Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft To Abandon Windows Phone?
symbolset writes "Microsoft has had some trouble as of late getting adoption of their mobile products. Even Bill Gates has said it was inadequate. Despite rave reviews of Windows Phone in the press it has failed to get double digit share of the smartphone market. Now comes reports from WMPoweruser that WP8 will lose mainstream support in July 2014."
Er, that likely means they'll be on WP9. How long will Google update Android 3.x or even 4.0?
Trololol samzenpuss, trololol.
Balmer certainly appears all-in on the WP8, as part of his "Microsoft integrated everywhere, on everything!" strategy (Win8/WP8/Surface/O365).
More likely, it's just part of the push to release everything quicker, more often, and more detriment to the consumer who must constantly re-purchase everything.
Ridiculous headline title. All this means is they're going to be moving onto the next version of the OS by then (WP9?). Speculating that they're going to leave the phone market entirely is a little far-fetched at present.
Yes, WP8 will be abandoned... for WP8.5 or WP9.
Microsoft is still dealing with the fact that their flagship products throughout the 1990's are almost universally associated with crashes, poor performance, and overhyped marketing. It bit them with the Zune, and now it's biting them with the phones. You know why XBox is so big? It doesn't have the word 'Windows' or 'Microsoft' in its name, and it had (still has?) its own business unit with its own management structure not tied to Windows.
On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.
The article said they would be updated the system to a new version and that the new version would be pushed to all windows phones. That system would get security updates for 18 months. It sounds like they just want people to upgrade to me.
This posting looks like FUD, if you read the article it says.
All window 8 phone devices will get new version of OS, which will have a 18 month support window.
The article doesn't say MS will bail on Windows phone, only that once they release a new WP release, they will eventually stop providing security updates for old ones. Not news.
No you deserve -42 for believing a /. headline about Microsoft.
The article says the following at the bottom, "On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system."
oh christ was my first thought to that....
I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft but I do feel for Nokia and the bus that their staff were thrown under.
I'd be kinda surprised if this is true though, Microsoft are known for flaunting failed products for years to save face. This would be another reason to add to the list for why metro sucks ... it's pretty sad that the whole windows ecosystem was imho designed from the mobile up rather than an extension of the desktop.
This sounds like FUD though and for once it's not coming out of Redmond.
The article discusses dates on which Microsoft will end support for its current product, which is designed to be superseded on (at least) an annual basis. It doesn't mean that Microsoft plans to get out of the phone business, or will delegate software development to Nokia or Google, etc.
Microsoft - Wrong Choice...
:-)
Actually, their problem was, that even though they had N770 and N810, they started working on Linux phone (N900) too late...
Being in Redmond, I would start worrying about the future...
Maybe, Office and Xbox have future, but Windows might be shaking - lot's of people are happy with Android, iOS, maybe there is something behind the corner, that will make it much less interesting for the people (Linux+Wine+ "some very well marketed GUI"
Article is about support for WP8 given that WP9 is coming out in a few months. And if you have a WP8 phone: "All current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system." Which is more than we can say for a substantial number of Android handsets, where the easiest way (besides rolling your own) to get the new version of Android is to buy the new phone as the vendor probably won't update the current handset.
No. RTFA
On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.
Microsoft doesn't give up that easy. Remember they were also late to this game, by a lot and that's a big reason for slow adoption. Enough people are happy with their Iphones and Androids and MS hasn't put forth anything to disrupt the market yet But one thing they have done is create a great environment for developers, with tons of tools and a marketplace that takes care of vendors. It appears they learned the from Linux, take care of the developers and they'll build more stuff. With more applications your platform will flourish.
I am certain MS is going to wait at least a year or two to see how the market does when the apps roll in. By then they may also come up with something that really compels people to switch. I know this isn't the site to talk about faith in MS, but there you have it.
The article clearly states that WP8 is going to be updated to the next version of WP. This would be like saying that Windows 7 RTM support is ending so Microsoft is abandoning all of its faithful Windows 7 users that are buying computers today with Windows 7 today. When in-fact Microsoft is really just saying that you need to be running the latest SP1 (service pack) that can be installed on any computer running Windows 7 RTM. Basically, install WP8.5 or WP9 (whatever it is called) and you'll be set.
/rant
FWIW, I rushed out and bought a HTC 8X on the day they came out and used it alongside my day-to-day smartphone and although I LOVED the OS, I hated the fact that there weren't enough apps and the whole Messenger/Skype/Lync/Facebook/SMS thing is a mess on the device at the moment. I would have kept the device and loved using it had it not been for how horrific the messaging experience is on the phone. For anyone who cares, the default "Messaging" app contains your text messages and facebook messages, but is 100% incompatible with Skype and Lync at the moment. It doesn't support Messenger anymore really either since that is technically on its way out. My opinion is that they need to somehow integrate Lync/Skype/Facebook/SMS on the platform to give an unrivaled communications experience. If they could also integrate voicemail, email, twitter, and phone calls all so they show up in that same place then that would be great. You should just be able to set your outbound communication preferences for a particular contact so that you can reply to them easily.
Back to the point. Please read the article.
it's just part of the push to release everything quicker, more often, and more detriment to the consumer who must constantly re-purchase everything.
I know Microsoft shafted their customers over windows Phone 7 [and earlier versions] sacrificing a 10% smartphone marketshare for 2%, but you can only do so for so long. That 2% they have now they can expect to drop [to nothing] if they continue to abuse its customer base.
All this means is they're going to be moving onto the next version of the OS by then (WP9?). Speculating that they're going to leave the phone market entirely is a little far-fetched at present.
Is that not just the same thing.
Yes, WP8 will be abandoned... for WP8.5 or WP9.
Yes, WP8 customerswill be abandoned... for WP8.5 or WP9.
Fixed it for you...they will call it Windows phone 8.8, which they will day is the same as 9 :)
The real world calls bullshit
Microsoft is still dealing with the fact that their flagship products throughout the 1990's are almost universally associated with crashes, poor performance, and overhyped marketing. It bit them with the Zune, and now it's biting them with the phones. You know why XBox is so big?
Except the reality is Windows Phone [was] is not very good, [125 REASONS NOT TO BUY A WINDOWS PHONE 7.5 http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44034%5D. The harsh truth is it was never a serious competitor which will hurt Microsoft in the future, as its potential customers continue to get burnt....it will end up like the Zune.
MS has made many, many promises with its WP platform. The short attention span of most forgets that few of those promises have been kept. Frankly, they are by far "The lair".
"If you want updates, buy Nexus." Is there a problem with that rule of thumb, other than that U.S. prepaid carriers tend not to carry Nexus phones?
On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.
That must bring a great deal of comfort to those Windows Phone 7.x devices that are denied future OS updates...Did they pinky promise.
But one thing they have done is create a great environment for developers, with tons of tools and a marketplace that takes care of vendors. It appears they learned the from Linux, take care of the developers and they'll build more stuff.
It makes me wonder how Microsoft plans to treat amateur game developers and startup studios on Xbox Durango.
With more applications your platform will flourish.
With more applications the Atari 2600 did not flourish. By sometime in 1983, there were so many me-too applications that retailers couldn't sell them all. That's part of why lockdown became the norm on some platforms: there was a perceived correlation between being able to clear organizational hurdles and quality of the end product.
Er did you just criticize iOS over Android for update availability?
For someone who professes to know of business models, you are pretty out of it.
Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.*
*For sufficiently loose definitions of "current".
#DeleteChrome
Slashdot is a Windows bashing site to the point of being ridiculous. It seems that Ars Technica is a little more even-handed when commenting on Operating Systems. It's good to weigh the pros and cons of all the operating systems without falling prey to the immature "Evil Microsoft" mentality that so many people have here. I like LockerGnome's opinion that an operating system's strength is often is weakness; dwell upon that one.
Not going to believe it until/unless they stop selling the phones (and w/o a new version being offered).
All said, Microsoft likely makes enough money from the Great Android Extortion, so even if they stopped distributing WP8 tomorrow morning, they'd still make money hand-over-fist.
(OTOH, how would you think Nokia would react if such a thing happened?)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Look, I know most of the folks frequenting /. are ardently anti-MS (Hence all the clever usage of a $ instead of the 'S'), but this is really an embarrassing attempt at click bait. It isn't in the realm of truth and feel sorry for the poster and the people jumping on board with it to fuel some frothing Anti-MS rage or resentment at some perceived slight. Slashdot is poorer this.
So many injustices..so little time..
They should of called it "winPhone" instead of Windows 8. That was like calling it Crap+1 instead of just Crap, because all the windows phones before 8 literally were pretty crappy. Doomed by association.
.
Here's what the article said: On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never [sic] version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system. [emphasis mine, misspelling is in the original article
So it could be freudian, and what the author was really thinking slipped through his typing fingers: it will neverhappen that newer OS upgrades will be provided to current windows-phone users.
.
There is sensationalistic journalism, and then there is blatantly misleading journalism. This is the latter.
Assuming /. wants to be taken seriously, someone's wrist should be slapped for this and/or the headline updated.
Exactly, they got the jump on the Desktop after pulling a few strings. And now you got these Mini-Console popping up to further cut into all the big boys profits; and have you noticed there is very little interest in the next-gen consoles? It's like Crickets out there. And their phones are not doing so well, latest numbers say 2%, that's hardly a dent. But there are a lot of apologists out there that will argue until their ears bleed that Microsoft is doing well, whatever.
And now with Linux in a usable state and the word catching on, Desktops not selling so much etc, their flagship product Windows is even in danger. I'm just going to say it: Microsoft's future is looking bleak. Not that it bothers me since there isn't a single Microsoft product in my house since last year, worst case, hardware development will slow down; so what, we can adapt to home-brew micro boards with AMD and Tegra offerings.
You could go on and on for pages, but what's the point. Everybody knows how the story ends.
While WP7 is different from WP8, WP8 is based on the common architecture of NT 6.2 which will be used as the basis of current and future Windows OSs. So while WP8 may have broken compatibility w/ 7, the same need not necessarily be true of WP 9 and beyond.
I do agree that Microsoft should have had a way to upgrade WP7 phones w/ WP8. Although I wonder to what extent the carriers or OEMs (like Nokia) might have to say about that. For the OEMs, such an ability would simply mean that new phones not be bought, while for the carriers, it could involve unlocking the phones (which in the US would mean that a carrier, having financed a phone, now has to eat the costs while that phone can be used to switch to a competitor).
...the year of Windows on the smartphone.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
mainstream support means support you don't pay extra for.
The market place and business models for applications in 1983 is quite a bit different from those of current smartphone apps.
More Apps = More companies believe there is a ROI on porting their apps to that platform. Supporting more platforms doesn't come for free.
Hardware issues are rarely a reason against upgrades. Whether or not the WP 8 will be upgradable or not won't depend on technical, but purely on marketing reasons.
re: it's pretty sad that the whole windows ecosystem was imho designed from the mobile up rather than an extension of the desktop.
.
And the sad thing with the latest iteration of the apple OS is that Mountain Lion has turned into an iOS-copy-fest rather than leaving in the features that make a desktop useful like scroll-bars that stay in place, and not having to fucking scroll in order to see the scroll bars in the first place. That is a serious fail, imho, and enough for me to tell my parents not to upgrade their 10.6 machines up. Me, I'm linux-debian-knoppix (with gnu in there, of course), so I could say it doesn't affect me. But I read of all of the fury with gnome's meanderings and the first round of KDE 4.0 screwing up all of the features that 3.x had already gotten right.
.
I played with older versions of knoppix with kde 3.x branches (I think it was a knoppix 5 distro) and I like how the desktop maintains state between shutdowns when you install it to hard drive. The new Knoppix 7.04 using LXDE does not maintain state between boot-ups. I put one of my mom's computers on Knoppix 5.something with KDE 3.something and she loves the fact that she can shut down with editor windows in a document and browser tabs open (not just hibernate or sleeeeeep) and actually reboot back into the work environment which she left open. It's fucking astounding when a desktop is done right.
.
Unfortunately, all of the key gnu/linux desktop guys (kde, gnome, lxde), ms windows, and apple are all walking down the wrong path by bringing the wrong
(a) tablet-touch and
(b) phone-os-metrofication and
(c) clean-look-ma-no-widgets-apple-without-scrollers-or-buttons and
(d) look-i-can-fuckup-ubuntu-like-the-big-os-boys mistakes.
.
And it can run 4.2, just not well. You see, there are no hardware acceleration drivers for that device released by its manufacturer. Its got absolutely nothing to do with Google, and everything to do with Motorola.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
They did? AFAIK they shut out Qt from the phones. Why? I don't know and I don't care. It just means that none of my apps will run on WP8 ever. Certainly not a big loss, but 'are great environment for developers' is something different.
Nokia won't be around, after all the patents/engineers will be at MS by then.
Waiting for an amusing sig.
Nokia alone is doing
35m for 2012
55m for 2013
85m for 2014
HTC did another 12m or so in 2012 and is expecting growth.
Carriers pushed through huge subsidies all during 2012 and Verizon continues to see Microsoft as key to their business strategy.
What sort of product doing 40% year-over-year growth, good reviews, moderate or better OEM support, so or better developer support, and a good fit for Microsoft strategy gets cancelled?
This article sounds like flamebait to me.
Even the article says that WP8.Next would have its own cycle......so a WP8.5 or WP9 would still get at least 18 months of support. The summary is just FUD. There was nothing in the article and nothing in their source saying that Microsoft was abandoning Windows Phone as a platform......just that the OS support has a time limit.
Other than the Xbox and that's had a rocky ride Microsoft's track record with hardware is miserable. They've been the mirror image of Apple. Apple has had a few products like Apple TV that haven't taken off but few actual flops. Microsoft keeps playing catch up making it incredibly hard when the market is already full. Last to the market with a music player and it flopped and now last to the market with a smart phone and shock of shocks it flopped. They would have been better off using their leg up with Xbox to try to beat Apple to market with a smart TV. If Apple does come out with a smart TV in the next 12 months what are the odds Microsoft will 3 years from now and what are the odds of it flopping? They have to stop chasing after the market and start leading. It doesn't matter how hard you work on the barn when the horse left three to five years ago.
their dekstop product, which had finally reached usable status, was thus destroyed with shitty metro ui and touch screen support for absolutely no reason.
the entire fucking company at this point from basement to attic is ready for the recycle bin.
Yes. Windows 8 is a Windows Vista. Like Windows 7, Windows 8's successor will just be a tweaked version of its predecessor, but sheeple will insist that the predecessor was worst evar and the successor is a ginormous improvement. Expect this alternating flop/success cycle, based on absurdly exaggerated perceptions and the bandwagon effect, to continue for quite some time.
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
You mean the Motorola that is owned by google?
It was a hundred times better than all this iPhoney-mentality crap (yes, I'm including Windows and Android in this mentality) we get shoved down our throats as the only marketable OS now. kthx.
if what you said was true, no one would be stuck on a win 7 phone....but there they are.
Redmond is the FUD factory
In fact they will provide updates as long as the phone is good. Their business model covers this. Apple and Microsoft's business model does not.
That right there is complete bullshit. If you knew a thing about how the Android market works you'd know that updates to Android phones are done entirely at the whim of the carrier. And the latest version of iOS 6 runs on iPhone 3GS, which was released four years ago and isn't even being produced anymore. So you aren't even right about Apple's business model either.
Get your shit together and join us in reality.
Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.*
*For sufficiently loose definitions of "current".
Current as in most phones released within 2-3 months of the Windows 9 release will probably be able to run it.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Yes. Windows 8 is a Windows Vista. Like Windows 7, Windows 8's successor will just be a tweaked version of its predecessor, but sheeple will insist that the predecessor was worst evar and the successor is a ginormous improvement.
The primary reason why people dislike Windows 8 is the forced exposure to Metro and the loss of the Start button. Unless Microsoft gives an option to get around this, Windows 9 will be just as disliked as Windows 8. Power users and business users aren't suddenly going to decide that a tablet interface on the desktop is a good idea.
Wow, I didn't think Slashdot could go lower but it just managed to do that.
Next headline: MS to abandon Windows, because Windows XP support Ends April 8, 2014?
Microsoft will make Windows Phone 9, in fact they even have people working on testing it.
http://msftkitchen.com/windows-phone-9-testing-begins-also-windows-9-gets-a-mention-from-microsoft
And Windows Phone 8 phones will be upgradeable.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416002,00.asp
And Windows Phone is growing marketshare:
http://wmpoweruser.com/italy-shows-their-windows-phone-strength-already-15-of-windows-phone-market/
http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-has-a-16-3-market-share-in-poland-one-of-the-highest-in-the-world/
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/analyst-windows-phone-sees-strong-growth-uk-and-italy/2013-01-23
http://www.wpcentral.com/long-queues-china-nokia-lumia-920-sells-out-two-hours [And yes, that's actually picture of people queuing for Windows Phone)
And yet we have this bullshit FUD summary, headline and article? No wonder Slashdot is losing readership fast, with barely a few comments for stories compared to earlier.
The partyline biased moderation, calling people with alternate viewpoints shills and chasing them away into karma hell can only last so long before the echo chamber gets tired of listening to itself and packs it up.
Reminds me of this story http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/02/16/2259257/draconian-drm-revealed-in-windows-7
Even the mainstream tech media noticed that. Interesting read: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/02/oh-the-humanity-windows-7s-draconian-drm/
I doubt any one would care now, with most people having written off Slashdot as the hiding place of anti-Microsoft trolls and zealots living in their alternate reality. Posters like bmo, symbolset, tuple666, Zero__Kelvin, LordLimeCat, Jeremiah Cornelius, UnknowingFool, rtfa-troll, binarylarry, MightyMartian, drinkypoo, pieroxy and a whole bunch of others have ruined Slashdot beyond repair and seem to suffer from this affliction: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1757253/linus-calls-microsoft-hatred-a-disease
This place was always anti-MS but reasonable and informative comments used to get modded up a few years ago, not anymore.There are enough things to bash Microsoft with, why make up lies and spread FUD?
Of course, the real blame is on moderators for modding up these kind of posts and marking others rebutting replies to them as troll and flamebait.
Last one out, switch off lights.
As near as I can divine, Microsoft is no longer going to ship service packs like they did with Vista and prior. Windows 7 is probably only getting service pack 1. Windows 8 basically is SP2. Windows 9 will be SP3. They are on an incremental release cycle, like Apple's OSX, and all those Windows 8 phones might possibly be running Windows Phone 10 by 2015.
Now, they will be nickel-and-diming you for the desktop OS ($40 CHEAP!), but it might not be the case with phones, especially subsidized phones on contract where all the licensing is handled by the carrier. Also something I'm keen to see, Microsoft does not have a great track record with delivering incremental upgrades that don't crater *recent* old hardware, so it'll be interesting to see if they change their ways in that respect.
But the headline and summary is just a FUD encounter of the fourth kind: FUDabduction.
Microsoft has already stated that they are moving towards a faster update cycle for all of their software products. All this means is that there will be no new OS updates for WP8.0 after July 2014. They will have 8.5 or 9.0 out before that date.
BTW, Google has the EXACT same upgrade/support cycle for each version of Android (18 months).
I expect more than this from the Slashdot editors!!! After all, they are supposed to at least understand the tech industry which includes software update/support cycles.....
can we wait to think a sec before we right a headline.
Microsoft has abused its locked-in public for far too long; failed to fix things which were important to users, forced "upgrades" onto business. They abused their monopoly power to everyone's annoyance... even the developers, developers, developers.
Is it any wonder why, when Microsoft decides to expand into a market they were too late for, that they couldn't draw any fans (because there are none) or developers or anyone? You can only buy so much, but you can't buy customers ... well you can to a degree, but you can't pay them enough to suffer through more Microsoft than they already have to.
I remember long ago.. Windows95... I was excited. Windows98. Still excited. They were good and popular because anyone could get it... piracy was part of their market share and part of their marketing plan. Once they had full control, the turned on "genuine advantage" and here we are.
Fool me once, Microsoft, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.
Part of the reason there's not much interest in next-gen consoles is because, frankly, they haven't come up with many good games yet for them. How many great games are out there for the Wii-U? Er... New Super Mario Bros. U and um... games that have been out for a while on the 360 and PS3? How many great games are out there for the 3DS? Other than remakes, there's Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D Land and Fire Emblem Awakening (which has, admittedly become my latest obsession and perhaps is worth getting a 3DS simply for that game). How many great PS4 games are people waiting for? There really aren't that many great games that have been announced for it.
But, this whole "MS is dying" thing keeps on getting repeated year after year and like before, it is wrong.
MS is not going to lose the desktop to Linux. If they were going to lose the desktop to Linux they would have lost it in 2007/2008 when a combination of a bad OS (Vista) and a new and confusing office suite (Office 2007) could have spelled bad news for MS. But they survived. How is 2013 different than 2007? The desktop market will remain firmly Microsoft's as long as WINE doesn't fully work and as long as proprietary, niche, software companies still release only on Windows (or Windows/OS-X).
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Wow, I didn't think Slashdot could go lower but it just managed to do that.
Next headline: MS to abandon Windows, because Windows XP support Ends April 8, 2014?
Microsoft will make Windows Phone 9, in fact they even have people working on testing it.
http://msftkitchen.com/windows-phone-9-testing-begins-also-windows-9-gets-a-mention-from-microsoft
And Windows Phone 8 phones will be upgradeable.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416002,00.asp
And Windows Phone is growing marketshare:
http://wmpoweruser.com/italy-shows-their-windows-phone-strength-already-15-of-windows-phone-market/
http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-has-a-16-3-market-share-in-poland-one-of-the-highest-in-the-world/
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/analyst-windows-phone-sees-strong-growth-uk-and-italy/2013-01-23
http://www.wpcentral.com/long-queues-china-nokia-lumia-920-sells-out-two-hours [And yes, that's actually picture of people queuing for Windows Phone)
Picking up some loyal users who seem to like it :
http://wmpoweruser.com/pcmag-readers-choice-awards-2013-windows-phone-wins-mobile-os-category/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/01/customer-satisfaction-of-windows-phone-on-the-rise-according-to-survey/
And winning some awards
http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-920-struts-its-stuff-and-takes-prestigious-innovative-handset-award-2013
http://wmpoweruser.com/nokia-lumia-920-wins-engadget-smartphone-of-2012-user-vote/
And yet we have this bullshit FUD summary, headline and article? No wonder Slashdot is losing readership fast, with barely a few comments for stories compared to earlier.
The partyline biased moderation, calling people with alternate viewpoints shills and chasing them away into karma hell can only last so long before the echo chamber gets tired of listening to itself and packs it up.
Reminds me of this story http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/02/16/2259257/draconian-drm-revealed-in-windows-7
Even the mainstream tech media noticed that. Interesting read: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/02/oh-the-humanity-windows-7s-draconian-drm/
I doubt any one would care now, with most people having written off Slashdot as the hiding place of anti-Microsoft trolls and zealots living in their alternate reality. Posters like bmo, symbolset, tuple666, Zero__Kelvin, LordLimeCat, Jeremiah Cornelius, UnknowingFool, rtfa-troll, binarylarry, MightyMartian, drinkypoo, pieroxy and a whole bunch of others have ruined Slashdot beyond repair and seem to suffer from this affliction: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1757253/linus-calls-microsoft-hatred-a-disease
It may be FUD, but Microsoft hasn't helped itself in garnering this sort of attention. They have a nasty habit of not telling you that a product isn't going to be dropped or deprecated, they just let it wither and die as some bean counter decides that a technology doesn't fit with whatever the strategy of the year is at the moment. Witness: XNA, Silverlight, Media Center, Zune, a whole bunch of DirectX stuff, Vista Ultimate Extras, any windows mobile OS before WMP7, etc...
I've been burned multiple times with MS dropping APIs or driver support without *any* notification. You have to go to the MSDN forums where everyone else is complaining to find out what's going on.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Looking forward to the release of next version...
No wonder Slashdot is losing readership fast, with barely a few comments for stories compared to earlier.
This is absurd. Slashdot's growing at an astounding rate in both the troll and fanboi demographics.
Um, isn't a share a percentage? So "getting out of a double digit share" would either mean dropping to a single digit (less than 10%) or taking the whole market ( 100%.) Surely MS didn't expect the latter...
At the same the Great Android Extortion may actually have been carefully thought of by non-Microsoft parties: Microsoft starting to think along your line "we're making a shitload of money anyway thanks to the Great Android Extortion" may be the best thing ever to have ever happened to Microsoft opponents.
Why? Because this amounts to paying MS so that it keeps a tiny insignificant mobile marketshare... With Microsoft's blessing! Which is great.
A lot of MS opponents just love it that there are now *billions* of devices out like smartphones and tablets on which there's not Internet Explorer, no MS Office and not a single .exe file whatsoever.
I'd go further: I'd offer MS even more money for each non-Windows device sold if they love it so much that it keeps them away.
They're fading into irrelevancy and us "ABMs" (Anything But Microsoft) are loving it.
I'll gladly buy an Android smartphone now that I know that I'm actually *paying* money to not have MS Office and not have Windows on it. It puts a smile on my face : )
The summary is wrong, but I don't think it's FUD. It's more like trolling to get the clicks of all the Microsoft bashers and haters.
Nokia won't be around, after all the patents/engineers will be at MS by then.
Nokia's patents may end up in M$'s pocket, but not the engineers
Most of the Nokia engineers I know are self-starters, and most of them can't stand Ballmer's manner
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You know, windows phone doesn't need articles in crappy tech blogs to inspire FUD.
Windows 8 is a market place dud. Like WebOS before it. No matter how much tech bloggers like you, if the market doesn't like you, pack it up. It would be one thing if they had a niche and made money. Problem is, they're not making money on windows phone. Microsoft cant afford to keep flushing cash away.
How many windows 8s can they afford? They're not a well oiled machine like Apple, nor are they like Amazon or Google and use other lines of business to keep themselves afloat while they try things in other markets.
The major problem Microsoft faces is that outside of enterprise, who *needs* Microsoft?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Exactly. I just saw a 30s Windows 8 phone ad on Hulu halfway through Glee, and seriouslyness doesn't get any seriously than that.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
People typically replace their phones every two years anyway, so it's really a non-issue.
/* No Comment */
MS seems to have lost touch with the consumers step by step and haven't really checked what the professional users want and don't want.
All this change of the user interface that has been appearing during the last few years has made it a challenge to use Windows and applications since the stuff you are looking for sometimes moves to another location or has a new name. In some cases you even need to go command line to locate the application you need, which has happened in Windows 8.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Err, ever heard of Android?
The rumour going around is that it's already had some success.
I think they squeezed some Linux in there somewhere.
Never happened. True story.
They aren't abandoning windows phone. If the story poster had read the story, he would of seen they are stopping support for windows phone 8 in 2014, but considering windows 9 will be coming out fairly soon, that is hardly a problem. Does this guy think that Microsoft has abandoned windows because they stopped support for XP?
Rocket Surgeon.
people who don't trust google and think apple is a piece of shit.
Don't trust Google, and still trust Microsoft?
HAHAHHHHHAAA!
Morons will buy WP8, in other words!
you sound almost as cynical and twisted as I am :D
For me the whole adware/spyware issue with Ubuntu put me over the edge and I switched to Mint w/ cinnamon but I really hated the idea of using Unity and still stuck to gnome.
I do think you are being a little harsh on mountain lion, yes it has some addition touch centric stuff but the majority of the uI hasn't changed. I just drop the addition icons out the dock on a fresh install.
I'm also still stuck on Win 7, I personally hate metro but I can half see it being useful on a mobile device. I'm just disturbed that MS is trying to force me to use something I'm not into. The truth though which they are trying to avoid is that, like the old windows media center - if you can turn it off, most people will.
Microsoft cant afford to keep flushing cash away.
How many windows 8s can they afford?
They've got plenty of money and can keep at it for quite a while. I'm not sure where you're getting your information from but Microsoft seems to be doing fine financially even if some areas are losing money. They're a pretty profitable and large company and can keep pushing out crap for a long time. It isn't that I approve of them, I'm just pointing out that they can.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Microsoft's main line of business is still software development (be it desktop software or tablet/mobile OS), so you still have some expectation of the products being properly supported. On the other side, the only thing you can expect from Google are new ways for them to gather more information, and present more targeted ads.
it's not totally fud.
for example, if you're a windows phone developer you just had a forced migration to windows 8 on your development kit.
if you bought a windows phone 7 device just few months ago(or today) what good is a 3 year warranty?
it would't be so bad if the api's weren't still incomplete tbh.
but it's ridiculous that a company like MS would stop support before the devices run out of warranty!!!!!!!!!!!!! they want to take back the enterprise? how about they stop fucking around with support like that. even if the support promise means _nothing_ in the first place so it doesn't actually matter that much.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Microsoft likely makes enough money from the Great Android Extortion
If Microsoft "makes enough money from the Great Android Extortion", how much money must Microsoft's competitors be making from android? Obviously enough to easily afford to pay off Microsoft for the Great Android Extortion.
How long do you think a company can last if it survives by lapping up the slops left over by its competitors?
what do you have against blackberries?... except maybe their prickly thorns
where do i sign up for your microsoft-bashing newsletter?
better the devil you know... or some shit
They have already made the kernal change, i wouldn't expect too many phones being left behind now.
Rocket Surgeon.
While that may be true that doesn't mean that they can't keep losing money. They can have non-profitable departments and keep it up for quite a while. Such is the nature of the beast I'm afraid. They are, of course, still profitable overall the last I checked and could even operate at a loss for quite a while I imagine. Microsoft isn't going away any time soon no matter how hard some folks wish for it or work towards it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
actually he probably just criticized iOS because it's a piece of shit
...they didn't have any idea that's exactly what MS was doing all of last year?
they were throwing around millions and spending millions on developer weeks, giving free phones and just outright free cash to established and new companies.
same with metro.
success rate per dollar: pretty shitty.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
a lot of people thought peter schiff was dumb in 2006-2007 because he kept telling everyone on CNN etc that the economy was going to shit itself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw
with regards to TFA and the OP, time will tell if he is really a dumb fuck... or you are
//On the other hand the OS support date is reset with any never version of the OS, so a Windows Phone 8.5 or 9 update in November 2013 would bring along its own 18 month of security updates. Microsoft has already promised all current Windows Phone 8 handsets will receive the next major version of the operating system.// - From the article. Why the title is so misleading?
Microsoft Corporation Data Mining Analyst, Senior - ADS
Online Advertising is one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet today, with $40 billion of a $600 billion advertising market already online. Microsoft is innovating rapidly to grow its share of this market by providing the advertising industry with a world-class online advertising platform and service. The Microsoft Ads Research & Development team is one of the most strategic and growing teams at Microsoft.
As part of a software company with powerful innovations and part media company with global properties, at Microsoft Ads we bring both our technical and creative side to the table. Through incisive analytics, we know who cares - both when and where. We understand how to get in front of the right people at the strongest point of influence. Above all, we love data and excel at interpreting it for our partners. Collecting valuable information from every campaign and mining it for insights
http://washington.jobs/bellevue-wa/data-mining-analyst-senior-ads-817244-job/32762254/job/
The typical support channel is through the carriers who, as most experienced customers know, replace the new phone they bought (often on the same day!) with a refurb or used phone if a problem is encountered.
I recall an experience I had with Sprint. Bought a brand new phone. It had some problem with its keypad. They went to replace this new phone with a refurb. I said "hey, wait a minute. I bought a NEW phone. Why am I walking out of here with a used one?!" "policy." "So like if you bought a new car, and within 15 minutes you noticed a problem, went back to the dealership and they gave you a used car, that would be OK with you?"
Sick of Microsoft. Sick of carrier games. Sick of the race to the bottoml offering as little as the market will accept for the highest possible price; charging for things which are free; requiring things which the users don't want or need.
Who are these jokers?! Well, I'm glad I'm not as alone as I thought I was. But I still have co-workers who agree with my rants about the carriers and recently, he just renewed his contract with Verizon for another two years for a shiny new Galaxy S3... just a week or two before the announcement of the S4. So he's stuck with expensive data plan, expensive "older model/close-out" phone for the next two years... literally spending twice as much as he should be.
There is no shortage of people who can't see beyond today.
It is always a good idea if the moron posting to /. information from another source, that said moron actually knows how to read before posting. The article referred says nothing of the kind.
Slashdot is getting sadder and sadder. Once it was a forum for geek stuff, then it became a forum for uneducated idiots who wants to become geeks, and now, apparently, article posters are not even required to have basic reeding and righting skills.
No, you don't, you need -1 for trolling and an additional -1 for the fact that you don't have basic reading skills.
As usual, the /. article says something completely different from what the quoted article actually says.
Typical /. we-hate-microsoft department.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1281731-microsoft-more-evidence-that-windows-phone-8-is-a-great-success
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
The interesting thing about software success. It isn't who is best that wins, or even who puts the most in marketing, or which system can do the most.
It is about getting the right product out at the right time and capturing the market.
Microsoft did it back in the 80's by making proving DOS to more than one manufacturer. Then holding on to compatibility allowed going to windows.
Today the phone market is new. While iOS is very strong. Android is gaining a lot of ground, and surpassed Apple in numbers. But not in development. But in time I see that changing.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Seriously? System Preferences > General > Show scroll bars > Always. Problem solved, and it's a hell of a lot easier than answering questions like why Application X won't install, or remembering the UI for two revisions back when explaining how to do something over the phone.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
where do i sign up for your microsoft-bashing newsletter?
Why? You have a /. account already.
Microsoft can afford to flush cash away as long as it takes so long as the Windows/Office monopoly is still going. One advantage Microsoft has is that they can keep trying, and keep making what for other firms would be disastrous mistakes, and keep on doing it until by luck they get it right.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
M$ did it to itself. When Ballmer and co decided it was OK to attempt to cripple the career of anyone who decided upon sound commercial decisions to use alternate open source operating system to be called religious zealots, communists in league with terrorists and organised criminals seeking to destroy companies and spread viruses. This M$ did in all seriousness spreading that attack against former and continuing customers in every venue M$ had access to, newspapers, magazines, radio, televisions, online and via lobbyists in government.
So you can forget the poor little M$ so victimised right there. They are a bunch of psychopath corporate fuckups who thought it was A OK to attempt to destroy people in order to continue the monopoly multi-billion profits, so when it comes to real people versus the psychopath corporation, FUCK M$.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Windows XP was supported 10 years or so. Windows Phone is supported 2 years. There is a difference.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
Yeah, but Microsoft is increasing the frequency of new versions. Similar to android, osx, and ios, having a new version every year instead of 5.
Rocket Surgeon.
They sound positively hysterical here this morning. Of course MS is going to jettison phones and Win8 phone. OF COURSE they are. This is how MS operates. Create a 'buzz' and when it doesn't dominate the world in a year they toss it in the trash.
I can always choose not to use Google, but where do I turn when my own computer OS is data-mining my privacy back to Redmond?
Linux.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
if you're a windows phone developer you just had an optional migration to windows 8 on your development kit
FTFY
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
The title on this article is TOTALLY misleading, as the source article said nothing about abandoning Windows Phone as a platform... just wrapping up mainstream support on their current mobile OS versions. /. editors are stooping to Fox News levels with this sort of bullshit. Sure this is /., but be accurate in your reporting, and don't start unfounded rumours based on BIAS.
But what about those of us that use Free Software(*) because we are religous zealots and communists in league with terrorsists and organised criminals? Will nobody think of us?
Oh well, off to spend another happy day destroying companies and spreading viruses.
((*) Open Source! Splitters!)
Watch this Heartland Institute video
So like if you bought a new car, and within 15 minutes you noticed a problem, went back to the dealership and they gave you a used car, that would be OK with you?
If you take your broken car back don't they fix it and give it back to you? I.E. don't they give you a used car? Maybe it was you that used it but it's still used.
I can see the problem if we're talking about underpants, but...
Watch this Heartland Institute video
If you are that worried about it, just quit using the Internet. If you aren't connected, no one can track you. If you use the Internet, something is tracking you (your ISP, your OS, your favorite web site, the ad networks).
Otherwise, accept the fact that you are being tracked and/or don't do anything you don't want tracked.
Microsoft can't make a cool product so it can't break into consumer electronics. Microsoft only succeeded in game consoles for making a product people want, but even then I find the Xbox360 about the uncoolest game console for design, Microsoft has the worst industrial designers in the history of industrial design.
I doubt they are dropping Microsoft Phone, but they need to tap into the vapid side of consumers and make something that is just cool and a "must have" device rather then focusing on the feature set. Hey, it works for Apple each and every time.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
You do realize that MSFT has paid dividends for a while, right? http://www.microsoft.com/investor/Stock/StockSplit/default.aspx
Also, Microsoft only gets the cash from the stock sale when it's originally issued. The fluctuation in price is from stockholder to stockholder and Microsoft doesn't get any of that money. So it isn't exactly a recurring stream of money.
In any case, "sold new but was broken from the get-go to be replaced with refubs" is bad.
I just can't imagine MS abandoning WP. It would not make sense. Not today, nor tomorrow.
From the consumers perspecitve, however, I fail to see how and why anyone would opt to buy a phone with a 12 month usable lifespan.
I got myself a Dell Streak 5" phone. It was running Android 2.2 and was eventually uppgraded to 2.3. Dell abandoned their Streak line of devices and had it not been for the open-source nature of Android I would have been out of options.
Windows Phone 7.x owners must be pretty unhappy inside; they got themselves devices that can not be updated to any meaningful extent. The same seems to be happening to WP8 owners.
Don't get me wrong; this strategy has worked well for the manufacturers for many years! Users buy new phones when the old ones become obsolete. In the smartphone-market, however, the cost for upgrading is high. If the user is forced to buy a new phone every year, the consumers will navigate towards cheaper low-end devices. And belive me: That is not what the manufacturers want! Nor do they want their customers turn to open-source alternatives when their devices no longer recieve new updates.
Actually, it is Google's problem for not setting stricter standards for those who adopt their android OS platform. Google doesn't really care though, because it is an advertising company wanting as much data as possible.
what are some differences in the last two or three updates to android, gingerbread to Jellybean?
One big new thing in Android 4.x compared to 2.2 and 2.3 is that the built-in SSL stack supports Server Name Indication, which lets you use SSL on sites that use shared hosting. Without SNI, your device can't see any certificate on port 443 of a given IP address other than that of the first site, instead giving a certificate mismatch error. This rules out putting hundreds of sites on a single IP like shared hosting providers do. For example, you get this error when you try to access https://pineight.com/ using Internet Explorer on Windows XP or Android Browser on Android 2.x because these browsers don't tell the SSL layer what hostname it's using when establishing a connection. Instead, you have to either fall back to HTTP, upgrade Windows or Android, or switch to Chrome or Firefox on Windows.
Who licensed it on terms that allowed the carriers to lock the phone?
AOSP is licensed by its contributors under the Apache License 2.0. If you're referring to Google Play Store licensing, which is separate from the free software license of Android proper, Google does require that all devices with Play Store support Android Debug Bridge (and thus allow sideloading through adb install), even if (I admit) not rooting.
I don't know - if the new ones are broken maybe you're better off with a refurb - presumably they tested it after refurbishing it. :-)
Anyway, have a nice day.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
I'm not talking about Google Play, and you know that, you douche. The question was: Who produce Android, and who licensed it on terms that allowed the carriers to lock the phone down?
The answer to both questions is... Google. The AOSP - founded by Google, managing the Android project, owned by Google. I didn't ask what their license was, I asked who licensed it on terms that allowed the carriers to rape the users.
The answer, again, is "Google." I know you're throwing up a lot of word salad hoping nobody will expect you to answer the question, but it's GOOGLE that is the accomplice here. Apple distributes updates independent of the carriers - why couldn't Google have negotiated for the same terms, if they cared so much about the user's experience?
Lol. You're so 2001 with your silly little obsession with hating Microsoft.
God, the stupid - it burns. This is like saying "Android Key Lime Pie on the way soon? did Jellybean flop that bad??". You are a fucking idiot.
Android is not Linux, it is an OS that uses the Linux kernel. You could make an OS that looked _exactly_ like Windows OS using the Linux kernel. Kernel Phone OS.
You stupid shit. Paying developers to port their apps is not buying market share.
I've heard they're also discontinuing support for Windows XP. wonder if that means MS is abandoning windows....
</sarcasm>
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Nokia are still "gauging demand"
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/02/28/Nokia-holds-off-on-QWERTY-phone-keyboards/UPI-98831362092469/
That's nice. We might be deploying Nokias if they actually just got off their ass and made some, but instead we'll continue to wait on Blackberry Q10 as the only other enterprise ready device with a physical keyboard, which is what our USERS want.
who obliterate the competition in a computing segment with "free" and then toss it in the trash.
It used to be that all Windows OS got 5 years of support. That was the case for Windows Phone 7. But that was not popular with the wireless carriers as their device warranties only lasted 18 months and did not want the hassle of updating their devices beyond that point.
Microsoft is making this change so that the OS support is consistent with the device warranty.
If you want to complain, complain to the carriers.
That was the case for WP as well, but carriers balked since their warranties were considerably shorter. This change is being made so that the OS support is consistent with the device warranties.
As much as I liked bashing MS before, nowadays it is like beating a dead horse.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
Like Ubuntu?
The linked article suggests pretty much every BUT the title of the thread.
Yes, because that's the only one. Apart from Red Hat, Fedora, openSUSE, Mint, Slackware, CentOS, Mandriva...
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Why not? They basically abandoned WP7. Anyone who took a chance with MS has no options to upgrade to WP8. Will MS do the same to WP8? When WP9 comes are WP8 users out of luck? Granted many other phone models do the same thing but MS is trying to gain market share. You would think that they would do what they could to get more consumer support.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
you guys are the only ones that really are thinking of the children
Hey look, it's xbox all over again. Microsoft can afford Windows 8's pretty much ad-infinitum. Outside the walls of slashdot, people love Exchange, they love Active Directory, they love SQL, they love Office, and they love Server 2012. They love xbox 360 and xbox live.
MS is in no trouble, and they have consistently shown that given time, they will get it right, or at least right enough to make money. The only thing WP8 currently lacks is some refinement, and time to grow. Telling them they should pack it up after 2 years is outright asinine.
"And the sad thing with the latest iteration of the apple OS is that Mountain Lion has turned into an iOS-copy-fest rather than leaving in the features that make a desktop useful like scroll-bars that stay in place"
How so? All my Unix programs are still here, my old post-PPC programs still work, the terminal is still present, etc etc. Sure, there's Launchpad, but that's for grannies and it can be safely ignored.
What's been removed? I haven't noticed Apple IOS-ifying any part of the OS here.
That's becuase wp7 was just a stop gap solution for win8. Now that they have ported the NT kernel, and the wp8 phones are fast enough to run it, they will get a fair few updates.
Rocket Surgeon.
even it there is a further cycle, still this is a typical case of "early withdrawal" so often practiced by MS under the enlightened command of Steve B. ..... so sad.
Abandoning potencially good products, being stubborn about wrong ones
Linux or BSD.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
There are a few of these.
If you sup with the devil, have a long spoon.
If you dance with the devil you will pay his fee. The devil doesn't fiddle for free.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Outside the walls of slashdot, people love Exchange, they love Active Directory, they love SQL, they love Office, and they love Server 2012.
You had me right up until the end, there. No one loves Server 2012 - it's Windows 8 Server. And if you wonder why, it's because our IPKVMs don't have touch screens, which ruins the experience.