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Windows Blue: Microsoft's Plan To Release a New Version of Windows Every Year
MrSeb writes "Way back in August, three months before the release of Windows 8, we learned about the existence of a project at Microsoft codenamed Blue. At the time it wasn't clear whether this was Windows 9, or some kind of interim update/service pack for Windows 8. Now, if unnamed sources are to be believed, Windows Blue is both of those things: a major update to Windows 8, and also the beginning of a major shift that will result in a major release of Windows every 12 months — just like Apple's OS X. According to these insiders, Blue will roll out mid-2013, and will be very cheap — or possibly even free, to ensure that 'Windows Blue [is] the next OS that everyone installs.' Exact details are still rather vague, but at the very least Blue will make 'UI changes' to Windows 8. The sources also indicate that the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 SDKs will be merged or standardized, to further simplify the development of cross-platform apps. Perhaps more important, though, is the shift to a 12-month release cadence. Historically, Microsoft has released a major version of Windows every few years, with the intervening periods populated with stability- and security-oriented service packs. Now it seems that Microsoft wants to move to an OS X-like system, where new and exciting features will be added on an annual basis. In turn, Microsoft will drop the price of these releases — probably to around $25, just like OS X."
it is a good thing valve has a steam client for linux
Pin the command prompt to the taskbar, problem solved. You even get a shortcut for it: Win 1-9 activates taskbar buttons 1-9.
No it's not a good thing. Nobody needs an upgrade of his OS every 12 months (including the people who like it). Every upgrade is a hassle and potentially creates problems. The idea is crazy and doesn't make any business sense.
Apple upgrade their OS so often in order to make hardware appear to be outdated earlier than necessary, because they still make the majority of their money with hardware sales.
Not if you have an nVidia Optimus card.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
MS made this same announcement in '97 when they released win 98. The idea was similar to car model years, and the hope was that people would want to keep up appearances and buy a new model every year just like cars. This failed because of MS's inability to deliver on time, the OS was almost a year late in its release, so they abandoned that idea because it made them look bad. I wonder what will be different about it this time?
Sent from my ENIAC
I was trying to put Linux on my desktop computer, but it doesn't support the wireless USB dongle I use. This was last weekend. The same dongle works perfectly in Windows.
I was trying to put Linux on my work computer, but it doesn't support my three monitor, two video card display out of the box. This was about a month ago.
I love Linux, and it's fun to use on computers that have supported hardware (I love it on my ASUS netbook), but if you don't have supported hardware, it's still a nightmare.
I would guess they'll also reduce the support duration of versions to force people to upgrade.
Name another mainstream OS that has been fully supported for as long as Windows XP. Microsoft has been overly generous on their support of older operating systems.
Besides, at ~$25 for an OS update every year vs. ~$200 for an update every 3-4 years, I'd say that's a bargain.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
I have an nvidia optimus/k1000m on a shiny new thinkpad w530. The kernel-included nouveau and intel drivers work fine. Switching between these without restarting is even theoretically possible with vga_switcheroo (though it apparently doesn't entirely work on the w530 specifically). Using the "optimus" bit is also perfectly possible with bumblebee.
However, even with bumblebee, the drivers are included with the kernel, allowing you to fully use KMS, bootup logos, etc. For full 3D, you can even still rely on the builtin intel drivers and use the proprietary nvidia drivers with bumblebee (or not, if your system allows you to switch fully to discrete mode).
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
1. Brand new hardware will have Windows drivers. That doesn't mean it will be auto-detected and work out of the box. You may just have a PCI ID and are struggling to find what device it is and hunt down drivers online. I don't think I've had a single Windows install in the past 10+ years where all the hardware worked out of the box unless I slipstreamed the drivers myself. Conversely on Linux, new and old hardware alike usually just work out of the box.
2. A good chunk of wireless devices work out of the box with Linux, whereas I'm not sure I've once in my life had a wireless adapter work without a driver install on Windows. The primary reason certain wireless dongles don't work out of the box on Linux is that they need a proprietary binary blob that can't be legally included out of the box with most Linux distros.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Considering that XP is just barely three versions old, it's really not that generous. RHEL 3 and Solaris 9 are still supported as well, which have been around for about as long as XP.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
it is a good thing valve has a steam client for linux
steam was the easy part, now we need to wait till they port all games to linux but I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon
you paid for 64bit window 7 when you had 32bit?
You just needed to download a ISO and REUSE the key on the BOX.
The same can be said about Windows also, newer versions of Windows can't really run on older hardware.
How so? Windows 8 is no more resource-hungry than Windows 7 was and Windows 7 was less resource-hungry than Vista which was released over 5 years ago, which is around the time the first Android phones were released and you sure as hell can't run the latest version on those devices.
I've had really good luck with getting bugs taken care of when I open bug tickets.
I've done so for all kinds of OSS projects, big and small, including Wordpress and Drupal plugins that have a single developer. Most bugs I've filed were taken care of by someone who wasn't paid to fix the bug.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
End of production, not end of life.
Source: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
SMB market is being pushed to cloud services (Office 365). Microsoft has officially stated that there will no longer be a new SBS Server. Version 2011 was the last one.
Life is not for the lazy.
The real fun thing about the XP licensing now is that the OEM licenses coming with any new kit you buy with Windows 8 on it only allow you to downgrade to Vista.