Slashdot Mirror
Longhorn M4 Build Review
Gsurface writes "I finally got my hands on the new Longhorn build, 4008, that was announced two days ago. After installing it and looking around through it, I decided to write a review expressing some thoughts on the new build. This new longhorn build, upon the prompt to "press any key to boot from cd..." jumps directly into a GUI that is unique. This build Microsoft decides to abandon the setup interface of XP and dress Longhorn on its own. "
There is a problem with the database that is preventing the site from working. received from flexbeta.net :-/
All that's here is one guy with FP, and I already get a database error. Talk about bad decisions, advertising your story to /. without preparing first.
Anyone manage to sneak in and get a mirror up?
We're at a whopping 1 comment and already down...
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SO microsoft is changing its interface yet again. Of all the CompE majors that I know here at school, every single one had their version of XP revert back to the old windows 95/98 look and feel. One of these days, people at microsoft and apple (and KDE and Gnome) will realize that people don't want a change in the interface every other release, and stick to their own standards.
Getting slashdotted... yes /it is/...
I've a strange feeling that no matter how revolutionary or improved Longhorn is, there will be crowds of zealots with their anti-Microsoft sentiment in hand, ready to propogare their GNU agenda. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it.
We wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade.
You will see it looks just like longhorn. Of course, if you check out gnome, it will look like Mac OS 11 beta.
...I decided to write a review...
/. it. Next time you decide to write an article, don't post it on Slashdot, 'cause then no one will be able to read it.
And we decided to
I do not want pictures of people I don't know built into my OS (for those that can't get to it it's a picture of a woman wearing headphones and smiling as an image appearing underneath the title part of the 'My Music' folder). Thanks.
I don't know how he got his hands on a copy of longhorn, but it's exciting to see that it's not crap yet.
it seems to be working now, and its damn near the grossest windows desktop i've ever seen. that said, have they no aesthetic sense?
From an inside Microsoft source - "Longhorn will be released with a retina and fingerprint scanner since the previous product activation code was not effective enough. We are currently on beta 2 of our scanner. By RC1 we should be able to scan your retina without detaching your cornea."
Will there be a story about every Longhorn leaked beta?
I won't upgrade an OS just because of a new look.
I guess he decided to install Longhorn on his server...
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
your COMMENT got slashdotted!!
where can i sign up for the beta of longhorn?
If that really is the next Microsoft OS, then this is good news for the Linux movement. All the new features in Longhorn's user interface seem just impossibly redundant and misplaced. More wasted space, dumb shortcuts, contradictory and confusing graphical elements, pre-defined features like "slideshow" that no one will ever find useful. Way to go M$.
From the article,
:P
The welcome screen is presented, where I am logged in automatically. During the installation I was asked to enter a username, by default this username was given full administration access. Maybe not such a good idea according to some security experts.
That's standard behavior of Win95 and 98 (you're just the admin by nature), Windows NT (you start as the admin account), Windows 2000 (creates an admin account, then prompts you to create a user w/ full administrative rights) and Windows XP (see Win2k).
Does any *nix installation *not* start you off as Root, with the ability to create more accounts?
By the way, Windows installations from Win2k onward will not prompt you to create a local admin account (i.e., Please enter your Username so I can make you an admin, too) provided that you're joining a domain right off the bat -- which, as the installer of this OS, is the only case where your local account's security rights becomes a real concern. If you're doing it at home, for yourself, you're already the installer/admin. You know the admin password. Meaning, the user will know the admin password.
So, non-issue.
I didn't encounter any crashes while playing with Longhorn, even though I would have loved to see what kind of errors I would have gotten. I'm sure a couple of more minutes while browsing would have done provoked Longhorn to squeal.
"I said it died screamin' like a stuck Irish pig!"
(with props to Untouchables)
Likewise, I'm sure that me evalating any Linux kernel of your choosing could smash it into a million pieces through careless use of rm * -o , whack Solaris by repeatedly throwing the power while it's doing disk writes, or break any other *nix operating system you choose to name.
*Any* operating system can be broken through maliciously beating on it. "I bet I can make it squeal" doesn't imply "I am going to conduct a fair and extensive beta test of this newest distribution to see where it's faults still lie". It implies "Let's see what we can destroy".
Work on your bias. Good work submitting the article; news is news, regardless of the bearer.
There is some interesting commentary on Longhorn, Build 4008, including cracks that are already being released :). You can read about them at http://www.xbetas.com/.
& catid=1.
Plus, there is a Longhorn 4008 wallpaper for those really interested.
NeoWin also reports that they got their hands on a new leaked version of Windows Longhorn. "The reporter insists that these are original shots. Lots of grandients are going on in the UI and while this is an alpha and the final version might look different (that's what happened with XP's Luna, MS only revealed XP's final design only a few months before the release, while most betas used another theme), these shots showing there are just pretty ugly IMHO. Bad taste on colors, no easy distinction between elements, it all looks like a big bad web page."
Finally, there are some nice screenshots available at http://www.windowsxpstuff.net/comments.php?id=460
Suhit
Great article but I must say that from the pictures of longhorn, the new desktop look doesnt look much different than my current desktop(StyleXP:community:windowNET skin). But other than that I am very interested to see where bill goes with this version of windows, will it be an improvement over XP or will it just be another Me?
This sig was generated by a barrel of trained kittens for SeXy_Red (550409).
So it looks a lot like XP, but dumbed down a bit more. I thought XP was the "Fischer Price toy" of OS', but this looks positively insulting to anyone with 2 braincells to run together. I couldn't access all the pages, and doubt it would mention, but I'm betting there's going to be the mother of all EULAs for this thing.
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Is it possible to configure Longhorn to use a no-sidebar no-frills Windows 2000 interface? The only new features I care about are the ones "under the hood."
For great justice.
If you cant get to the site, here is a Mirror.
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Did the XP users at least try the new interface for a while or instantly turn it off? If you give it a test you'll find the XP interface is nice. The changes are fairly minor but do allow you to access things more quickly. Some things do cause a performance hit but you can easily turn them off.
In fact, I've found the XP interface to be pretty granular in control so if you don't like something, just turn it off.
A lot of people don't like new things just because they are different. Sit a new user in front of Win2K and XP and I bet they prefer XP, especially after tweaking it to their work habits.
Windows Longhorn XP 4008 Alpha M4 screen shots can be found here.
http://www.206.dk/4008.html
here
if this has *anything* to do with reality, it's scary.
This is worse than WinXP Interface, if that's possible?
I sure hope they give you a way of disabling all this crap...
cos that's the first thing I'll be doing. If I get that far even.
here, a nice mirror. Dont click the links yet as I am still gathering them. http://members.aol.com/JOHNNIECHINO555/index.html
But underneath, Longhorn is the same old bull.
"All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
I'd MUCH rather have some control of the install. I've noticed that with every bloze release, there's fewer and fewer options when you're initially putting on the beast. Is this what the lemmings want?
Looking through the review, it seems that all the 'next gen' of M$ products will do is appeal more to soccer moms. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but, hrm, the world could really use some decent BeOS drivers instead.
As for the name 'longhorn', I think His Lordship William is being rather over-optimistic..
We can face anything... except for bunnies.
I only have one question... Did they finally get rid of the random error generator?
It's a long discussion thread, so the pic's are about 1/3-1/2 the way down.
Found here
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
While I recognise that slashdot is a community that covers users from the whole of the OS spectrum, is it really necessary to see thinly veiled advertisements for M$ products such as this? Don't you understand how happy it makes the beast to see his product chatted around on this site in particular? Don't you understand that in so doing, and by helping to expose and document the flaws in said product, you are doing their testing job for them (for free)? Couldn't you be doing the same thing for the open source community instead?
Just my opinion, not meant to be a troll.
Shouts to the AC mob,
here's the text of the "review" for what its worth
I will express my initial reactions to the new Longhorn build that was introduced by neowin. The installation was initially done using Virtual PC to capture some screenshots of the install process. The desktop screenshots were taking after installing Longhorn on my D: partition.
The install went through very smoothly, and minimal procedures were encountered. We no longer see the old setup which we were so accustomed to when booting from CD-Rom and installing Windows XP or 2000. This new longhorn build, upon the prompt to "press any key to boot from cd..." jumps directly into a GUI that is unique. This build Microsoft decides to abandon the setup interface of XP and dress Longhorn on its own. The setup continues after a small waiting period by collecting information and copying files needed for setup to continue. This process lasted for about 20 minutes, actual time being less because the initial installation was done using Virtual PC. Choosing this method first because I must admit that like many others, I was also skeptical and wanted to make sure this was not a fake before I made a partition on my hard drive.
Interesting fact about the content of the cd, there is no i386 folder which we typically see in other NT based OS's. Could this be prone to this build only? We will have to wait till the final release to answer this question.
I was greeted by a blue screen with the text "please wait..." for about ten minutes. I assumed this wait was due to Longhorn detecting my hardware. I would have been impatient during this stall and assumed the installation had crashed, but a friend of mine commented that this was usual, so with patience I held my horses. In no time, the installation went back into action. And before I knew it, it was done. Longhorn was installed on my pc. I have to say that this is one of the fastest Microsoft install to date. In total the installation completed in approximately 30 minutes using the Virtual PC. After I saw that it was the real deal, I went ahead and partitioned my hard drive and did the installation again. The whole installation took about 20 minutes. My system specs are Athlon XP 1800, 1GB Ram, 80 GB HD. I was never prompted about network configurations during the install process. This quick installation, reminds me of when installing Lindows.
The welcome screen is presented, where I am logged in automatically. During the installation I was asked to enter a username, by default this username was given full administration access. Maybe not such a good idea according to some security experts.
Immediately after login, Longhorn attempts to detect any hardware and prompts for drivers of unrecognized hardware. After installing some drivers here and there, a reinstall is necessary. I notice that, similar to the previous longhorn build, this build also hangs at the login screen before restarting (I wonder if I'm the only one that has encountered this problem).
The sidebar is started once logged in. A new feature is added to the star menu, a shortcut to "My Contacts"; where you can manage your contacts.
Interesting, even though I installed longhorn on the D: drive, it is seen as the C: drive by Longhorn.
The look of the devices in my computer is different than that of the previous build. No longer do we see the status bar indicator under the hard drives. Too bad, I kind of liked the status indicator. There is a new properties bar on top which shows details of a picture, video or icon selected. Right above the taskbar, the address field has been replaced by drop down menus. Even though you can toggle between the address bar and the drop down menu, they should have made it an add-on instead of a replacement of the address bar.
Going into the control panel, it's funny how the administrative tools icons still haven't been replaced to match the longhorn or XP look.
The sidebar doesn't seem to have undergone any new changes. Of course I may have overlooked some details.
"My Contacts" seems to be a new feature included in this build. The "My Contacts" folder seems to be a fresh add-on for longhorn since not much navigation was added to it. To add a contact, a right click on the folder will do the trick.
Windows Media Player 9 build 2991 is bundled into the M4 build.
The desktop is clean similar to its predecessor, XP.
My initial reaction of this new build is that it has notably come a long way from the previous build. Noticing the installation changes we are able to determine that Microsoft is taking a different approach wit Longhorn. I didn't encounter any crashes while playing with Longhorn, even though I would have loved to see what kind of errors I would have gotten. I'm sure a couple of more minutes while browsing would have done provoked Longhorn to squeal. Even though longhorn is still in alpha phase, Microsoft is slowly beginning to unwrap the future of its OS, codename Longhorn
It's a review.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Oh, dressing up windows in new clothes every two years is not worth $200. I'm quite capable of managing my own picture/movie/music collection by myself, thank you very much Microsoft. I want the OS to be as simple and non-invasive as possible. And it does not appear that this is the route Microsoft is taking. They are trying to make windows users like AOL users...heh, doing everything for you, coddling you the whole way...
Maybe some users like being patronized in such an insulting way by Microsoft, but I like to do things myself.
It looks like a somewhat more drab version of the Luna theme (bright colors have all been replaced with varying shades of blue) that looks not bad in my opinion.
i thought the xp sys drained a lot of resources to do any real work..but i gotto say that longhorn takes the lead..cant microsoft make a product which drains very little system resources, is stable, and it actually work! they are working on looks more then how it works its like they are considering quantity over quality.
"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet..and we are the cure"
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=main&i d=9747&oc=1
neowin.net
I've been sticking with NT 5, and have been avoiding 5.1 (XP)... I will be going directly to 6.
Some of the internal additions to NT 6 have got me drooling (e.g. unified storage, with NTFS on top of SQL file systems)...
http://home.attbi.com/~rymcv/LH4008/longhornsetup1 .jpg 2 .jpg 3 .jpg
http://home.attbi.com/~rymcv/LH4008/longhornsetup
http://home.attbi.com/~rymcv/LH4008/longhornsetup
http://home.attbi.com/~rymcv/LH4008/longhorn.jpg
Get your own free personal location tracker
He either one brave fellow or all his other data are belong to the recycle bin.
I wouldn't let an early beta o/s on a system that even had another partition or drive in the same room. I'm still pissed from when that dumb-assed release version of Win2k "upgraded" my NTFS 4 on another drive to NTFS 5 (making it incompatible with NT4) WITHOUT WARNING when I simply looked at the other drive. Yes, they warn that it could happen during the install if you have any NTFS 4 partitions, but this was after the install, when I connected another drive to copy some files over! Luckily, I had imaged the drives beforehand just in case.
Sigs are bad for your health.
From the _article_ -
The desktop is clean similar to its predecessor, XP.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
I don't know any gimps, but that doesn't prevent me from using linux.
the kde themers are alreday working on "Redmond Cow Variant" theme.
I think with "reverting back to the old look and feel", the parent poster didn't think of switching off usable features like hiding all those seldomly used items from the start menu until you request to see them all. I think he rather referred to switching off the new kindergarten-style window borders, config panel lazout etc., which take up more pixels on the screen (so less useful information is displayed) and look different for no good reason.
Sure, maybe you can tweak the new l&f so you can be just as productive with it. However, the point wasn't that it's inherently bad, it was that _changing_ it around all the time is a very bad idea, and as the old one is just as good for most people, most people are better off continuing to use the old.
"Pointless 'innovation' considered harmful." I read that somewhere today, probably Wired News. Definitely applies here.
but what do i know, i'm just a model.
If I could mod you down 6 points, I would, asshole.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
1. Install Longhorn.
2. Get ass-raped by SATAN..
Hmmmm, which to do first???
Few nice screenshots, longhorn screensaver and wallpaper. http://www.msfn.org/comments.php?catid=1&id=13 75
Most sensible people don't buy windows products, they use free illegal versions.
Sexist and expectedly ignorant.
So do you normally attack all creativity when you don't understand it?
The solely for proifit motive does not win a lot of real friends. Just ask a Ferengi.
..the more they stay the same.
.net, which I think will be the equivalent of embedding the channel bar into the OS and trying to make it look more "seamless" in the OS. Remember the subscription channel bar in Win 98, that no one ever uses and hates?
Having survived the Windows 98 to ME, Windows ME to 2000, and Windows 2000 to XP migration curves, I have to say, that until this thing reaches release candidate status, all bets are off.
I remember installing every single Win 98 beta that came out -- what a buggy headache (especially the early Active Desktops) -- when I could have spent my time being productive, and waiting and watching.
This time, I will wait and watch.
So far all I see in Longhorn is Windows XP with a few new panes, some screen reogranization and some pretty icons. Until I see a dynamic, functional difference that is not just screen reogranization or eye candy, I'll be convinced that this is just more of the same, in a new package, with some bugfixes, speed optimization and additional hardware support (like DVD burning, for example).
Oh, and I forgot
I could have guessed those "improvements", without even seeing one screenshot. Come on, MS, where's the real innovation?
Time will tell.
Chris
Your humorous post was excellent! You stick it to Micro$oft by alluding to their ever-more-complex activation requirements with a twist of the absurd ("detach cornea"...LOL). Also, you create the impression that the post is from an "insider" and it's only after a reading or two that one realizes the "quote" is a fabrication. +5 FUNNY.
Just looked at the replace dialog screenshot and saw that they still don't have the feature I want. When will they allow you to rename the file you are copying? In the My Computer screenshot the concept of libraries replacing the concept of My [object] is curious.
I'm sorry, but that name sounds like IE will open goatse.cx on the first launch...
Ron Paul 2012
When I look at the screenshots, all I can think of is "And YOU, you're too FUCKING...BLUE!"
Vote for global prefs bug
Try it out... in a virtual machine, of course. When MS say alpha, they mean it.
o |
eDonkey2000 network link (Emule strongly recommended):
ed2k://|file|longhorn_usa_4008_x86fre_procd1.is
687122432|7f006a56ea5a4068c32351b2c837f763|/
Copy and paste both parts onto one line, with no space, | next to 6. Paste result into Direct Download ed2k link space in Search tab. This assumes you already have a working emule.
Sorry - I couldn't make the link clickable. Slashdot wouldn't let me. Share and enjoy - carefully.
For a key just do a search for Longhorn on edonkey, you should find the very common files which are the activation crack and a sample key.
Obviously none of this is for production use, duh, just an idea what The Enemy is up to next.
As a developer, the tester should use the program as intended, and throw in a few curves there. That was what the writer was referring to. I'd probably fire you if you came to me and said, "Yea, I finished testing that beta. It sucks. I rm'd the executable and now it doesn't work". That isn't beta testing, moron. Testing is, "hmmm, let's enter some invalid data here, and see how the parser handles it" or "Let's just close this dialog without completing it". The point is to look for normal, unintended use where the application doesn't handle it. It isn't bias in this article. That's beta testing. Nice troll.
C Pungent
from this picture it seems they changed the "Yes to All" button when doing a multi-file copy/replace with a checkbox like in Jaguar (OS X) however the wording is terrible "Repeat my answer each time this occurs".
And what's the point of having a slideshow in the taskbar?
too bad it's a cluster of 486's
:-P
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
There seem to be two camps here (with a third lurking in the background), and they're diametrically opposed: those who think the GUI is too big a change from WinXP and therefore people won't like it, and those who think the GUI is too much like WinXP's and therefore people won't like it.
You can't have it both ways.
There's always a third camp around here (of which I'm a part), which seems to be strangely under-represented in this thread today. This camp believes WinXP is actually a perfectly fine OS, its UI is perfectly functional and easy to use. These people look at Longhorn and think "well, it's no worse than XP, and probably a little better."
Lots of people use Windows XP and lots of people like it. Heck, lots of people even use its new swanky GUI - I do, my wife does, and everyone else I know does too (including most of my co-workers... all of the ones running WinXP, that is). I'm not sure why anybody would expect MS to make any drastic changes to a formula that works, and that a lot of people are used to using. Honestly, the core functions of the GUI haven't changed since Windows 95/NT 4 (which were very similar with the exception of the added administrator functions in the NT 4 GUI). Some of you seem blinded by bright lights - the XP GUI is almost no different than the Win2000 GUI underneath, and what *is* different (the control panel layout, start menu, etc.) can be easily changed back without removing any of the functionality or the prettiness. For my part, I find the new start menu much more useful than the old.
And from what I'm seeing of Longhorn, it's hardly any different from the XP GUI. It's a bit flatter, with fewer 3D effects - an attempt at being a little more tasteful and understated without going back to the ugliness of Win95 (though I'm not a fan of rounded window corners - especially when maximized, they just don't like right). Still has the start button, the systray, the quicklaunch, very few desktop icons, etc. A few new transparency effects on the new sidebar. Honestly, if anything I'm disappointed they haven't made more visual improvements to the UI, though this is still an early build, and most of the visual flash comes last in any software development. I'm sure the final release will look even better than this.
I think you all need to stop expecting Windows to be Linux (or BeOS, or whatever), and accept the fact that not all of us want to worry about customizing every last bit of our GUI or working in terminal consoles to get anything meaningful done. This doesn't mean we don't have "half a brain", it just means we want to spend less time with our OS and more time with our work. But it's nice if the OS looks good out of the box, so we don't *need* to spend time with it to make ourselves comfortable with it.
On the other hand, it seems KDE and Gnome are both trying to move closer to the Windows GUI. They both have "start" buttons of their own, they both have quicklaunch equivalents, etc. They're both even going for eye candy lately. So what are some of you complaining about? This is what most people want, and it's the way most people are used to working. Just deal.
Isn't it illegal to write reviews of Microsoft products without their written pre-approval and approval of the resulting article?
An email has been sent to the administrator notifying them of the problem. Please try again later.
has a very full mailbox.
-1 flamebait
Im dissapointed, Microsoft got it wrong again!
when are they going to learn to put the close button on the proper side!
I'm guessing they didnt fix that double click the titlebar bug either.
Why post a review of something on slashdot when your site can't handle it?
try this one
Has anyone ever noticed how the default windows accessories almost never get updated? Why can't they spend a couple of programmer-weeks to update paint or notepad or the calculator? They have been the same since 95 and if I remember correctly 3.1. I know that these are trivial little tools and much better 3rd party replacements exist but would it kill them to support png's with paint?
I wrote my own review with a bit more detail and thoughts. It is availible on www.betaone.net as well as below. My review assumes you had seen the previous M3 leaked build so doesnt go into details about the sidebar etc:
.NET (which I was running previously). Even with the WinFS service disabled, the system runs painfuly slow.
----
Well, I finally got around to installing Longhorn build 4008 on my laptop, and have decided to write a mini review. Rather than writing a full review of each possible screen, I will concentrate on changes from previous versions of windows.
Installation
Behind the scenes a lot of changes have happened to the setup program.
* Rather than having all files in one folder (i386) there is now a directory dtructure in 'boot' which resembles the structure of the system once installed.
* Rather than having a text-mode preinstall upon booting the cd which then spawns a graphical setup, the entire Longhorn M4 setup is graphical. This seems to be based on Windows XP PE (preinstall edition).
The changes look very promising, although the GUI is clearly unfinished and seemingly rushed;
* In many places the wording is quite unproffesional
* You are informed you will be informed when you can "just walk away" and "setup will complete on its own". While setup requires little user interaction, you are not informed when your input is no longer required.
* There is a nice treeview for selecting the installation partition, but your options are quite limited. In XP you can select Fat32/NTFS, FULL/QUICK format. In LH M4 the only option you have is a checkbox - "Format this partition (NTFS)".
* The layout will need more work. Currently everything is centered, giving a kind of pyramid look. The previous setup style with several 'panels' proving information looked more visually pleasing.
I am sure the little flaws will be ironed out sooner or later, but one thing is for sure, a lot of work has gone into improving the setup wizard which until now had remained largely unchanged ever since windows 2000.
Visual and Features
When longhorn M4 first starts, you are greeted with a much nicer screen than in Longhorn M3. In M3 there were a lot of visual imperfections and the plex theme looked worse than the luna theme on many windows. Now these imperfections have been ironed out and longhorn looks truly beuitiful as far as visuals are concerned.
The sidebar, in additional to being much nicer visually, now has a few essential features that were missing in M3. Namely, there is a tray icon tile, so you do not lose access to trayed programs when using the sidebar in place of the taskbar.
Glitches, Speed, Stability
I tested M4 on modest hardware - a laptop with a 600Mhz P3 and 128MB of RAM. Longhorn ran SIGNIFICANTLY slower than
After altering the screen resolution the sidebar seemed currupted. Hiding and then reenabling it made the sidebar completly invisible.
Stability is difficult to comment on because I have only been running LH for a short time so far. Till now I have not had a single crash or even error message.
Rant on WinFS's implementation
A lot of effort seems to be going into WinFS. The idea behind it seems brilliant - store files in an SQL like database so you can search for files, run queries, and receive results in a fraction of a second rather than having to wait for the computer to scan through each folder and take several minutes to search through the entire drive. Unfortunatly if the implementation in M4 is anything to go by, MS are going in completly the wrong direction. The new search panel prompts the user to enter a search string "Example: 'Pictures from John' or 'What is a firewall?'". It can search both the local files. This seems very newbie-oriented. Computers are usless at interpreting natural language queries. They should do what they are good at - fast indexing by filenames and keywords in the files contents. Also, searching a local filesystem for a jpeg and searching the internet are two entirely different activities. Combining them into a single search seems to make no sense and will just confuse advanced users.
The current search system in XP is good enough as far as the interface is concerned (at least after you kill the faqing dog - again classic newbie-oriented bloat). You can search by filename, modified/created date, and a files contents. It is layed out in a perfectly logical way, and you know exactly what you are asking the computer to do. If only this was based on SQL and queries lasted under a second it would be perfect. Why replace this clean, logical interface with a textbox claims to supposedly understand plain english questions and automatically decide for you if you are looking for an email message, file, internet document, or application. Pointless artificial intelligence which will be far from perfect. I think ill stick with 'grep' and 'ls -R' - they do everthing I need them to.
Yes, he's sexist and ignorant, but what does attacking creativity have to do with it? He was just mocking XP's shitty interface. Don't ruin a perfectly good response by erecting a straw man "creativity" argument.
The UI of Win 3.11 had a gazillion flaws compared to it's competitors but unlike Win95, it was consistent. I actually like it better than Win95.
According to our friends at winbeta.org, it is a dupe, and not of the dual-post kind.
Longhorn looks promising in some ways. If developed correctly, it could have the capability to compete with unix or bsd-based platforms. Unfortunatly early indications show that Microsoft is fighting for the market by making Longhorn appeal to novice and inexperienced users, rather than fighting for technological superiority. Technologies like WinFS should be exploted to their full potential and the emphasis should be on functionality and not excessive ease of use. Microsoft should not give in to pressure from coorporations to implement destructive technologies such as palladium. Appealing to newbies is a short-term solution that will inevitably backfire if power users and developers become tempted to move away.
I take it you are deeply afraid of people with dark skin.
Do you want a hug?
No, I'm not afraid of them, I just despise them because they are vulgar and offensive.
If you read the EULA it says Whistler, this is longhorn they voided their own EULA. Not that a leaked OS has a valid EULA anyway.
You know what I think would be really funny - if KDE were to include a clone of Microsoft's Longhorn theme before it's even released. Stealing the thunder of their "amazing" new GUI.
I'm not sure when Longhorn is supposed to go gold, but it's got to be more than 3 or 4 months. Plenty of time for some bored themers to do a complete rip-off of the Longhorn style. I don't think KDE should make it the default theme by any means, just have them in there as an option.
Of course, MS legal action would surely try to squash it, but it's my understanding that "look and feel" is very difficult to protect.
What is up with these people? Don't they ahve something better that they can be doing?
I mean, these images are obviously fake. First of all Microsoft would never allow a caption like "You can walk away now and come back in 10 minutes, or stay and watch setup". Second of all, that color scheme would result in the immediate termination of the artist (Green tabs??). Lastly (that I will mention), just look at the controls! Microsoft wanted the Start button to clearly be a button for a reason. Yet this guys start button just seems the word "Start" on the taskbar... similar propblems appear else where.
I think this is just a guy with virtual PC, Blinds and a little too much spare time.
http://brandonbloom.name
hers a link where u can download the .doc file of this review :
"http://www.iebeta.net/modules.php?modid=5&action= show&id=32"
I was thinking of a different bone of contention I have when I said that: FAT32 support, which MS never provided under NT4 right up to SP6A (I mean, the provided it under '95a/b for goodness sake!). They probably thought that it would eat into Win2k sales. I have read-only support of FAT32 with a free driver from System Internals. You can also purchase the driver with full read/write support from Wininternals.
It was a couple of years ago, but I now remember that the problem was that the (SP4-6A) NTFS5 support was half-assed - you could no longer use low level disk tools (including MS's own *cough* tools) if you had NTFS5 under NT4. And that certainly qualifies as NFG IMO.
But that's not what really pissed me off. I knew that and didn't want NTFS upgraded. What pissed me off was that Win2k did it anyway and without warning. And that is unacceptable.
Sigs are bad for your health.
The poster of this story apparently Slashdotted himself?
Nice move.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Microsoft Longhorn Minimum system requrements:
Memory: Minimum 512Mb RAM
CPU: Palladium enabled 2.0Ghz Pentium IV Processor
Graphics: Palladium enabled card, 128Mb RAM mimimum
Hard Drive: Minimum 10Gb disk space
Our Product Activation® technology, tried, tested and loved by the masses will now be upgraded as a new feature: Product Pay As-You-Go.
For Each month, microsoft will now be charging users $100. If you do not pay this amount, you will go directly to jail for computer theft and piracy. Also, if you so much as change a single piece of hardware you will have to call our Product Activation Centre ®, to have our software product enabled again. Please note, that due to the large volume of calls that we have to take in this regard, we will now be charging for this Activation service.
We have also included yet more features that are guaranteed to drive the ordinary user up the wall, including:
a GUI that is even more butt ugly than XP!
Even more bubble help menus, that are guaranteed never to go away!
Including the personalised menu option as default and only setting!
Expected Retail price:
Longhorn Professional: only $499!
Longhorn Personal: only $399!
Please note that due to the new and improved features present in Longhorn, no upgrade editions will be available.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
-- Fuck Beta
...XP still includes edlin.
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.
Both Linux and Windows will stop working if the root user deletes enough files, but they will both likely stop with some kind of error like "Unable to locate file blah, I can't continue", which is not really a bug because in fact they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do.
What he was looking for was a BSOD (or a kernel panic on Linux) or perhaps mysterious lockups (which are now much more common on both systems than actual crashes).
In the sites with screen shots of the setup process: What is the easiest way to get these screen shots? The PrtScrn button doesn't work at that point in the OS load, so what is the best way to get these shots? Digital camera? Video out to another computer's video capture card? Or am I missing an even easier way?
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
It has been said, again and again and again and again that NTFS 4.0 is incompatible with NTFS 5.0. What do you need, a big friggin neon sign saying "for the dit witt in front of the computer, NTFS 4.0 isn't compatible with NTFS 5.0" whilst a marching band goes past?
He said it did it without warning, after simply accessing an NTFS4 disk via Windows 2000.
And that is shockingly bad system design.
...that you just go ahead and bend over.
for the blind.
Lighten up and laugh along. Everything is not an obituary!
I am very sorry guys that my site is down, I underestimated the power of slashdot. It has gotten to the point that they had to shut us down till tomorrow. for the users that posted the review as a comment on this site, thank you.
well, since the longhorn is immature, and us linux zealots are eating it and torturing it, i guess we can call it veal then.. YUMMY, NICE VEAL!!!! Penguins like veal.. we hate microsoft, we hate longhorn, so we slaughter its young.
I do a lot of work in the Contact Management industry, and I find it very interesting that this build of Longhorn includes the My Contacts item. My interest in based on the fact that Microsoft has recently released their own competing contact management system (there are 3 or 4 established players in the field) (see Business Week article here).
I really have to wonder whether this is another MS "bundling to gain market share" tactic. We'll see how this turns out, but I really have a bad feeling that the DOJ's failure to split the OS from the application side of the company is going to reduce choice and innovation even further.
The story provides no context as to what it is, other than something from Microsoft.
/. recently.
<CONSPIRACY>
Maybe this has something to do with all the Microsoft advertizing on
</CONSPIRACY>
(smiley implied)
The first Model T was a formula that worked, too.
idiot.
Which unfortunately makes them look just washed-out and lacking in attitude. It's like the safe corporate version of Aqua, only instead of being Playskool like the previous attempt, this time it's "OK, we'll make it all blurry and stuff!".
God help them, this is pretty sad.
It reminds me of a Roger Ebert review of 'Heaven's Gate': "When you don't enjoy even the physical act of looking at a movie, the director is in deep, deep trouble." Well- Longhorn appears both annoyingly blue, and annoyingly washed-out and contrastless. This is the best they could do? Windows 95 was more appealing, in a crude-but-cheerful way. Do you suppose they know they are downward spiraling?
Yes. Please stop ruining perfectly good sexist posts.
I ran a couple of tests with LH on my system (Athalon XP 1800, 512 PC2100 DDR, GeForce 3 Ti200). I actually noticed in certain areas speed was better. I upgraded the drivers for all my devices on my XP install and on my LH install. In UT, I managed 60 FPS on LH and 50 FPS on XP. I didn't have time for anymore gaming benchmarks, but I found that interesting. In terms of glitches, here's what I've seen. 1) In the task manager, it doesn't always show you who is running the application running (IE user, system). 2) When making changes to the desktop, the icons usually disappear, but right clicking and hitting refresh fixes that. 3) When changing the start menu to classic, there is a shortcut for "Activate Longhorn" but it directs you to the wrong path (c:\windows\system32\%USERNAME%\system32\oobe\msoo be.exe).
Thats all that comes to mind for now. I'll see if any other games have the same result. I noticed when booting up, it gets to the GUI quickly enough, but it take a while for all the programs to come up, even with the computer in a selective startup. Also, there seems to be problems isntalling devices, even with MS native drivers.
A whole rant over one little thing. That's pretty thin.
The single menu bar is indicative of the Mac's single-tasking nature (not limited to the menu bar), which is a constant irritation for me (I have to use Macs daily at work, and I fucking hate them). The Mac menu bar is fine for an "appliance" but not for a computer, especially not for a multitasking computer and/or literate users.
And any programmer that implements modal dialogs (the kind that prevent me from doing ANYTHING else with the system, not just that one application), including MacOS programmers: file open dialogs for eg, should be shot, drawn, quartered and shot into the sun. And then REALLY hurt.
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
Windows is Just Fine for me, it does everything I need it to do.
As soon as I finish installing Cygwin.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Looks like they back online u can view it now
Why oh why oh why does fancy spancy Longhorn still need an autoexec.bat?
Thanks.
Just to remind everyone. Today, Sept 17, is Linux's 5th birthday. So
happy birthday to all on the list. Thanks go out to Linus and all the
other hard-working maintainers for 5 wonderful fast paced years!
-- William E. Roadcap
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