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Windows Blue Is Officially Windows 8.1, Free For Existing Users
Several readers sent word that Microsoft has officially dubbed the upcoming revision to its flagship operating system "Windows 8.1," retiring the code-name "Windows Blue." They also said the update would be freely available to anybody with Windows 8. It will be available through the Windows Store. "Reller declined to provide an exact release date for Windows 8.1, but said that Microsoft is 'very sensitive to the timing of the holidays.' Ideally, Microsoft will be able to provide devices with Windows 8.1 pre-loaded in time for the holiday 2013 season, Reller said, but those who purchase a Windows 8 device later this year will be able to easily upgrade to 8.1."
So, then it is the unofficial return of the service packs.
As long as it's a closed development ecosystem where you have to pay to play, and MS gets to profit from your work, all I have to say is FUCK MICROSOFT. I'm sticking with my MBP.
Running Windows 8 at home has been an exercise in asking "How did that get though testing?" questions.
I have observed a number of bugs in the current Windows 8 that cause me to seriously doubt Microsoft's Quality control processes. My running favorite issue is how the Parental controls are exceptionally easy to bypass (just a mouse click at the right time and my son has unlimited time despite how the system is configured.. ) Come on Microsoft... Windows 8 was mostly a GUI adjustment to that metro aka touch screen interface... No real kernel changes from Windows 7.. You need to test a bit better kids.
Windows 8 was not properly tested prior to release, I'm guessing because they rushed it to market. Hopefully 8.1 won't be as rushed and they will actually TEST some of this stuff a bit better this time.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Showing something is better...
When I showed someone how to do it with win 8 they looked at me and said "how do I know I should do that?!"
They seemed to have forgot one of their early lessons with the 'start' button.
http://www.irintech.com/x1/co/3586/1347415399000
I'd still wait for Windows 8.11 for workgroups. Maybe they'll add a proper command line and support x forwarding natively.
I seriously can't know how people can be comfortable with the Win8 Start screen. Here's a picture of my Start menu in Win7. Everything is nicely pinned right there (no moving mouse around the screen), the search functionality works the same and there is direct access to things like Control Panel. It does not steal the attention with a full screen jumbled mess of harshly colored icons.
The lack of visual clues is appalling. My roommate has Win 8 and she asked me how she should change a setting. Well it was in the Control Panel but there is no apparent way to get to the Control Panel anymore. We had to look it up on the Internet. She had to find the one hot corner that showed her "Settings". There's no visual clue that's what she should do. It's also not a matter of getting used to change; there was no obvious clue that a specific corner shows you Settings.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If you want to consider how the engineers inside Microsoft think of the code base, I'd suggest considering how they internally number the versions. I think it's very insightful. The windows API has a self-identification function that returns the internal version numbering.
Windows NT 4.0 self-identified as NT4.0
Windows 2000 self-identified as NT5.0
Windows XP self-identified as NT5.1
Windows Vista self-identified as NT6.0
Windows 7 self-identified as NT6.1
Windows 8 self-identified as NT6.2
This is a boring sig
I seriously can't know how people can be comfortable with the Win7 Start screen. Here's a picture of my Program Manager in Win3.11. Everything is nicely pinned right there (no moving mouse around the screen), the search functionality works the same and there is direct access to things like Control Panel. It does not steal the attention with a full screen jumbled mess of harshly colored squares with uncolored icons.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
When your UI is so undiscoverable that people need to use search to get anything done, then you know you have a lousy UI.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
That's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is: if your UI is so discoverable that all you have to do is hit one key and then type whatever you're looking for and *boom* there it is, you know you have a great UI.
DOS was even better. You didn't even have to 'hit one key' before you could type the command you were looking for.
Back in the real world, if your GRAPHICAL User Interface requires you to type the name of a program to start it, it's a lousy UI.