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Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky Leaves Microsoft
CWmike writes with this excerpt from Computerworld: "Steven Sinofsky, the executive in charge of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system and the driving force behind the new OS, is leaving the company effective immediately, Microsoft announced late Monday. Sinofsky was also the public face for Windows 8 and its new Metro interface, posting constant updates in a Windows 8 blog that charted its development. His last post, fittingly, was entitled 'Updating Windows 8 for General Availability.' The OS was officially launched at the end of last month. According to the All Things D blog, there was growing tension between Sinofsky and other members of the Microsoft executive team, who didn't see him as enough of a team player. But Microsoft's official position is that the decision was a mutual one. Sinofsky had only good things to say about his former employer." Also at SlashCloud.
Ship.
chair hit you on the way out! Seriously, DUCK!
that the new interface in Windows 8 bombed at the box office....
the beginning of the end, indeed.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
The new OS gets released, his role complete, they all agree to move on. Team played enough to get it released, that's more of a team player than a lot of people I've worked with leaving mid-project. If he hasn't got any bad things to say about Microsoft, why is this news?
In a press release, Ballmer praised Steven’s work, but also talked about a need for “more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYBjVTMUQY0
... hired by Apple and Google, to completely destroy Windows 8 and any chance of entering the mobile market.
Or - at least that's a hilariously plausible conspiracy theory. I'm going to pretend to believe it.
I'd hope this was a personality or really an interpersonal thing and not a strategy choice. If Microsoft starts going squishy on Windows 8 i.e. Metro they will blow a crucial part of their strategy. I don't see how they pick a different OS strategy at this point than ubiquitous computing. Releasing another new paradigm in 2014-5 will be a complete yawn.
The 2012Q4 x86 midlevel hardware has been really exciting stuff, innovative. As the hardware manufacturers start one another's ideas 2013Q1 laptops and even desktops are going to feel a 6 years ahead of 2012Q1. That's an impressive accomplishment and I'd hope that Microsoft doesn't walk it back because other divisions are getting cold feet.
Wait, now the person responsible for the ribbon is calling the shots behind Windows?
...how once people get described as "a potential successor to Steve Ballmer" they mysteriously disappear...
Scott Forstall denied that he and Steven Sinofsky are forming a secret club with the aim of ".. getting back at all those people who just don't know any better and need to told how things should be done...".
It's rumored that the first meeting will be held in a tree-house in the back yard of Scott's mothers' house, and that "no girls or software company executives will be allowed", and pizza and soft drinks may be delivered.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Posting anonymously because... well...
Anyway, the guy had a Jobs complex. That sort of attitude may have worked in a "one trick" company like Apple (not trying to start a flame war on that, but Apple has a VERY stovepiped set of products as compared to Microsoft). All it did was piss people off in the other business groups at Microsoft, though.
Like many of the oustings at Microsoft over the last 4-5 years, this is a good one, and a positive sign for the company.
And lest there be any confusion on it -- at Microsoft, once you're Partner level, decisions to leave are always "mutual".
As an MS SQL developer, I thought I'd already seen the height of IDE inanity, but with Win8 they managed to make it ever worse, requiring even more clicks to perform even the most basic tasks, and frustrate users who simply want to 'get back' to where they started. It's good they fired the guy, Win8 may be different than Win7 (which does not totally suck, but it's still heavily MS'd), but I don't see it as an improvement, or an innovation, just... different. They way I see it, MS will continue down this point-click-click-click-click paradigm, forever making things more difficult and frustrating to do. They should be trying to SIMPLIFY their interface and experience, not 'Techify' it with junk that only makes the user work harder to do the same work. It's a wonder they don't get that.
wow, i was skeptical at first when i saw people claim posters like you were paid M$ shills but now I believe it!
Good post I agree. Though I think for business the XP -> Windows 7 migration continues for several more years. I see Windows 8 as mainly a transitional OS for developers for new Metro style software and hardware manufacturers to give them something to target.
1. It will ship on all new computers.
Does that mean we get the Start menu back?
I really hope you're trolling...
Windows 8 is going to be a buggy flop because MS OS's alternate between buggy innovative flops and boring stable usable systems. The upgrade path is clearly Win3.1 - > Win98/NT -> XP -> Win7 -> Win9 (which will be released in about a year in two versions: one for tablets with the Interface Formerly Known As Metro, one for desktop/laptop with the standard Windows interface)
This is known...
Business/App ideas are like arseholes: everyone's got one, they're mostly shit, but very rarely they contain a diamond
Very true. I'm planning on keeping a row of machines, whether virtual or physical, with XP, 7 and 8 running.
I know a lot of industries and scattered companies who have zero intention of upgrading. Their software works on XP, and they've bought both, so why upgrade at all? I'm hard-pressed to tell them they should fix what ain't broke.
It leads to a question of ownership: when we bought Windows, did we buy it "as is" without upgrades? Or buy into a stream of upgrades, possibly for a limited time? Or was it really a subscription for a number of years? If it isn't, maybe it is wholly legitimate for people to expect that Microsoft keep patching it for as long as people use it, which could be to 2042 and beyond.
With OpenGL gaining popularity windows is becoming more and more irrelevant, and I guess that's a good thing.
A few hours ago I downloaded Haiku-OS to give it a spin.
To give him some credit, he's much better than most of the other trolls. He comes over as plausible and legit - even has a /. journal, but all you gotta do is check his comment history to see he really lives under a bridge
3. They've gotten over the moron factor. Apple used to be able to claim its GUI was so simple a child could use it, in contrast to Windows which was "complicated" and Linux which was "hard." Windows 8 is braindead simple as a GUI and has let wizards take over many of the less intuitive tasks of computer maintenance.
It's hard for me to compete with a corporate PR department, but here I go...
Windows 8 is braindead simple? How? It's exactly the same as Windows 7, except they added a whole new interface in addition to the old one. In other words, it is nearly twice as complicated! Worse, the two environments are nearly blind to the other. "Metro" apps don't show up on the taskbar and desktop apps don't show up on the (hidden) Metro taskbar replacement. Magic things happen when you move your mouse to certain corners, and some items don't come up unless you know the secret gesture. It is an unholy mess. You want to talk "computer maintenance"? There are now two places to find all of the various settings. How that got through your meetings, I'll never know. So now tablet users sometimes have to use the finger-unfriendly desktop interface to set up certain things (and to do file management), while desktop users have to go into the Metro interface for certain settings.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
During Windows Vista and previous development, private beta testers (not internal to MS) were given a constant stream of new builds to test. Microsoft was very responsive and bugs were generally fixed very quickly. I know this will surprise people, but at least for me, Vista was quite bug-free at launch because all the ones I found during the beta were fixed.
Sinofsky took over for Windows 7, and the change in testing procedure was jarring. We got a total of two builds over the entire program -- Beta 1 and RC. The effects of this were that many bug reports weren't reproducible on their much newer internal builds, so the bugs either didn't get fixed or testers were wasting effort. When the RC was released, Microsoft actually deleted many old bug reports and told everyone not to submit anything that didn't result in a BSOD or failed install, which let a lot of glaring cosmetic bugs get through. I can only imagine this was so they could reduce their official bug counts at launch.
The botched Windows 7 testing lead to the weirdest thing I could imagine -- in the middle of the program, there was basically a revolt among the testers. So much so that some took to labeling themselves "proud" testers in their signatures to separate them from the frustrated majority.
For Windows 8 -- we all pretty much knew it was going to happen -- there was no external testing at all. I guess after Vista's performance issues and the poor handling of 7, it was pretty easy for them to decide testers weren't helping them.
So Ballmer is the Stalin of the software world?
Sorry to disagree on all counts.
1. The biggest problem with Windows was not that it did not unify desktop and mobile. This wasn't the biggest problem with any OS. It's a solution begging for a problem.
2. Users don't give two hoots about under the hood fixes. Loads of unwashed masses still using Windows XP will testify to that.
3. Spend a little time with Windows 8. I have a degree in Computer Programming and W8 is far from simple. W8 tablets are not winning rave reviews for simplicity, they are being well liked for power. Who needs multiple windows docked alongside on a tablet? Not grandpa.
4. Whatever the pricing model, there is going to be loads of crapware on cheap PC's
5. Security was better starting in W7. App store is a limitation on users and will be ignored by them.
Sinofsky had only good things to say about his former employer
When I was laid off years ago, in order to get my severance package, I had to sign an agreement to *not* say bad things about the company in the press. I imagine this guy had $Millions on the line if he does say anything disparaging. Hell, if the MS lawyers are any good, they made sure that any companies that he forms within N years have to use MS products exclusively. (or at least for the public facing computers)
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
That could be true. Then again, the difference between updates and upgrades can be squirrely. All Windows systems could be viewed as updates to the original NT 3.5, and priced correspondingly. This gives us several models:
1. As is.
2. Update path (maybe $35 an update, roughly equivalent to current prices)
3. Upgrade path.
4. Subscription.
Can't tell which would be sensible. A subscription would have to be $20/year for XP, which I think I ran for ten years after buying for something like $200 (memory is hazy here).
I really hope you're trolling...
Windows 8 is going to be a buggy flop because MS OS's alternate between buggy innovative flops and boring stable usable systems. The upgrade path is clearly Win3.1 - > Win98/NT -> XP -> Win7 -> Win9 (which will be released in about a year in two versions: one for tablets with the Interface Formerly Known As Metro, one for desktop/laptop with the standard Windows interface) This is known...
Rats, I went from 3.0->95->Me->Vista->8. I must be doing something wrong...
Thank you? Uh...
But then some other guy writes:
So, shills are trolls now, or trolls are shills?
I have to disagree here. While I'm not a big fan of mobile computing, it is massively important. Most people who do not need a command line are using mobile computing.
("Using" is a relative term. They are using it for Facebook, shopping, Googling, etc. I doubt they're using it in the sense of running MATLAB or Visual Studio on it.)
Apple is currently in a bind because it has two OSes to support: iOS and OS X. Whether or not the desktop PC is dead (I don't believe that hogwash), the desktop PC is being somewhat displaced by tablets and phones and other mobile computing devices.
The ability for a company to develop one app for both will be a large boon, as will the ability for people to move their software between mobile and stationary computing.
1) It doesn't really unify desktop and mobile under a single environment. It presents a platform with multiple personalities, with entirely distinct usage *and* programming models between the 'desktop' and 'mobile'. OSX did a better job of actually fairly claiming a single environment to cater to both with their full screen management that basically let normal OSX apps be managed in an appropriate fashion (though I hear they don't do so well at layout management on development side). To be fair, I've only toyed with OSX interface briefly in a store and am primarily a Linux user, but it seemed like a solid story. .net stuff in increasing degrees of being mandatory over the years, but this has no bearing on the relevance of WinXP or the need to run apps in a virtualized XP instance. That's partly out of complexity of compatibility mode invocation, in part because of lack of confidence that old apps will work, and crappy apps that hard-coded certain expectations (like expected version numbers) or, more frequently, IE6-specific behavior in HTML related portions. The applications I've seen that are truly hard to run on newer Windows are ones that came from Win9x-WinME days and don't run well even on XP.
2) That sentence doesn't even make sense. The win32 apis that have been available since the mid 90s continue to be available. They have bolted on all sorts of
3) I don't think this really factors in much at all. Windows for the last decade has been a staple of home desktop users everywhere. I don't think people were phased by the overall complexity of Windows as it was delivered/preloaded by their vendor. The biggest liability for MS platforms that Apple actively attacked was having so many participants in the ecosystem, some of them created pretty *horrid* experiences with their third-party drivers and software.
4. a) Really? Because their tablet prices suggests presumptions of parity with Apple, compared to the more budget minded Android devices, despite being behind both in terms of screen resolutions and application support. b) I'll believe that when I see it, unless you mean killing off their 'partner' vendors through first-party devices. There is nothing MS can do to make the vendors stop doing it. If they gave the OS away, they'd still take the revenue opportunity. Besides, other than early-adopter incentives, I see no evidence that MS is reducing pricing as a matter of strategy.
5) I think the App Store isn't going to factor heavily into this, but having anti-virus and the 'only-execute apps that have good reputation' I could see as aiding this. However, this hasn't been a problem for MS adoption in the past.
I wonder if this means that some others who left in the recent past, like J Allard or Ray Ozzie will be coming back. The rumors were that Sinofsky vigorously opposed their plans, and they left after Balmer decided to back Sinofsky's way rather than them.
My reps are contacting me and telling me CALs are going up a minimum of 50%. I know how this revolution is being fields, by shaking down enterprise customers.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Except those MacBooks which are gaining more and more market share..
--
microsoft is mad and fires guy who was in charge of it. Seems plausible.
I noticed the tag "Microsoft" on this article still uses the old logo with the italic font and the damaged "o".
Anyone got an idea how to update that to something like this:
http://i.s-microsoft.com/global/ImageStore/PublishingImages/logos/hp/logo-lg-1x.png
Take a look at the x86 hardware in the mid range that's come out. No. It is not known. Microsoft cannot allow the GDI style interface which is non scalable to hold them back anymore. I agree that Win 9 will be much more stable and consistent, Win 8 is clearly a transitional OS. But they aren't going back to Win32 desktops anymore than XP was a return to DOS, or Win98 a return to .pif files and non overlapping GUI elements.
Nevermind the inside and outside information and all the shills and the naysayers. We need to w8 a tad for the final outcome of success or failure for W8. From all accounts, Sinofsky was not laid off for 'the failure that was called Metro'. /. !] is the intention to unify all sorts of computing UI, from your watch through your toaster to your smartphone. And, as usual, Microsoft was about the last one to enter the station hall in this respect. Something needed to be done, and a marriage of convenience was enforced: the quite well-developed W7 interface had a nuptial with Metro, a test interface for touchy topics.
What we all can see, and agree [sorry. no , we are
And so both sit close to each other; not yet knowing much about the newly found partner. Therefore we need to be patient. If W8 becomes a success, UI-wise, Microsoft will swing to new heights. Because a single UI written once and run anywhere is a success by default. Screw all competition. Should, however, the market react with too much hesitation at acceptance levels, Microsoft will not only by Micro and soft, but also cooked.
It simply is a nice past-time to speculate wildly on the demise of Redmond's premier organisation; and I enjoy this speculation. In reality, we just have to w8. With some luck (or dismay; for others), we might have watched MS shooting itself not in the foot, but through its own heart.
I went from 3.11 -> 95 -> Me -> XP -> Vista -> Ubuntu -> Mint
Or maybe they're the rats on the "burning platform" described by another former Microsoft executive (http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/10/23/1658222/can-nokia-save-itself):
"When ex-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop took the reins of Nokia back in 2011, he memorably compared the Finnish phone-maker to a burning old platform in the North Sea. 'I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform,' he wrote in a widely circulated memo. 'And, we have more than one explosion -- we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fueling a blazing fire around us.'"
While true... that's Apple going from 4.8% of all the world's PCs to 5.2% in one year. And that's numerically -- Apple's pretty much killing off their high end and courting the folks who roll in on iOS's coattails. MacOS is only 15% of Apple's revenue, and falling... it can't remain that important to them and simultaneously take more resources than iOS. Something's got to give.
-Dave Haynie
I don't know of any troll-like or shill-like behavior of mine that I could point to.
What did you have in mind?
way to many non metro apps to go metro only
also with metro only then may have to let you side load under the laws the EU will not let MS have a locked in app store. Also big players like EA, steam , game fly, ect have there own apps stores.
also sand boxing can kill lot's of pro apps and they will move to Linux.
adobe CS for Linux will KIll apple and maybe MS as well.
Thanks for clearing the ignorance. Seems good UI design is a lost art, as it always was.
There are many unholy copycats around though. Nice to see them expose themselves.
Captcha: sickroom
...while desktop users have to go into the Metro interface and gesture wildly for certain settings.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
It's Uncle Fester who needs to go. Now!
I accidentally opened a metro app and had to google how to close it. There is no excuse for that. But other than that I've been fine with just ignoring the metro part and treating it like a win 7 machine.
Me, too. Metro still sneaks up on me from time to time. Like, the built-in PDF app. One day I'll install Adobe or something, but currently it still tricks me.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
http://image.bayimg.com/8e72f6d5ae4e44b4f2caab39e4e8d16bfff92b65.jpg
Everything is completely under control.
I'm sure that's enough to get screams of protest from people who dislike any kind of change.
For decades, the MS advocates were going on about how Linux was so difficult to learn, and how it is so much more productive to stay with something familiar.
But when MS throws a monkey wrench in their own OS, then the same MS advocates snort about people should not be afraid of change.
We've been hit hard by Microsoft killing off beloved tools like Silverlight and XNA. Developing for WinRT is MUCH harder than it needs to be. They've reverted back to the dame technological level as Silverlight 3 which means all that great WP7 code I wrote has to be vigorously re-hashed to make it work, let alone my Silverlight OOB apps. If they want the Microsoft App Store to catch up they need to return to developers, developers, developers. I just hope this means I can get Silverlight on my Surface now.
As we go into the big-money season when the dollars are harvested, they've left all their partners without compelling products for their customers to put under their tree. Again.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
It takes a mouse drag to the corner, wait... wait.., click settings, shutdown.
It's the little things like that which make me hate this fucking OS. If you remove metro, I actually like the changes to the other stuff. Wreaks of stupid decisions and poor planning.
He now is resorting to assassinations of all underlings. He has gone completely nuts and I for one am cheering. I am waiting for the interstellar patent troll death match between Microsoft and Apple. With any luck both companies will be destroyed.
Sinofsky, speaking about the primary customer complaint with Windows 8:
"I sat in the car, and had no idea where to put the keys," he said. "Then, I saw a big glowing button that said, 'Start.' That's all it took to figure it out."
"Let's call the old car, Car XP, and the new one Car 8," he said, smirking.
Uhhh, Sinofsky, nice analogy there, but you've got your cars mixed up. Car 8 is the one missing the big glowing button that says "Start".
I can tell you APK that since i have so many units coming through the shop i have tried Win 8 on just about every variant of desktop and laptop, the verdict? there is only ONE place where the touch centric UI actually works as well as the Win 7 UI, and that is on a 12 inch netbook. On a screen that small the decidedly low res textures of the apps looks fine, since its only a bobcat APU the fact that Win 8 is single program centric doesn't matter, and the hack that is "Hybrid boot" actually shaves a couple of seconds off boot time, but frankly its "Everything on the GPU!" design kills what little performance gains you see over Win 7 by keeping the GPU constantly blasting.
Now that Sinofsky has fallen on the sword trying to save his boss that leaves only one person for the board to blame and that is Ballmer. When you add up the fact that he blew TWO BILLION DOLLARS on win 8 advertising and gained ONLY 4 million is sales, that adds up to $500 for every $40 sale which is ironically the same results they got on WinPhone 7, and the fact that Acer and the rest of the OEMs have announced they are "delaying" (read canceling) the WinRT tablets, which was the whole damned reason MSFT pushed a touch centric UI abortion onto Win 8 in the first place?
Well its not hard to see the writing on the wall, i predict after a disastrous Xmas the OEMs will demand to get Win 7 licenses and Ballmer will be gone in less than 3, i also predict now that old Snickerdouche is gone they'll bring in the business team guys (which if the scuttlebutt is true its the same team that gave us the excellent win 7) and Ballmer will be relegated to the sidelines until he decides to "retire". as a final insult he will trot out lies about what a "hit" Win 8 was (just like how he counted WinXP "downgrades" as Vista sales) along with what a "success" his mobile plans were, and then MSFT will either bring up someone in house, most likely from the profitable business or server divisions, or possibly bring back Ozzie or Allchin to right the ship.
Oh and one final thing about what you call the "Win9X UI" which I've always called WIMP which i'm sure you know what it stands for, the simple fact is despite what the apologists say the WIMP metaphor is NOT OLD, it has simply had 30 years to be refined into the perfect design for a keyboard and mouse which guess what? that is over 97 fricking percent of Windows sales! Its not that "people hate change" which is another excuse that apologists use, its more like replacing a steering wheel with a pair of Caterpillar sticks and saying "Its new! You are a Luddite if you don't embrace the new hotness!" while ignoring that having caterpillar controls in a car IS A STUPID IDEA and is in every single way WORSE than what we had before!
In the end it simply shows old Snickerdouche and his boss Ballmer simply didn't understand or didn't give a fuck about what worked and sadly show no fucking clue about the most basics of UI design! To me you can provide no more perfect example of why Win 8 was a POS than the way metro does the left and right swipe. Now why is that bad, tablets do that right? Well how do you hold a tablet, like a book right? And what do you do with a book, turn the pages correct? Well since NOBODY holds their monitors in their laps, even on laptops this makes no fucking sense! The CORRECT way to design this would have been to have VERTICAL and not horizontal scrolling, as this is how one scrolls pages on a PC and thus would feel natural and smooth. just try doing the left and right swipe on a non touch laptop with a trackpad and feel how damned unnatural and annoying it is!
And I agree there were several good features in Win 8, though sadly there is just as many things designed to fragment the userbase (IE, DirectX exclusives for example) but its like someone giving you a sandwich that is 90% shit and 10% delicious ham...would you eat it? of course not, its covered in shit! And that in a nutshell is Win 8, its a few bits of delicious ham smothered in thick piles of feces.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Sinofsky built his reputation getting projects working and out the door on time. My understanding is the ORCA c*****rf**k was co-managed by Microsoft and an Un named consulting firm in a time frame of last 6 months. After ORCA beached itself, Ishmael and harpoon not needed) on November 6, could Sinofsky departure a week later be coincidence?
all else fails, ctrl+alt+del. Task Manager. Kill Task.
A tablet and a desktop are two entirely different beasts. Does it really take a genius to figure out that nobody wants a desktop that only shows one application at a time, forces users to hold their arms up for extended periods of time, and perpetually has finger prints all over the screen? It’s a good thing Microsoft didn’t decide to make vacuum cleaners to compete with Dyson. Otherwise the Windows 8 desktops might not have keyboards but instead just one switch that when flipped on causes it to hum and vibrate.
Microsoft fans keep saying that with WinRT you will get two things in one – a tablet and a laptop. Many even add “a professional laptop”. In their minds the only thing that differentiates a tablet from a professional laptop is a presence of a keyboard. This statement sounds pretty stupid to me. Nowadays professionals more and more tend to use a high-end laptop, most often a MacBook Pro, as both a desktop and a laptop. In my company, for example, this became a standard configuration. All new employees get a MacBook Pro, a large display, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The display and keyboard always stay on their desks and they have the freedom to take the laptop wherever they like and do their work in any place. Thanks to the power of MacBook Pro they are able to run multiple OSs in VMs and have an environment that satisfies all their professional needs. So how a WinRT tablet with 2Gb of RAM and 32 Gb of storage is going to replace a professional laptop? Maybe it will someday but presently it’s a bad mix.
Microsoft fans keep saying that with WinRT you will get two things in one – a tablet and a laptop. Many even add “a professional laptop”. In their minds the only thing that differentiates a tablet from a professional laptop is a keyboard. This statement sounds pretty stupid. Nowadays professionals more and more tend to use a high-end laptop, most often a MacBook Pro, as both a desktop and a laptop. In my company, for example, this became a standard configuration. All new employees get a MacBook Pro, a large display, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The display and keyboard always stay on their desks and they have the freedom to take the laptop wherever they like and do their work in any place. Thanks to the power of MacBook Pro they are able to run multiple OSs in VMs and have an environment that satisfies all their professional needs. So how a WinRT tablet with 2Gb of RAM and 32 Gb of storage is going to replace a professional laptop? Maybe it will some day in the far future but presently it’s a bad combination.
If you didnt know know how to close the metro apps, you probably dont know a lot of the new navigation workflow. I suspect you take some time to learn it. Its actually very good and fluid. There are some hiccups but I find most people just dont know how to use windows 8.
Microsoft fans keep saying that with WinRT you will get two things in one – a tablet and a laptop. Many even add “a professional laptop”. In their minds the only thing that differentiates a tablet from a professional laptop is a keyboard. This statement sounds pretty stupid. Nowadays professionals more and more tend to use a high-end laptop, most often a MacBook Pro, as both a desktop and a laptop. In my company, for example, this became a standard configuration. All new employees get a MacBook Pro, a large display, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. The display and keyboard always stay on their desks and they have the freedom to take the laptop wherever they like and do their work in any place. Thanks to the power of MacBook Pro they are able to run multiple OSs in VMs and have an environment that satisfies all their professional needs. So how a WinRT tablet with 2Gb of RAM and 32 Gb of storage is going to replace a professional laptop? Maybe it will some day in the far future but presently it’s a bad combination.
Hell put ME in charge of the damned company, i'll right it in 3 or all they'll pay is my room and board, I'd right that ship so damned fast they'd be asking if I was the new Steve Jobs.
And yes BEFORE in the early alpha builds (if you look around the net you can grab a copy to try it yourself) there was a simple .reg entry that allowed you to switch between metro and a bog standard Windows desktop, not the crippled "desktop mode" horseshit, but an actual honest to god Win 7 desktop minus the Aero gloss, and old Snickerdouche found out the .reg file was quickly being passed around so not only did he kill the reg entry, he even gutted the original desktop code so the ONLY thing you could get was that crippled half ass "desktop mode!
But most people don't know there IS a way to get an actual usable desktop in Win 8, in fact in Jan when I pick up my copy so I can learn how to deal with the Win 8 fuckups its the FIRST damned thing i'm gonna do to it! It costs $30 but its the best damned 430 you ever spent, its called AstonShell and it will give you the "look and feel" of damned near ANY WIMP UI that has ever been made, from Win9X-Win 7 on the MSFT side, hell even KDE or gnome or OSX if that melts your butter. They have a 30 day free trial so you can download the trial version of Win 8 and slap it on to see for yourself, but its a HELL of a lot nicer than that damned "LOL I Iz A Cellphone LOL" UI that is win 8.
In the end you're right though, you can't stick a damned marketing drone at the head of an engineering company, it just doesn't work. As I said with the bulldozer sticks what works great on one device does not automatically mean it'll work great on another completely unrelated device, and that is Win 8 in a nutshell, bolting a Caterpillar stick onto a car and calling you a Luddite when you point out it wasn't as good as what you had. I'm all for updating the WIMP UI but to make it better, not gut it. More visual feedback to the user for example, maybe even design keyboards with an actual knob like on digital audio workstations so the user could have actual tactical feedback when performing actions.
Finally office shows the same damned arrogance Snickerdouche showed during his reign, let the USER choose which is best! While I personally don't mind the ribbon (because i just killed the damned thing and made my own customization to the minibar to have what I use most in the same spot for muscle memory) I can see that with users that have never used office the ribbon is a lot more hand holding.,....that's nice for the NEW users, but what about those that have spent fricking decades giving their money to MSFT and have the muscle memory down cold? In the height of arrogance they fucked them over to give new users a simpler UI. If they would have simply allowed a simple switch, even buried in the options, that could be controlled by GPO so that old hats could have the classic UI while the newbies got the ribbon not a single thing would have been said.
But in the end that is why Ballmer has to go, its arrogance. To use a /. car analogy he sees Ferrari keeps selling so he slaps a ripoff of the Ferrari front end to a Ford along with a $100k price tag and is amazed, amazed i tell you, that nobody wants his $100k Ford. Apple is a completely different market, with users that wouldn't take MSFT anything on a bet, so by forcing Windows to be an ersatz iOS all he is doing is keeping his customers from buying his product while the Apple customers laugh at them as they buy their iPad. But instead of paying attention and listening to his customers he fragments the fuck out of his userbase for no damned good reason, IE, DX, burns customers with dumb moves like killing Windows messenger for Skype (You watch, numbers of users switching to yahoo or Google is gonna jump when that dumbshit happens) and is shocked that the stock tanks.
hell even their mobile division is savable, they have one of the most powerf
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Was it THIS in that .reg file? HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon & changing the SHELL line there?
The reason I ask, is that WILL WORK...
In fact, 1st real "pro money" I ever MADE was in college in the DOS + Win3.x days is why I noted it, since I used that line, & wrote a simple VB app (since VB3 could start Windows believe it or not) that took over that & asked for a password... lol, you didn't GET IT? It restarted the system!
The main admin left it on "my system" in the lab too, to test it... why?
He had a security program for DOS (IronClad) that worked like ROOTKITS do now, & it protected ALL of DOS from alteration, but... not once you started Windows (& its enhanced mode I would guess)...
So, after this tested SOLID enough?
We wrote IronClad after doing a bit of legal work first. Told them about it, got me PAID... while just a freshman too, lol, in my CSC degree work during my AAS time. All they had to do was PROTECT the SYSTEM.INI Config File in Win3x (that had the SHELL = line in it, analog to the reg entry above).
I'd imagine THAT is the line Sinofsky "nuked" but... you tell me!
I can't see HOW he could "nuke that" & still have the Aston shell run... after all - you COULD pull that entry, & "hardcode it" into Windows loader... that'd bushwhack changing shells, but... how would aston shell work then?
Just wondering! Thanks for the info. IF you have it... since I am curious myself & that made my bookmarks/favorites for FUTURE POSSIBLE REFERENCE (cuz I would pursue it as you do actually in the beginning while learning metro - thank goodness I don't have to though, not yet).
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Yea, I bet you could run the place better... & make BETTER decisions, because you actually SEE what normal folks are using, & what they like or don't like ( very important vs. "marketing research teams", who only put rubber stamps of approval on things those paying them WANT to GO THRU!)...
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Yup, you see things as I do, as do most folks I imagine based on results and I don't mean financial trickery like Mr. Ballmer counting VISTA downgrades as VISTA sales... wtf!
(Even the Forbes magazine calling Mr. Ballmer worst CEO as you told me, & under him, the "lost decade @ MSFT")...
Wrong guy to put at the wheel, is your best pal!
(Surprised here, that Mr. Gates did that, but... see my email - I have suspicions as to why... lol!).
ANOTHER CARDINAL RULES OF SALES: "The Customer is ALWAYS right" going along with my "You can't sell folks what they DO NOT WANT" too... you hit that 1st one on the head perfectly.
Man - I honestly DO FEEL that Mr. Baller & Mr. Sinofsky blew it on those 2 points more than anything...
I mean - Sure, do the research, get a new phone & tablet/netbook interface ready but... DO NOT PULL THE OPTION TO USE THE CLASSIC Win9x shell out of DESKTOP VERSIONS of Windows 8 !
(Which is what Sinofsky did... man's not that smart imo for that! His results will show it).
Ordinarily, since "King Billy" (whom you know I respect immensely & calling him that's NOT a 'ribbing' but a compliment from me actually) is VERY intelligent?
I found it SURPRISING he elected Mr. Ballmer to CEO...
The man's not "tech enough" to be leading devs, & yelling "developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS" doth NOT a developer, make!
I mean, ok - Sure: Giive your pal a job, one he can handle & DO WELL AT, not one he MAY NOT be able to do well in, & merely ride on the wave of success YOUR combination of TECH FIRST, businessman second, had created for him to "ride on" & out with - won't last, unless you keep doing GOOD STUFF FOLKS WANT, not what they do NOT want!
(& that IS Mr. Gates, to a tee techie first, businessman second imo - MS did great under him, history backs me).
Suppose that Sinofsky didn't actually like the display features of Win8, suppose he disliked "dumbing-down" the desktop interface to be more like a tablet? Suppose that it was Ballmer who ordered it be so?
Then Win8 comes out to poor/mixed reviews, and Ballmer is in a very difficult position. He knows that some shareholders want his head on a platter, but he wants to keep his job and line his pockets for a few more years. What to do?
To secure his own position, the most important thing that Ballmer needs to do is get rid of the evidence that the Win8 muck-up was Ballmers. So he buys off Sinofsky with a big payout - on the condition that he departs instantly. Speaking to Sinofsky, Ballmer plays hard-ball, telling him that he will make the guy's life a living hell if he stays. Sinofsky is smart enough to realise that Microsoft is a Dead Man Walking anyway, so takes the cash and runs.
But you know what? It doesn't matter *what* the real reason is. The important point is that Ballmer just fired the man who delivered his brand new "flagship" OS. What does that say for the Board's confidence in Win8 as a product? Is Ballmer insane? What he has just initiated or allowed to happen is the equivalent of telling all of Microsoft's investors and institutional customers that he has little to no faith in Windows8. The truth - in that case - doesn't matter. That's how the news will have been received.
Let's hope it just accelerates their eventual demise.
"He had softly and suddenly vanished away. For the Snark was a Balmer, you see"
So why would he want the stock price to fall.
In my company we are sticking with Windows 7. For anyone using Windows 8 I suggest reinstating the start menu with Start8 from Stardock (http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/) and ignoring the god awful Metro interface all together.
Personally, I think that Microsoft need to draw a line between their business users and their home users. The focus should be on creating a strong foundation of underlying technologies that are common across Microsoft products (kernel, file systems and so on) with a divergence between their consumer offerings (phone, tablet, Xbox and PC) and their business offerings (server, workstation, etc).
So would you say Sinofsky was defenestrated?
Didn't the same thing happen after Vista shipped?
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