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Microsoft Suffers Leaks, Lagging Sales Numbers As They Look Forward To Windows 8
nandemoari writes "With only a few weeks until Microsoft's Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is released, Microsoft is already looking for people to help with Windows 8. An April 14th job ad posted by Microsoft says the upcoming version of Windows will have new features like cluster support and support for one way replication. Apparently the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. Windows 8 will also include innovative features that, according to Microsoft, will revolutionize file access in branch offices." Relatedly, several users tell us that both 32 and 64-bit versions of the Windows 7 release candidate have been leaked into the wild via p2p networks. The current leaked version shows little change beyond bug fixes, so it would seem what you see is what you get. This all comes as Microsoft posts quarterly sales that have fallen for the first time in the company's 23-year history. Seeing a 6% drop in revenue and a 32% drop in earnings, some within the Redmond giant expect the downward trend to continue.
How is this a leak? Or news?
Leaks are the cool way to release news now days. I just don't ask from where it leaked (ewww).
So thats saying that what isn't out yet is already being replaced, so why should i upgrade.
How about just make something that works?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
We all have to suffer through the leaky assholes that infest this forum.
Just kidding! Have a good weekend!
It's vaporware. Announced features tend get dropped from Windows during the development process. Don't believe anything from Microsoft until it's released.
Maybe we're seeing a new trend in the way Microsoft will be naming their OSes in the near future.
First it was by year:
* Windows 95
* Windows 98
* Windows 2000
Then it was by special name:
* Windows ME
* Windows NT
* Windows XP
* Windows Vista
Now maybe we'll be seeing names based on internal version numbers:
* Windows 7
* Windows 8
* Windows 9 (maybe?)
Almost, but not quite. Microsoft just ran clustering up the flagpole to see who would get excited.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This all comes as Microsoft posts quarterly sales that have fallen for the first time in the company's 23-year history.
This is a perfect opportunity for trash talk! Suck on failure, Microsoft! Sales looking a little limp this quarter? I guess that's why they call it both micro and soft!
Heh. More seriously, as Joel points out:
Microsoft has an incredible amount of cash money in the bank and is still incredibly profitable. It has a long way to fall. It could do everything wrong for a decade before it started to be in remote danger, and you never know... they could reinvent themselves as a shaved-ice company at the last minute.
It's good to see a hint that this fall might finally be starting, but even in this economy, it will be a long time before Microsoft dies.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Point of reference: Apple Q2 sales of Macs fell 3% as opposed to MS' 6%, but ipods and iphones were still growing, giving the company a net profit. Couple this to the data over the last year or so showing that usage share of windows operating systems has been eroding a 1-3% a year for the last four years, it appears that microsoft seems to be losing, but it's slow going. It could easily turn around with a new successful operating system by MS.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Microsoft wanted to add a file system with SQL access. They wanted to add that to Windows 2000, then XP, the Vista. And they announced a lot of other features which are normally not added to the final product or they do not fulfill any of the promises they made.
Isn't it a good thing that they are concentrating on the bugs from the betas, instead of adding features? Perhaps users of the final release wont feel like beta testers this time?
I'm no ms fan but they seam to be doing it right this time, move feature work and innovation to windows 8, while a 'stable' branch of the code is finalized for release.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Aren't leaks usually accompanied by rats leaving a sinking ship? If that is the case, then these leaks must have started a long time ago...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Windows 2000--still the best version they ever made. Simple, clean, and snappy. Try it on a modern PC. It's so wonderfully fast with an interface that stays out of the way. If Windows 2000 had supported my laptop in 2002, I wouldn't have made the jump to XP. I would have used Windows 2000 for many years.
Windows 7 looks like Vista with an OS X Dock. I can't stand Aero, and there doesn't appear to be any refinements to it, so that's disappointing. The cloning of OS X's Dock and window management behavior is another amusingly obvious ripoff that Microsoft and its supporters will deny (the common talking point appears to be that the inspiration was Windows 1.0, not OS X). The option for the classic Start menu has been removed. I really dislike Vista's Start menu and how you scroll inside it to get to things. Thankfully, the search field is a faster, better launcher.
Snow Leopard will be fun to compare to Windows 7. While Microsoft has been moving in a direction of adding more visual flair with each release, Apple has been removing flair from OS X. Right now, it almost resembles NexTStep's dark gray. Once they replace the harsh, blue gel scrollbars with iTunes' clean ones, I'll be really happy staring at my screen all day.
Every time MS starts up the hype train they start promising the world. Total kernel rewrites, new filesystems, fancy features. Then over the course of the following years they begin to slowly peal them back until we get what is a shadow of the initial promise. Now they are not the only ones who do this (I'm looking at you Sony), but it has become so predictable I don't even listen to what they say until beta. Even then things often don't make it to final release.
We will see if this trend continues, it could get much worse before windows 7 is due. If as planned a number of companies, such as Pegatron release in June as planned.
Just imagine the effect if these cheap netbooks sell in numbers, ARM will be the new hotness as far as business would be concerned. They would be cheap (actually at the $200 price point, with enough margin to make a profit). Companies would be queuing to produce computers with ARM chips running Linux. As it is Microsoft is probably losing money due to marketing payola, with not as much revenue comming in from netbook installs (I have heard of only $5 per machine). Lets just hope these ARM netbooks turn up.
This is the first time I've looked at Windows 7. Some of the features seem like nice additions -- like the new ways to minimize/unminimize windows, and the left/right tiling feature for comparing two files or folders (something I do a lot). But in all honesty I don't feel compelled to upgrade from XP.
I think the most interesting new feature will the new Windows XP Mode which is
basically Virtual PC running Windows XP client seamlessly on the desktop. Most
likely it will gain interest in enterprises planning to upgrade XP installations.
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx
Apparently the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements.
Sure, why not.
Can we just get Windows Seven out first?! Jebus.. I'm starting to think one reason Apple might be so successful is because they don't sweat the small stuff and release information about their NEXT OS even before their newest one isn't even released. This is PATHETIC and it makes me angry. I'm upgrading to Seven's beta tomorrow on my new pc, but all this talk about Eight makes me want to puke.
...given that MSFT was up 10% today.
http://www.google.com/finance?q=msft
"Apparently the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. Windows 8 will also include innovative features that, according to Microsoft, will revolutionize file access in branch offices."
Umm..from the 'Job Details':
"For the upcoming version of Windows, new critical features are being worked on including cluster support and support for one way replication. The core engine is also being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. We will also soon be starting major improvements for Windows 8 where we will be including innovative features which will revolutionize file access in branch offices."
The core engine they are talking about (dramatic performance improvements), IMHO, is not Windows kernel itself, but the storage layer core engine.
Stop confusing people, pls.
In another exciting memo Microsoft states they're looking at some interface improvements for new Windows 10!
The current leaked version shows little change beyond bug fixes, so it would seem what you see is what you get.
A beta that's actually truly feature-complete as God intended, oh my! Such a quaint old-fashioned thing to do in 2009...
Dear Microsoft,
I am a frustrated user. I am frustrated because you are continuously making it difficult for me to use your software. You are making it even more difficult for me to buy your software.
I called Microsoft yesterday.. I wanted a clear answer on exactly how many licenses I need of Windows XP in order to develop software that will run on a Windows environment. The first guy I talked to told me I need one license per virtual machine. I asked him if I needed a license every time I copied the virtual machine to start a separate project. He said that I do..
Then I asked how do I get VLK licenses like the big corporations do.. He told me I need to talk to that department and.. okay.. long story.. I'll fork my rant here.. Send me message if you want me to continue my licensing rant in detail.
Next rant: Windows Vista.. Stop telling me it is better than Windows XP. But, also stop telling me Windows 7 is better than Windows XP. Out of all the Windows desktop operating systems I've used, Windows XP 64bit seems to be the most stable and the most user-friendly (and software developer friendly).. So why are you making it so goddamn hard for anyone to buy Windows XP 64bit? Anyone that understands anything about software knows that Windows Vista was a miserable attempt to wrestle control away from the user..
Next rant: Why are you forcing Vista on everyone that buys a computer in the store?! There have been multiple times I would've purchased a store computer for convenience (for home or workplace) if it just had an option for XP.
Next rant: DRM. Fucking stop it. Start enabling people - not disabling them. Stop listening to media companies that are trying to force you to handicap your operating system. People pay for stuff that's convenient. Make it convenient as possible. Stop installing WGA spyware on everyones' computers.
Next rant: Stop changing interfaces for the hell of changing interfaces. Give me a 'compatibility mode' interface. For example.. Leave an option for toolbars to look like Excel 2003 in Excel 2007.. Or.. leave an option for Windows Vista to behave like XP.. And, if you don't put 'classic startmenu' back into Windows 7, I swear to God I'll never buy it.. I will use XP. (I'm using Windows 7 now.. I want my fucking classic startmenu. How dare you try to guess what program I feel like using.)
Next rant: Stop adding more steps in the process to get anything done!!! In Windows 95, Startmenu > Programs displayed everything.. Then.. Windows 98/ME/XP started scrolling and hiding shit by default.. How the fuck is that more convenient? It's just one extra click.. How about changing an IP address? It is easier and quicker in XP than Vista.. How about changing resolution? so much easier in XP than Vista.. or Windows 7..
Next rant: Stop choosing the dumbass options for everyone by default.. give a 'poweruser' setting during setup so Windows explorer doesn't try to hide exensions, hide details, hide operating system files..
Next rant: No puppy dogs.
Next rant: Build disk-imaging into the OS. Let me install a drive, go to disk manager, and copy my old drive.. It's easy as hell to program.. And it's easy as hell to do in linux.. make it easy to do in Windows.
Next rant: Be stricter with developers.. Make the OS so it has to explicitly ask the user to 'run on startup' or 'run a popup daemon' that will annoy us to upgrade all the time..
Next rant: Follow your own fucking standards. If I disable all icons on the desktop for my users in group policy, I should not have a 'Windows media player' and 'Help and support' link on the desktop. Also, likewise with Printers link and Outlook express.
Next rant: Spend some effort on file organization. Windows 7 shortens the paths to 'documents and settings'.. but it is no more organized! Stop making 'My Music' folders on computers that have no music and never will!
Next rant: Stop wasting GUI space.. How is a thicker window border any more convenient? How about I get to control the size of t
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Microsoft claims that big emotions come from big words. Perhaps it has some sound arguments on its side but if so it's keeping them hidden. I'd say it's far more likely that Microsoft always tries to rationalize its squibs with compelling gobbledegook about some "greater good". Why do I tell you this? Because these days, no one else has the guts to.
When some stupid, hopeless demented-types first introduced me to Microsoft's audacious pleas, I felt that civilization had reached a nadir of bleakness. In that context, one could say that I can guarantee the readers of this letter that Microsoft and I disagree about our civic duties. I contend that we must do our utmost to test the assumptions that underlie its theatrics. Microsoft, on the other hand, believes that every featherless biped, regardless of intelligence, personal achievement, moral character, sense of responsibility, or sanity, should be given the power to nourish unenlightened ideologies. Microsoft is capable of only two things, namely whining and underhanded tricks. Microsoft's propaganda machine once said that Microsoft would never give voice, in a totally emotional and non-rational way, to its deep-rooted love of antidisestablishmentarianism. So much for credibility!
Microsoft is an interesting organization. On the one hand, it likes to make serious dialogue difficult or impossible. But on the other hand, what we're involved in with it is not a game. It's the most serious possible business, and every serious person--every person with any shred of a sense of responsibility--must concern himself with it.
I used to think that barbaric lamebrains were the most apolaustic people on the planet but now I know that Microsoft has never disproved anything I've ever written. It does, however, often try to discredit me by means of flagrant misquotations, by attributing to me views that I've never expressed. In the end, I can't count the number of times I've wanted to resolve our disputes without violence. Let me express that same thought in slightly different terms: If there's one thing that Microsoft's good at, it's spreading the germs of hatred, of discord and jealously, of dissolution and decomposition. If we don't remove the Microsoft threat now, it will bite us in our backside eventually. As I have indicated, if nepotism were an Olympic sport, Microsoft would clinch the gold medal.
Although it's easy to sit in the press box and criticize, Microsoft believes that everyone and everything discriminates against it--including the writing on the bathroom stalls. That's just wrong. It further believes that its inclinations are Holy Writ. Wrong again! There's a little-known truth that isn't readily acknowledged by morally crippled harijans: Finding the best way to build an inclusive, nondiscriminatory movement for social and political change is a challenging problem indeed. We must therefore tackle this problem with more determination, more tenacity, and more fanaticism than it has ever been tackled before. Only then will people realize that Microsoft's trucklers like to say, "Cannibalism, wife-swapping, and the murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior." Such frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. If someone wants me to believe something bloodthirsty like that, that person will have to show me some concrete evidence. Meanwhile, I intend to show you that at this point in the letter I had planned to tell you that Microsoft is willing--even eager--to jettison its scruples in order to stay ahead of the pack. However, one of my colleagues pointed out that I wish ethically bankrupt egotists had the gumption not to trade fundamental human rights for a cheap "guarantee" of safety and security. Hence, I discarded the discourse I had previously prepared and substituted the following discussion in which I argue that there are many roads leading to the defeat of Microsoft's plans to malign and traduce me. I indeed think that all of these roads must eventually pass through the same set of gates: the ability to direct our efforts
The problem with ARM is the nasty little thing that is known as flash. Has anybody managed to get flash video to play on ARM yet? last I had heard that was a big nope. Folks won't be happy if they can't go to Youtube, and sadly I have been coming across more and more websites lately(especially big media sites) that if you don't have flash all you get is a big plugin symbol on a useless blank page.
So while I wouldn't mind a $199 Netbook for checking email on, i just can't see the college kids down the street being happy with something that won't play their videos. if they manage to solve the flash problem though, they could really undercut everybody. I have even seen sites talking about the 400MHz Netbooks going for $99. At that price they would be impulse buys. And more importantly at that price and form factor folks won't be caring if it runs Windows or not. And unlike x86 a 400MHz ARM is actually quite snappy. But we'll just have to wait and see if they figure a way around the flash problem. Because it is increasingly looking like more and more of the web simply won't work in the future without flash. It has just become too popular for website building.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
No, Microsoft is 29 years old. It was founded in 1975.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I am intrigued... IF (and that is a very very big IF) Win7 is half of what it is supposed to be, I may upgrade my wife's Win2K machine to it. Might. If it comes out like Vista... I swear to God I will drop the machine on Redmond from 20K feet.
0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
Am I pessimistic or am I merely conditioned to equate this phrase with loss of backward compatibility?
As in you get upgrades with X features like Aero Glass, a new explorer, etc. but keep all your settings and applications. Like Apple does.
Apple doesn't sell service packs. Going from 10.4 to 10.5 is an upgrade not a service pack. You can download and install service packs for free just as with Windows. And while you can keep some of your applications not all will work. I found that out when I upgraded from Tiger, 10.4, to Leopard. My security suite, with an AV, firewall, and backup software were broke with the upgrade. After I did a compleat install instead of just an upgrade on top of Tiger. The same with my utilities.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
It's good to see a hint that this fall might finally be starting, but even in this economy, it will be a long time before Microsoft dies.
I'll be at the start of any "I hate Microsoft, they're evil!" line, but I DO NOT want to see MS die. We need more competition not less.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Don't you guys usually correct your typos? I rely on Slashdot to not be Facebook.
Hi. One quarter is not a trend. Calling it a trend means you're either stupid or purposefully misstating things because you hate Microsoft. Anyways, it's still not a trend. Perhaps if the economy were doing well and Microsoft still posted these results I would begin to agree that this could be part of a developing trend. But even so. It's not a trend. So kindly, STFU, hater.
Oh and... "OMG A JOB POSTING! LEAK!! LEAKKKK!!!"
The following is taken form Adobe's website. Adobe Systems Incorporated and ARM today announced a technology collaboration to optimise and enable Adobe® Flash® Player 10 and Adobe AIRâ for ARM Powered® devices
The joint technology optimisation is targeted for the ARMv6 and ARMv7architectures used in the ARM11â family and the Cortexâ-A series of processors and is expected to be available in the second half of 2009. announcement here
It's become so bad that they had to drop to the singular.
Do you have ESP?
Adobe has ported Flash especially for the new netbook ARM chips:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200811/111708ARMAdobeFlash.html
It's become so bad that they had to drop to the singular.
Actually, it's a typo. The title's meant to read "Microsoft Suffers Leaks, Lagging Sales Numbers as They Look Forward to Widow 8".
Has anybody managed to get flash video to play on ARM yet?
Yes, the N800, released in 2007. Thats just off the top of my head, Im sure it isn't the first such device and there have definitely been more since.
-- listen to interesting music, support independent radio... WPRB
Adobe ported flash to Nokia's Maemo platform several years ago.
Performance may suck on a 400Mhz chip, but let's compare apples to apples. A cheap device with a low end 'smartphone' chip is NOT going to compete directly with a EeePC running Atom. A $99 machine is a $99 machine and last I checked Atom netbooks cost several times that amount.
For a more realistic comparison, TI's OMAP3640 contains a single core 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8. This is a souped-up version of the chip powering the beagleboard. Such a chip should be adequate for flash. And the not to distant future is to just add more cores - the Cortex A9 will in time support up to 4.
I'm still waiting on Mojave. There was a demo last year but they have kept quiet on its progress, kind of like Apple does. I can't wait!
The Mojave Experiment ad campaign happened a couple months after the March 2008 release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which is said to fix the performance issues of Windows Vista RTM. (Follow the references in Wikipedia's article about Vista SP1 for more information.) So if you run Windows Vista on a sufficiently new PC, and you've installed Service Pack 1, you already have Mojave.
Flash and YouTube are two different things as far as ARM is concerned.
The iPhone is ARM based and supports YouTube just fine, because YouTube videos are also accessible as H.264 streams meaning you just need a decoder, not Flash.
Adobe are reportedly working on a Flash port for ARM - there's no reason for it to be a big deal.
Windows 8 - To sideways-infinity AND BEYOND!
Wow, I can finally do with Windows what I was able to do with OS/2 in the early '90s.
Has anybody managed to get flash video to play on ARM yet? last I had heard that was a big nope. Folks won't be happy if they can't go to Youtube
Why do you need Adobe Flash Player just to play YouTube on ARM? The iPod Touch has an ARM CPU and no Flash Player, yet YouTube works on it because it supports MPEG-4 AVC.
"the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements" - does this mean that Windows is getting a UNIX-based kernel like OSX? :) I can dream, can't I?
By that time Linux will have gained enough steam with things like Suse 13 and Mighty Mandrake
"Mighty Mandrake"? Is this supposed to be some sort of unholy union between Mandriva (a .rpm distro) and Ubuntu (a .deb distro)?
In a stunning public relations coup, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MNPLY) has successfully overshadowed today's release of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 "Juicy Jubblies" by announcing its failed financials for a fourth quarter in a row and laying even more people off.
Microsoft announced new and expanded roles for remaining key executives as another several lesser, losing quitters deserted upper management. "It shows the fantastic opportunity available to everyone at Microsoft to climb seven or eight reporting levels up the org chart," said marketing marketer Steve Ballmer to pitchfork-wielding Wall Street analysts today. "If we haven't laid them off for making too much money or not kissing enough ass."
The Yahoo! deal is expected to go ahead. "We figure they'll go broke before we do. Probably." Mr Ballmer also plans to run the Yahoo! servers on Windows NT rather than FreeBSD after a similar change worked so well at Hotmail. "Some say synergy's another word for two plus two equals one, but you just have to make the value of one work for you."
Windows 7 betas have been greeted with remarkable positive press. "Of course, the betas preview the 'champagne and hookers' edition, which would be way too much for netbooks and explode users' brains. Imagine thinking those little things are computers! So we're releasing what we call Windows 7 Dumbass Edition. It lets you log in and look at the shiny. Even Spider Solitaire has the ribbon toolbar! And you can buy an upgrade to the version that runs programs! It lets you do that!" Dumbass Edition comes with pre-installed viruses to make the computer part of the Storm, Conficker and FBI botnets. "If you can't beat ’em, join ’em."
However, Microsoft has indicated to its press corps, Microsoft Completely Enderlependent Analysts, to ixnay on the evensay and highlight the job openings for work on Windows 8, firmly penciled in for a 2012 release. Windows 8 will be optimised for low-end 32-core systems with a mere 16 gigabytes of memory — 28 cores for the interface, 3 cores for the DRM and one core for everything else. "Seven is just so this year. I hear they'll get $DATABASE_FILESYSTEM done next release for sure!" said ZDNet marketing marketer Mary-Jo Enderle. "It'll be awesome!"
"I'm sure it'll be fine, fine," said Bill Gates, upping his hours at his charitable foundation and scheduling the sale of several more packages of Microsoft stock.
Larry Ellison of Oracle, who recently purchased Sun Microsystems, merely snickered, muttered "Java. OpenOffice." and let out a long and resounding laugh.
Mark Shuttleworth of Canonical, speaking from his castle on a crag high on a mountaintop in west London, was sanguine at Ubuntu's news being overshadowed. "I lost ten million dollars on Ubuntu last year. I'm losing ten million dollars on Ubuntu this year. I expect to lose ten million dollars on Ubuntu next year. At this rate, I'll be broke in ... sixty years."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
So, why is a typo in the headline (which isn't much of a surprise on Slashdot) which is pointed out in a snarky manner considered insightful?
-Shippy
For all the freetards do, they still can't equal the ease of use of Windows. It's the universal corporate standard for a reason. Canonical's shit-colored desktop doesn't work.
Don't take my word for it--download the live CD yourself and try it. If you like it better than Windows I'll eat my own ass. (It'll be the color of Ubuntu.) If everyone tried the CD they'd see how bad it was. Windows advocates do download it and know how badly it sucks.
Go on, mod me down, Canonical shills--but you can't hide how much your system sucks forever.
Again, don't take my word for it--download the live CD. Really, do this. You'll see just how much it sucks.
Yep, steadily going back to pre-Oct-08 values. "Add" GOOG as comparison an the two are really flirting with each other since Feb-08.
Windows is a 16 bit operating environment,
for an 8 bit OS, built for a 4 bit processor,
by a 2 bit company who can't stand
1 bit of competition...
Ironically, some would say Microsoft coming into existence is what killed competition, and strangely enough, them leaving the market despite being one less player would allow plenty more to enter, survive, and prosper.
A smaller Microsoft would have the same effect, allow more competitors to survive and prosper.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
nokia e71. youtube works the same as it does on the pc.
earlier they just gave a link for the real player to stream, but recently they use flash (lite?) to render the exact same video area as on the pc.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
i wonder why?
it's the highest level in the last 6 months.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
also, inexplicably, apple is down 1.2% today.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
yeah, every thing is a nail in MS's coffin. keep thinking that freetard. we'll be laughing at you 30 years from now too.
Either that or they are replacing explorer.exe with X.
Several years ago, I claimed that a huge part of the MS success is built on the expectation of continuous growth, and that the entire company would collapse if that were ever to stop. Starting with their top people being paid largely in stock options, etc.
Things have changed a bit since then, but we'll now see if I was right. What will happen if the giant falls? Can you even imagine a world without Microsoft?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I actually just uninstalled the public beta release of Windows 7 on my older computer (AMD 3500+ 4GB Ram, ATI x1550).
I'm amazed at how much better XP runs. Its much faster and smoother.
Its faster at file copying, screen redraw, multitasking... EVERYTHING. I'm even running MS desktop search, Nod32, comodo firewall in XP and its still faster than Vista and windows 7.
I will say that I do like the windows 7 taskbar though.
Microsoft is really screwing up these days. As much as everyone complained about XP security wise.... Its a fast os.
I'm now thinking of installing xp64 on my newer quadcore system and dumping Vista.
Windows 7 isn't even out yet and already there's talk of the next product coming around the corner. I think this is part of the problem Microsoft is having with Vista: Nobody wants to invest in the considerable outlay in "upgrading" to the latest version of Windows when they already know their investment is going to be irrelevant in a year or two when something newer (read "better" in the eyes of Joe Sixpack) hits the shelves.
"I'll hold off," say millions of cash-strapped computer users.
And thus, the cycle repeats.
For fun, i just turned Aero off in Vista, and set the theme to windows classic. The redraw in vista is so BAD compared to XP. I can litterally see every icon redraw in Vista but in XP... its so smooth.
Why is Vista so fundementally flawed? Even with Aero off, its gui performs worse than XP.
I just dont get it and apparently neither does Microsoft.
Vista really is the new Windows ME. ... and Windows 7 is Vista :(
I'm probably going to install XP 64 on my quadcore next time Vista takes a shit on the computer.
Why do they even put out 32 bit versions of their OS any more? Isn't every processor 64 bit capable at this point?
Why bother with windows at all??
Go Ubuntu and you'll never go back....
I think MSFT should offer a service similar to dropbox. I read about it on techcrunch (www.getdropbox.com)
It eliminates the need for me to email files to myself to access them on a different computer. Very simple concept but very useful.
If they were smart they would have named Vista 'Windows XP II" and focused on hardening it, increasing security, etc.
Although, I do like the direction that Windows 7 is taking the taskbar. I run my taskbar on the left side and often open so many windows that they devolve into single window clusters, just as W-7 arranges them. I also keep a healthy quick launch there, merging them together makes perfect sense.
So here's my question: what is the driving force for the creation of new OS versions?
Is it an attempt to run so far ahead of Linux in terms of features so as to make it impossible to keep up? Let's say they stuck with XP for a decade, improving it, they would still sell a ton of copies, about the same amount really. Or is the problem more systemic: they have a couple thousand programmers they need to keep damned busy otherwise they'd lose 'em?
"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
It's a leak that they may release a "wiz-cool" OS, *cough*...let's see, last time they did that it got called "Vista", except that everything was dropped out except the 3D desktop and the DRM improvements. So now, they need to see another OS...question is, why? Is it really to further OS development, or is this another story to get us excited about tech that will never be, but will be replaced by yet further OS-support for remote control by content producers, law enforcement, and corporate interests who pay to buy in for a piece of the pie.
Already, the US is seeing the rewards 'reaped' on the deliberate vulnerabilities implanted in cell phones for law enforcement official (for the war on terror, for the new-bogus war to track down the national security threat of kiddy-porn (which americans and other nationalities are having their fear pumped up artificially, just like Cheney/Rove/Bush did with the daily 'threat level' for the war on terror) -- all methods to justify over-arching powers and privileges to spy and monitor all of our actions and communications. Computers -- PC's, are the new biggest 'threat' -- darknets that can completely hide networks of users, encrypted P2P nets are only the tip, with song and movie piracy as only additional legal 'excuses' for law-enforcement to get permanently open taps and backdoors available. Since the war on terror has now been mostly unmasked as entirely fabricated, with the only torture usage being shown to brainwash prisoners into giving bogus 'confessions' to give fabricated information to support the GOP-fascist agenda, the "LawEnforcement-Prison Machine" wants more methods to make their job of artificial political-enforcement easier.
They seem to not be making much progress in prosecuting real crime -- in fact they are losing their battle of control now that DNA evidence is proving even "eye-witness" testimony as reliable as memories recovered with hypnosis. With evidence building against fingerprints as people ask for proof of efficacy, and evidence leaking out that the Fed's DNA database can return many false positives when a "DNA-print" is run against their entire database, they need new tools so they can get back in power -- or gain power over the people that they never had. Having a closed-source OS with hooks available to law-enforcement to tap into, and control people's computers would be a big boon to the Law.Enf.+Prison "machine". They need to keep feeding the prisons with new criminals so 'Corrections' operations (of which Cheney is a major owner/player) can continue its upward trend as a growth industry.
Meanwhile, as corrections are privatized, you increasingly have a slave-labor workforce. No minimum wages required, minimal benefits -- time to make those "criminals" start "producing for the country." Don't believe it can happen here? Take a look at US 'territories' setup far from American roving investigative camera crews where Jack Abramoff did much of his entertaining of congressmen -- Saipan island, the largest island in the American territories. They ship in foreign workers with no rights on national soil -- force them to live in prison like conditions for manual labor and have the better 'behaved'/'trained' perform in the 'service industry' (the big new industry capitalism has been trying to sell to America as our new 'future'). But these particular servants got low wages, and had to be well mannered and obedient in all they did, or they'd be returned to the even worse conditions of their native countries. The females, of course were also their for 'servicing' the (from what I've read, exclusively male clientele/visitors -- all high political mucktymucks who are on the conservative 'payroll' system of (serve and be taken care of).
If you wish to be depressed and understand the processes behind our recently departed regime (who is only out temporarily, but still quite actively planning their next take-over, with increasing the slave-labor force in the privately held priso
So the sales drop for MS for the first time. It was bound to happen. That it happens now, at the onset of a recession, is not surprising but it certainly is not good for MS either.
MS has been in decline for a while now. But, like the proverbial tanker, the ship keeps going forwards even with the engines off. At least for a while. Getting it moving again, though, requires a horrible amount of fuel, and MS will have to come out with something "big". Appearantly, they think Win8 will do the trick.
Unless something changes dramatically in the computer world, this won't happen, though. Windows is at the "as good as it gets" point already. It is stable, it is usable, it supports the hardware 99% of the users have, there is no compelling reason to switch as it has been earlier. There was a good reason to switch to 2k when you used NT or 98. 2k was, essentially, the fusion of the stability of NT with the compatibility of 98. XP offered support for a wider range of hardware. Since then, though, we're at the "as good as it gets" point when it comes to MS operating systems. Vista? Why? Win7? Again, why?
I don't know if MS can pull itself out of the current decline with a new OS. Maybe hitting a different market would do the trick, but MS has no other markets in a similar stranglehold. Worse, should try try to corner another market, they'll probably run into legal problems again. They're already under tight scrunity because of it, accused of abusing their OS market position to muscle into other areas.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
We're talking 30 millions iPods + iPhones now. One billion apps downloaded from the AppStore in nine months.
Most iPhone owners (most as in > 95%) shall never go back to Windows mobile.
Most Android phone owners shall not switch to Windows mobile.
Most BlackBerry phone owners shall not swith to Windows mobile.
Most Java developers shall not switch to Windows-only development.
A few years ago the future looked very bleak, Windows had > 95% desktop market share and there was no mobile ecosystem.
But the game is changing.
Sure, there is anecdoctical evidence about random Joe 6 pack who sold his iPhone and bought the latest "this-time-it-is-secure-and-efficient" Windows mobile, but you have to look real hard to find such payola blogs on the Web.
Change is going on. Anyone stating today that MS is has scary as it was ten years ago is a fool.
I, for one, welcome that first quarter reporting sales drop in 23 years. May that trend accelerate.
When you don't want to offer support but still want to harvest user comments and complaints you just "leak" your product onto the web?
so, due to your irrational prejudices against some particular software offerings, you not only welcome the news of losses, but hope that things will get bed enough that the thousands of people employed by Microsoft loose their jobs at a time when it is not good to be unemployed. Well, I don't like that philosophy, so I hope you loose your job. Its only fair.
Every texting teenager knows W8 is weight. May be they should just name it L8.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'll give you some examples of what I found different and difficult because of changes to the explorer shell interface. Simple things like even finding things I knew how to do before and how they are now done and look makes using VISTA difficult versus how they were done in OLDER models of Windows (XP/2000/Server 2003) and there is little question of that much. Microsoft is making giant mistakes for a company that used to have 'backward compatible' at its heart, in changing the user interface for the operating system as different as vista is now versus its older predecessors. I think that is what the poster whom you responded to meant to state, and I am definitely stating this. The DRM crippling of musical formats is another screwup that people do not want and yet Microsoft is trying to force it down our throats (we're not 'eating it' and their sales slump this very report article thread on slashdot alone shows this since it is part of its topic). OpenGL gaming is another sore point and one you will find is messed up badly (all so Directx can be 'king') that is a clear example of this since games that use it either will not insall on vista, or won't run at all (not without hacks to the OpenGL icd iirc and then? The games do not look as they should anyways IF you can get them to work at all if they use OpenGL). The hosts file in vista also no longer can use a 0 based blocking ip address (versus 0.0.0.0 which vista still can use, but it is bigger and slower on/from disk to load because of this, and worse still using the default blocking loopback adapter address of 127.0.0.1) and this really bothered me because it is an evidence of taking something efficient and ruining it, by making it less efficient.
Another talk alot but knows nothing bullshit artist from "korporate amerika" who is part of "the team" and is nothing but a snivelling highly undereducated sycophant who thinks he actually knows something of worth. Crony? Keep blowing your boss so you can keep that job, ok?
I'm going to wait for Windows 9, thanks all the same.
http://xkcd.com/350/
I'll give you some examples of what I found different and difficult because of changes to the explorer shell interface. Simple things like even finding things I knew how to do before and how they are now done and look makes using VISTA difficult versus how they were done in OLDER models of Windows (XP/2000/Server 2003) and there is little question of that much.
Different != impossible. Heck, they're not even that different.
Microsoft is making giant mistakes for a company that used to have 'backward compatible' at its heart, in changing the user interface for the operating system as different as vista is now versus its older predecessors.
There are no greater differences between Vista and XP as there were between, say, XP and Windows 9x. Heck, the fundamentals and basics of the Windows GUI are basically unchanged since Windows 95. Some aspects of it haven't changed since Windows 3.0.
The DRM crippling of musical formats[...]
What "DRM crippling" ?
OpenGL gaming is another sore point and one you will find is messed up badly (all so Directx can be 'king') that is a clear example of this since games that use it either will not insall on vista, or won't run at all (not without hacks to the OpenGL icd iirc and then? The games do not look as they should anyways IF you can get them to work at all if they use OpenGL).
What the hell are you talking about ? Microsoft don't provide accelerated OpenGL drivers because that's the job of your video card vendor.
The hosts file in vista also no longer can use a 0 based blocking ip address (versus 0.0.0.0 which vista still can use, but it is bigger and slower on/from disk to load because of this, and worse still using the default blocking loopback adapter address of 127.0.0.1) and this really bothered me because it is an evidence of taking something efficient and ruining it, by making it less efficient.
But probably more correct.
You appear to be someone for whom DOS and programs written in hand-tuned assembler would be ideal for. As such, neither Windows nor pretty much anything that runs on it, is aiming at your demographic.
Microsoft always promises "dramatic performance improvements" with its next OS release. So far promising has proven to be something else than delivering.
There is competition on every level on Linux, from the kernel down.
On the kernel level, you can have Linux, Solaris, BSD, Darwin, even HURD.
I don't think it's quite fair to call the systems Linux unless they actually, you know, consist of Linux (plus more)...
Yo dawg, I heard you like Windows, so I put a Windows X in your X Windows so you can Window while you X.
Microsoft has been saying this for as long as I can remember: "okay, we admit our present products suck, but the next release will just be unbelievable great."
Then, as time goes on, the deadline gets pushed back, and features get dropped. When the product finally does come out, it's buggy and bloated. But, msft will remind us that the next release will just be unbelievable great.
No. It's their new limitation for parallel-running apps. Window 8 is the basic starter edition.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Whew! I just can't wait!
I'm going to pronounce it Windows "Hate", and the next version after that Windows "Nein".
Say hello to my little sig.
With falling revenues, MS has no choice. They must cut back. We can complain about them, but when they hurt, the nation hurts. There was a saying "Whats good for GM is good for the nation". And just replace GM with MS.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Hmm, haven't had a problem with 10.5 yet.
Last night, er today, I finished reinstalling Leopard. I went into an Apple store Monday because Finder kept on freezing on me. There a genius at the bar did a couple of things then suggested I reinstall Leopard. When he did specifically told me that when I do to partition to hardrive first, as a simple reinstall wouldn't delete all the files. So I went ahead and created 3 partitions. Actually I created 3 and formated them then deleted then all before reforming then creating 3 new ones. So now on my 320 GB hdd, which I had installed to replace the 160 GB disk my laptop came with, has 2 partitions 30 GB each with the rest taking up the third partition. I installed Leopard on the first. The second one, 238 GB, I set as the home or user partition. And the third partition I plan to use for Ubuntu. Actually now that I think of it I may go out tonight after sending my slashdot replies to pick up a Ubuntu disk. I think I'll get "Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux (Versions 8.10 and 8.04), A (2nd Edition). Barnes and Noble has it on sale for $35, regular price is $50. It comes with a live dvd so I can try Ubuntu before installing it. Then I'll also order it from Amazon, because they have it a few dollars cheaper, and then it arrives take it to B&N as a return.
However before I install Ubuntu I want to make sure I have a plan mapped out on exactly how to install it, including what happens if a problem comes to dinner.
I left out the server version because I will guess that most regular home user is going to use the server version
Actually I'd think most people who install Ubuntu would install the desktop version, maybe that's what you meant as well, because I can't see most people wanting to run a server.
With MS you have 'home regular', 'home better' 'home ultimate' 'business regular' 'business super-awesome'. (Something like that, having fun).
While Ubuntu doesn't have as many versions in one way, desktop or server, in another way it has more versions. There's Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Studio, and others with different window managers or desktops as well as 32 bit and 64 bit versions.
Not sure which side you are falling on, but I still think MS keeps shoving out unfinished products out the door for more moeny.
In a way I agree. MS releases new stuff before it's ready. But then it releases service packs to fix whatever. Get the software on as many computers as quickly as possible then fix bugs. That's not really much different than some Linux distros though, look at Ubuntu. Canonical decided to release 2 major releases a year. Last year they were 8.04 and 8.10. So far this year we have 9.04. I noticed it isn't labeled as an LTS, Long Term Support which offers 3 years support instead of 18 months, whereas 8.04 was so I guess this tyme 9.10 will be LTS.
Oh, as far as MS goes, as I've said on ./ and elsewhere I don't like Microsoft. However I don't wish they were gone. I want more competition not less, and with a smaller MS there would be more.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?