Windows 8 Is Ready

Let the bitching begin.... by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 05:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft seems to repeat mistakes don't they? DOS 4.0, Bob, ME, Vista; the public reaction to all should have been predictable enough that somebody in a corporation their size should have been able to see it coming and delay or abort the release of those turds. But no, they dropped em all and took the abuse and ridicule while apparently learning nothing. Now comes Windows 8.

Maybe they will have time to get Windows 9 right, maybe not. That is what has changed, before they were an unstoppable monopoly and now? We shall see. They have offended their OEM partners with the Surface tablet, the Developers, Developers, Developers! with the knifing of Silverlight and apparently the beginning of the end for both Win32 and .NET and I'm not convinced customers are going to be all that happy with what is about to be rammed down their thoat. All at a time when their monopoly is threatened like never before. The desktop PC itself is being questioned for most users, Office is threatened by Cloud apps and even the long standing stranglehold of Blackberry + Exchange is not looking very healthy about now.

Netcraft hasn't confirmed it yet but Microsoft just might be dying. And after hating on them for decades I'm not entirely sure I'm going to applaud when they exit the stage. The PC is likely to go with them, by which I mean the open platform anyone can write programs for and create add on hardware, etc. The post Microsoft future looks like a grim world of sealed media consumption devices for most and a return to 'workstations' for the select who can afford machines costing as much as a car.

Few will question anymore that Apple is a dark force of DRM and lockin. And the release of the Nexus 7 shows Google to be fast getting in touch with their Evil side. The only major difference (other than a model years' worth of hardware refresh) between it and the equally sealed up Amazon Fire is which app/media ecosystem it is bundled to.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by skaag · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Funny

PC era gone? but wait... Steam is coming to Linux! We're saved!

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by garcia · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 4, Interesting

According to The Ed Bott Report on ZDNet, Microsoft is turning over an entirely new leaf in its history by taking cues from Apple and developing its own hardware/software "ecosystem" (I hate that term) and alienating its OEMs which have been just as slow and lackluster as Microsoft has been over the last few years.
If we accept Bott's analysis as at least somewhat valid, Microsoft may be on the road to recovery--at least if they develop and release products that people desire.
They're already copying Apple and Google's consistent theme (copying "Metro" UI elements to their rebranded Hotmail, outlook.com) and they're developing software and hardware together. Perhaps he's right and this will bode well for Microsoft in the future.
However, there is the part of me that says that those people who want that sort of thing had already jumped ship to Apple's own "ecosystem" and everyone else was just fine staying with Microsoft because of whatever reason (cost, support, application support, familiarity, etc).
Personally I think the Metro UI (and the other unified design deals) is ridiculous and meaningless for me to get my work done and it's not going to make me move away from other products I've been using more recently. However, perhaps it will work and their demise as stated by you may be averted for another few years.
Re:Let the bitching begin.... by gbjbaanb · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

I don't think they're killing it off, but it the "new VB". MS has rediscovered native code, so WinRT is entirely unmanaged, the .NET libs have been reworked to simply pass-through to the WinRT functionality and some minor parts removed.
All native and cloud development is moving towards C++ again, so .NET is left as a desktop development environment. Given the performance fixes are not making it back into the desktop versions of the old libs and I doubt any additional features will be ported there (except security), and that the concept is that your Metro code for the PC can also run on a table or a phone, and the native push for those environments, I think you can see how .NET development is now a 'you can, but...' partner, not the primary focus for development.
Re:Let the bitching begin.... by DAldredge · 2012-08-01 06:16 · Score: 4, Informative

See I know you know better then what you are saying so it makes me wonder why you are deliberately spreading information that is wrong and so easily verifiable as not correct. http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/BUILD/BUILD2011/TOOL-531T "And you have your choice of world-class development tools and languages. JavaScript, C#, VB, C++, C, HTML, CSS, XAML, all for X86-64 and ARM." "This is an extremely important point: If you go and build your Metro style app in JavaScript and HTML, in C# or in XAML, that app will just run when there's ARM hardware available. So, you donâ(TM)t have to worry about that. Just write your application in HTML5, JavaScript and C# and XAML and your application runs across all the hardware that Windows 8 supports." http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/ssinofsky/2011/09-13BUILD.aspx
Re:Let the bitching begin.... by HerculesMO · 2012-08-01 06:19 · Score: 5, Interesting

Too bad the only games that will follow onto the Linux steam platform are games you've already beaten 5 or 6 years ago on the PC.
Best of luck getting Valve to convince other dev studios to port games to Linux at a huge expense, when the audience simply isn't there. Linux on the desktop is dead. It's linux on the "device" that has a chance. I know why Valve is pushing towards Linux because the Windows 8 App store will eat their lunch, but realistically nothing is going to change. Windows 8 has gotten more idiot proof than usual, and that's what draws in people that don't already somehow have a PC.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 06:24 · Score: 4, Insightful

Before they had a monopoly. OEMs had no choice, neither did customers. You ran Windows, whether this year's version sucked or not. If you were an enterprise you had the option to get your new machines licensed with the non-sucking version but end users just sucked it up.
That is what is now in doubt. Will people just sigh and buy that PC with the Win8 turd on the drive anyway, because they still feel they have no other choice, or do they go ahead and move to a tablet. Cut total boxes shipped in half and the economies of scale come into question in a world where even flat sales is considered a disaster by the stock market. AMD will certainly be dead leaving Intel to carry the workstation CPU flag forward alone. Dell would survive but HP probably dies. Enough of the chop shops and builders leave and the flood of generic 'PC' motherboard and other parts start to dry up. That is the phones/tablets/consoles vs workstation future I worry about.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by man_of_mr_e · 2012-08-01 06:25 · Score: 4, Informative

The .NET libs have always passed through to the native code, At some point native code must be called in order to function.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by man_of_mr_e · 2012-08-01 06:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

First, Microsoft usually doesn't view much of anything as a total failure. Like many, they view their mistakes as market research. When they do something really wrong, they learn from it.
Bob may have been a failure, but they learned a lot from it, and it lead to other products like the (also abhorred but largely successful) MS Agent technology (aka clippy, fido, etc..)
Neither ME or Vista were failures per se. ME was never intended to be anything other than a stopgap. MS had intended to transition Windows 9x users to Windows 2000, but when that got pushed back to XP, MS had to come up with a stopgap for OEM's to provide new hardware support. It was held together with chewing gum and twine, to try and extend the life for just a few months more...
Vista, likewise, was not a failure either, in that it was never intended to be a success. It was a "hatchet man", that was put out in order to get ISV's and OEM's to follow the new security rules. It was also intended to be really annoying so that vendors would fix their software to be UAC friendly. MS knew Windows 7 would come along and replace it, and by then the issues would be solved both in vendors and software.
DOS 4 was just a huge steaming pile, though.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 07:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

I can see where Microsoft is coming from actually. Dell, HP, etc. add almost nothing anymore. They all just rebadge stuff made in the same Chinese factories Apple, the phone makers, etc. gets their stuff from. So why leave the profits currently going to Dell and friends on the table? Cut out the middleman AND gain agility to innovate. The downside of course that with that vast 'PC' ecosystem out there competing it ensures that one lame batch of designers can't kill off the PC as a platform. And Microsoft has never been known as a 'innovator' or even particularly creative. They ain't no Apple. Heck, they have never been known to even play at the level of a Sony or Samsung. They better get really good, really fast because they have pretty much declared open season on the OEM partners.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 07:19 · Score: 4, Informative

> I really wish Valve would do a general App store, beyond games...
You don't get it do you. Value does, which is why they are prepared to run a Hail Mary pass; their balls are in a vise and they know it.
Once the Microsoft Market takes over there is no place for a third party store. The App stores aren't about the improved customer experience. They aren't about security. The whole point of the App Store model is everyone saw Apple rake off thirty thick juicy points from each and every sale and Microsoft wants in. If they don't do it today, they will do it next version; only App Store purchased apps will run and any 'in app' purchases will be required to be fulfilled through the app store, exactly the same rules as Apple so no possibility of an Anti-Trust action cranking up.
Steam on WIndows will be as impotent as Amazon is on iProducts.
And yes Apple will also eventually pull the trigger on OS X apps being required to come from the App Store, and for the same reason. To them the question is "Do we want 30% of the sticker price on Adobe's Creative Suite and all those high priced plugins, fonts, etc?" And if you ask that question the only possible answer is pretty obvious, isn't it?

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by CohibaVancouver · 2012-08-01 07:30 · Score: 3, Informative

The IBM PC was the one strange thing in that you could install any OS on it.
My TRS-80 ran TRS-DOS, UltraDOS, DOSPlus, NewDOS/80, LDOS,..
Re:Let the bitching begin.... by mcgrew · 2012-08-01 07:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

Although I agree that W8 is a clusterfuck of epic proportions, a lot of what you say just doesn't hold water.
That is what has changed, before they were an unstoppable monopoly and now?
They're still an unstoppable monopoly; try buying a PC with a different OS.
I'm not convinced customers are going to be all that happy with what is about to be rammed down their thoat.
Their customers are OEMs and enterprises, not you or me. I'm not their customer, Acer is; I'm Acer's customer. Enterprise customers are likely to skip 8 like they did Vista, we'll see whether or not OEMs start shipping Linux desktops (I, for one, would be happy if they did).
All at a time when their monopoly is threatened like never before.
Their monopoly is in desktop operating systems and office software, where is the threat?
The desktop PC itself is being questioned for most users
For every home computer, there are ten in the workplace, the tablet may replace PCs in most homes, but I wouldn't bet too much money on it.
Office is threatened by Cloud apps
Pure marketing hype. "The cloud" is unlikely to gain traction among enterprise users, even very many home users.
"The post Microsoft future looks like" Mark Twain, who said "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". Mocrosoft isn't even in the doctor's office, let alone the grave. And if Microsoft went away, OEMs would just use Linux or Android or BSD. Computers aren't going away any time soon.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by jamstar7 · 2012-08-01 08:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

Windows 8 has gotten more idiot proof than usual, and that's what draws in people that don't already somehow have a PC.
Thing is, make something idiot proof, the universe evolves a better class of idiots.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by jbolden · 2012-08-01 09:41 · Score: 3, Interesting

Apple doesn't make much money from the App store, even on iOS where it is mandatory. The cost of the App store covers the cost Apple overseeing and supervising the apps. What it does do, is make customers feel comfortable installing anything. And that allows for direct comparisons which drive the cost of software way down, which makes the hardware more valuable.
Interestingly its seem to have had that impact on high end apps as well, driving the cost of Apple's software down about 80%. Logic is down from $1k to $200, Aperture from $500 to $80, etc..
Re:Let the bitching begin.... by hairyfeet · 2012-08-01 10:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

Dude look YOU know what this is and I know what this is...its a Hail Mary pass. MSFT is finally starting to realize that one we hit muilticore PCs went from being the needed to constantly upgrade of the MHz wars right past good enough and into insanely overpowered territory for a good 80-90% of the buying public. What is Joe Average User or Bill Businessman gonna use their PC for that needs more than a Phenom I quad or even a Core Duo? As a PC seller and repairman I can tell you the answer is "not a damned thing" as I have plenty of customers on those first gen Phenom triples and quads or Intel Duos and quads and other than adding more RAM or HDD space those units are insanely overpowered compared to the work they have.
So all those users aren't gonna be buying new PCs until those die which could take years Hell I've done upgraded them to Win 7 and I can easily see those units lasting until win 7 goes EOL in 2020 because frankly? They're not even being stressed, the users just can't feed these multicore monsters enough useful work to really heat the chips. Hell I'm seeing the same thing with laptops, the work people do when mobile is pretty much netbook territory, webmail, surfing, videos, a little light office work, so even the laptops aren't getting slammed and thus just not wearing out like they used to. Oh there will always be people buying PCs, the gamers, the content creators, those that kill their current unit, but there isn't gonna be the kind of growth that gives wall street a stiffie.
So Win 8 is a Hail Mary pass for MSFT, a way for them to take one more shot at the juicy tablet/smartphone brass ring. Will it work? Doubtful but at this point MSFT really has nothing to lose by trying it. If businesses and consumers balk unlike with Vista where all they had to offer was a creaky old XP with 32 bit limitations now they can just say "Fine take Windows 7" and not lose anything. After all its not like they don't already pretty much own desktops and laptops. But by trying it now, when many are just now looking at Win 7 they think they can get people used to the "Metro" UI and then they won't balk when they see a WinPhone or WinTab like they have with WinPhone 7.
Would I have done it that way? Nope I think its a dumb move, they should have spun off mobile and let them innovate without being tied to the legacy of Windows and Office. But frankly at this point MSFT really has nothing to lose, as the money they blow on win 8 if it flops is nothing compared to how they will be tied to X86 which honestly will probably stay at the current numbers with zero growth unless some "killer app" comes along that can actually strain these monsters and we're not seeing that, even in gaming anymore for the most part. So they might as well throw the Hail Mary and see if they can pick up some ground because the clock is running out and they are waaaay behind in the game.

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Re:Let the bitching begin.... by qubezz · 2012-08-01 20:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

Windows 8 has gotten more idiot proof than usual, and that's what draws in people that don't already somehow have a PC.
Thing is, make something idiot proof, the universe evolves a better class of idiots.
Idiots are so ingenious that they've written themselves an OS.

This can only mean one thing by l0ungeb0y · 2012-08-01 05:55 · Score: 5, Funny

Lotus wont run!
Nor much of anything else for that matter.

Brace yourselves by Rinikusu · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Funny

Everyone on slashdot is about to become a UI expert.

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Re:Brace yourselves by Sir_Sri · 2012-08-01 06:00 · Score: 5, Funny

After using windows 8 for an hour you'll at least know what not to do.
Re:Brace yourselves by gmuslera · 2012-08-01 06:02 · Score: 5, Funny

start using it?
Re:Brace yourselves by Ynot_82 · 2012-08-01 06:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

As if the UI is the worst thing about it...
Valve isn't lambasting windows 8, and porting all their games to Linux because of the UI
Re:Brace yourselves by slashmydots · 2012-08-01 06:07 · Score: 4, Informative

Well I actually am a UI designer (.NET even) and Metro is a crime against computing. Whoever invented it should be shot. No sub directories? The whole thing turns microscopic if you install too many things? Apps mixed in with what you're actually looking for? Ugh.
Re:Brace yourselves by zlives · 2012-08-01 06:15 · Score: 4, Funny

thats because you are viewing it in 2d only... its optimized for immersive 3d display technology on a 80 inch screen. just put on your 3d glasses and it will all make sense.
Re:Brace yourselves by CFBMoo1 · 2012-08-01 06:16 · Score: 3, Funny

"Everyone on slashdot is about to become a UI expert." I'll have you know sir that not only do I have 40 years of UI experience but also AOEs as well. So I'm more then qualified to talk about vowels. Now consonants on the other hand I'm always QQ'n about.

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Re:Brace yourselves by NatasRevol · 2012-08-01 06:34 · Score: 5, Funny

How? There's no Start button. 20 years of memory mapping, down the toilet.

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Re:Brace yourselves by JDG1980 · 2012-08-01 06:35 · Score: 3, Informative

Everyone on slashdot is about to become a UI expert.
As Bob Dylan put it, you don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Re:Brace yourselves by turkeyfeathers · 2012-08-01 06:35 · Score: 5, Funny

Apparently, what is hard is coming up with a sucky GUI... I hear it took Microsoft two years.
Re:Brace yourselves by ndege · 2012-08-01 07:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

Win 2008 can run headless. Here is now to do it.
The more interesting thing is that Microsoft now requires all server apps be able to run without a GUI. There was also a /. story about it.
BTW, nice 4 digit /. UID. :)

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Re:Brace yourselves by vux984 · 2012-08-01 08:11 · Score: 5, Informative

No sub directories? The whole thing turns microscopic if you install too many things?
Uh... no... it pages.
Apps mixed in with what you're actually looking for? Ugh.
Uh... no... search results are categorized.
I don't dispute that you are a UI designer, but I seriously question whether you've actually used Windows 8 yet.

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Informative

Says the account with exactly three posts, all posted today and all praising Windows 8.

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TERRIBLE! by bhlowe · 2012-08-01 05:59 · Score: 3, Informative

I installed it this morning on a second drive.. The installer forced me to enter an email, my name, zipcode, birthdate, and sex to complete the installation. Are you kidding me?! Welcome to 1984.

The start menu is gone as are control panels and anything that resembles Windows 7. I spent 2 minutes searching for the "restart" command and eventually just clicked the power button. UGH... Terrible.... DO NOT INSTALL OVER YOUR WINDOWS 7 UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING.

Re:TERRIBLE! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 3, Interesting

Ive been using the beta for a while now. Yes a few things are oddly placed - you no longer hit start to stop your computer for one.
The new start menu actually rocks - My start menu use to be a horrid mess where all I did was use the Windows 7 search feature - Which is now how I use Windows 8 - Hit the start thing type the name of what you want hit enter
Windows 8 is in many ways MUCH MORE keyboard driven and geek centric - I like it really !
Re:TERRIBLE! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 4, Informative

For the RC^HP it was optional, but not that obvious (like a cop and reading your rights). In RTM you MUST use an e-mail account to install the non-enterprise OSes. You can make it all up but you will regret it.
Re:TERRIBLE! by AmiMoJo · 2012-08-01 06:59 · Score: 3, Informative

You just failed the Windows 8 IQ test. You are not forced to enter those things as all, you just couldn't find the "skip" button.

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Re:TERRIBLE! by Missing.Matter · 2012-08-01 07:30 · Score: 3, Informative

I love how this gets modded +4 informative when it's completely factually wrong.

1) When you install Windows it asks for you to create a Microsoft Account (which asks for those items, none of which you are required to be valid), sign in with a Microsoft Account, or run as a local user. You can choose to be a local user, where you log in with a user name and password and aren't linked to any external services like mail or calendar.

2) The start menu is gone, so get used to that (although you can install a replacement that mimics it if you really want), but the old control panel is not, and the desktop including explorer is not. I don't know how you could possibly miss it.

3) As for restart, it's still in the most obvious places it used to be including when you log out, or on the crtl+alt+del screen. They did move it from the start screen (because how much sense does it make to press start to shut down?), but moved it to the settings (along with wifi, brightness, and other common options) which is accessible from any app, including the desktop.
Re:TERRIBLE! by squiggleslash · 2012-08-01 08:05 · Score: 3, Informative

I just moused over the Start button (sorry, the circle with a Windows logo in it) on my bog standard Windows 7 PC, and the tooltip "Start" came up.
So yeah, you still press Start to Stop your PC. Not that that's a problem, it's just amusing.

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Re:TERRIBLE! by camperdave · 2012-08-01 10:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

So yeah, you still press Start to Stop your PC.
What is people's beef with starting a shutdown process?

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They are ready to hit... by sinij · 2012-08-01 06:00 · Score: 4, Funny

MS is ready to hit START BUTTON with Win8 production.

I can't not wait. by tetrahedrassface · 2012-08-01 06:01 · Score: 3, Funny

I guess it's time to upgrade from Me... is that even possible? I like Me. I feel like a failure.

Re:I can't not wait. by tetrahedrassface · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 4, Funny

Yeah I like you... Is that bad?

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by zlives · 2012-08-01 06:02 · Score: 4, Funny

at first i was like.. shill? but then i was like... douche?

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by Moheeheeko · 2012-08-01 06:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

and posted at the exact same time as the artice, without the asterisk of "I saw this before you"

so... by slashmydots · 2012-08-01 06:04 · Score: 3, Funny

So, they removed metro?

An auspicious date by Bonker · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

Of course there are many, many factors leading to the downfall of Microsoft. We've been reading about them for years as the 800 Pound Gorilla from Redmond has been slowly breaking its bones under its own weight.

Most people will point to the fact that Microsoft's failures have ensured that more people are using Linux worldwide than ever before... in the form of Android smartphones. MS *could* have had that market, but they continued to present shit products in the face of (at least perceived) quality goods from Apple and Google.

We've also heard in the last few days and weeks about how serious Valve is about getting their products to be 'Native' for Linux. We're going to see more of that, especially as more and more game designers want to develop for smart-phones.

Going forward, Microsoft's plans for smartphone development look pretty dismal. They're not even supporting their own technologies or frameworks, like Silverlight.

Ultimately, however, I think that shipping an WindowsME-bad desktop OS while this massive paradigm shift is happening is going to have long-reaching and long-lasting effects. Unlike when WinME shipped, there are some pretty darn good alternatives for development on both phones and PCs right now. When Win8 starts flopping around like a hooked carp, it's not going to be just the developers looking for an exit. It's going to be gamers and home-users as well. This time that exit is pretty darn visible.

And today is the day that flopping carp was hooked.

Captcha: resisted. How oddly apropos...

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Killing the Start Button... by jdastrup · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Killing the Start Button is like building a house without a front door. Sure, I use the garage door 99% of the time. According to Microsoft, this is reason to get rid of the front door.

Re:Killing the Start Button... by i+kan+reed · 2012-08-01 06:49 · Score: 3, Funny

Nice try liar. Slashdot dates from 1997.

What matters is the kernel by MSRedfox · 2012-08-01 06:11 · Score: 4, Insightful

Everyone complains about the new Metro interface. I've been running Win8 preview for a while now and while I've adapted to the new interface, it does still bugs me. But complaining about it is like arguing about KDE vs Gnome; you can castrate the Metro interface to look like Win7 with 3rd party software. What really matters is the kernel. It may break some applications and for those people Win8 is a bad choice. But from my experience, the new kernel is runs better than Win7 (which is saying a lot given how much better 7 was than Vista). Several games I tested got a nice frame-per-second boost (or at least performed equally) under Win8 vs Win7. So for me it's worth it to upgrade but I suppose your mileage may vary and as benchmarks come out we can see more about how the kernel performs on different systems.

Re:What matters is the kernel by MSRedfox · 2012-08-01 06:48 · Score: 3

Okay, I concede the kernel isn't all that matters. The UI matters too; I just got tired of seeing non-stop posts complaining about the Metro interface while talks about the kernel changes seem to get glossed over.

Wait, what? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2012-08-01 06:12 · Score: 3, Funny

They've released Windows 8 Service Pack 2 already?

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by konaya · 2012-08-01 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative

It's not Windows hatred per se, although that certainly is a healthy attitude. It's just that everytime a Microsoft-related article pops up, a brand new user starts blindly praising whatever Microsoft's been doing this time around. It's getting old, Microsoft.

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by smittyoneeach · 2012-08-01 06:19 · Score: 5, Funny

And then Freddie Mercury came on and I was like. . .scaramouche?

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Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by nukenerd · 2012-08-01 06:20 · Score: 4, Interesting

It is downvoted because his post is almost certainly a plant by the /. management to wind us up and get us going. First post for a longish piece of writing, with good grammar and spelling, by someone with only three posts ever to his account? I don't believe it.

They should follow the Chrome and Firefox model by Yvan256 · 2012-08-01 06:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

Announcing Windows 15!

Or you can wait two weeks and upgrade directly to Windows 19!

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by BenLeeImp · 2012-08-01 06:27 · Score: 4, Interesting

You use a subscriber account to read the articles early, but use a different account to post shill. Just keep mashing F5 on the main page with your text ready in notepad. That way you avoid the karma hit and recognition as a shill poster. Just make a new one when it outlives its usefulness.

I'm not sure how it can be fixed off the top of my head. Maybe prevent new accounts from getting top post until they've made X other posts?

Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by nschubach · 2012-08-01 06:38 · Score: 3, Insightful

Severely limiting new/anonymous accounts in any way would benefit the majority of threads. I still don't understand how new/anonymous accounts can start threads.

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Do they have customers already? by X.25 · 2012-08-01 06:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

Before Windows 7 came out, almost everyone I knew (that ran Windows) was *genuinely* excited about it and was planning to upgrade to it. And they did.

I don't know a single person that even considers Windows 8 (either as a desktop OS, or a phone OS). Many people don't even realize it's going to be a desktop OS, they assume it is a smartphone/tablet only OS.

I can only wish Microsoft good luck, because I don't think they understand what they're doing.

Re:MS is out of touch unless it's with chairs by Mashiki · 2012-08-01 06:58 · Score: 3, Funny

Well, they could have named it "Fabulous." But maybe that would have been too much? I'll just roll along with the puns here.

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Om, nomnomnom...

Microsoft has a long future ahead of them by bbbaldie · 2012-08-01 06:58 · Score: 3, Insightful

Their future will resemble that of IBM, Novell, HP, Sears, and many other companies that were once #1 in their specialty. Still making money, still active in the market, occasionally coming up with something truly revolutionary.

But one thing's for damned certain: their days of dominance are over. OVER! YES!!!!!!!!!

Metro is a total pos by Endophage · 2012-08-01 10:15 · Score: 3, Informative

For those who don't have to write software Metro may seem nice. However, to those that do write software, if they haven't found out already they shortly will, Metro's sandboxing is just a total fuck up. Metro apps can't communicate with non-Metro apps. It's even difficult for them to communicate with other metro apps. Hell, it's even difficult for them to just access files on the hard disk. Want a nice Metro app to browser your downloads? No Sorry, you can't have that, your Downloads folder is off limits to Metro. I've seen some developers that actually had to build a web server into their desktop service so that a Metro UI could communicate with it over a REST api rather than using traditional inter process communication.

To the point one or two people have made about Windows 7 menu search and Metro. Yes you can bring up Metro and start typing to find the application you want. However, it's much less distracting and easier on the eye to have a small menu, with colours that match the rest of your system, pop up over a small area of the screen, rather than Metro where the whole screen flashes and changes colour before you eyes and start to type your search causes the entire interface to change, then selecting your application drops you back out of Metro, more sudden screen changes.

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