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SUA Deprecated In Windows 8?

An anonymous reader writes "I just tried to install Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) on Windows 8 Preview and found that it's marked as DEPRECATED: 'Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) is a source-compatibility subsystem for compiling and running custom UNIX-based applications and scripts on a computer running Windows operating system. WARNING: SUA is deprecated starting with this release and will be completely removed in the next release. You should begin planning now to employ alternate methods for any applications, code, or usage that depend on this feature.'"

226 comments

  1. Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not just use Cygwin or better yet just use Linux.

    1. Re:Cygwin by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      I was wondering the same thing. What's the use of this SUA thingy?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Cygwin by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 1, Troll

      Commercial customers that require production-quality platforms with enterprise-level support probably will avoid Cygwin.

      --
      "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
    3. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      How about this? http://www.redhat.com/services/custom/cygwin/

    4. Re:Cygwin by Fujisawa+Sensei · · Score: 1

      Except Cygwin was perfectly in enterprise shops I worked in but they were just small shops like Sabre.

      --
      If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
    5. Re:Cygwin by Tsingi · · Score: 1

      I've never heard of it either. It's prolly Cygwin.

    6. Re:Cygwin by yacc143 · · Score: 1

      Licenses? cygwin is GPL last time I checked.

    7. Re:Cygwin by LoudNoiseElitist · · Score: 2

      Commercial customers that require production-quality platforms with enterprise-level support are probably already using *nix.

    8. Re:Cygwin by dmmiller2k · · Score: 2

      SUA was once called SFU (Services For UNIX), and it replaces the built-in POSIX subsystem which has been an integral part of NT since NT 3.1.

      The built-in POSIX subsystem alone was basically useless as shipped, since it came without many command line utilities, but SFU (now SUA) upgraded it to a more or less useful configuration, including a series of commands built to use the API; in some ways it accomplished the same thing as Cygwin, but in a different way.

      In my opinion, Cygwin is vastly better since it contains more utilities, is more aggressively maintained and updates are more frequent.

      --

      "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin

    9. Re:Cygwin by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      SUA/SFU/Interix includes some gpl software (gcc, for example).

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    10. Re:Cygwin by Angostura · · Score: 3, Informative

      Reaching back a bit, I think the use was that it meant that Windows NT and successors could tick the "Posix compliant" tick box that was required by some (mainly publice sector) contracts.

      Perhaps Posix is no longer on so many checklists.

    11. Re:Cygwin by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      SUA was once called SFU (Services For UNIX), and it replaces the built-in POSIX subsystem which has been an integral part of NT since NT 3.1.

      SUA was once called SFU, which has been replacing STFW (and STFW's predecessor, RTFM) for years now.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    12. Re:Cygwin by EvanED · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not Cygwin. It's an implementation of the POSIX APIs that goes directly to the NT APIs instead of through Win32.

      I can't comment much on the tradeoffs except to say that I think it solves the problem of Cygwin's fork() being terrible. (SUA also provides a route to get multiple files with the same case-folded name but different case-sensitive names, which I don't think you can do with Cygwin since it goes through the Win32 API.)

    13. Re:Cygwin by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Mainly because SUA is faster, since there's no translation to Win32 - it sits directly on top of the kernel.

    14. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've seen it used to allow *inx boxes to Windows Storage servers for fast, ACL'd file access. That's about it.

    15. Re:Cygwin by Threni · · Score: 3, Funny

      The installer for Cygwin is extremely simple and intuitive to use, andmakes remote, unattended installs a breeze,so you'll have no difficulties there.

    16. Re:Cygwin by jandrese · · Score: 1

      Maybe when they want a simple ls to take less than 5 minutes to complete on directories with even a moderate number of files? Cygwin is horrible. It's slow, buggy, and in constant flux. I much prefer natively compiling with something like MinGW when I can get away with it.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    17. Re:Cygwin by yeltski · · Score: 1

      Because it's a native subsystem on top of NT kernel as opposed to a windows subsystem dll. This means many things, but first and foremost, integration and access. The filesystem is presented perfectly, all the groups, users, environment, services are presented directly and in a true POSIX way. You get real sudo, real unix paths (/dev/fs/C/), case sensitivity, sticky bits, etc. Secondly, performance. I have installed and compiled applications for SUA, including apache, and it performs at native speed level. Lastly, you get a decent package manager. It also has a package manager. The only downside compared to the ugly hack of a Cygwin, is lack of packages. Anyway, you might not see the value in this native posix subsystem compared to Cygwin, but it exists for those who do, and it's sad that it won't be there.

    18. Re:Cygwin by cratermoon · · Score: 1

      Parent might be a troll, but it's also somewhat true. Plenty of organizations out there unwilling or at least reluctant to deploy anything open source when there is a Microsoft-supported option. The bias in favor of propriety supported solutions remains even when the open source version is demonstrably better.

    19. Re:Cygwin by DrXym · · Score: 1
      Cygwin is basically user land tools. It doesn't help if you want to mount something like an NFS partition. I assume SUA also has hooks into Windows services for Unix clients. That said Cygwin is probably adequate for most things. Admins could also consider running a VM on Windows, or even install something like CoLinux.

      I doubt telling people to "just use Linux" is a reasonable solution though. If it were that simple they wouldn't be bothering with SUA in the first place.

    20. Re:Cygwin by Myria · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can't comment much on the tradeoffs except to say that I think it solves the problem of Cygwin's fork() being terrible. (SUA also provides a route to get multiple files with the same case-folded name but different case-sensitive names, which I don't think you can do with Cygwin since it goes through the Win32 API.)

      Yep, fork() on Interix (SUA) works much more efficiently. The NT kernel has supported what's essentially fork() since at least NT 4.0. The problem until Interix - and the reason why Cygwin's fork() sucks - is that the Win32 DLLs don't react well to being fork()ed. kernel32.dll gets confused, and simple things like console output stop working. Interix doesn't use the Win32 API, instead using a custom POSIX API and the NT API directly. The NT API has been updated to work in the event of a fork().

      The NT API function NtCreateProcess spawns a new process. The SectionHandle parameter takes a handle to the image section (IE, CreateFileMapping with SEC_IMAGE) representing the EXE you want the new process to run. If you pass NULL for SectionHandle, you will instead be creating a copy of the parent process's address space, the main part of fork().

      --
      "Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
    21. Re:Cygwin by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 1

      SUA was once called SFU (Services For UNIX), and it replaces the built-in POSIX subsystem which has been an integral part of NT since NT 3.1.

      SUA was once called SFU, which has been replacing STFW (and STFW's predecessor, RTFM) for years now.

      Rumor has it that Windows 8 deprecates SUA in favor of its newer, sexier replacement, OMGWTFBBQ.

      You heard it here first.

      --
      I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
    22. Re:Cygwin by jensend · · Score: 3, Informative

      Look, I love Cygwin and have been using it since forever. But it's pretty slow at a lot of crucial operations, making it unsuitable for a large class of things folks use SUA for.

      More importantly, it suffers from a serious lack of manpower and direction. For a project which is so vast and so important to open source, it has alarmingly few active maintainers. The lack of maintainers is made worse by the fact that a considerable amount of maintainer effort is duplicated between cygports and the official cygwin distribution.

      Everybody uses cygwin but as far as I can tell very few people pay RH for cygwin support, and thus there are AFAIK only three people who are paid for their work on cygwin.

      The lack of manpower really shows. Crucial packages go for long periods without important bugfixes, and new releases take a long time to get ported&integrated from upstream. Development on the cygwin core is fairly slow. NT-based versions of Windows offered quite considerable benefits over Win9x (lots of additional capabilities and much less of a mismatch with POSIX -> better security and performance), but the first version to really take advantage of these benefits was 1.7, released for Christmas 2009- 7 years after the majority of users (much less the majority of technical users likely to use cygwin) had made the switch. The developers had their first serious discussion about the possibility of a 64-bit version of Cygwin in June of this year; it will likely be quite a while before a 64-bit version is released. A lot of cygwin's performance problems could be fixed if the core developers weren't already overburdened as it is.

      Unless cygwin can attract a lot of new developers I don't think the project can stay up-to-date enough to continue to support the uses we all already rely on it for, much less be in a position to give SUA emigres a soft landing.

    23. Re:Cygwin by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 1

      Commercial customers that require production-quality platforms with enterprise-level support probably will avoid Cygwin.

      It would be astonishing if most such customers would not also avoid SUA like the plague.

    24. Re:Cygwin by nschubach · · Score: 2

      I thought it was being replaced with STFU... to truly tell the users how they feel. ;)

      Of course, there's also the new service used for background downloading images called "NSFW" that was planned for Metro.

      --
      Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
    25. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      cygwin acts like a trojan by not offering any uninstall option forcing a manual hunt for registry settings and manual deletion of it. then again BSD and Linux both lock the cd-rom until unmounted.

    26. Re:Cygwin by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      "Commercial customers that require production-quality platforms with enterprise-level support probably will avoid Cygwin"

      I believe parent means "Posix Compliant", not that Cygwin is a piece of crap. FreeBSD uses the old cshell instead of bash by default so it can be posix compliant just as an example.

      I do know many government contractors need to have Posix compliant on the paperwork and Windows fullfills this (but really not). Linux is not. Solaris is and I do not know if FreeBSD got the certification.

      In this day and age though I do not think that is in the paperwork anymore so it is why SUA is being depreciated. The goal was to get government contractors to switch to win32 overtime.

    27. Re:Cygwin by Aggrajag · · Score: 1

      There is a patch for Cygwin which gives it a huge speed improvement but it wasn't accepted because according to Christopher Faylor "The result is good but the patch isn't the way I chose to implement this." http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-patches/2011-q3/msg00030.html

    28. Re:Cygwin by Drinking+Bleach · · Score: 1

      Since version 1.7, Cygwin is able to make multiple files that differ only in letter casing. You need to make sure the filesystem is enabled for case-sensitivity though (this is also the case with SUA). See http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html#pathnames-casesensitive

    29. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Removing start menu shortcuts, C:\cygwin, HKLM\Software\Cygwin, and HKCU\Software\Cygwin is so super-hard, right?

    30. Re:Cygwin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Or why not just use Wubi and have a full functional Linux and call it a day? Either Wubi or CoLinux would give him the full Linux bash CLI, all the latest and greatest, and if he has permissions to install SUA then he can install CoLinux or Wubi.

      I can see why MSFT is killing it, because in this age of even Sempron CPUs have virtualization support, and you having the choice of Wubi, CoLinux, or the VM of your choice, why would you use the ancient SUA? i bet to the user base for SUA can be counted in the dozens, it just wasn't popular to start with and certainly hasn't gotten more popular as its gotten outdated.

      Just let it die already and use one of the modern Linux choices I listed above friend.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    31. Re:Cygwin by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I've never heard of it either. It's prolly Cygwin.

      OK, my turn to make a stupid guess, I think it's...a pink pony!

      Clown.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    32. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a log of cvs activity in Cygwin for "quarter 3" of this year:

      http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-cvs/2011-q3/

      As for not taking the benefits of NT-based systems, you are misinterpreting something. The 1.7 release got rid of the accommodations for older, non-NT
      versions of Windows. There was plenty of NT-only code in the Cygwin. We just got tired of trying to make things work for the older platforms.

      If there is a "crucial package" which needs an important bugfix please let us know what it is in the project mailing list. Contrary to what you imply we do
      have a number of active, committed package maintainers.

      We have been discussing 64-bit support for quite some time. Not all of the discussion for this type of thing takes place in the developers mailing list.
      However, you're right that, given the number of active maintainers for the Cygwin DLL it would be a daunting task.

      Cygwin's "performance problems" have nothing to do with overburdened developers. They are due to the fact that Cygwin is emulating UNIX on Windows.
      When we find ways to speed things up, we speed them up gleefully. We do tend to stress correctness over speed, though.

      The Cygwin DLL has had two active developers supporting the project for more than ten years. Other people come and go. I think that is fairly unique
      in the open source community. And, contrary to your assertion we do take the direction of the project seriously.

      (In case it isn't clear, I'm one of the Cygwin maintainers)

    33. Re:Cygwin by cgf · · Score: 1

      You're misinterpreting the email. An equivalent patch was added. It just wasn't done in the manner proposed by the original author.

    34. Re:Cygwin by Aggrajag · · Score: 1

      Really? Does it mean that CVS version of Cygwin is as fast as Cygwin is with jojelino's patch?

    35. Re:Cygwin by cgf · · Score: 1

      In my testing, yes. I just generalized his patch so that it could be used when starting any thread rather than just the specific thread that he found.
      jojelino finds some interesting stuff but his implementation often leaves something to be desired.

    36. Re:Cygwin by jensend · · Score: 1

      Hello cgf or Corinna or whoever you are!

      I didn't say you don't take the direction of the project seriously. As I said, I love Cygwin; I think the project is one of the main jewels of open source and a vital part of the open source ecosystem's success over the past 15 years. But I do think that you deserve a lot more help than you get and that limited manpower inevitably leads to limited goals and limited vision; it takes enough energy to deal with present difficulties that future huge changes and blue-sky projects have to take a back seat.

      As concerns 1.7, you're certainly right that I don't know the internals very well. But I thought I remembered things saying that quite a number of the areas in which 1.7's performance was better than 1.5's were made possible because you no longer had to support 9x.

      I don't think you seriously believe that cygwin's performance wouldn't really improve if you had more hands on deck. If what you mean to say is "hey, we're not writing sloppy code here; things done in cygwin take time because there's lots of work that has to be done" then I'm in total agreement. If what you mean to say is "the code we write is so marvelously perfect that even putting a dozen brilliant full-time developers on cygwin for a few years couldn't change performance much" then that's totally laughable.

      Your link to the cygwin-cvs logs of course shows that there are people working hard on cygwin. But the fact that the stream of updates turned into a trickle when Corinna went on vacation at the beginning of this month shows that those people are quite few.

      Of course you do have a number of committed and active maintainers. But that number is small given the task; I'd wager that a project like Debian has easily a hundred times as many maintainers, and maintaining a Cygwin port and build is often a lot harder than maintaining a package for a linux distro. The loss of a single maintainer is often a keenly felt blow (witness Dave Korn's disappearance from the face of the planet for some months earlier this year).

      I am very grateful for your efforts and wish you all the best; it just so happens that my idea of "the best" includes a couple hundred dedicated package maintainers and a dozen core developers to speed your way forward. :)

    37. Re:Cygwin by Aggrajag · · Score: 1

      Can you point me to the relevant changes in CVS?
      I did some basic testing using the venerable cygbench and Gergely Szabo's fork benchmark and uploaded the results to pastebin. Looks like the current snapshot really is the fastest. Any idea when Corinna releases 1.7.10?

      http://pastebin.com/PLC63ZKi

    38. Re:Cygwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I provided information about Cygwin in SlashDot just to correct a misperception. If you want further details, more information is available at the project's web site,
      including an archive of CVS checkins.

  2. Metro by jdkc4d · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess they want to come out with a new "metro"-version.

    1. Re:Metro by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Nope. SUA is predominantly used for console applications. They've moved on from "Extend" to "Extinguish" now.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Metro by tmcb · · Score: 1

      I think he intended to be funny, but I'm not really sure.

    3. Re:Metro by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      You're probably right. Mea culpa for posting so early.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    4. Re:Metro by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nope. SUA is predominantly used for console applications. They've moved on from "Extend" to "Extinguish" now.

      It's console-only, actually. It's just something that runs on the POSIX subsystem that NT provides, but it really sucks. First, it's an ancient POSIX interface. Second, it's command line only - it's not like you get X or anything. Third, well, you lose access to Win32 (can't cross subsystems).

      If's really a checkbox item, just like how NT had the ability to run OS/2 programs too.

      If you're porting a Unix app to Windows, you don't use SUA. You use a Unix-to-Win32 porting library (of which Cygwin is just one), just like how Windows apps can be ported to Linux using WineLib or its commercial equivalents as well.

      Hell, a Cygwin program at least can mix Win32 API calls with POSIX calls, because Cygwin maps POSIX calls to Win32.

    5. Re:Metro by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 1

      Umm.. All POSX implementations are ancient, because the POSIX standard has not changed miuch in 10 years. SUA supports Posix.1-2001, there were 2 releases since then... 2004 and 2008, neither of which added much of anything.

      The real problem is that posix alone is not particularly useful, you need to supplment it with additional api's.

    6. Re:Metro by sjames · · Score: 1

      Suddenly I saw the queer eye people (or perhaps crab people).

    7. Re:Metro by perlchild · · Score: 1

      The other problem is that the name SFU doesn't convey posix as much as "interoperability with unix". Way back when, unix had a bunch of standards associated with it, posix was the original, since then, they've added a several "unix" standards.

      Having Posix checked isn't as useful as it was.

      On the other hand, all those posix-compliant linux servers that got soldm claim greater unix compatibility, are all very interoperable in the first place, at least, more interoperable for the money, than Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft doesn't appear to have had as much traction in its strategy to bind nis to AD as they hoped, so now they don't want to support SFU(adding new features,etc...) since it's mostly customers who if they buy windows, buy it at sufferance, and would not seriously consider replacing their unix with windows servers.

      On the other hand, careful SFU management tuning and sizing might help people buy less windows, and run linux/unix alternatives in a couple of scenarios I can think of, so I'm not surprised Microsoft wants to stop subsidising something that doesn't meet its main goal(more windows server licenses with lock-in) and a risk of loosening the lock for highly technical clients.

  3. Cygwin by paugq · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would someone use SUA, which is only contains very old versions of the software it bundles? There is Cygwin, which is a much much better alternative. Sometimes, even MinGW is a valid alternative because it generates a native application (though it requires some porting effort, which may be unacceptable in many cases).

  4. Who uses that anyway? by Hatta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cygwin or UnxUtils work great.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Who uses that anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      UWIN seems to work well enough

    2. Re:Who uses that anyway? by klui · · Score: 1

      UnxUtils hasn't been updated since 2003. I'm not sure when SUA has been updated but it can't be too far behind.

    3. Re:Who uses that anyway? by CrashNBrn · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's an updated UnxUtils on googlecode.

  5. Not a surprise by gweihir · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    As MS cannot compete (and never could compete) on technical merit, of course they have to remove any compatibility with industrial standards they can. This is a leftover from a time when MS thought they had good technology. By now they know they do not and never will.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  6. Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Nimey · · Score: 0, Troll

    Seeing it more and more frequently since Taco left is getting really tiresome. Give it a rest.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
    1. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you implying that SUA isn't being deprecated?

    2. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. It's not fair to Microsoft, for everyone to always be talking about them. Can't the press just leave that company alone and quit covering their products?

    3. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Nimey · · Score: 0

      It's the constant drumbeat of OMG MICROSOFT IS EVIL articles lately. Pandering to the least-common denominator.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    4. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Tridus · · Score: 1

      Are you implying that it actually matters or is in any way an "evil" activity?

      This stuff isn't used that much anymore on Windows. If the usage isn't there, why continue to support it?

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
    5. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

      But they make it so easy.

    6. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by SlippyToad · · Score: 1

      It's the constant drumbeat of uninformed speculation that gets me worn out. Pandering to leet k3wlness rather than fact-based criticism.

      The FACTS are probably nothing like what's being asserted here.

      --
      One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
    7. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by geekoid · · Score: 2

      What FUD? This is an actual story about actual facts involving MS. That is NOT FUD.

      What Fear? What uncertainty? what doubt?

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    8. Re:Can we stop with the anti-Microsoft FUD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is Slashdot, not SeeColonBackslash... I come here because *nix is not the least common denominator. If I wanted news that treats deprecated kernel level POSIX support as a good thing, I'd hang out at the 50 billion other Windows sites.

      In other words, maybe you are the last common denominator?

  7. Cygwin? by Kagetsuki · · Score: 1

    I think Cygnus Solutions solved your problem about 20 years ago.

    1. Re:Cygwin? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Have you ever actually tried to use Cygwin as a *nix-compatibility layer in a production environment. The word "kludge" doesn't seem to begin describe it.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Cygwin? by Kagetsuki · · Score: 1

      I agree with you entirely - but the author is stupid enough to be relying on SUA so rather than that statement that "it is a kludge" I'd say it's a question of "is it a better kludge?".

    3. Re:Cygwin? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

      Yes. Where I work, we have a production load and test process for some of our hardware that depends on cygwin. We have had cygwin cause problems for us only once, and that happened to be on a non-production station. (Production stations had all their files on the local hard drive - this machine was performing some operations on LAN shares and the Cygwin issue was related to LAN shares.)

      Now the Xilinx ISE toolchain that was being called from our scripts hosted in Cygwin... ugh that's a whole other story. Xilinx ISE is a consistent nightmare to get properly installed and configured.

      I'm not surprised that MS is deprecating SUA - almost no one used it because it utterly sucked and was massively crippled compared to cygwin.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    4. Re:Cygwin? by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      And cygwin is massively crippled compared to *nix. Wherever possible, I try to get native user land ports, and if I need more advanced things, well, there happen to be a number of open source *nix-like operating systems out there. It's one thing to want to run sed on your Windows box, quite another to basically try to port over the entire *nix environment.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:Cygwin? by Dishevel · · Score: 0

      The facts are that SUA is no longer important.
      Depending on you individual situation you should be ...

      A) Running in Unix or Linux.

      B) Running a Unix or Linux VM.

      C) Running Cygwin.

      I can think of many cases where one is better than the other.
      I can not think of a case where SUA is the correct answer anymore.
      There might be a few. My guess is though they are exceedingly rare.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    6. Re:Cygwin? by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 1

      I think you are exactly right. Most people in my experience that use SUA use it very little just to run that "one little script" occasionally or whatever. For that you can use a VM. Performance isn't that big a deal for something that is occasionally used. If performance is a big deal than you should be running *NIX natively. Most *NIX stuff used in the commercial environment are either very high end workstation apps or server based apps anyways ... why would you want to run a oddball compatibility tool in a server environment rather than native is crazy. Spend the extra 10k or so and get a real *NIX server.

    7. Re:Cygwin? by sunderland56 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      100% agreed. The commercial alternative - MKS Toolkit - integrates seamlessly with Windows, and is both more complete and faster than Cygin. Yes, it costs money, and no, it is not open source - but if you need to do Unix-like stuff on Windows, it actually makes life tolerable.

    8. Re:Cygwin? by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 1

      Have you ever actually tried to use Cygwin as a *nix-compatibility layer in a production environment. The word "kludge" doesn't seem to begin describe it.

      This matters only if the same cannot be said for SUA.

    9. Re:Cygwin? by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 3, Interesting

      100% agreed. The commercial alternative - MKS Toolkit - integrates seamlessly with Windows, and is both more complete and faster than Cygin. Yes, it costs money, and no, it is not open source - but if you need to do Unix-like stuff on Windows, it actually makes life tolerable.

      But Unix-like stuff itself is not tolerable, which is why it has to be reimplemented with GNU, Linux, Cygwin and other free software.

      For instance, how does the vi editor in MKS stack up to Vim? If the following link gives a more or less complete manual, it's freaking pitiful:

      http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man1/vi.1.asp

      Why would I pay money for that stuff if I would end up compiling GNU coreutils, bash, and other packages?

    10. Re:Cygwin? by msobkow · · Score: 1

      I used to use MKS. Until I found out that you can only get patches/fixes if you subscribe to their update service -- for a fee. I did manage to badger them into providing ONE free update, because the version of MKS I bought flat out didn't work and I was demanding a refund or a fix. But the fact that I had to argue for a version that actually worked knocked them off my "preferred tools" list.

      It does integrate better with Windows than Cygwin does, but not by much.

      gvim is far superior to MKS vi.

      MKS is a heck of a lot of money for a shell script interpreter. You'll need some damn good excuses for spending the money instead of putting up with Cygwin before most companies will shell out the money. Especially as you need to buy a copy for EACH machine.

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  8. Alternate methods by Omega+Hacker · · Score: 0

    My alternate method is Linux...

    --
    GStreamer - The only way to stream!
    1. Re:Alternate methods by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, UEFI will make sure that's not a solution for much longer...

    2. Re:Alternate methods by Tsingi · · Score: 1

      I don't think so. Even if that is attempted it isn't hardware, it's firmware. Firmware can be updated.

    3. Re:Alternate methods by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 1

      I think that's the whole point of UEFI...that the firmware can't be changed (at least not easily).

    4. Re:Alternate methods by dotancohen · · Score: 1

      I don't think so. Even if that is attempted it isn't hardware, it's firmware. Firmware can be updated.

      UEFI cannot be user-updated, that is its whole security model. You can bring it in to Dell and ask them to install Grub on it though, I'm sure.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  9. Source by WhoseSideAreWeOn · · Score: 1

    Do you have a credible source stating that it will be removed in the next release? Deprecated usually means that the functionality is being replaced by something new. Your warning for people to make plans for alternate methods seems premature.

    1. Re:Source by fnj · · Score: 2

      Jesus, did you even read TFS? "WARNING: SUA is deprecated starting with this release and will be completely removed in the next release." Or do you not trust what Microsoft themselves tells you about their products (hmmm, can I get back to you on that one ...)?

    2. Re:Source by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      If you read the summary, it says Deprecated in Win8 and scheduled to be removed in a future version. Of course, by "a future version", that could be Win10 for all we know. MS has deprecated features in the past that remained well beyond the "next" release.

    3. Re:Source by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      DirectDraw has been depreciated for over a decade, but still works fine in Win7.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  10. It makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Honestly it makes sense to drop support for SUA. Stay native on their own homegrown stuff and let people who need it run full-on linux in Hyper-V.

  11. projects depending on this by eexaa · · Score: 2

    Well, I actually failed to find a project that would really depend on SUA. Anyone knows about anything that would be harmed by this change?

    1. Re:projects depending on this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably this is the reason why Microsoft kills the feature. Generally Microsoft takes backward compatibility very seriously.

    2. Re:projects depending on this by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      There are a number of public SUA-based projects, though they're typically small. One active member of the SUACommunity forum has a semi-working Debian port to SUA (certain operations that are quick on Linux are still really slow and a few things may not work yet, but it's just getting started and is already quite impressive).

      Privately, however, it's a different story. Many businesses use SUA internally. Hell, Microsoft themselves used an earlier version of it to host Hotmail for a while (they wanted to run it on NT, but it was written for Apache which wasn't yet available on NT except through the POSIX subsystem). I don't know of anything mission-critical that my employer is currently using it for, but there are a few small internal projects - heck, I have it on my dev box just so I can use bash instead of cmd. If you poke around the SUACommunity forum, you'll see posts from people at a handful of companies who have internal SUA projects.

      Heck, as a student I used it for subversion, ssh, and similar (my university had a lot of Linux boxes, and I don't like the Windows apps for accessing them nearly as much). I even developed an application in C (that was to run on Linux) using SUA for a class project; it had 4 #ifdef checks in 5KLoC and I could have worked around at least two of them if I hadn't been lazy (easy way on Windows and easy way on Linux, or hard way that works on both). I still run sshd on my home box; it's a simpler (and low-bandwidth-friendly) way to access it remotely than Remote Desktop, and it works whether I'm booted into Windows or Linux.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    3. Re:projects depending on this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually GPFS, the parallel filesystem from IBM, heavily realies on SUA for its Windows functionality.

  12. Can you tell me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... one person who actually uses this?

    Other than the author of TFA.

    Even MinGW has to be more compatible with modern unix/linux than SUA.

    1. Re:Can you tell me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our software vendor requires it to operate their ancient payroll/HR app... so... "we do" QQ

  13. Re:I feel like... by j-pimp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or maybe no one is using it, and its not worth the support headaches. As others have, and will continue to suggest throughout the comments in this article, cygwin, mingwsys, UnxUtils or even a full blown unix VM are fine substitutes for SUA. Now, if you are actually using SUA in production, and this negatively effects you, that would be interesting to hear about.

    --
    --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
  14. Now you have it, now you dont. by unity100 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is how it is with microsoft. You cant rely on ANYthing from them - they can just shut down or bail out on you (bcentral, silverlight, soon .net), and you will have to spend a lot of time and funds to go around the pain they cause you.

    1. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can you offer some PROOF of Microsoft planning on killing .net? Any proof whatsoever? I've read about it repeatedly on /., but it's all based on conjecture because Metro is going to use HTML+JS, which is also completely ignoring the fact that there is an entire desktop platform sitting alongside the metro platform fully capable of running .net applications.

      So, care to offer up some actual proof of MS stating that they are going to deprecate the .net platform, or are you going to admit that you're just spreading FUD?

    2. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      I still rue the day they dropped proper MS-DOS from Windows. So much great software developed in that environment, you'd think they'd still be updating it today.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    3. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by unity100 · · Score: 0

      isnt the trail of stuff microsoft killed proof enough ? most recent was silverlight. .net people were already going amok in their community forum, all ablaze due to rumors tied to win 8. why the fuck should i need to educate people who have not followed the news properly enough ?

    4. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by Jerry · · Score: 1

      We relied on FoxPro from the 2.5 DOS version through the upgrade path to Visual FoxPro6.0. Then, MS announced on the UniversalThread VFP forum that they were dropping VFP and set up classes on that forum to teach .NET, the "new" developer paradigm. They bestowed "MVP" badges to prominent VFP forum members who then played the .NET flutes that led the children out of the VFP villages. The outrage among a large number of the approximately 300,000 VFP developers, world wide, was palatable. MS was taken back and "recanted" the discontinuance, at least in print. The subsequent version releases: 7, 8 and 9, were essentially mere updates and MS announced in 2007 that V10 would not be released. By then it didn't matter. When MS initially announced that they were dropping VFP, we immediately dropped VFP and after a few months trying out various replacements chose Qt as our framework API to replace VFP, with Oracle and PostgreSQL as the back end.

      Now, it seems, MS has kicked the .NET/C# programmers to the curb, announcing that HTML5 and Javascript (??!!!!) were the "new" dev tools. Oh, .NET and Silverlight developers needn't worry ... their tools will be "along side" the new paradigm. Mono developers? Their tool has always been a day late and a dollar short, regardless of the De Icaza propaganda, and many feel it was Microsoft's way to sidetrack a lot of FOSS developers, but not many jumped on that train. Now it seems that the video showing "Monkey Boy" dancing around the stage, sweating profusely, and shouting "Developers, developers, developers .....", ad nausum, is a cruel joke indeed. Those who were made a monkey of are the .NET/C#/Silverlight developers. How much collective energy, time and money have they sunk into their .NET projects, only to have them relegated to a desert island? I'd wager hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, of development costs and products were lost.

      --

      Running with Linux for over 20 years!

    5. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      most recent was silverlight.

      Silverlight wasn't really killed in the niche where it was actually being used (for intranet apps, rather than as a Flash killer) - it just got a facelift. If you actually look at Win8 UI framework, it's basically Silverlight reimplemented in native code with a bunch of namespaces renamed. You can port a Silverlight app to Win8 in a few hours at most.

      .net people were already going amok in their community forum, all ablaze due to rumors tied to win 8.

      "Rumors" being the key word here. Going from "you can now write apps in HTML/JS" to ".NET is dead" was quite a stretch, but there were enough people willing to feed the rumor mill for the sake of FUD.

      why the fuck should i need to educate people who have not followed the news properly enough ?

      It looks like you're the one not following the news, since you have obviously missed all the official announcements about .NET in Win8 that happened a week ago.

    6. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by Toonol · · Score: 1

      Can you offer some PROOF of Microsoft planning on killing .net? Any proof whatsoever?

      He can't. It's just something he posts over and over, despite being unable to support it. He's been called out on it many times.

    7. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by unity100 · · Score: 1

      no, i know about how the net discussion proceeded. somehow being in next iteration of their operating system doesnt mean they wont bail out of it after that iteration.

    8. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by beuges · · Score: 2

      Now, it seems, MS has kicked the .NET/C# programmers to the curb, announcing that HTML5 and Javascript (??!!!!) were the "new" dev tools

      Hello, I am billions of dollars of enterprise backend software written in C# and .net. Can you please explain to me how Microsoft is going to phase out C# and convince the millions of C# developers to rewrite their enterprise software in HTML5 and Javascript?

      Can you explain to me how future versions of SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, etc, are going to be written in HTML5? How ERP systems are going to be written in HTML5? How airline booking systems and restaurant ordering systems and IDEs and Disk Utilities and Virtualization software are going to be written in HTML5? Sure, it's possible to write the front-ends to these systems in HTML5 and Javascript, but if you honestly think that Microsoft is going to deprecate the entirety of C# in favour of HTML5 and Javascript, then I am sorry but you are not a software developer of any calibre whatsoever.

      Are you beginning to realise how ridiculous these claims of C# being kicked to the curb actually are yet?

    9. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by sgt+scrub · · Score: 1

      http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2440908&cid=37481124 The funny horn sound and bright light should have been a clue to others. Don't feel bad. That "just been fucked" feeling has come to a lot of people that wrote applications for the Windows platform. Crossplatform libraries are very solid these days. It may take some time to get over the anger but when you do those libraries will be there.

      --
      Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
    10. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure you do, otherwise you might actually know how the framework and compilers have all been enhanced to support new functionality outside of that of WinRT, but also in WinRT itself, or the new preview release of the next set of developer tools, web framework, service layer framework, etc.

      Yes, MS could deprecate it at some point, but you're looking on a time frame in the decades. There is zero indication of this happening anytime soon save for various morons who parrot each other and clearly don't know what they're talking about in the least. I don't think that you even understand what .NET is.

    11. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      Hello, I am billions of dollars of enterprise backend software written in C# and .net. Can you please explain to me how Microsoft is going to phase out C# and convince the millions of C# developers to rewrite their enterprise software in HTML5 and Javascript?

      The same way that they phased out VB6.

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
    12. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by perlchild · · Score: 1

      Well in this case, since it's about a future version, it says "start expecting that in five years we will stop issuing patches for SUA". That some people chose to use windows... I think we can call either self-inflicted, or at least, not Microsoft's fault ONLY.

    13. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by perlchild · · Score: 1

      You also can't prove something that hasn't happened yet, or someone else's intent. Logic just doesn't work that way.

    14. Re:Now you have it, now you dont. by SomeStupidNickName12 · · Score: 1

      Haha, no! HTML5 is there as a presentation layer and is not going to replace any backend processing. Webservices/Database processes etc will still be a written in .net/C# etc frontends change.

      HTML5/Javascript is effectively replacing silverlight.

  15. Microsoft has end-of-lifed the SUA team by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We opened a case with Microsoft awhile back regarding this issue. A high level manager called us back and begged us to find another (non-Microsoft) solution. The team is going away and soon.

  16. SSO by 0racle · · Score: 1

    Other than the LDAP extensions SFU/SUA added to the active directory what else was really used from it? It seemed to me that anything else you would use from it would be better handled with a real UNIX or Linux install, either on it's own box or in a VM.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  17. cygwin by cslewis2007 · · Score: 0

    There are serious licensing issues involved with using cygwin - anything that links to the cygwin1.dll is tainted by the GPL and it's source must be released. You can by a license from RedHat, but it is very expensive. MKS had a competitive product that didn't have the licensing issue (although you had to buy runtimes for each machine or machine instance you wanted to run you app on. Will cygwin even work under Windows 8?

  18. Re:I feel like... by TheAmazingRyRy · · Score: 1

    Yeah, no one uses it because it never worked well anyway. I've tried a few different versions in the past. Every time after installing it, I'd get frequent BSODs. They went away when I removed it.

  19. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 1

    If you're bitching about Outlook Web Access, try setting your cookies to a non-paranoid mode. Works perfectly fine in Firefox with normal cookies.

    --
    Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
  20. Re:I feel like... by adonoman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    a full blown unix VM

    That's the key right there. With virtualization software in the state that it is now, why would you run POSIX applications shoe-horned into windows, when you can have a proper POSIX system running in a VM.

  21. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    Yup. My guess is that the person who had issues with OWA and Firefox was using excessively aggressive privacy settings.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  22. Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is this a shock to anyone after The Week of Windows 8 Hype? If there was a theme running through all of the stories it was this: Windows as you have known it is deprecated, a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it but don't expect it to last much longer. If Windows and native Win32 executables themselves are on the chopping block why would they have any interest in maintaining a UNIX command line layer?

    Win32 (and UNIX more so) isn't going to lend itself to the sort of app store lockdown Microsoft is moving to. If you have a choice of buy Win32 apps/games at Walmart/Gamestop and Microsoft gets no taste of the action or buy everything at the App Store and give Microsoft 30%, which do you think they are going to 'nudge' you toward? And by 'nudge' I mean turn your PC into an iPhone with hard crypto locks and remove all options that do not let them rake off their 30 points.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
    1. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Windows as you have known it is deprecated, a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it but don't expect it to last much longer. If Windows and native Win32 executables themselves are on the chopping block

      I think that's going to last about 6 months after Win8 release, and then they're going to realize that early adopters are putting keyboards and mice on their tablets and struggling to re-enable the traditional desktop because that interface reused from Windows Phone 7 isn't doing it for them, and the rest of us are waiting to see what Windows 9 looks like.

      Then Win8 service pack 1 will add back in a bunch of stuff they had taken out, and make the traditional desktop the default.

      Just sayin'

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by rgmoore · · Score: 1

      That may be Microsoft's plan, but it's a real loser for expensive specialty software. At my work, we have plenty of technical apps that cost more than the Windows machine they're running on, even though they require fairly hefty hardware. There's no way a company writing a $10K app is going to be willing to hand over $3K to Microsoft to get it on their appstore. They'd rather port to another, more open platform. Stealing those kinds of apps away from Unix workstations was a big win for Microsoft 10-20 years ago. It will be an equally big loss if they drive them back to Unix/Linux in an attempt to cash in as a gatekeeper.

      And that's not the only big loss. Many larger businesses have their own custom apps and packages that they've written in-house and depend on to keep their companies running. Making Windows depend exclusively on something like the appstore to install software will kill that market and push Windows out of big business. Unless there's some kind of Windows for Business solution that lets you set up your own software sources, Microsoft will be killing the golden goose.

      --

      There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.

    3. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it

      "Determined enough"? You mean, like locating a huge (2x1) tile labeled "Desktop", with Win7 wallpaper for the background picture, right at the home screen?

    4. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      That's like taking off in an airliner with holes in the wings and hoping that the stewardesses will pass out parachutes.

    5. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Bengie · · Score: 1

      "That may be Microsoft's plan, but it's a real loser for expensive specialty software. At my work, we have plenty of technical apps that cost more than the Windows machine they're running on, even though they require fairly hefty hardware. There's no way a company writing a $10K app is going to be willing to hand over $3K to Microsoft to get it on their appstore."

      If you think that company is going to re-write their "$10k app" that requires "hefty hardware", in HTML5/Javascript, you've got a screw loose. Metro apps can only be from the app store... Metro apps are HTML5/Javascript.

      Actually, MS has already stated that "developers" can install Metro apps, side channel, and ignore the app store all together. Did you know anyone with VS Express or Enterprise Windows can do this? Since every version of Windows supports VS Express(which is 100% free), I would venture to say that by-passing the App store is just a simple registry setting.

      If you're paying $10k for software, I sure hope you can afford people smart enough to install VS Express, or write a small PowerShell script to by-pass the store.

    6. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Some have stated that Win8 is stated to be a failure already as far as x86 machines go, based on the fact that companies waited 10 years on XP and skipped Vista, and are only now moving to W7. Companies won't be going to W8 anytime soon. Consumer PC purchases in the windows market are down, so who's actually going to go with W8? Tablets and phones seem about all that's left, and they're not running x86. (That means no W7 interface on those devices)

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    7. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      The old rule was that there was always two reasonable windows releases for every bad one (win95, win98; winME), (win2000, WinXP, Vista). Now the rule appears to be every other release is going to suck. So though Win7 is ok, win8 appears doomed. That metro interface isn't going to fly in the corporate world where people are trying to get real work done.

    8. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by adonoman · · Score: 1

      Metro apps can be written in native C++, .NET, or HTML5/JS. So, porting the guts of just about any app to metro is trivial. I've been working on the developer preview with our application, and the integration with the old code is trivially easy. It's the writing of a new interface that poses difficulty. I could see photoshop moving its browser to Metro, or Autocad providing a metro-style viewer - a full screen touch-based Autocad viewer could be pretty cool on a tablet actually.

    9. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I predict Windows 9 (or 10) will go full "cell phone" where instead of buying the OS license once, you'll now pay a monthly access fee. Failing to pay the fee would disable access to the app store and your cloud based apps/storage.

      We all know they've been drooling over this business model for years and now the only hurdle left to jump is to convince people to treat their PC like their phone.

    10. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by bluemonq · · Score: 1

      "for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it"

      Hint: Click on the tile marked "Desktop".

    11. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by bluemonq · · Score: 1

      "I think that's going to last about 6 months after Win8 release, and then they're going to realize that early adopters are putting keyboards and mice on their tablets and struggling to re-enable the traditional desktop"

      You do realize that Windows 8 is for both desktops/laptops and tablets? Tablet users use keyboards as well (witness the sale of keyboards for the iPad); the Metro interface is just a touch-friendly environment. It takes all of one registry edit to kill it permanently and switch back to all-traditional desktop, all the time.

    12. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected. Wish I could replace my above comment with "herp a derp"

    13. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging from the recent Windows 8 Developer Preview, reenabling the traditional desktop is as simple as pressing the Windows logo key once. Yeah, you haven't got the Start menu anymore, what a grief. Most Windows 7 users can work for entire days without using it anyway. And if it is really demanded, there will be tons of third party apps to recover it.

    14. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by dreemernj · · Score: 1

      In the corporate world, people will use the Win7 style desktop. Chances are obviousy pretty good that a group policy setting will make it easy for corporate IT to decide whether to even have the Metro interface show up.

      --
      1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
    15. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      > Some have stated that Win8 is stated to be a failure already as far as x86 machines go, based on the fact that companies waited 10 years on XP and skipped Vista, and are only now moving to W7

      There are companies moving to W7? Don't get me wrong, W7 is not bad once you turn off some of the visual effects settings. [1] It's just that I don't see companies in a hurry to move off XP. It works, it loads programs, the latest browsers work on it, "and since you do everything through a browser now, we're pretty indistinguishable" (obg xkcd reference).

      [1] It's time to stop fooling ourselves -- the OS is not an application, and it's not a video game. The purpose of the OS is to load applications and manage resources, not to keep us entertained.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    16. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quite Obviously you have very little understanding about the royalty splits differing between traditional retail outlets and App stores.

      In one particular game, we were *lucky* to get $6 of every $30 in retail sales. By consolidating all Publisher and Retail royalty cuts into a single entity, app developers actually have more freedom to reach the masses. In essence, app stores have flipped the royalty splits so dev houses get 70% of the sale vs. 15-30% tops under the old retail outlets.

      Have you ever actually shipped software? Have you ever actually developed software? I've shipped on a number of game consoles, mobile devices, etc. From my personal experience, I find the app stores to be much easier to deal with than the old traditional brick-and-mortar release models. And yes, I'm talking about both Apple and Microsoft's app stores - both are way simpler and easier to interface with.

    17. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Having spent many MANY hours getting drivers and plug-and-play to work in Windows 95, I'm not sure I completely agree. Win98 was usable, true. So was Windows NT 3.5, and NT 4.0 if you didn't ask too much of it.

      At a large company in which I worked in 1997, there were exactly two PCs that worked reliably. They were mine, and the other Unix administrator. Both were running Windows NT 4, installed and configured by us. No DHCP, no SAS, all settings done carefully by hand. You couldn't play games on them, but you know, we weren't there to play games. (Besides, there was xtank on the machine room consoles.) The rest of the company was running Windows 95, and the Windows admins were spending all their time chasing ghosts through the network. (Which we eventually learned were master browser storms. Remember those?) Since neither our NT boxes nor any of the Unix workstations exhibited any symptoms of network problems, and the hundreds of Win95 boxes were having massive failures, the top Windows admin accused us of sabotage. There were high level meetings about it and they sent the Unix admins home and called in forensic specialists. The problem turned out to be that every copy of Win95 defaulted to "browse master" out of the box, and they spent all of their time on the network fighting over the privilege. The solution was to go to each PC and turn off the feature.

      So we were exonerated and he quit soon after. I heard the experience ruined his career. So at least for some people, Win95 didn't work out so well.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    18. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Hell people on Slashdot still use the 10 year old Windows XP for crying out loud and slashdotters are the ones typically who like newer products. Corporate customers are way more conservative.

      Win32 is not going away nor is the desktop over their dead bodies. It wont happen and I bet if I had a time machine and went 30 years into the future you will see IE 6 still being used for 40 year old intranet apps in emulators like they still run IBM 370 apps of old .... shudder

      It is legacy and wont ever go away at this point. I think MS will not give up as you can not get SAP with all its complex functionality in a cute little METRO tile. No can do. Maybe the silly twitter-roma app can be tiled but not that. Can you imagine running 3d Studio Max or Autocad in a tile?

      I wouldn't worry about that

    19. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Many forgot about the Windows 98 active desktop. Remember?

      HTML would just come to you and you could have Javascript and HTML applets? 6 months later it was never talked about again. Most people quickly disabled it by default.

    20. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      > You do realize that Windows 8 is for both desktops/laptops and tablets?

      Well, yes, I do realize that. I was responding to the original poster's contention that Win32 was generally doomed (and he had some good reasons, actually) and (he said) the future of M$ was appliances and phones. I was pointing out that, assuming his views for the sake of argument, Windows on a tablet has never been a happy place and, I think, isn't likely to be. At all, ever. People will buy them because some people buy anything by Microsoft, but they're not going to be happy with them until they plug in a keyboard/mouse and switch back over to the Desktop mode, because Microsoft on a very basic level does not, and will probably never, understand the touch paradigm.

      Now, I use Windows to load programs I need for my job, and although we own a couple of macs at home, they don't get a lot of use. I don't consider myself a Windows kind of guy except out of necessity, and I'm *definitely* not a Mac kind of guy. I don't have the faintest desire to own an iphone. But I have to admit, Apple had the right idea. For touch interfaces, create a touch interface operating system based on (approx) the same kernel you're currently using for the desktop, but abandon all the other point-and-click nonsense and start over on the gui. Worry later about folding the two together, if it's even possible. In the meantime, sell lots of devices and get phenomenally rich. [1]

      Microsoft doesn't have those options. Create a new platform on the existing kernel... nope, the existing kernel is crap. Abandon the point and click interface and design a brand new touch interface -- nope, this violates the code-reuse rule. Let's take the Win7 interface, layer the phone interface on top of it, and call it good.

      This is gonna fail so bad.....

      [1] Of course, this built on the fact that Apple swapped out Finder for a small, mature, well-written kernel back in 2001, which they could in turn leverage in iOS. Microsoft did something similar with XP, but didn't go nearly far enough. It's that code reuse thing they keep stumbling over.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    21. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Windows ME in a nutshell.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    22. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      > Many forgot about the Windows 98 active desktop. Remember?

      Man, that sucked. Win98 wasn't usable for anything approaching real work until it was turned off. Just about the first thing any Win98 user learned to do is disable active desktop. Brrr!

      But Win98, once you disabled that horrible misfeature, was arguably better than Win95 in every other respect.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    23. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by unfunk · · Score: 1

      a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it

      You mean to say that clicking on the "desktop" tile that's conveniently located on the welcome 'Metro' screen requires determination and figuring out? It's not even re-enabling it. It hasn't gone anywhere that requires any trickery to get back - unlike the Start Menu.

    24. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by godefroi · · Score: 1

      Is this a shock to anyone after The Week of Windows 8 Hype?

      No, it's a shock SUA lasted this long. The Interix community has been mostly dead for a long time.

      If there was a theme running through all of the stories it was this: Windows as you have known it is deprecated, a traditional Windows desktop will be available (certainly on x86, perhaps on arm) for those who are determined enough to figure out how to reenable it but don't expect it to last much longer.

      inorite? I mean, you have to click on "DESKTOP" to get to the traditional Windows desktop. Most people will never manage to dig up that well-hidden secret.

      If Windows and native Win32 executables themselves are on the chopping block

      They're not.

      why would they have any interest in maintaining a UNIX command line layer?

      They wouldn't. It's expensive, takes a lot of manpower, and is rarely used. It was much more useful in getting Unix shops onto Windows back in the early NT days. That was a long time ago, and it's outlived it's usefulness. As I said before, the point of SUA was NOT to allow you to "grep" your "My Documents" folder.

      Win32 (and UNIX more so) isn't going to lend itself to the sort of app store lockdown Microsoft is moving to.

      Someone ought to tell Apple that. I'm sure they'd like to know what you know.

      If you have a choice of buy Win32 apps/games at Walmart/Gamestop and Microsoft gets no taste of the action or buy everything at the App Store and give Microsoft 30%, which do you think they are going to 'nudge' you toward?

      If they don't, they get sued by shareholders?

      And by 'nudge' I mean turn your PC into an iPhone with hard crypto locks and remove all options that do not let them rake off their 30 points.

      And then, if you care about that sort of thing (and empirical evidence suggests that the giant majority of people DO NOT, c.f. Apple) then there's always Linux and *BSD.

      --
      Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
    25. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by godefroi · · Score: 1

      Then Win8 service pack 1 will add back in a bunch of stuff they had taken out, and make the traditional desktop the default.

      I would be SHOCKED if there wasn't a way to make the desktop the default from the very beginning, especially for any version expected to be used in a commercial environment. The Win8 devs at MS wouldn't want the Metro interface to be default, so they'd work it out if only for themselves. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Metro was only the default in the (.*Home.*) versions.

      --
      Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
    26. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      [1] It's time to stop fooling ourselves -- the OS is not an application, and it's not a video game. The purpose of the OS is to load applications and manage resources, not to keep us entertained.

      If I had mod points today, this would get you a bump all by itself. OSes should stick to that core purpose and do it well. The interface it displays to do so may change for various reasons, such as the single full screen presentation on a 4" phone for example, as that use case wouldn't be well served by having multiple windows floating around at least for the majority of the populace. But otherwise, it should be a lean mean set of APIs for accessing resources.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    27. Re:Windows itself seems close to being deprecated by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      > I would be SHOCKED if there wasn't a way to make the desktop the default from the very beginning, especially for any version expected to be used in a commercial environment

      Well, yes, so would I. But we're told it'll default to Metro or Super Media Center or Phone 7 square-poky-buttons or whatever they'll call it, and we don't know yet how the default setting will be achieved. If it's not something they want you to do on a regular basis, it'll probably be a registry entry.

      I wouldn't put it past M$ to try to sell Metro as a default in business, at least until they get overwhelming pushback. After all, executives are carrying around ipads.

      as to metro being a default in the home versions, I don't think that's how it's being positioned. It's primarily an appliance interface, whereas desktop will be positioned as a "power user" workstation interface. But I could be wrong. Even at home, my family considers "pro" to be the lowest usable version, so we'll have to rely on reports from others. Assuming if we even try Win8 or wait until the next one.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  23. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MS Exchange 2010's OWA (Outlook WebApp) was designed to work with standards-compliant browsers whereas previous versions worked properly only with IE. See http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/en-us/outlook-web-app.aspx where they explicitly mention supporting Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

    It sounds to me like your employer is using either an older version of OWA or has misconfigured it somewhere along the line as I use OWA from both Firefox and Chrome regularly and have never experienced any of the issues you mention...

  24. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by HBI · · Score: 0

    I'm very far from a Microsoft fan, but it's unfair to say that they used technical sabotage to destroy their opponents. You can talk about the lawsuits all day, but lawsuit claims are exaggerated, always. The thing about Microsoft's technical sabotage was always this: they didn't need to. The world was willingly walking toward creating a Microsoft monopoly. I don't think the sabotage helped much.

    In regards to the particular victims...

    -Stacker was a time-limited product, completely dependent on Microsoft, so of course they got eaten. All Microsoft had to do was to change their fs and Stacker was pretty much out of business. Bad business model. Should be a rule that you dont' create a model that depends on Microsoft.

    -Novell committed suicide. Their licensing program (3.5" Novell-issued license floppies for each server, required for reinstall and the whole network squawks if you try to use the same one twice . Hope they didn't go bad in the interim...) needed massive modification to respond to Microsoft (xxx-111111 was a global license code for NT4) , and they didn't do it in time. Most shops went to NT just because it was easier to deal with. The Novell clients were pretty buggy too - that wasn't Microsoft's fault that they didn't make sure their code was bulletproof before it was issued.

    -Lotus committed suicide. People didn't want to mix and match applications, they wanted a suite. Lotus didn't have one on offer till too late, and by then it was embedded inside IBM, where software innovation goes to hide. IBM couldn't market software out of a wet paper bag. Look what happened to Notes/Domino, a technically superior system to anything Microsoft had until just a few years ago. IBM licensing policies didn't help much there, either. Or OS/2...though there were more mistakes there than just poor marketing.

    All of the above would have happened without Microsoft's sabotage. I'm far from denying that any of the sabotage happened. I'm just saying that it wasn't very consequential. It was just stupid and immature in my view.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  25. Other Unix features? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They provide other Unix features as part of Service for Unix. Are they keeping these? Among these are the NFS Server, NFS Client, Password Syncing tools, NIS Servers and telnet server.

    Now a lot of these are a bit 90's Unix, telnet not SSH and NIS. But I've found the NFS Server is pretty handy sometimes.Even though they don't seem to exactly rush to update last time I looked (i.e no NFSv4).

  26. Re:I feel like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's better to run Windows in a VM on a POSIX system though rather than the other way around.

    Windows in a VM on a Linux host runs great. Linux in a VM on a Windows host runs like shit.

  27. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by pclminion · · Score: 1

    That post was nice and dramatic and everything, but SUA was a piece of shit that nobody used anyway. If you need to run POSIX applications on Windows there are ways to do it that don't suck. "Hegemony," "rise to power," give me a fucking break dude.

  28. Re:I feel like... by tmcb · · Score: 2

    The problem is that VMs consequently bring an isolation level that doesn't allow you, for example, to work at the native filesystem. You cannot easily grep something in your "My Documents" folder, as far as I know and, even if you can, you'll be consuming way more resources than needed, which may bring consequences as bigger execution times. They're a great solution for a lot of problems, though, don't get me wrong.

  29. Re:I feel like... by poetmatt · · Score: 0

    back to the old adage of "you can run linux, but you must run it under windows". Yep, same old microsoft.

  30. This is by malevolentjelly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you look at the kind of work Microsoft has put into the Linux kernel recently relating to Hyper-V...

    https://lwn.net/Articles/451243/

    One might gather that it's not worth the trouble for NT to ape Unix anymore. Chances are pretty good Linux is the new SUA and virtualization will be the new supported solution to this problem. I mean, why should Microsoft bother maintaining its own Unix tools when they're actively maintained elsewhere? Given the work they've done on both virtualization and linux integration I would say that there's no great conspiracy here.

    1. Re:This is by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      I think you've hit the nail on the head. What's bothering me though are these draconian "walled gardens" that are continuing to be pushed onto us. What's bothering me even more is the move towards "leaseable" applications that if not in whole at least in part reside on a corporate server farm somewhere rather than my hard drive. Not only are we losing traditional ownership but the ability to use them is depending upon fragile infrastructure. They are creating huge vulnerabilities subject to the whims of both nature and governments.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    2. Re:This is by Jerry · · Score: 1

      They didn't put that "work" into their code voluntarily. They were forced to do it because they were in violation of the GPL.

      --

      Running with Linux for over 20 years!

    3. Re:This is by malevolentjelly · · Score: 1

      They didn't put that "work" into their code voluntarily. They were forced to do it because they were in violation of the GPL.

      I don't see how that has anything to do with virtualization being a strategy for Microsoft. Whether linux kernel drivers are packaged or pushed upstream is just an operational consideration.

    4. Re:This is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stock up on PC parts, because soon rather than later it will be hard to put together a traditional PC... and once that happens we are in quite a pickle.

    5. Re:This is by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 2

      I always thought Microsoft could be unique from the likes of google, etc by doing just that. Take all the services google offers and provide them as microsoft server Apps. That way a business could have it's cake (all the cool web apps) and eat it too (have them hosted locally). I personally run an internal Windows SBS because I like all the capabilities exchange and a DC provide but I don't want them provided by some external service.

      Microsoft, if you're reading this, provide a real note app too al-la springpad. It could be onenote based. As long as it runs on everything (andriod, ios, browser, windows, tablets), and syncs across a network I'll be happy. I don't like having all my ideas and thoughts in some data center somewhere.

      --
      I do security
    6. Re:This is by aepurniet · · Score: 1

      Chances are pretty good Linux is the new SUA and virtualization will be the new supported solution to this problem. I mean, why should Microsoft bother maintaining its own Unix tools when they're actively maintained elsewhere? Given the work they've done on both virtualization and linux integration I would say that there's no great conspiracy here.

      wow! non-microsoft bashing comment gets a +5. everyone here loves to bash MS but looking at things from their lens, they seem to be making pretty decent decisions now. yes theres gonna be an app store for the tablet, yes its not going to have emulation, yes old API's and tools are getting tossed. who cares? win8 is new software, its gonna be different. for everything thats missing on the tablet, desktop and server front, there is better solution out there (that probably should have been implemented a long time ago).

    7. Re:This is by malevolentjelly · · Score: 1

      Kind of like how the release of the Hybrid car eliminated car tuning and hot rod culture? If there's a market in selling computer components, it will remain. There's no dark force moving against that. It's just a business.

    8. Re:This is by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      There are advantages to SUA that you don't get with virtualization. The ability to run tools side-by-side, even calling from POSIX programs into Win32 DLLs in the most recent version. The ability to enable Windows to use NFS. The ability to SSH *into* a Windows box and do remote administration using familiar tools. The ability to Remote Desktop into a server that also needs to run a Perl program in a Unix environment.

      Basically, anywhere that you *would* use something POSIX-based, but need to also use Windows. Even if they don't *need* to be on the same logical machine, you can save hardware resources by running them that way.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    9. Re:This is by jrumney · · Score: 1

      One might gather that it's not worth the trouble for NT to ape Unix anymore.

      It was only ever worth the trouble because government contracts specified POSIX compliance as a necessary prerequisite. I don't think VMs or third party additional software would be enough to satisfy such contract terms, so it is more likely that Microsoft's sales efforts are finally managing to get terms like this dropped from such contracts.

    10. Re:This is by perlchild · · Score: 1

      It's not surprising, the consumers don't:

      1) commercially blast those who make walled gardens back into the stone age
      2) punish those more closed solutions until they are much cheaper than the open ones

      Since being open runs risks(if you are open, you are open to competition) that means until the cost of being closed is larger than the costs of those risks, you(the market)'re punishing people for being open.

      There's no risk of the open going away, the risk is that open will quickly become much more expensive, and a niche market, whereas in liberal free-market democracies, closed markets shouldn't be the majority.

  31. SUA vs Cygwin (Re:Cygwin) by mewyn · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, many people keep wondering why use SUA vs Cygwin?

    Well, first off the basic thing is speed. SUA has kernel hooks for syscall translation. It's able to do many of the POSIX syscalls in a much quicker fashion than Cygwin. Cygwin, on the other hand, does *everything* for POSIX syscalls in userland, causing it to be slow (for example, a fork, at times can take *seconds* to complete).

    So, SUA is much better this way... problem is, it's tricky to get things to compile for it, I never did get things building reliably for it. Cygwin has a full suite of programs already built, and it's much easier to build existing Linux/UNIX/POSIX programs for than SUA.

    Being a Windows user who needs *NIX tools for many processing tasks, what do I use? Cygwin. Easier to set up and get running. The speed drives me insane, though. My login script, which runs many programs before bringing up my bash prompt will take 5-6 seconds.

    Ideal solution: Hyper-V or some other VM software running a VM in the background that I can get a terminal to, that has filesystem access to my system drives too.

    1. Re:SUA vs Cygwin (Re:Cygwin) by Lennie · · Score: 2

      Fastest and most compatible way to run Linux programs on Windows (which doesn't even need any special hardware) ?

      http://colinux.org/

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    2. Re:SUA vs Cygwin (Re:Cygwin) by Drinking+Bleach · · Score: 1

      Still only for 32-bit Windows, making CoLinux useless for me.

    3. Re:SUA vs Cygwin (Re:Cygwin) by whizzter · · Score: 1

      Install your favourite linux on virtualbox and then add the host additions, setup the mapping in VBox and mount the path in linux and presto.. filesystem sharing.

    4. Re:SUA vs Cygwin (Re:Cygwin) by Lennie · · Score: 1

      Ohh, I didn't know that.

      I haven't tried it for a while. When I use a Windows desktop, there usually is a real Linux-server nearby.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
  32. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Newer versions of OWA (2007, 2010) working amazingly well in alternative browsers. You're doing something wrong, or someone messed up the authentication settings on the OWA server.

  33. SUA is pants by roc97007 · · Score: 1

    I think this is yet another indication that SUA is pants and everyone should be using Cygwin.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:SUA is pants by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      I think it's another indication that anyone who trusted MS to support functionality that didn't directly benefit MS was a damned fool. When it comes to Microsoft, the only way to win is to not play. i.e. Don't buy their stuff, ever.

    2. Re:SUA is pants by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      True. The problem is, I hear that Adobe products don't work very well on OSX anymore.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  34. Re:I feel like... by devent · · Score: 1

    With software in the state that it is now, why would you run shoe-horned windows, when you can have a proper POSIX system running on your computer?

    --
    http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
  35. Re:I feel like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's a thought:

    How about you just run Linux...*without* windows?

    Why should Microsoft provide you a means to do this from *within* windows?

    "You can run Linux...however the hell you damn want to....because that lame-ass subsystem...wasn't Linux."
    -James Tiberius Kirk

  36. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Y+Us e missed the point. They are cutting out something people use, and doing it rather quickly.

    The fact that it may be a PoS is irrelevant. This is quick even for MS. Deprecated, and then removed in the next release candidate of the same version? Yeah, that's just crappy.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  37. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by goarilla · · Score: 1

    I have another issue with OWA, the version for alternate browsers is a lot different
    from the one presented to IE users.
    You can't even access certain mail folders

  38. The problem, for those asking, is customers by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

    Windows-only shops may tolerate you insisting on SUA, because it's a Microsoft product.

    Start talking about CygWin or VMs and their eyes glaze over, they suck their thumbs, and moan "Wasn't on my MCSE, hippies will eat me, wasn't on my MCSE, hippies will eat me."

    I know that there's not really any significant difference in support terms (other than not getting the flakey almost-POSIX and BSODs that continue to burden SUA), and that they'd be better off switching to a native POSIX environment anyway, but the man with the ear of the man with the money doesn't want his "skill" set to be devalued overnight. And that's why SUA still has (had) a place.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    1. Re:The problem, for those asking, is customers by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Those people are all going to die of acute boneitis when they first clap eyes on Metro anyway.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  39. SUA is already dead in Windows 7 by guruevi · · Score: 2

    They've killed it by only supporting the features necessary to re-share existing NFS services using SMB and AD. Integration of Windows with non-AD LDAP and Kerberos is virtually non-existent and requires a ton of work and 3rd party utilities to get it working. I don't think NFSv4 is even supported.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  40. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by jonbryce · · Score: 1

    OWA for Exchange 2010 works much better in Firefox than it does in IE6.

  41. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by PraiseBob · · Score: 1

    DR-DOS, Wordperfect, Ami pro count as direct sabotage in modifying their code to break competitors products. But it could certainly be argued that the entire "embrace, extend, extinguish" plan is ultimately a form of technical sabotage. Their executives emails have specifically mentioned causing competitors products to crash as a primary goal in defeating them. How can you say it wasn't consequential when it is coming from the very top of the company? I agree the sabotage probably wasn't necessary to gain market dominance, but it does demonstrate the complete lack of business ethics.

  42. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    This is quick even for MS. Deprecated, and then removed in the next release candidate of the same version?

    It is quick, but not that quick. Where does it say that it'll be removed in the next release candidate? TFS speaks of "release"; this normally actually means RTM (as in, not a prerelease).

  43. It's an even-numbered release, of course it's crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Or is it odd numbered? But like Star Trek movies, every other version of Windows (desktop) is crap:

    Win95 - meh
    Win98 - not too shabby
    WinME - oh my god, no!
    Win XP - not half bad
    Win Vista - 'nuff sed
    Win 7 - okay
    Win 8 - it's gonna suck, right?

  44. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by Alien+Being · · Score: 2

    "Should be a rule that you dont' create a model that depends on Microsoft."

    If you make an application that runs on Windows, then it depends on MS. How many people had their Netscape installations disabled by MS updates of IE? How many application vendors were unable to compete because MS was the only one with access to undocumented APIs? You do remember that the DOJ eventually found them guilty of unfair trade practices because of these tactics.

    Or what about workalike operating systems like DR-DOS. MS applications had explicit code to disable them if the user tried to run them under a competing vendor's OS.

    "All of the above would have happened without Microsoft's sabotage. I'm far from denying that any of the sabotage happened. I'm just saying that it wasn't very consequential. It was just stupid and immature in my view."

    Yes, your honor, I shot those people and they died. It's OK though, because they were weak and they would have died anyway. I didn't murder them. They committed suicide.

    MS should be shut down completely. Their unfair trade practices have taken a huge toll on both consumers and vendors. Now that they have completed their "slap on the wrist" sentence, they're right back out there, as bold as ever, mugging everyone they can.

  45. it does make sense. by Truekaiser · · Score: 1

    why support something that your new os's 'made for' or 'works with' branding program is designed to kill?

  46. Windows doesn't fully support SUA even now... by Eyeballs · · Score: 2

    ...Which can be seen by viewing SUA based process in Windows's Task Manager.

    Do this:
    1. Install SUA
    2. Run KSH (the command line shell that SUA installs)
    3. Open Task Manager
    4. Change the columns so that 'command line' is showing.

    You will notice that the SUA processes have _wrong_ (corrupted?) information displayed. This is based on the fact SUA is a different _subsystem_ and stores process based information (specifically, command line information) in memory in a _different_ format than the _Win32_ subsystem.

    So when a Win32 process tries to access a SUA process...and there's no checking for a process' system type...

  47. photo shop is a big windows and mac app that will by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    photo shop / the adobe CS pack is a big windows and mac app that will not work good with a touch based ui (maybe for a photo shop light), also it has lot's of 3rd party plug ins' (I hear that the MS app store is more open to that then the apple one). Also big screens and dual or more helps with it as well.

    AutoCAD is a other high end app that needs a good input, good CPU + GPU, big screen / dual or more screens and there even high end mouses for it http://www.chipchick.com/2007/08/spacepilot_makes_life_easier_for_for_3d_modellers_and_cad_artists.html

    Now a touch screen for input (only) for AutoCAD / Photo Shop may work but when it is off to the side and not part of the main screen.

    I say if MS fails adobe CS and AutoCAD for Linux as apple is out due to the app store and apples lack of good hardware for Business like no real server. The mini server and mac pro server fail in many ways. Like no dual nic's in the mini. Lack of hot swap hdd's in both and Lack of dual PSU in both.

    Also apples desktop hardware is very over priced and the imac screen is not that good for pro work and the hard to get to (vs all other pc systems) HDD in the imac and mini is a no no for some Business. Now the mac pro will be nice at $1000-$1500 with be more up to date come on 1TB HDD and 3 GB RAM at $2500? Can build a i7 system (same cpu power) with more ram and a better video card for about $1000 or less or even get's dells for about $800-$1500 less then apples price.

  48. Re:I feel like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem is that VMs consequently bring an isolation level that doesn't allow you, for example, to work at the native filesystem. You cannot easily grep something in your "My Documents" folder, as far as I know and, even if you can, you'll be consuming way more resources than needed, which may bring consequences as bigger execution times. They're a great solution for a lot of problems, though, don't get me wrong.

    Only if you configure them that way.

  49. 1-800-what-model-is-that? by epine · · Score: 2

    Troll much? But let's take a refresher course, ten years later.

    Should be a rule that you don't create a model that depends on Microsoft.

    1-800-what-model-is-that? I worked in the 1980s on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean input methods. CJK input was a time-limited product, completely dependent on Microsoft, so of course we got eaten when they folded CJK fonts and IME into the operating system.

    Your sentiment really pissed me off, because a lot of people gave blood to bring Microsoft down a peg or two in the 1990s so that in this day and age young people might suppose you actually know what you're talking about (other models existing, as they do now) when you spout nonsense like that.

    Watcom C/C++ was a superior compiler, but it got eaten alive by Visual C++, a product which set the C++ language back by almost five years by pretending to support standard features, but then only implemented namespaces one level deep, and cutting ever other corner in the template system a harried reviewer would miss on the first day (that was policy in all of their development plans).

    It was as if Visual C++ promised support for K&R C 100% except that nesting of curly braces was only permitted in main(). Nesting braces aren't very important, there are work-arounds. We'll get to it in a future release. Meanwhile: 1) Put your entire program in main(); Cry baby. 2) the comma operator is your friend; 3) assign variables within the expression of first use; 4) write your program in FORTH and cross-compile; achieve code re-use through the use of the #define facility; use VBASIC instead, it has no pretense to scale, and can't hurt you.

    Until Microsoft, nobody dreamed what you could do with the CPP in a pinch. If Google Code had existed in the late nineties, #ifdef _MSC_VER would have made the Google Zeitgeist.

    There's no denying the colossal stupidity of many of Microsoft's main competitors. I've even read comments by Microsoft execs who basically said "we were amazed to watch our competitors blow themselves up". So true.

    They never said that about Netscape. But what's one set of Nixon tapes among friends, anyhow, or forged video tapes submitted to the U.S. Justice Department?

    Microsoft submitted a second inaccurate videotape into evidence later the same month as the first. The issue in question was how easy or hard it was for America Online users to download and install Netscape Navigator onto a Windows PC. Microsoft's videotape showed the process as being quick and easy, resulting in the Netscape icon appearing on the user's desktop. The government produced its own videotape of the same process, revealing that Microsoft's videotape had conveniently removed a long and complex part of the procedure and that the Netscape icon was not placed on the desktop, requiring a user to search for it. Brad Chase, a Microsoft vice president, verified the government's tape and conceded that Microsoft's own tape was falsified.

    You need to bone up on game theory. After destroying a well-managed competitor funded on a world record IPO through a multitude of dirty tricks, a lot of smart people wandered around in a daze dialing 1-800-what-model-is-that?

    Top three fatal flaws in a 1990s era business model if your potential competitor was Microsoft:
    1. Revenue
    2. Market share
    3. Profit

    I recall it was the shops who were most dependent on Microsoft who made out best. Visio was an extremely well behaved ISV and they were ultimately rewarded for their OLE monstrosity. Is that what you had in mind? The independence of toady-hood?

    1. Re:1-800-what-model-is-that? by HBI · · Score: 1

      Netscape committed suicide also. They released a buggy as hell browser as v3. It turned me into a MSIE user for a short while, that's how bad it was. The white window thing, where it would fail to paint, should bring back memories. Their server product quickly grew stale compared to Apache. They had to know the revenue stream for a commodity interface like a web browser wouldn't last. People sold command shells back in the old days too...that didn't last. Bad business plan. Blaming Microsoft is hardly credible. It was a known quantity with a monopoly in OS at the time. One could have predicted the response.

      The 'dirty tricks' were about as germane to the reason why Netscape went down as the stuff Nixon did was to his 1972 victory. He would have won anyway, and Netscape would have gone bankrupt anyway, too.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    2. Re:1-800-what-model-is-that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that historical suicide of Netscape is currently in the repeat by Firefox; though more due to Google than Microsoft this time.

  50. SUA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There used to be a lot of government contracts that required a POSIX compatibility, which was why I thought SUA was available. I wonder if Windows won over the Uncle and those are no longer caveats.

  51. Oh, no, maybe 0.2 people affected by Quila · · Score: 2

    I have never seen one instance of this actually being used in any environment from small up to very large enterprise.

    1. Re:Oh, no, maybe 0.2 people affected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, especially since those who need Linux-like things run Linux instead.

    2. Re:Oh, no, maybe 0.2 people affected by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you've made an exhaustive study of the subject...

      17171 registered users on the SUACommunity forums would beg to differ. Not a *huge* user base by any means, but definitely relevant, especially since quite a few of them *are* supporting projects running on SUA (or its old name, SFU) in business environments.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  52. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 1

    DR-DOS, Wordperfect, Ami pro count as direct sabotage in modifying their code to break competitors products.

    What a load of rubbish! A single beta version of Windows didn't work under DR-DOS. To that sounds like they are just eliminating bugs in the was DR-DOS runs Windows from distracting the developers who are trying to find bugs in their own code. Any version of Windows (pre-Win95) that could be purchased would run under DR-DOS.

    WordPerfect killed themselves by resisting the move to WYSIWYG and a Windows version. When they finally did it, it was incredibly buggy. How is Microsoft responsible for that?

    As for Ami Pro... I give up. What code did microsoft change to break Ami Pro? They did have a shared use of a filename extension, but that sort of thing happened all the time back then. Just because a program competes with a Microsoft product and then fails does not mean that it was due to Microsoft being evil.

  53. My two cents worth. by Paracelcus · · Score: 1

    VMware workstation running one of the many "live" distributions as a mountable .iso image.

    --
    I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
  54. Re:I feel like... by aix+tom · · Score: 1

    I kinda wait for the Metro to arrive at the platform and Bob stepping out of it. (After all, that was their last try at a "non-technical" user interface.)

  55. format c: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's why you just format the drive and install your favourite *nix distro! :-)

  56. Re:I feel like... by nabsltd · · Score: 2

    That's the key right there. With virtualization software in the state that it is now, why would you run POSIX applications shoe-horned into windows, when you can have a proper POSIX system running in a VM.

    I agree that SUA is pretty bad, but running Cygwin allows me to run commands like:

    sort -o /dev/clipboard /dev/clipboard

    This sorts the data on the Windows clipboard. Having the whole *nix user land plus access to Windows features/drives/data makes the command line in Windows much less painful than before. A VM won't really solve that.

  57. Great! I really appreciate it! by ZealotOfZuse · · Score: 1

    Everybody stupid enough to buy Windows 8 should have no truck with UN*X or Linux at all! Thank you, Bill!

  58. Re:I feel like... by poetmatt · · Score: 1

    wha? The idea here is people want to do exactly that - however, if it's hardware locked, that might not be an option for dual-boot.

  59. Re:It's an even-numbered release, of course it's c by roc97007 · · Score: 2

    > Win 8 - it's gonna suck, right?

    Yep. It's inevitable. I think the even/odd thing is that in release (a) we try new stuff, and in release (b) we fix/withdraw it, and then in release (c) we try new stuff again, so it tends to devolve into even=suck odd=less_suck. Or the other way around, depending on if they start at "1" or "0".

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  60. Re:I feel like... by nschubach · · Score: 2

    You can map a VM drive to a user folder and tell Windows (quite easily now) to store your documents on that drive.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  61. SUA is usless anyway by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Is there a real use for it on Windows? I am serious and not trying to be a troll.

    The issue I see is that not everything is a file on Windows. Can I grep processes and threads? No. Can I awk, sed, and grep device driver files? No. Can I even parse logs? No, they are xml on Windows. etc.

    Sure I can run gcc and maybe xclocks or something, but that is not usefull.

    Can I do anything with it? Powershell seems much more integrated and you have .NET and WMI to automate some tasks. It still seems far behind Unix with the utilities though, but I am not an experienced Admin. Windows!= Unix.

  62. Re:I feel like... by Real1tyCzech · · Score: 1

    Uh...no?

    This is about SUA being booted out of the OS.

    The other "issue" wasn't even hinted at by the commenters above you.

    Honestly, if you're going to take a completely different track, start a new thread instead of trying to derail the current one?

  63. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by PraiseBob · · Score: 1

    For DR-DOS: Of course there was no reason for this. Brad Silverberg, the Microsoft exec who finally left the company last week, but who in an earlier life had been responsible for Windows 95, emailed Allchin on 27 September 1991: "after IBM announces support for dr-dos at comdex, it's a small step for them to also announce they will be selling netware lite, maybe sometime soon thereafter. but count on it. We don't know precisely what ibm is going to announce. my best hunch is that they will offer dr-dos as the preferred solution for 286, os 2 2.0 for 386. they will also probably continue to offer msdos at $165 (drdos for $99). drdos has problems running windows today, and I assume will have more problems in the future." Allchin replied: "You should make sure it has problems in the future. :-)", which is clear enough, and it should be noted that the pair were both high level Microsoft executives.

    And you say a single beta was nothing, but making it non-functional on their system meant they couldn't do testing to ensure compatibility before release. It was specifically singled out as a technical glitch designed to sabotage their competition in trial, and was conclusively ruled anticompetitive and predatory by the judge.

    For WordPerfect, MS supplied faulty API's for Wordperfect to use, while keeping their own hidden calls that actually worked. Windows updates actually broke Wordperfect and made it crash. Sure it is easy enough to assume it was just an unintended bug, but their trials revealed that top leadership was encouraging the engineers to break the system intentionally, which makes the "buggy" explanation a little more suspicious doesn't it?

    Ami pro had a beta version of a dll. When using the final version of the dll, their program didn't work right. Again, maybe it was just a coincidence and mistake that they supplied yet another Word competitor with incomplete dll's. It sure seems like a pattern to me.

  64. What packages are so slow to update? by msobkow · · Score: 2

    All I really use Cygwin for is a bash script interpreter. It's done a fine job of that, though it does take an abominable amount of time to start a console window.

    It lets me write cross-platform database installation scripts for *nix and Windows, but to be honest, that's about all the use I have for it at this time.

    I haven't even bothered updating the install in over a year. Why bother? It works.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re:What packages are so slow to update? by mr_da3m0n · · Score: 1

      If all you want is a decently modern bash and unix userland on windows, you might want to investigate mingw/msys. It still uses a translation system underneath but msys is lighter than cygwin and the toolchain produces are 100% native and link against MSVCRT.

      You would enjoy tremendously better performance. At least I know I did. On cygwin bash takes approximately 6 whole seconds to parse my .bashrc, I kid you not. With msys bash, it is instant.

    2. Re:What packages are so slow to update? by cgf · · Score: 1

      When bash takes that long to parse a .bashrc it's usually because you have the bash_completion package installed. That takes a long time under
      Cygwin. It would take a long time under msys too.

      And, of course, the "translation system" is just cygwin + hacks.

    3. Re:What packages are so slow to update? by mr_da3m0n · · Score: 1

      msys is more of a subset of cygwin, afaik -- it still remains significantly faster in my own experience, even with bash completion turned on. Of course YMMV :)

  65. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by bws111 · · Score: 1

    IBM made $23B in software last year, so apparently they can do just a little bit of software marketing.

  66. Alas, the death of the Promise of NT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember when NT was going to be a better Unix than UNIX?

    I guess that is now going away - what with GNU/Linux and Apple being UNIX these days.

  67. Really ought to just be open-sourced by cbhacking · · Score: 1

    The SUA community has been hoping for a while now that Microsoft just open-sources the stack - everything about the NT kernel - and lets the community maintain it rather than actually killing it. Ideally they would open-source it but continue to maintain and update the code, but the truth is that SUA has gotten fairly little love since Vista came out. They add features and fix bugs, but slowly - 64-bit shared libraries from GCC has been in the works for a while, now. The Win7-update of Interix (the SUA "OS" environment) didn't ship until well after Win7 itself was generally available (although you can install Interix 6.0 on SUA 6.1 just fine).

    It's actually really interesting what it does and doesn't have. It's available in 64-bit, including utilities, libraries, and build toolchain, but if you're running on 32-bit it still doesn't have the 64-bit extensions that enable things like working with files more than 4GB in size. There's still no support for clone(), which makes a lot of Linux source code not compile on Interix. There's no direct access to physical block devices, which means you can't use Unix disk utilities, and no audio support (though you can use a network-connected sound server that runs on Win32).

    Open-sourcing SUA would allow people to fix many of these issues (seriously, how hard can block devices be? Map \\.\PhysicalDisk0 to /dev/sda, and you're much of the way). It would allow resolving the silly little issues, like the poll() implementation being half-baked and therefore requiring a portability library that implements it using select() instead.

    Seriously, this is a win-win. MS doesn't have to support it anymore, the people who use it can continue using the MS version or the new community version (or modify the community version for their own purposes), those who want to tinker and hack on it can make improvements, and MS can get some good press for open-sourcing a (fairly low-level, even if rarely used) component of the NT software stack.

    --
    There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  68. Re:Purpose of SUA by Douglas+Goodall · · Score: 1

    While on the face of it, it was an ego thing that they were smart enough to have this compatibility layer. Then when I looked deeper, it turned out they had a bridge between active directory and NIS. But looking even deeper, it only worked with AD as the master and NIS in slave mode. Why am I not surprised. So if you basically had a Unix shop, and was using NIS, you could still consolidate credentials for both the Unix world and the Windows world, but only by making Windows the big dog. Again why am I not surprised?

  69. I've known about UNIX on Windows for a while by Quila · · Score: 1

    Just never seen or heard of an installation. Every Windows shop I went, when they wanted a UNIX tool they either used a Windows port of it or installed a *NIX machine.

  70. name should've been Services and Tools For Unix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    aka STFU

  71. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by perlchild · · Score: 1

    And Microsoft makes more per samsung android handset than Google does, potentially even more than samsung(I don't have hard numbers). Does that mean Microsoft is marketing android phones?

  72. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by bws111 · · Score: 1

    What does that have to do with anything? IBM made $23B selling it's own software. Does Microsoft sell Android phones? No? Then what is the point of your post?

  73. Re:I feel like... by godefroi · · Score: 1

    The point of SUA (SFU, Interix, whatever) wasn't to allow you to run "grep" on you "My Documents" folder. If that's what you were using it for, you were doing it wrong.

    --
    Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
  74. Re:I feel like... by tmcb · · Score: 1

    It is just an example, and it has more to do with the drawbacks of running virtual machines as a replacement to native systems (as pointed by adonoman) than with SUA itself. I knew since the beginning it was a terrible example, though, but I wasn't able to think anything better.

  75. Re:Microsoft up to its old tricks by perlchild · · Score: 1

    The point is that Microsoft is making money NOT marketing android phones, by that perspective, IBM making 23Billions in software doesn't mean they marketed that software either.

  76. POSIX compliance by unixisc · · Score: 0

    This brings up another question - NT originally was POSIX compliant. Has that been true since XP? Also does dropping of SUA mean that Windows 8 will no longer be POSIX compliant? If XP was POSIX compliant, one would think that Hyper-V would be as well, right?

  77. Re:I feel like... by godefroi · · Score: 1

    I knew since the beginning it was a terrible example, though, but I wasn't able to think anything better.

    That's the problem (and the reason why SFU is going away). There are very, very few legitimate uses for SFU these days. Few enough that it no longer justifies the (likely quite expensive) investment from Microsoft.

    --
    Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)