Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft To Switch Focus To Windows 8 In July 2010

An anonymous reader noted a bit from Ars saying Microsoft will be switching internal focus from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in fiscal year 2010. Microsoft's fiscal year starts in July, which is only eight months away. According to Microsoft's roadmaps, the release of Windows 8 is scheduled for 2012."

49 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Windows 8.. by headhot · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Ocho!

    1. Re:Windows 8.. by sdnoob · · Score: 5, Funny

      ... my data

    2. Re:Windows 8.. by sopssa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A company is planning ahead for their next version. News at 11.

    3. Re:Windows 8.. by sopssa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd think that constantly creating new versions of windows to create an income stream is getting
      ridiculous now. What can Windows 8 do that can't be done with Windows 7? I guess the trend may be
      that the consumer/customer will update on every 2nd or 3rd windows version that comes out instead
      of every year. The same goes for the browsers and office too. I think that it should be v7.1 and v7.2
      etc to add additional functionalities for free vs. buying functionalities in increments. Also just
      changing the GUI interface to look new improved shouldn't count either.

      The only new version that should come out that would drastically be new that one can purchase
      is the artificial intelligence version. That is, one that can improve itself!

      Tell that to most of the linux distros, who have a written rule to release new major version every 6 months.

    4. Re:Windows 8.. by FTWinston · · Score: 3, Informative

      What can Windows 8 do that can't be done with Windows 7?

      128 bit, I think we heard previously.

    5. Re:Windows 8.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      You must be new to Slashdot. Here's an overview of how users tend to respond to the more common types of articles posted:

      Windows Article
      • Windows, moar liek WINDOZE!
      • stfu n00b, ms > all
      • Hi, I'm a very enlightened intellectual, and for some inexplicable reason I prefer to troll these boards and post insightful responses to increase my already massive and throbbing store of karma (that's a metaphor, by the way, did you get it?), and here is my humble-but-not-really $0.02 on the subject...

      Apple Article

      • DIAF FANBOIZ!!11
      • Hey os x is better than winsucks because it just workz
      • Hello again, you might remember me and my insightful, faux-humble posts in that Windows article, so you'll know I'm worth a few more karma points by virtue of my username, and if you like what I post feel free to toss in a few more. At any rate, regarding the article...

      Linux Article

      • LINUX RULEZ TEH w0RLD!!11
      • lol, butts.
      • Hey there, me again...I really have nothing to add. Can you give me karma points anyway?

      Any other Article

      • First!
      • I agree with the parent.
      • I know I'm going to be modded down for this, but I'm going to give you my opinion anyway, because clearly if I preface my comment that way, it'll be a REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY PLOY that will entice you into modding me up. WINNAR!
      • How is this news for nerds? Man, I remember back in the day when Slashdot was actually cool.
      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
    6. Re:Windows 8.. by jhoegl · · Score: 3, Funny

      you are right.. Linux distros are getting SOOOO rich off of free releases.

    7. Re:Windows 8.. by WinterSolstice · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, not all:
      http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090729
      Debian is on a 2 year cycle
      http://news.opensuse.org/2009/03/05/112-roadmap-and-fixed-release-cycle-for-opensuse/
      Suse 8 months

      I think Ubuntu and Fedora go for the 6 month, but I doubt 'most' go for 6 mos. I think the average is to attempt an annual release.

      --
      An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
    8. Re:Windows 8.. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, we heard that someone was ensuring the Windows codebase was 128bit safe, not that Microsoft was targetting 128bit architectures. People made the same mistake in that story as well...

    9. Re:Windows 8.. by mea37 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ah. So if you give the product away, frequent releases make sense; but if you profit off the product, that allows us to believe that frequent releases are just a ploy to make money (even though nobody actually buys the upgrades that frequently), so you should be criticized if you release frequently (even though you probably also have the same reasons to release frequently as anyone else).

      Yup, that makes perfect sense.

    10. Re:Windows 8.. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't know which Linux distros your're referring to, but if you mean Ubuntu, yes, it has a release schedule of approximately every six months, but each release is supported for 18 months. These are more for casual use. The LTS versions are the 'major new versions' and are intended for large deployments: they're supported for a minimum of 3 years. FWIW, following the Ubuntu release cycle as it's intended, the last 'major new version' was 8.04 'Hardy Heron' released on April of 2008. The next LTS version will not be released until April of next year, and it's code name is 'Lucid Lynx' (which I think is very, very likely to get nicknamed 'XLynx' for obvious reasons. ;)

    11. Re:Windows 8.. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Funny

      To support all those 128-bit processors and 128-bit applications currently on the market? To support more than the 192 GB of main memory supported by Windows 7 64-bit? I thought 192 GB ought to be enough for anybody!

    12. Re:Windows 8.. by sopssa · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And on top of that, there IS monetization going on with the popular distros, since they are paid for by Google for internet searches and so on what their users generate.

      Just because its free to you, don't think there's no any capitalization behind it.

    13. Re:Windows 8.. by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They should have been working on Windows 8 nine months ago, or whever they basically put Windows 7 into freeze. It was over a year ago that they decided certain major features weren't making it into 7.

      The team that develops the OS should be focused on the new version right away.

      Surely Microsoft is a well-run corporation with long term planning. Surely they have a future roadmap of where they want Windows to go over the next 5 years. Surely Vista and 7 were intentional stepping stones along their master plan.

      I can't fathom the possibility that Microsoft has become this un-agile behemoth that no longer innovates, but rather has knee-jerk reactions to the OS market.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    14. Re:Windows 8.. by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Informative

      openSUSE used to be a 6 month window. I think Mandriva still uses a 6 month window.

      If you only count community distros, then Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Mandriva are the heavy hitters. Debian would be the exception.

      However, this is a poor comparison to Windows. Windows wants you to pay money for the upgrade. Linux releases quicker, but it is a free upgrade. Many of these are more comparable to a Windows service pack.

      If you count commercial distros like SLES and Red Hat, you'll see a much longer window between releases. These are more comparable to Windows releases.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    15. Re:Windows 8.. by Kalis84 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its far easier to criticize when those "frequent releases" also include a price increase every go around, along with the need to buy new equipment just to support it, changes in functionality nobody asked for, and restrictions that border on invasion of privacy.

      Many Linux distros run on just about any hardware you can load it on. Can the same be said about the last 2 versions of Windows?

    16. Re:Windows 8.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, some site called "Windows 8 News" just made up a fake Linkedin profile I couldn't seem to find in real life, citing a name that I am told by sources did not exist in internal company directories, with quotations mis-using the company jargon. But don't let that stop you from speculating about it.

    17. Re:Windows 8.. by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Funny

      192GB is going to be the minimum needed to run Win 8, so it will have to address more than that ;)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    18. Re:Windows 8.. by AndGodSed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While I agree there is a problem. The shorter the release cycle, the more incremental the releases needs to be.

      1. Users won't like having to shell out for a new windows every 6 months to a year.
      2. Vendors won't like needing to re-write drivers for whatever the spread of hardware it is that they still update drivers for every year.

      This means that at shortest a two-year release cycle at least makes sense, it is also about how often I'd expect a user who is serious about his IT to upgrade his notebook/pc.

      The march of Technology on the other hand dictates a shorter release cycle though, small increments and often releases.

      The optimum would probably a totally new version every three years, with proper service pack type updates every six months which actually are incrimental new releases.

      In that way Win7 would have been a service pack, and the next new version could have been a proper full overhaul. I think economically it makes a lot more sense as well, you get a buy cycle that is predictable, hardware vendors get a lot of time to prepare their hardware and there is a general consensus with users and developers both knowing what to expect.

    19. Re:Windows 8.. by default+luser · · Score: 4, Informative

      So going to 128 bits wouldn't help?

      Addressing DRAM is not the problem 128-bits is being considered for.

      128-bit addressing is being considered right now for the off chance that a technology like PRAM catches-on. Once you have non-volatile RAM at much higher densities than typical DRAM, you can ditch the hard drive altogether.

      This poses a problem, because disks and SSDs are currently I/O mapped and accessed via an SATA controller, which adds latency. But what people don't realize is how much memory-map space this arrangement saves us: consider that you can access TERABYTES of data in a device that requires less than 100MB of your memory map. And you don't typically care about the added latency, because the speed of disks is many orders of magnitude slower than DRAM.

      Now, imagine the disk is replaced by something just as capacious, but also just as fast as DRAM. PRAM in the capacities to rival a hard disk would likely need to be direct memory-mapped I/O to achieve good performance, and for that we really need to consider 128-bit addressing, because current hard disks (single disk and storage arrays) are already pushing those respective 40 and 52-bit limits.

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

  2. 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    2012 OMG.... Always kinda knew it would be Microsoft to end the world...

    1. Re:2012 by halfEvilTech · · Score: 2

      They are creating Skynet I knew it.

      time to start working on my underground bunker

  3. And? by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hey, I heard that Ubuntu going to be switching focus to 10.x next year as well! STOP TEH PRESSES!!!1!

    Do we actually have anything to talk about regarding Windows 8, or is this just another thread where we trot out all the usual "ZOMG evil Micro$oft abandonware bloated faked figures blah blah blah"? Because that's getting kind of old.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:And? by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When people get fed up with crippled "home" versions and paying more for "ultimate" versions, Linux will surely take off. If Microsoft is unwilling to provide all the features in one simple install, 2010 will be the year of Linux on the Desktop.

      We need something like Poe's Law for Linux zealotry, because I think you're being facetious, but I'm really not sure.

    2. Re:And? by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When people get fed up with crippled "home" versions and paying more for "ultimate" versions, Linux will surely take off.

      To use a line from The Patriot:

      You dream, General.

      People, average people, don't care that there are different versions of Windows. People, average people, want something that allows them to get on to the internet, send email, maybe play some online games and a few other things.

      People, average people, just want something that works. They don't want to have to go to a command line and remember some obscure phrase to accomplish something. Until Linux becomes more like a Mac or Windows environment, Linux will not take off for the average person.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    3. Re:And? by Kamineko · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought Poe's law was 'put the bunny back in the box'.

    4. Re:And? by smoker2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Twat.
      Linux isn't some kind of alternative to windows where you get the same deal but with less hassle - it's a completely new environment. If you don't understand that, please cease with the FUD pretending it is a piece for piece replacement for it. It was never intended to be and it isn't , and who fucking cares anyway ? Only windows users who need to be told what is a good idea, because they have no idea for themselves. I would rather people like you stayed where you are and didn't pollute our environment with your " I can't do it, it's so hard mentality". No matter what you believe, you need to understand how a computer works to get the best out of it, and windows does its best to make that observation indistinct, or even irrelevant.

      Proudly posting from a Fedora 4 computer running Firefox 2.0.0.2 with no rootkits, no viruses, no mailing capabilities, no external control. Unlike most Win 9x/XP/Vista machines

      I don't give a fuck about WIndows 7, or Windows 8, no matter how "good "they are (in comparison), Oooh you've finally got composite desktops, well I guess my F9 is out of date .... finally. Is that it ? Tossers !

  4. End-of-the-world-screen-of-death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah - you were thinking it.

  5. Price Appropriately by areusche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I feel like I have been spoiled by the solid 6 years of time XP was on the market. I literally remember using XP in 8th grade and running it well up to my sophomore year of college. That is a HUGE amount of time. Microsoft can make huge gains by keeping the price of upgrades cheap. Cheap meaning 30-50$. They will have a happy pirate free user if they did that.

    1. Re:Price Appropriately by bmajik · · Score: 5, Insightful

      $30 is about what the os, in its MAX config, is worth. any os.

      When you discover Austrian economics, you'll learn that there is no such concept as intrinsic value. So this statement is meaningless about any good or service. It might be meaningful for YOU for RIGHT NOW, but the notion of value is time and observer dependant.

      linux, freebsd, opensolaris: all free and all way more stable.

      And all miss certain desktop scenarios that windows nails, which is why everyone on the planet hasn't simultaneously said "OMG -- why do i keep paying money for windows when *nix does EVERYTHING I NEED EXACTLY THE WAY I WANT"

      paying $100+ for an o/s is so 1990's.

      Given the amount of inflation between now and then, even paying $250 for an OS today is "so 1990s".

      The idea that the operating system on your computer -- the thing that actually lets it do useful things -- isn't worth dinner for 2 at a national-chain resturant (your $30 figure) is completely hillarious. You honestly would rather forego the last 30 years of personal computer history and instead have 1 dinner for two?

      I think "an" OS is easily worth $100 or more per year to me. I'd skip dining out 4 times a year to have one. It's nice that there are free choices available, and in some cases I use those free choices since the marginal utility benefits of pay-ware doesn't justify the marginal cost increase for my scenarios.

      I think it must be a common fallacy amongst f/oss zealouts that they feel like the only people that must be clued-in, and that if only the rest of the planet would "discover" that there are free operating systems out there, Windows and other commercial operating systems would vanish.

      I suspect that the major vendors and Fortune 500 companies are very well aware of free software and what its advantages and disadvantages are, and have conciously chosen to continue using Windows for the majority of what they do based on a value analysis. I also suspect that they continually re-visit this analysis [and this accounts for things like the Wal-Mart and Dell linux machines..]

      I think it's fair to guess that most people paying for windows figure it is worth 75% or more [to them] of what they're paying for it.

      So I don't find your post insightful at all. You don't understand economics, and your assessment of value seems very contrived to me... based on ideology rather than reality.

      --
      My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    2. Re:Price Appropriately by bmajik · · Score: 2, Interesting

      posting my credentials would be irrelevant; in the best case it would be the logical fallacy known as "appeal to authority", in the event that you assumed i was an authority on relevant matters. I mentioned Austrian economics only because I find it to be the most compellingly rational treatment of the subject at hand, and rather than try to re-create all of it here unattributed and with the possibility of the introduction of mistakes, I figured I'd [indirectly] point readers at the source literature.

      But since you have an ideological "off switch", I'll try and explain to you more concretely the specifc point given here: there is no meaningful concept of absolute value:

      Situation 1: i am the last surviving human, all alone, on an island
      Before me are three boxes
      1) an infinite supply of food and water
      2) a single handgun with a single bullet
      3) an infinite supply of money

      Which is most valuable to me?

      Situation 2: i am one of two surviving humans - the other is my wife, and we are all alone, on an island
      Now which is most valuable to me?

      Situation 3: I am me, living in the USA in 2009.
      Now which is most valuable to me?

      I'd claim that the answers are:
      1) option #2 - so I could kill myself rather than have a lifetime of animalistic lonesome agony
      2) option #1 - so that my wife and I could enjoy the remainder of our lives together with our food and water needs met
      3) Trick question!
      If i chose option #3, nobody would take my money once they realized there was an infinite supply of it, and so it would become worthless. This is infact what the US governemnt is finding out regarding their own US dollar! HA HA!.
      If I chose option #1, people that had chosen option #2 would take my food or my life from me [people like the US government, for instance].
      If I chose option #2, I can defend myself against exaclty one person, but doing so probably invites the wrath of many subsequent people, for which I will be unprepared. I suppose I could sell the gun and bullet though.

      So in the 3rd case, there are no good choices, but option #2 isn't necessarily a bad choice.

      So the point here is that the value of things isn't intrinsic, but is instead a function of who evaluates them and at what time. In the original post I told you my value assessment was that that I'd rather pay for a $120 operating system every year than for four dining-out-for-two experiences. If there was no internet and I had no particular interest in computers, I don't think I'd decide the same way, to be honest. But it is already the case that today I use my computer [and its operating system] every day and I eat at resturants fewer than 4 times per month. 20 years ago people used resturants more than they used the internet. Today I am not convinced that is the case for many segments of the population.

      --
      My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    3. Re:Price Appropriately by rantingkitten · · Score: 4, Insightful
      And all miss certain desktop scenarios that windows nails, which is why everyone on the planet hasn't simultaneously said "OMG -- why do i keep paying money for windows when *nix does EVERYTHING I NEED EXACTLY THE WAY I WANT"

      That's kind of a foolish statement. Windows doesn't do things the way people want either, which is why the average user can emit an impressive stream of complaints about their computer if you let on that you're in any IT-related field. The reason people don't switch is a combination of some or all of these factors:
      • They don't know there are options. Some are aware that there are Macs, and a few have vaguely heard of this Linux thing, but they don't really know what either one is.
      • Windows "came with the computer" so that's what they use. Much like people who continue using whatever crap-ass stereo came with the car. It's "good enough" to them, and there's no pressing reason to switch as far as they are concerned.
      • Of those that are aware of options, they're scared about "compatibility". In an era of Firefox, Openoffice, and practically everything users do being web-based, this is rather silly, but they don't realise that and no one bothers educating them. Their views are often reinforced by those around them who also don't know any better.
      • Familiarity. Most users flip out if you so much as move their desktop icons around, because they don't really know how to use a computer or even figure out menus and such. They do what they do through rote memorisation of where shortcuts are located. Ergo, even if (say) the Gnome desktop is vastly superior to anything Microsoft has ever offered (and I believe it is), it's not what they're used to and people hate that.

      The idea that the operating system on your computer -- the thing that actually lets it do useful things -- isn't worth dinner for 2 at a national-chain resturant (your $30 figure) is completely hillarious. You honestly would rather forego the last 30 years of personal computer history and instead have 1 dinner for two?

      What are you talking about? Linux and others have been around forever. In the past five years or so Linux, particularly desktop-focussed distros like Ubuntu, have gotten to the point where you could give one to Your Mom and she'd be able to install it. These are free operating systems. They're also completely gratis. There's no law that says an OS has to cost money, and there's not that much support in the history books for such a notion either.

      You say that for you, an OS is worth about a hundred dollars. That's fine, but understand that's your perception of value, something about which you just finished lecturing that other guy. Neither history nor economics support the idea that an OS must have a pricetag.

      Finally,

      I think it's fair to guess that most people paying for windows figure it is worth 75% or more [to them] of what they're paying for it.

      That's patently absurd. Most people don't realise they're paying for Windows at all. Remember, to them, "it came with the computer". To an extent they are paying very little for it since OEMs subsidise the cost with the idiotic crapware they also pre-install. But the point is that most people do not go out and buy a Windows disc. They use whatever the hell is on the computer and give zero thought to the price or value of the OS.

      A more realistic scenario would be to talk to a real user. You know, that nice lady next door who has been pulling her hair out for the past two weeks because Windows has getting less and less stable. At first it was just throwing Dr Watson stuff in her face she didn't understand. Then Explorer would crash practically every time she booted the thing and she's had to learn to reboot seven or eight times before it would come up and stay. Then McAffee started throwing a hissy fit, often crashing and taking down Windows with it. IE is taking forever to open and half the time, when sh

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    4. Re:Price Appropriately by rantingkitten · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I think your attempt to categorize windows users as ignorant rubes who would choose differently if only they were as wise as you is pretty insulting to them,

      That isn't what I said at all. I said that most people don't know or don't care enough about computers or operating systems to change, even if they're aware of the options, which most are not. But if you really want to put those words in my mouth, fine. I think most Windows users are fundamentally ignorant about computers and operating systems. That's because most people don't give a damn. It's why they use whatever came with the computer, including all the pre-installed OEM crapware. They don't know better because they're ignorant. They don't care because they're apathetic about computers beyond "I need this thing to do my job."

      There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. I don't expect them to be computer experts and I understand most people are not enthusiastic enough about computers to really care what OS they have. But you seem to think the majority of people are really technically astute enough to know their options and weigh their choices. Most people aren't.

      But for reasons I can't quite fathom, you seem to actually believe that:
      • The general public is pretty knowledgable about computers
      • They also care about their operating system
      • Given the above, they carefully deliberate their choices and most conclude Windows is ideal for them, based on rational, technical, and economic factors.

      Whereas I believe:

      • The general public is pretty ignorant about computers
      • They also don't give a damn what operating system they use, so they use Windows, since that's what was there
      • There is a minority of people who want the latest and greatest of everything, or just think they need "an upgrade"
      • Those people tend to buy retail Windows because they "already know Windows", and fear change, not because of any rational, technical, or economic factors.

      Another way to look at it would be the fanboy factor. Linux and Mac zealots abound, and will not hesitate to tell you how awesome their choice is. Those are people who weighed options and made a concious, deliberate decision to use something other than Windows. Of all the millions and millions of people using Windows day in and day out, what percentage of them would you say are really excited about it?

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  6. Re:Timed with corporate PC replacement cycles... by gregarican · · Score: 2, Informative

    As a person supporting said software/hardware, I certainly cannot echo that sentiment :-/

  7. Odd - even cycle by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it going to be like the Star Trek movies, where whether it sucks or not depends on whether it's odd or even?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  8. What microsoft Really needs to do by Icegryphon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is Read this Article and take some important notes.
    NOTES!
    bells and whistles do not sell in the real world were work needs to be done.
    People want a system/car/airplane/appliance that works, always. Not part of the time.
    If you want to dick around get a Mac Book Wheel

  9. If so by FTWinston · · Score: 4, Funny

    Win8's new critical stop sound:
    GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATES!!!!
    Sorry.

  10. Re:Timed with corporate PC replacement cycles... by Culture20 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most large corporations have 3-year PC replacement cycle, and get pissed when the new thing is the same as the old thing except for the hardware.

    Most large corporations have a staggered, consistently employed 3-year PC replacement cycle, couldn't care less about what software is installed since they're all imaged in-house, and prefer hardware to remain consistent as long as possible.

  11. *ONLY* 8 months? by bsDaemon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow, the 2010 Fiscal Year is ONLY 8 months away when 2010 is only 4 weeks away? Yeah, better start planning for this massive and abrupt shift... (yeah, I know the difference between a fiscal and a calendar year).

    Seriously, though. Good for them. I think XP was out way too long and while I never really had a problem with it that wouldn't be inherent in any type of Windows (I'm just old enough to have missed out on needing to learn much about DOS, and PowerShell pisses me off by not being tcsh), and I think people got complacent with it. The long run of XP probably had as much to do with Vista fears as early bugs did. I purchased a copy of Vista Ultimate a few months ago, and I had no problems with it at all, other than shitty command line, but I was never really an XP user at home anyway.

    The story yesterday with regards to Win 7 stealing more XP market share than Vista market share, I think backs this up. The XP users who were still hanging on were doing so because of perceived issues with Vista, which may or may not have been valid, so Win 7 is more for them than for anyone currently using Vista by choice. Kicking up the Win 8 cycle should keep interest higher, and hopefully they'll be able to deliver on time (yeah, yeah...), because 2 years plus 8 months is still sort of slow compared to Apple's releases, and like a glacier compared to some of the major Linux distributions or BSDs which are on might tighter release schedules.

  12. Summary fiscal year incorrect by JD-1027 · · Score: 3, Informative
    There is a minor error in the summary. Next July starts fiscal year 2011. The article actually has it correct...

    The sixth job posting arrived on November 20, 2009, requesting a Sr. Manager, Partner Skills Development - Launch Lead who is to change business focus from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in fiscal year 2011. Microsoft's fiscal year starts in July, which is only eight months away.

  13. Which version will Windows 8 be? by TimSSG · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which version will Windows 8 be?

    Windows 7 is Windows version 6.1
    Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
    Tim S.

    1. Re:Which version will Windows 8 be? by slimjim8094 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Depends how much of a service pack it is. XP->Vista made some pretty big kernel changes, enough to justify the version. Vista->7 really didn't change anything much, so it's like a service pack.

      Isn't XP SP2/3 Windows 5.1?

      Essentially, it depends how ambitious they are.

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
  14. Re:Scheduled for release in 2012? by mister_playboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't this late 2009? How is late 2012 four years later?

    Are you doing math on a Pentium?

    Isn't this late 2009? Are you still telling jokes about the original Pentium?

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  15. Re:More Frisbees For My Dog by maxume · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, I'm sure he cries real hard each time he hears about someone who buys his product but does not use it.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  16. I see no reason for Vista or 7. We'll see about 8. by Antiocheian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I started with a home computer in the 80s. Quite fun but cassettes were slow, so I got a PC with MS DOS 3.3

    I upgraded to DOS 5 because of its memory management. I then installed Windows 3.1 upon DOS 5 because of the truetype fonts and word processing. It made me more productive.

    (I also started using Linux because it allowed me to have a Unix at home without suffering that asshole sysadmin at the university, but this posting is not about Linux)

    I upgraded DOS5+Win3 to Win95OSR because it was more stable and easier to use than 3.1, it had font smoothing, native TCP/IP and it was generally an OS vs DOS and a windowed shell. It made me more productive.

    I skipped Win98 and WinMe because they offered nothing new.

    I started using Win2000 because it was a real OS, much more stable and secure than Win95. It made me more productive.

    I started using XP when nLite matured because I could remove the useless crap and XP is optimized for speed and supports network bridges and, most importantly, cleartype. It made me more productive

    I've tried Vista and 7 but they have not made me more productive. I wonder if Microsoft can change that with 8.

  17. Re:More Frisbees For My Dog by nacturation · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I must've missed your posts in other stories, but could you please enumerate the number of major releases of other operating systems that you haven't used? Be sure to cover OS X, the various BSDs and Linuxes, OS/2, BeOS, real-time operating systems, and so on.

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  18. Re:Value Appropriately by bmajik · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There isn't an actual value.

    There is a _price_ at which the two parties in question: buyer and seller, are willing to conduct an exchange at a given point in time.

    You know how stores have sales? "15% off -- only today!" Is the product 15% less valuable today, and then tomorrow it reverts to being more "valuable"? If so, what is that value changed based on?

    For all actors in the market and for all non-coercive transactions [i.e. where force or fraud are not involved], "value" is determined independantly by each party in the transaction, and what is true for both parties right now may not be true tomorrow. The product doesn't change, but the preferences and broader situation of the marketplace participants does.

    Today, windows is "worth", say, $100 to me. Tomorrow, if I've lost my job, it won't be worth _anything_ to me. It's not like windows is suddenly a worse product because I've lost my job. But my framework for evaluating the "value" of things to me changes dramatically.

    This isn't a new problem: it's [at first glance] wierd that Windows costs one amount in the US and a different amount in other places. Other places have a different standard of living than we do, so in such places the US based cost of a Windows license would be unthinkable.

    In the US, most people have enough money that they figure the value they get from windows is worth about what they have to pay for it. Even though they pay a lot more than many other people do in other places. I think think most Americans would trade their position in the world so that they could have cheaper windows pricing, but those that would are free to do so. And in any situation, one is always free to decide windows doesn't represent a good value to them at the price Microsoft is willing to sell it for, and so no transaction has to happen.

    --
    My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
  19. You about 10 years out of date by walterbyrd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ten years ago, I would have completely agreed with this post. Today, if anything, the Microsoft shills have taken over slashdot.

  20. Missed something by maugle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, I skimmed the replies and found an important point missing, concerning how Windows 8 will be marketed: If Windows 8 is going to be released in 2012, that means that sometime in late 2011, Microsoft will start telling us that Windows 7 is, in fact, dog shit.

    But Windows 8 will solve all those problems, and be faster and more secure!