won't bother pirating/running the beta because I don't give a rat's arse about Windows releases nor will I review it for them) jumps on this "team" and decides some new "feature" sucks or finds a critical, egg-smeared-on-face kind of bug and writes about it?

Free speech sure ain't looking too healthy these days...

Right here. ;)

Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winserver2k3_g old1.asp

From the article:
Finally, it was time to start writing some code. "We checked the first code pieces in around mid-December 1988," Lucovsky said, "and had a very basic system kind of booting on a simulator of the Intel i860 (which was codenamed "N-Ten") by January." In fact, this is where NT actually got its name, Lucovsky revealed, adding that the "new technology" moniker was added after the fact in a rare spurt of product marketing by the original NT team members. "Originally, we were targeting NT to the Intel i860, a RISC processor that was horribly behind schedule. Because we didn't have any i860 machines in-house to test on, we used an i860 simulator. That's why we called it NT, because it worked on the 'N-Ten.'"

"Originally, we were targeting NT to the Intel i860 (code-named 'N-Ten)', a RISC processor that was horribly behind schedule. Because we didn't have any i860 machines in-house to test on, we used an i860 simulator. That's why we called it NT, because it worked on the 'N-Ten.'"
-Mark Lucovsky
Distinguished Engineer
Windows Server Architect

The variations have been known for a little while and can be found here.

It seems the images are still on Thurrock's site, he's just removed the links to them. EG: http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg

Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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And here is some random text to attempt to satisfy Slashdot's inane content filters. Apparently, it has to be quite a bit of text. I don't know what the average line length is that it requires, but it looks like it's unreasonably high.

Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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And here is some random text to attempt to satisfy Slashdot's inane content filters. Apparently, it has to be quite a bit of text. I don't know what the average line length is that it requires, but it looks like it's unreasonably high.

Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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And here is some random text to attempt to satisfy Slashdot's inane content filters. Apparently, it has to be quite a bit of text. I don't know what the average line length is that it requires, but it looks like it's unreasonably high.

Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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Or, more accurately, simply commented out of the HTML.

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He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

He didnt remove the pictures, he just deleted the linking page :)

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh4058_ 01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_02.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_04.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_05.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/lh5048_ 02_07.jpg

What I noticed immediately was the "reflection" on the screen depicted in the icon. It looks EXACTLY like a reflection of one of those evil Evil EVIL fluorescent tube light boxes found in every Generic Office Environment.

My guess is the dweeb who designed the icon was so lacking in imagination, that he or she figured "Heck: I gots me a monitor RIGHT HERE!", and here being, of course, their own little hideous Veal Fattening Pen in some dank corner of the M$ campus, where they swelter under the cool ugly fluorescent light boxes, and dress up their miserable cube with little pathetic chatchkies from home to prove that they are Individuals(!).

If this is the quality of art we can expect for Longhorn, I'm certain it will go down well with the dreary "You never got fired for ordering RCA / IBM / Microsoft" PHBs, and will be a subject of excoriation by anyone with more than three brain cells to rub together.

"Heh - looky there! It's got the reflection of them thar fluorescent lights, just like I have over MY HEAD right NOW! Wow - that Microsoft - always thinking of how to make me feel at home..."

Urk. I hope Longhorn is a complete and abject failure, so it forces M$ to get off its ass and make something worthwhile for a change, although, once would be a big improvement.

RS

those folder icons reminds me a *lot* of Next icons. i find that way too early 80's to be any perty.

Is it just me or are the windows boot screen logos getting more bland and uninspired? The 9x series had those nice and colorful 256 color x mode screens. The NT systems have the high resolution 16 color screens. 2000 was pretty bad; too much white. XP and 2003 have pretty decent logos. Ok, but look at this. I know it's a beta, but something tells me that this largely monochrome logo will make it into the final version. They didn't even add color to the windows logo; it's just a silhouette.

Maybe Microsoft is afraid Apple will steal some of its features?[1]
Or perhaps Microsoft just needs more time to cover up what they stole?[2]

On slightly different note but on topic, did anyone else notice how the Recycle Bin icon's shadow slants left while the text's shadow slants right?

[1]hahahahahahaaaaahahahaa
[2]most likely imho

You are describing the condition at the point of release. Currently they still have to rip out a couple of new features, which are still in a "crashesthebloodymachineallthetime" state. Of course they still talk about these features since other OSs already have them or have had them for ages.

BTW, don't you just love the headings for detailed view while you have chosen icon view as shown in this screenshot.