Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Denies Call-in 'Save XP' Petition
CWmike writes "Gregg Keizer digs deeper on a report that said Microsoft was logging calls from customers who requested that the company extend the retail availability of Windows XP to find that some users claimed that they couldn't get through to the support lines. Microsoft denies that it organized any kind of call-in petition and pleaded with users not to dial its technical support numbers to ask for an XP extension. 'As a courtesy to customers in need of technical assistance, we ask callers not to call Microsoft Customer Support Services to request an extension for Windows XP,' a company representative said. Microsoft declined to comment on whether its support lines had experienced a call-volume spike starting last Friday, when the Neowin notice first appeared."
but at least is there. The sooner XP and always-administrator users who use it disappear the better for the net at large.
The only reason XP is pretty good by MS standards is because Vista was delayed so often. When XP first came out, the only good thing about it was that it wasn't ME; it was uber slow, crashed apps constantly and tons of HW and SW just wouldn't run on it. After SP1, the intial bugs were largely worked out, and SP2 added some huge oversights. In the meantime hardware caught up, making XP's once huge demand's miniscule.
I honestly think that people who think Vista is the biggest pile of crap to come out of MS, have short memories. Every home OS that MS has released since win 95 has been aweful when it was first released. Then gradually updates come out, HW gets better, and devolopers learn all the tricks.
I think the one thing all of those who are trying to "save" XP or otherwise hinder Vista are doing is sending a very strong message to MS to never again let us get used to an OS. Expect them to keep the life cycle short and sweet from now on.
People who seemingly cannot get off Windows no matter what, not even move to OS X. I use Linux 90% of the time; I support Windows as a technician (one of my jobs). I can barely stand Windows any more, especially now with Vista. I recommend people things like OpenOffice, LaTeX (MikTeX on Windows), Firefox, Thunderbird, aMule (rather than eMule), FrostWire (rather than LimeWire), and why? Because these apps run on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. I try to explain the benefits of not being stuck on Windows. They may still be using Windows, but at least the day Windows loses dominance and/or the person simply wants to try something new (i.e Linux), their files will be readable on those OS's.
.docx!) and 2) Vista really is not a huge improvement over XP.
People need to stop thinking XP is going to last forever for one thing and they need to either completely switch to another OS or at least use applications that use open formats on Windows. Even preferences can be transferred from one OS to another for Thunderbird, Firefox, OpenOffice, aMule, and so many more (just have to be placed in the right folder). I am glad on Windows for my 'real work' I use applications that run on Linux and Windows.
Let's start with open formats. The two reasons people want XP to last forever: 1) They use applications that only run on Windows (and also think Wine cannot possibly match) and closed source formats (that includes
I get what you are saying. Often, people switch to a Mac and then complain that it uses different ways of interacting compared to Windows. It's kinda silly to switch to a Mac because of problems with Windows, but still expecting it to behave like a Win PC. Duh. If one approaches it with an open mind and accepts a little training to get used to do things in a new way, most complains disappear. I can see the similarity with the comparison between XP and Vista. Just because one is used to do certain things with XP, it does not mean that XP way is the best.
That said, however, Vista is a bloatware, and the complains aren't just about the new user interface. Vista is a dog even on a good laptop. MS executive themselves acknowledged this. MS had a chance to break away and put a new foundation on Windows in the 5 year span. Instead, they over promised, mucked around, chopped up Longhorn to pieces and under delivered. In a way, it's a reminder of Apple's Copland (see, MS even copied Apple's failure).
Slightly different situation, but back in the mid 90's Netscape used to have a webpage where you could submit feature requests, and have it displayed to their developers using an electronic marquee. At one point, a significant number of the requests submitted were for an OS/2 port of Navigator, which prompted Netscape to modify their page with a message akin to the following:
It would seem to me that Microsoft is finding itself in a similar situation with Windows XP, and is following the spirit of Netscape's response. However, as good news for XP users, in the end Netscape relented and released OS/2 versions of Navigator and Communicator, and to this day Firefox is built for that now unsupported platform.
So don't give up, XP users! Let them know what you want and how you feel!
Yaz.
They're no more trapped than companies stuck with precompiled, third-party software/drivers for, say, RedHat 9 or Fedora Core 3.
Tis life, my friend.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
I take it your company doesn't have many software developers or accountants (using obscure/internal accounting packages). Seriously, I gave a half hearted attempt at not running as an admin, but it makes my life impossible when I'm constantly writing code and testing things.
This morning I got to work and had to update VMWare (I work at a small shop as an intern, if I'm not using VMWare server to test stuff, then I'm playing Russian Roulette with my desktop being a testing grounds). Before I could install the new version, I had to uninstall the old version(requires escalation). After installing the update (requires escalation), it screwed up all my network settings and I had to manually set my network adapters (requires escalation). Moving on to testing my Latest And Greatest idea, I had to uninstall an app or two (requires escalation) to have enough room to create one more VM (requires escalation) to model a three computer network. I fell back to working and controlling all three VM from the VMWare web GUI (requires escalation) and tabbed terminals inside of one of the VMs. To test what effect my idea would have on files from the backup archives (requires escalation, but that is by design). Finally, I had to create a subversion repo (requires escalation, but that is by design) to commit to.
Unfortunately, I have to do things that normal users just don't do that often. And, "run as..." isn't much of an option for several reasons. As a side note, it is fun to watch automated "run as" jobs clobber each other's roaming profile on the hour as ntuser.dat gets locked and you end up with AdminUser.network.1 - AdminUser.network.12 on each desktop during contention. Furthermore, my choices are to leave a weakly hashed NTLM2 (what are they, unsalted MD5?) admin password on my harddrive or type in a mixed case, alphanumerical, finger contorting password once or twice an hour. I'll pass.
I run Firefox, keep my patches up to date, run spybotSD every morning, spyware blaster about every other week, moonsecure (clamav with real time protection for windows) and I try to be very careful when browing and opening emails. For what its worth, I'd rather waste an eight hour block of time reimaging a hosed machine than have Windows and Clippy breaking my flow and concentration every few minutes. I'd almost suspect that the aggregate time I would waste would be about equal. But, as it stands my XP install is over three years old now (although, it has 'character' after how much its been messed with). My boss is on his fourth or fifth install in that same time period, however, and he also runs as an admin...
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
ME was the last DOS based OS
Technically true, but it doesn't take a genius to see the similarities that both 2000 and XP/2003 have with all the DOS-based versions that preceeded them. Put another way, it still smells like DOS.
If the continuing abundance of 16bit icons on XP didn't raise any eyebrows, the 8.3 all-uppercase style names on the installation CD (and just about everywhere else) should, or knowing that your NTFS file system generates and stores (by default) 8.3 version names in addition to the typically pathologically Windows-style names that we've come to use and love. I suppose anything different would conflict with that certain je ne sais quoi of NETBIOS naming standards.
For fun, open a cmd.exe window and type help. Given the output, it's unsurprising it's still referred to as a "DOS prompt". Same old same old, but new and improved, right?
Why doesn't microsoft just announce an XP extension program that lasts as long as people are willing to PAY for updates.
That is, after a certain date, Microsoft would continue to allow you to update XP, you would just have to pay $20 a year or something for the privilege.
With this money, they would port over Direct X 10 and make other essential changes so that XP could be used until at least 2015.
"When XP first came out... it was uber slow, crashed apps constantly and tons of HW and SW just wouldn't run on it."
What XP are you talking about? I bought XP on release day and it was great. No hardware issues, a very few software incompatibilities, and it was much faster and more stable than 98SE which is arguably one of MS's best consumer OSes ever released. XP raised the bar several notches out of the blocks, Vista lowered it.
Only a few weeks ago Ballmer said:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ballmer+if+customers+want+xp
So yeah, let's ask him for it, big time. If you know a news agency get them involved, etc.
No sig today...
Now, this is odd - we just had the article Windows XP Lives, Thanks to Linux
and now it seems that Linux will be pretty much kept alive on computers amongst ordinary people thanks to Microsoft's aggressive policy towards phasing Windows XP out.
The real reason for this?
New, flash-based computers like the ASUS eee will for a couple of years still have limited resources of disk storage and RAM, and will obviously not work well with Windows Vista. ASUS eee can be delivered with Linux and Windows XP, and if Microsoft phase out XP, people WILL move over to Linux, since ultra portable PCs really are popular on the market today.
99% of the buyers would like to use that PC just to check their mail and browse the web, since the screen is to small for any great PC-games to be played comfortably anyway, and checking mail and browsing the web can be easily done with the ASUS eee with its preinstalled Linux.
Seems like ASUS have done Linux a great favour, since they during the last days of Windows XP, even have managed to sell lots of eee-PCs with Linux, and the word of mouth is spreading - if my neighbour or regular college can browse the net with a Linux PC, so can I!
Here in Norway, it even seems like you only can get the Linux version of the eee. Even my girlfriend has bought one, and it can even be used with internet banks here in Norway.
Not necessarily. The drivers set is determined by Distro.
I personally prefer Ubuntu. Comes on one CD, and downloads ONLY what you need from the repo as it installs. So you can have a nearly infinite supply of drivers, but the OS still fits on a single CD.
Now, before you go "yeah, but you need an internet connection." remember, You need one to complete the install of Vista and activate it. So if you need a connection either way, Why not use the OS that only installs what you NEED rather than piles of crap you don't need?
Food for thought.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory