Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Demands Removal Of Longhorn Images
bonch writes "After the previously reported release of the Longhorn beta at this year's WinHEC, Neowin and other Windows sites are reporting that Microsoft is going around sending legal letters demanding removal of Longhorn Build 5048 screenshots. Paul Thurrott discusses it on his site, stating that Microsoft never told anyone beforehand not to post screenshots of the publicly available beta, and links to the new galleries he has up now. 'Enjoy it while it lasts.'"
Microsoft only has $34B in cash now. They've spent 25 billion over the past few years on buying back their own stock and giving a bunch back to investors in a one-time dividend.
my blog
"Apparently, there is a condition in the EULA preventing people from posting screenshots. Nobody saw anything like that."
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?Ar
ajf
This Longhorn beta might looks a lot like Windows XP, but Microsoft is probably saving the cool GUI changes until the last beta or RTM milestone. Betas of earlier Windows version did the same thing.
cpeterso
Welcome to the world of the MacMini.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Looks like it was #1 that was the correct answer:
"1:07pm
OK, Microsoft has provided its explanation. What it boils down to is that there may be certain technologies in the Longhorn Developer Preview build for which Microsoft has not filed patent applications, and the confidentiality provisions protect or mitigate the company's filing rights. One of the focus areas of IP protection has been user interface, hence Microsoft cannot permit screenshots of the UI. I was told that Microsoft had left its Media Center user interface unprotected, and that UI has been stolen and replicated in numerous other places. They don't want that to happen to Longhorn."
From the Thurrott link.
I'm mirroring the screenshots on my blog, so you can stare at the ugly UI for as long as you want.
My website is: http://www.collegechixors.com
Nope, I'm not talking about MS copying Apple... I'm talking about the submitter, who carefully left out this important point from Thurrott's post:
"Apparently, there is a condition in the EULA preventing people from posting screenshots."
You may continue MS bashing now...
Mozilla stole tabs from NetCaptor. So what? Right?
Build 5048 is not a beta. It is a stripped down version of Longhorn that contains enough of the system framework for hardware developers to being writing their drivers. This is WinHEC, remember? Beta is planned for August. The features I work on, and most of the features I've seen in other group's demos, were not merged into this build.
As soon as your copy of XP can keep two folders auto-sync'd over a network, then you give me a call. Longhorn can do that, and it's one of the big features I'm waiting for.
You mean like iFolder?
"WTF?" is right.
The Start menu has both a scroll bar and a text entry field! Neither one of these are rational solutions to trying to cram everything into one @#$&%! menu.
We all make jokes about Microsoft compensating for Moore's law, but they really are doing that with screen real estate. This new UI is the most bloated thing I've ever seen. (Yeah, you can turn Aqua up that far, but it doesn't default to that)
And...please. It's 2005. Why can't Windows calculate folder sizes?
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
You can get them via Google's image cache:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=http%
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.
He wants a computer, not a toy. The Mac Mini is cute and all, but it's also dog slow.
"Dog slow" compared to what? It's the low-end Mac. It's obviously not going to be as fast as a dual G5. Since the guy spends < $500 on his PC's, he's not exactly in the 'high-end' category.
In terms of style, it thrashes any PC ever made. In terms of performance, it can't hold a candle to anything in its price range.
That myth was debunked the day the Mac mini was introduced. When you compare similar offerings from other manufacturers, the mini impresses.
When Apple bundles an application, if you don't like it you can easily swap it out. Hell, even the Safari Web Browser Preferences, has a drop down "Default Web Browser" menu, allowing you to choose any other web browser you've got installed on the system. And if I want to delete Safari without any impact to the system, I can.
Can you do that in MS WIndows? Certainly not without fucking around under the hood, and the official Microsoft line is that you can't and shouldn't try.
Oh, and Apple isn't a monopoly either!