The Black Underbelly of Windows 8.1 'Blue'

snydeq writes "Changes in Microsoft's forthcoming upgrade to Windows 8 reveal the dark underbelly of Microsoft's evolving agenda, one that finds pieces of Windows 8 inexplicably disappearing and a new feature that allows Microsoft to track your local searches cropping up, InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard reports. 'As Windows 8.1 Milestone Preview testers push and prod their way into the dark corners of Windows 8.1 "Blue," they're finding a bunch of things that go bump in the night. From new and likely unwelcome features, to nudges into the Microsoft data tracking sphere, to entire lopped-off pieces of Windows 8, it looks like Microsoft is changing Windows to further its own agenda.'" A lot of the stuff the article gripes about are what Google has been doing for ages with Android: requiring a Microsoft account, funneling users to their services first, tracking your system usage, etc.

Comments

Re:as noted, android does this

[Namarrgon]

Your're doing it wrong? Switching to Bing or Yahoo on my Nexus 10 works as expected for me.

Also, Android doesn't require a Google account - you're asked for one on initial startup, but there's a Skip button that bypasses it. If you go further, change a few key settings (such as search provider) and perhaps sideload one of the many non-Google app stores, your Android device can be used without Google ever seeing it.

windows 8.1 only for the USA

[aepervius]

"funneling users to their services first, "

Yeah that'll work well with anti trust issue in EU.

"tracking your system usage"

Yeah that'll work well with data protection issues in EU.

Re:Then windows is well and truly dead...

[binarylarry]

Classic Shell is better and doesn't cost anything: http://www.classicshell.net/

Android?

[Darinbob]

Is Google really doing this? I have an android phone and I do have an account, but it's not a Google account, it's my phone service provider's account. As far as I can tell I can download as many free apps as I want without any Google account (I have one though, just not attached to the phone). However with Windows 8 I can not download any free apps without a Microsoft account, in fact I can not even use some of their built in apps without an account! (ie, Mail requires one, even if Microsoft is not your mail provider)

On the other hand, because it's a phone, and a phone must have an account or at least a phone number, this is not as pernicious on a phone. If it was a tablet however then this is more intrusive I would think. On a PC though it's absolutely ridiculous to have account requirements and this is where it is patently obvious that there are ulterior motives behind this and it's not at all about user convenience.

Re:as noted, android does this

[5um0F1]

no you dont, I have a htc sensation running happily *without* a google (gmail) account

Re:Expect more of this.

[Aranykai]

My only problem with unity boiled down to the title/task bar arrangement. Permanent bar at top of screen that was not a task bar, but becomes title bar when window is maximized. Additionally, if you happened to like right hand close and mini/maxi buttons, now they have moved to the left. Also, you cant close a background window that is maximized without switching to it first, because the close buttons wont appear until you mouse over the title bar.

Just little nagging things that really frustrated me. Eventually I suppose there will be tweaks or options for these behaviors, but its jarring when your workflow is interrupted by being unable to close a background window without switching to it or having buttons move around on their own.

Re:Expect more of this.

[mcgrew]

The problem is Desktop Linux is a bigger change for many of them.

The switch from Wxp or W7 to KDE is less of a change than from XP to 7. The only downside to Linux is games and a few other specialty apps that have no Linux counterpart. KDE is far more like 7 or XP than 8 is.

Re:Expect more of this.

[MachineShedFred]

OSX is unquestionably one of the most productivity hostile systems ever created

You're going to have to back this up with some evidence, bro. You can't claim something that far out of popular opinion without backing it up.

Especially since I have data regarding marketing departments switching from Windows to OS X and realizing double-digit percentage gains in page count being produced with zero additional head count.