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Longhorn Preview
prostoalex writes "News.com has up a preview of Microsoft's current build of Longhorn operating system, from Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president. The timing is not coincidental with Apple's Tiger release, as Allchin pointed out some advantages that Microsoft had over Apple's OS: 'High on the list of features are security enhancements, improved desktop searching and organizing, and better methods for laptops to roam from one network to another.'" Update: 04/15 21:24 GMT by Z : Thomashawk wrote in to provide links to less formal looks at the Allchin preview, one at his site, and one at Evan William's site.
Security enchancements can only mean one thing:
Preinstalled spyware, so you don't have to risk going out onto the internet to find your own.
liqbase
It's the same story Microsoft has told for years.. "Yeah, those other guys might have some cool shit, but the stuff we're working on is WAY better. Don't buy their stuff, wait for our new thing to come out. It'll be available Real Soon Now."
Apple will be releasing Mac OS X Ocelot by the time Longhorn hits the market.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
Last year at WWDC Apple had huge posters that said things like "Mac OS X, introducing longhorn" and "Redmond start your photocopiers".
I thought it was cute, now I know it was prophetic.
evil is as evil does
Yes, I find Microsoft security comes in handy whenever I forget the punchline to a joke.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Uhhh... Microsoft Security!
See? It's automatically funny, no matter what the context.
Unknown host pong.
I think you missed the point. There isn't really an issue with Microsoft copying the feature from elsewhere... it's the fact that they are claiming that they are breaking new ground by doing it.
Some links for the interested:
Introducing Longhorn.
Redmond, start your photocopiers.
This should keep Redmond busy.
Redmond, we have a problem.
Not only was it cute, it was a big "We'll always be one step ahead" from Apple.
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
First, even without a default shell, you can use either a hacked uxtheme.dll (free) or StyleXP (not so free) to replace the theme. Head over to customize.org to witness what you can *really* do with XP.
Second, explorer.exe isn't bad, but litestep is even better - makes it a lot more fun to use. google "litestep xp" to see what I mean.
Third, I don't personally enjoy using the start bar, so I use a freeware program I found someplace on the net to hide it (still accessable with the Windows button) and use a dock like yzdock. YzDock is free, quick, and fairly bug-free, but is no longer in development (as it was shut down by Apple). So much more convenient to group togther ten or so commonly-used programs, a restart/shutdown button, clock, mail checker, and weather report into an aesthetically-pleasing package. The result? No icons on desktop. Interesting theme that replaces the Tonka Truck default. Using Litestep makes your comp that much faster. Add in the other advantages of XP (more games, apps, cheaper hardware over Apple, wider peripheral support than Linux) and in my opinion you've got a winner.
The problem is that you have to pay for XP, which makes it more expensive than Linux, but it ultimately costs less than a comparable OS X box (hardware is cheaper, software is roughly the same). It also takes some time to set this up, but once you've done it a few times, it takes probably 10-15 minutes after a fresh install.
So no, this post and the parent is *not* a troll - I'm simply expressing an opinion. Microsoft has monopolistic tendencies, yes, but in terms of ease of use, I think that they release pretty good products. Viruses and malware? Comes with being the most popular OS - if everybody had Macs, the situation would be reversed.
Anyway, that's the joy of being in a free market; I get to pick the OS that I want to use, and others can use Linux or OS X if they feel that those products are better.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I was yelling "this is a load of SHIT!" when I threw the magazine.
Dude, you should invest in some anger management classes. Or maybe spend a relaxing weekend debugging your registry and flushing your system of spyware.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."