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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.
Microsoft has every incentive to do this, and no disincentive.
Seriously, how many people are going to switch to Linux over this? Nobody.
Get used to it.
A lot of the stuff the article gripes about are what Google has been doing for ages with Android:
That doesn't make me feel better......
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Only that nobody want to use Bing or Hotmail. They both suck.
The only reason Windows gained market share in the 90s was because it went out of its way to not be a closed system. It's always sucked, it's just a matter of how little but that we still had control over our PCs than IBM and later Apple wanted us to have.
If Microsoft goes this route and enforces controls and advertising ala Google/Android styl Android will gain the lead as a desktop OS.
In short, the more Ballmer tightens his fist, the more users will slip through his fingers.
MS is the new IBM.
Apple is the new MS.
Google is the new Apple.
IBM is the new Google.
What goes around, comes around. Except for Dell and HP(/Compaq/DEC). They're just dead. (Agilent is the new HP)
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Ya, but at least you aren't paying extra for the privilege of being tracked like you do with a microsoft product. Its a trade off for 'free' services in google-land.. In the microsoft world you pay thru the nose AND get tracked.
Google is more upfront about it too.
( that said, neither is right.. but one is less bad about it )
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.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Unless they've already changed something since the first preview release, all you have to do is enter any old email address and password, MS account-linked or no. It'll fail, and then ask if you want to create a local account.
"Clever workaround"....*eyeroll*.
Even so, I've found Windows local search to be more trouble than it's worth anyway. the "perpetual green bar" kept getting in my way, so I just disabled Windows Search entirely. On the sad side, I can't use instant search in Outlook anymore. On the bright side, I replaced it with Everything. It legitimately searches everything, and does so instantly. I'd prefer doing that in Windows 8.1. If for no other reason, I haven't the foggiest idea why someone would want to simultaneously search the internet and a local drive for the same search string. They're foundationally different - internet search is for "stuff you don't have", and local search is for "stuff you have, but don't know where". I can't ever once think of a time I've wanted to search both at a time.
Serato really, REALLY needs to port itself to Linux.
So what if it is doing "what Google's Android has been doing for years"? I'm not using "Google Android" on my desktop, am I?
I don't pay $$ for Google. If Microsoft wants to make its products free, then OK, but until then this is abusive. They are trying to eat their cake and have it, too.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Who would you rather have spying on you, a company whose mission is to 'not be evil' or a company whose attitude is 'bend over and take it!"
Since they say that they will be showing advertisements on the desktop, does that mean that they will get rid of the Windows Home/Pro/Expert editions and just have a single Windows 8.1 which is free to download and install?
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
"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.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Apple does the same thing as Google, why the outrage when Microsoft is last to implement it?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
"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.
As long as they share data with the local government's spying organization everything will be fine.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
When did they not do that?
But the last time I did a local search on my PC's C:\ drive and didn't have ads all up in my shit, it just felt like something was missing.
I'm just glad Microsoft was listening.
I wanted a computer, not a registration of an account in one more "social" scheme.
I mean why I must register a Microsoft account to use a computer? I remember as we were told that it is "impossible to separate a browser from an OS".
Now it seems it becomes impossible to separate an OS and social network.
Google = Do No Harm.
Microsoft = Do Harm.
From what I've seen, the difference between the two is Google is better at PR.
#DeleteChrome
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.
Until it's an OS on par with Windows and OS X, there will be no mass migration to it.
Since Window 8 is now a tablet OS, Microsoft have already made Android an OS on par with Window.
And if you're going to have to run a tablet OS on your desktop, you might as well pick the one that's much more popular.
I thought Bing was just scraping Google results?
Nihil in publicum sputa.
no you dont, I have a htc sensation running happily *without* a google (gmail) account
In addition to a lot of other misfeatures like shoving Microsoft Accounts down your throat, Microsoft actually went out of their way with Windows RT 8.1 to lock out the jailbreak that allows you to run non-Metro applications on Windows RT 8.0. Windows RT is basically just Windows 8 ported to ARM, desktop and all, but Microsoft made Windows RT unable to run any non-Microsoft program in the desktop -- all third-party applications *must* be Metro applications on the Windows Store. I really think that Windows RT is Microsoft's testbed for what they envision as the future of all of Windows, both desktop and tablet.
The jailbreak made Windows RT able to run unsigned applications on the desktop. Some open-source applications have now been ported to the jailbroken Windows RT environment. That's pretty much all the jailbreak allowed you to do -- run some desktop-mode open-source programs on Windows RT. The jailbreak doesn't seem to facilitate Windows Store application piracy at all -- at least, I haven't heard of such hacks.
And yet, Microsoft went well out of their way to block it. They revoked the certificate used to sign all RT 8.0 applications. They changed the debugger policy on RT to not allow WriteProcessMemory. They rewrote considerable portions of the Windows RT-specific lockdown DLL, wldp.dll. They marked csrss.exe as a DRM-related "protected process", even though it has nothing to do with DRM. This latter change applies to x86 as well, even though the change was clearly designed to target the method by which the Windows RT 8.0 jailbreak worked.
I'm working on a new jailbreak for RT 8.1. I already have code executing in kernel mode in RT 8.1, so it's just a matter of putting everything together. I'm going to wait until the 8.1 final release before releasing the jailbreak, though, to make things more complicated for Microsoft to fix.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Of course an ivy league school full of the offspring of the rich/upper middle class is going to be chock full of Macs. Try going to average university where the students aren't loaded with money. Much fewer macintoshs there.
At this point, I'm only upgrading for the unified search (not for online, but so apps/files/settings show up in the same blasted window). But now I'm hesitant to even go that far. Am I missing any "please let us have your data" steps?
I've made a tidy sum for years helping people get their systems set up. About 10 to 15 pc's a week. They drop them off at my office new, and I install everything they need including office, which I often purchase for them, transferring accounting software, data, photos, and other freeware/open source aps, and paied for applications they provide me licenses to.
Windows 8 goes and fucks this all up. I can with windows 8 still bypass the stupid Microsoft account, but with the new office no dice. I either have to register my customers software under my account which to me is stealing their software, or ask them to set up an account (which to them is hard, that's why they came to me to begin with), so I have 3 copies of office 2013 home and business sitting on my desk that I'm stuck with now, because I won't install them on a customers computer. I install Libre office, and tell customers they have to purchase and install office themselves because of problems with licensing. I also tell them that I have installed a good free office software, and they might want to give it a try before buying office.
The thing about google is that there is co-BENEFIT to signing up with a google account. Google backs up my android settings, automatically backs up all my phone photos to G+, allows me to use google apps, a nice synchronized calendar, a place to buy applications or download free applications that are vetted to be virus free, and I can turn all of that off if I don't want to use it. With Microsoft I see almost no benefit whatsoever except for them.