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Microsoft Rolls Out Project Spartan With New Windows 10 Build

An anonymous reader writes: Today Microsoft released a new Technical Preview build for Windows 10. Its most notable addition is Microsoft's new browser: Project Spartan. In a brief post explaining the basics of the browser, the company says it includes their personal assistant software, Cortana, as well as "inking" support, which lets you write or type on the webpage you're viewing. But the biggest change, of course is the new rendering engine. The "suggestion box" page for Project Spartan is already filling up with idea from users, including one for Trident/EdgeHTML to be released as open source.

122 comments

  1. Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Approximately every other version of windows is shit. XP (good), Vista (shit), Win7 (good), Win8 (shit).

    Windows 10? No thanks, I'll wait for Windows 9, the good version they skipped.

    1. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agree with:
      Good: Win 95, 98 SE, XP, 7.
      Bad: Win 98, ME, Vista, 8

      Tick & Tock.

    2. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      See the thing is you forget how bad things were, after a while. Apparently, you also forget some versions of Windows, and I'm going to ignore the 3.x and prior line completely.

      In order we have the 32-bit transitional OS's, colloquially the Win9x line: Win 95, Win95 OSR2, Win 98, Win98 SE, WinME.

      These would be: Bad, Good, Passable, Good, Horrific. Hm, OK that kinda works, every second one is crap.

      We also have the 32+64 bit NT line of OS's: NT 3.1, NT3.5, NT3.51, NT4, Win2K, WinXP, Vista, Win7, Win8, (Win8.1???), Win10.

      In order I'd probably say that's: OK, Good, Meh, Good, Good, Good, Crap, Good, Crap, Good, (and so far at least looking) Good.

      You really have to fold the lines together to work it out, and I CBF double-checking all the release dates where they overlap (e.g. NT3.51 is the Win95 update to NT3.5, to add the new common controls and let Win9x apps run on NT machines). But I think we have: NT 3.1, NT3.5, Win 95, NT3.51, Win 95 OSR2, NT4, Win98, Win98 SE, Win2K, WinME, WinXP, Vista, Win7, Win8, (Win8.1???), Win10.

      OK, Good, Bad, Meh, Good, Good, Bad, Good, Good, Horrific, Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good, Good.

      In short, no obvious pattern.

    3. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Windows 10? No thanks, I'll wait for Windows 9, the good version they skipped.

      Who knows? Maybe they mean "spartan" in the sense of the opposite of "bloat".

      One can only hope.

    4. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not quite.

      Windows 1.x/2.x/3.x - shit
      Windows 9x/Me - shit
      Windows XP - shit
      Windows Vista/7 - good
      Windows 8 - good, with a shit start screen

      Windows NT 3.x - shit
      Windows NT 4.x - good
      Windows 2000 - good
      Windows Server 2003 - good
      Windows Server 2008 - good
      Windows Server 2012 - good

    5. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sadly, you'll be waiting a long time for the next 'good' one. not only did they skip the good windows 9, but windows 10 is supposedly going to be the last version of windows, everything from then on is just an update to 10 (ala osx i guess).. so no 'good' windows 11, either.

    6. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shit start screen? Start screen isn't even a problem (it's actually quite good) in win8... it's charms that suck.

    7. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Fully agree with that list actually.

    8. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by some+old+guy · · Score: 1

      You forgot NT 3.51, the first one that actually worked well (by destroying the original POSIX-compliant IP stack in the process, you will recall.)

      --
      Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
    9. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

      Windows 10? No thanks, I'll wait for Windows 9, the good version they skipped.

      I'm waiting for Windows 11. Most OSes only go up to 10, but Windows will go up to 11.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    10. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Approximately every other version of windows is shit. XP (good), Vista (shit), Win7 (good), Win8 (shit).

      Windows 10? No thanks, I'll wait for Windows 9, the good version they skipped.

      There will never be a 9. They are trying to distance themselves from the shitfest that was 8 so it got skipped.

      --
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    11. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Buchenskjoll · · Score: 2
      Maybe it's named after the apple tree:

      The 'Spartan' is an apple cultivar developed by Dr. R.C Palmer and introduced in 1936 from the Federal Agriculture Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia, now known as the Pacific Agri-food Research Centre - Summerland.[1] The 'Spartan' is notable for being the first new breed of apple produced from a formal scientific breeding program.[2] The apple was supposed to be a cross between two North American varieties, the 'McIntosh' and the 'Newtown Pippin', but recently, genetic analysis showed the 'Newtown Pippin' was not one of the parents and its identity remains a mystery. The 'Spartan' apple is considered a good all-purpose apple.[3] The apple is of medium size and has a bright-red blush, but can have background patches of greens and yellows.[4]

      --
      -- Make America hate again!
    12. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the main reason is that many many developers made the stupid mistake of matching "Windows 9" to detect Windows 95 and Windows 98. So a whole ton of software will break if they call it Windows 9 and of course the users will blame Windows and not the apps themselves as they "were working perfectly before".

    13. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Windows 8 start screen is only good on a touchscreen.

    14. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot Windows XP Professional x64 (NT 5.2). This throws everything off.

    15. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by hairyfeet · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      The NT line never went tick tock (until Ballmernator fucked it up by merging with consumer which was fucking full retard, like consumers and fortune 50 customers want the exact same thing) because business was where their bread was buttered. the good ones on the NT line were NT 4 (after SP4), 2K, XP (after SP2), 2K3/XP X64, Win 7.

      For those counting Win 10 in the good column? DO NOT COUNT YER CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH, so far in the past 3 months I've seen 2 good builds and two shit builds and there is still a LOT wrong with Win 10. 1.- Like Win 8 there are areas where it hides needed controls from the user, 2.- the icons look like Windows 2, for why that is important see any article on visual feedback, 3.- there are still too many things where you are given no clues WTF it is, just look up how many services they have running with vague as fuck names, that is a malware writers wet dream, 4.- The performance seems to be all over the place, with one release its doing better than Win 7, the next its grinding the piss out of the HDD, 5.- The appstore? Needs to DIAF, its full of half assed programs, outright scamware, and what programs it has in common with the Apple appstore is often triple the price.

      With Win 7 I heartily recommended my customers switch on launch, in fact I was doing Win 7 installs on launch day, but unless the Win 10 gets their collective shit together and irons out the serious issues? I'm gonna advise everybody to wait for at least SP1 or the 6 month mark and evaluate it then.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    16. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by cHiphead · · Score: 1

      You completely fucked it up.

      Windows 95: Shit
      Windows 95b: Good
      Windows 98: Shit
      Windows 98 SE: Good.
      Windows ME: Shit
      Windows 2k: Good
      Windows XP: Shit
      Windows XP SP2: Good
      Windows Vista: Shit
      Windows 7: Good
      Windows 8: Shit
      Windows 8.1: Good
      Windows 10: TBD, but it doesn't look good based on the pattern.

      As for your separate NT list, it's also nonsensical, as of XP, consumer OS = NT, so there is no need for a separate list. 2k3 has no business on the list, since server wise there is not a general pattern that is at all similar to the end user OS versions. Newer is generally always the better server version after initial kinks and patches, because the reliability of the security is of utmost importance.

      Windows NT 3.51
      Windows NT 4
      Windows 2000 Server
      Windows 2003 Server
      Windows 2008 Server
      Windows 2012 Server

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    17. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by cHiphead · · Score: 1

      People had to use it for it to count.

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    18. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nah, I'm pretty sure they mean it in the sense of "drowning babies for the advancement of fascism".

    19. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by flappinbooger · · Score: 1, Insightful

      People had to use it for it to count.

      People ARE using windows 8, in that they buy a machine with it on there already, discover it is crap, whine and complain, and then let it sit and rot and use their tablets instead.

      Those who DO buy windows 8 and use it are those 'power users' who put on 'classic start' or have a touch interface, and/or discover some way to use the windows 8 interface with a mouse/touchpad.

      --
      Flappinbooger isn't my real name
    20. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well if you *really* want it, Windows 9 is available in that alternate universe where Justin Timberlake never left NSYNC. But no fucking way am I going there to get it.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    21. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by flappinbooger · · Score: 1

      I see your point, and I like it.

      It is true that 8.1 is 'good' but it's a moot point, windows 8 has already ruined anything starting with 8.

      The user interface being set automatically to a touch interface on devices without any touchscreen is idiotic. The problem is the low tech users who still have trouble with basic things like how to start a program, what is a program, what is a web browser, how to plug in the mouse, how do I download the interwebs, all that.

      It's a moot point, everyone is moving to tablets and wifi. The only people who need or use anything more than a tablet are business people, businesses, and content creators. Everything else is going to cloud and content consumption. You no longer need a PC just to do email, texting, chat, and content consumption.

      Since desktop/laptop is being relegated to content creators and business, the level of competency is rising for the typical user of laptop/desktop. The only 'real' difference between 8 and 8.1 is making it easier to ditch the interface, and with a stronger user that is a moot point, 8 and 8.1 are both in the crap category, making win10 'good'.

      --
      Flappinbooger isn't my real name
    22. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah that's bullshit. That sort of thing is *specifically* what compatibility mode fixes.

    23. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by aliquis · · Score: 1

      I totally haven't modified them.

      I wrote them as I saw them both as a consumer line and an NT/server line.

      It wasn't my claim from the beginning. I didn't care whatever it worked out or not. I assumed it wouldn't but it worked much better than I had thought without trying.

      Win95 OSR2 wasn't there for me because I have no idea what it is.

      WinXP I didn't listed after Win2K because I considered it the consumer version of Win2K. I did put in Win2K3 which I considered a server version, something you ignored.

    24. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Consumerversion vs serverversion is also why I didn't blended Win 95 and Win 98 with NT versions.

      I consider them different products.

      But since Win9x was gone after ME I went with the NT line there.

      Pretty obvious I'd say. I don't know if Win2K or Win2K3 was supposed to be consumer Windowses?

    25. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by dave420 · · Score: 1

      And MS realised that requiring compatibility mode for all those pieces of software is a nightmare, and so chose the more sane route.

    26. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Millennium · · Score: 2

      Are you suggesting that Microsoft named its new browser after its R&D department?

    27. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by ralphsiegler · · Score: 1

      no way, if "good" means usable found 98 and XP very useful. I still fire up XP in vm for certain wares requried for job.

      win 95 - marginal
      win 98 - good
      win me - shit
      win xp - good
      vista - shit
      win 7 - good
      win 8 - shit and shills with their tongue in Gate's poop chute try to lie that only one config change needed to be like 7, no it's more like two dozen, screw it why bother

      win 2012 is shit, has win 8 UI and bad division of management functions

    28. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Cinder6 · · Score: 1

      If you're going to list service packs as separate releases of the OS, why only have WinXP SP2 and not all the others that came out, both for XP and other versions of Windows?

      --
      If you can't convince them, convict them.
    29. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows 9x crashed multiple times every single day and had zero security. All Windows 9x operating systems were complete and utter shit. I had to install and maintain thousands of those systems at the time and I'm glad those days are over.

      Windows XP was bloated, slow, incompatible shit when it came out. Windows 2000, despite not being marketed towards the end-user, made a far better consumer level OS.

      Windows Vista/7 was the first good consumer level Windows OS, introducing real security, a true multi-user environment, a prefetch that actually made a huge difference in performance and a compositing desktop.

      Windows 8 requires a single change: the installation of Classic Shell (or alternate start menu of choice), which fully resolves all issues. Windows 8 is more of an incremental improvement, being demonstrably better than its predecessor in almost every way, aside from the aforementioned and easily solvable issue of the start screen. If using Windows 8 on a touchscreen device, no change is needed.

      Windows Server 2012 is great with the new start screen and tiles. Being a server OS, it is rarely going to be accessed other than remotely via a command prompt, so the start screen is irrelevant in those cases. For the times when in physical proximity to the server, the start screen is useful because live tiles can display realtime server statistics at-a-glance.

      I think perhaps you are too young and/or too inexperienced to be qualified to judge the merits of these operating systems. Especially telling is the fact that you believe any of the 9x series were "good" (or at least better than any of the NT based OSes) and the fact that you resort to accusing people of being shills because you have no legitimate argument.

    30. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the only way for him to make the list conform to his delusion about the "every other" rule is if he cherry picks.

    31. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by ralphsiegler · · Score: 1

      My windows 98 did not crash multiple times every day. Perhaps you were doing it wrongly.

      No, mere classic shell change not enough to make windows 8 usable. Windows 8 was a fundamental change to a usable system that most agree is awful.

      Windows 2012 often needs to be accessed by UI do to very poor architecture on the part of Microsoft; I'm glad only need to watch and mock our windows certified engineers in their misery.

      Of course I am old have have vast experience on operating systems from the 1970s onward: the IBM mainframe OS, CDC Cyber NOS, Vax VMS, OS/2, Novell Netware, Unix(tm) and BSD and Linux.

      Yet certain releases of Micrsoft Windows family is the only OS's that I call rubbish. Strange isn't it.

      Someone like you only knows Microsoft's wares and so your opinions mean nothing next to someone who has done systems programming, system admin, architecture with everything from embedded to mainframe to supercomputer (both vector and massively clustered) computers

    32. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sound both clueless and biased.

      My windows 98 did not crash multiple times every day.

      Then you weren't using it for anything. It's not very much of a claim of stability when your system just sits idle.

      No, mere classic shell change not enough to make windows 8 usable.

      Explain how it isn't.

      Windows 2012 often needs to be accessed by UI do to very poor architecture on the part of Microsoft

      When precisely?

    33. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      The user interface being set automatically to a touch interface on devices without any touchscreen is idiotic.

      Even worse is the polluting of the server products with the same garbage. I don't need, nor want, live tiles on my domain controller. I can't "tap" things, or "bezel swipe" a "charm bar" on a damn VM.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    34. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Except for Windows 9x being the product name, and any actual version check API would return4.x.x instead.

      Aside from that little issue with your argument, I'm sure you're completely right!

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    35. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by flappinbooger · · Score: 1

      The user interface being set automatically to a touch interface on devices without any touchscreen is idiotic.

      Even worse is the polluting of the server products with the same garbage. I don't need, nor want, live tiles on my domain controller. I can't "tap" things, or "bezel swipe" a "charm bar" on a damn VM.

      hmmmm, is this server 2012R2 you are referring to?

      Does 'classic shell' run on it?

      --
      Flappinbooger isn't my real name
    36. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by segin · · Score: 1

      Except most code that checks the OS name does not do an API version check. You've already "verified" the OS release once by name, why verify it again by version?

      Even professional programmers are lazy.

    37. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The original Win 98 wasn't good. 98se was good.

    38. Re:Approx. every other version of Windows is shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The more professional, the lazier.

  2. Web developer headache? by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    I wonder how much headache this will create among web developers. Will Spartan implement things in a new unheard of way or will it actually try to achieve maximum compatibility?

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    1. Re:Web developer headache? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      What are you talking about?

      MS has not done that in awhile. Unless of course your version of it at work is a decade behind what is out now as usually the case it is with ultra conservative IT departments who laid off the intranet team in 2008 recession

    2. Re:Web developer headache? by bondsbw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I wonder how much headache this will create among web developers. Will Spartan implement things in a new unheard of way or will it actually try to achieve maximum compatibility?

      According to WinBeta, interoperability with other browsers is the goal of Spartan. Compatibility (for legacy/enterprise sites) is the goal of IE. IE's Trident engine will not be updated except for security fixes, and Spartan's Edge engine will move forward with modern standard, new features, and improved performance.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    3. Re:Web developer headache? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Have you made websites recently?

      I do not mean to sound critical about you personally? I wrote a kind of bad trollish review below. With that ouf of the way IE 11 is one of the most standard compliant browsers available. It does not support the most features but it supports those correctly. Webkit/blink is the worst. CSS 3 animations is like IE 6 you need hack after hack of -webkit to get it to work.

      Why is it we accept Google doing this yet bash IE 6 as the anti Christ when it did the same in 2001? Spartan is a better browser than IE 11 but Chrome and Mozilla accelerating in the last year faster than the project Spartan could catch. So in a sense it is about Chrome in 2012/2013 but with more standards compliant. It still is beta in a rewrite engine stage so I won't bruise MS too much more on this :-)

      After the new engine stabilizes they need to add quite a few features like interactive forms, pointer events, drawing primitives, stencil support in webgl, to catch up to the other browsers. However I do not know if the W3C standardized these yet.

      Since IE users NEVER EVER UPGRADE the last thing MS wants is to implement a changed feature later on and be stuck for the next 10 years where developers curse them for writing 2 versions of that standard after W3C changes the final spec. This is what happened with IE 6 besides the bugs. CSS 2.1 was very very new and changed final after IE 6 came out. firefox implemented it the other way causing 2 rifts as it was assumed users and corporations would upgrade to IE 7 FAST and quickly. We all know they never happened and kept the damn IE 6 until 2011.

    4. Re:Web developer headache? by Pieroxy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is that you need to upgrade your OS (and therefore need to pay) to get a good upgrade of your browser. No other browser vendor enforce this. THIS is why people are stuck with old versions of IE.

      AND IT SUCKS.

      (Was I yelling right there?)

    5. Re:Web developer headache? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1, Informative

      Unless you're stuck on a version of Windows which is over a decade old (XP and previous), this is simply not true. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for user of Windows 7 and up.

    6. Re:Web developer headache? by Pieroxy · · Score: 2

      You seem to forget Vista in there buddy. Also, this is the first time this is happening, so let's not get carried away.. I'll wait to see how all this rolls out.

    7. Re: Web developer headache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only real problem with IE (not just IE6) is activeX.

    8. Re:Web developer headache? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      No, that isn't why people are stuck on old versions of IE - I work for a major UK insurance broker, we have Windows 7 here and we run IE 11, however the major UK insurer (household name) that I deal with on the web side of things is also on Windows 7 but they use IE 8. Scary eh? When I build a new insurance website, the only people I'm dealing with who have IE issues are these people.

      Most people are stuck on an old browser for reasons other than they are too cheap ass to pay for an OS upgrade.

    9. Re:Web developer headache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i just want the blink tag to work....

    10. Re:Web developer headache? by RoLi · · Score: 1

      Vista was released 2007 to consumers, right up to that point XP was the "latest and greatest" from Redmond.

      And of course Vista had it's problems, so maybe we should take 2009 (availability of Win7) as the point when XP got outdated.

    11. Re:Web developer headache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cost of the software is nothing compared to the efforts to rollout a new OS in an enterprise. Simply upgrading the browser is usually less of a pain compared to going from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for instance. Who knows, maybe MS will come to its senses and issue a version for Window 7/8 sometime in the future.

    12. Re:Web developer headache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly; it is old crappy applications that keep us stuck. We are on Windows 7 with IE 8. We tried for 18 months to roll out IE 10, but got stopped due to all of the damn old crappy internal web apps that nobody has budget to update. We got the EMIE mode for IE 11 and started deploying that. Gods, we have hundreds of sites that need to be in IE 8 mode in that file. Some even that need docMode=5 or docMode=7. We are at 25,000 out of 100,000 on IE 11 now - but have been deploying for a couple of months. It is slow going for sure. Some apps don't work even with the older modes applied to them - and when they are enterprise apps (used by a bunch of people) you sometimes have to take deployment delays. Fun times.

    13. Re:Web developer headache? by Shados · · Score: 1

      Even IE11 isn't terrible. We have a pretty large web development team at work for our product, and being a Unix/Mac shop, its annoying to test IE (need VMs, etc). I'm pretty much the only person who consistently test it, and its very very rare people break something, even though they're only testing on latest Firefox and Chrome. Even IE10 doesn't break that often. IE9 however....that horse was dead a long time ago.

      Now, result may vary, if you use a lot of 3d transforms and bleeding edge features, even Firefox and Chrome are totally different. But having to support IE10 makes sure none of that gets in, and it makes things easier (the irony...).

      Companies that target only evergreen browsers and have all these new toys available to them are in for a world of pain, when IE becomes the least of your worries...

    14. Re: Web developer headache? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what *is* the deal with airline food?

    15. Re:Web developer headache? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      I'm sure there are lots of people that would like to forget Vista.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    16. Re:Web developer headache? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      It sounds like they are the perfect candidate for the "Compatibility View List" GPO options available with IE 11 - you can define a list of URLs that should open in IE8 compatibility mode, where everything else runs on IE 11.

      It almost fixes bad web sites that are engineered to work with IE8 and nothing else... almost.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  3. Haha, Katerina will love this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just saying, storm's a comin...

  4. they should complete the naming scheme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and drop Microsoft for Marathon, their firewall Oni and their update system Halo.

  5. Keep calling it Spartan? by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 1

    This is madness.

    --
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    PRINT ""+-0
    1. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 2

      Someone (I think on reddit) pointed out that using the code name Spartan fits the "Halo" theme they've started with the "Cortana" search assistant.

    2. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Someone (I think on reddit) pointed out that using the code name Spartan fits the "Halo" theme they've started with the "Cortana" search assistant.

      It works for me, since the only reason I keep Windows around is gaming.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is madness.

      Some Slavs keep calling themselves "Macedonians"...

    4. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by blackraven14250 · · Score: 1

      The other thing I'd like to point out is that the majority of people who hear the code names (rather than the release names) are in tech circles. Windows has a reputation for bloat in said circles, so calling it "spartan" is likely an attempt to appeal to the tech crowd.

    5. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Someone (I think on reddit) pointed out that using the code name Spartan fits the "Halo" theme they've started with the "Cortana" search assistant.

      You needed someone on reddit to point that out?

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    6. Re:Keep calling it Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did, since I don't play crap games like Halo.

  6. WebM Support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Question for anyone who has tried it, does Project Spartan currently support Vorbis, Opus, VP8, VP9 and the WebM container format? VP8 and Opus are mandatory to implement in the WebRTC spec so hopefully Microsoft will at least conform to the spec for WebRTC, and bonus points awarded if they carry that codec support over to the video tag.

    1. Re:WebM Support? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      Question for anyone who has tried it, does Project Spartan currently support Vorbis, Opus, VP8, VP9 and the WebM container format? VP8 and Opus are mandatory to implement in the WebRTC spec so hopefully Microsoft will at least conform to the spec for WebRTC, and bonus points awarded if they carry that codec support over to the video tag.

      According to www.html5test.com no. Just AAC and MP3. ... however in Microsoft's defense it is not a W3C standard as they all agreed to implement mp3 and mpeg4

    2. Re:WebM Support? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From my quick testing, no.

  7. They should call the browser by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

    Ballmer

    __________
    Total ballmers

  8. Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only 3 years behind webkit now

    Only score 370 from HTML5test.com which places it about where Chrome 20 was in 2012.

    Just like IE years behind. Shame.

    Also the address bar isn't obvious and will confuse the heck out of Grandma and office drones. No arrow in the address bar to show frequent sites. Again phone will be ringing off the hook for it back.

    No thanks will ban this on the corporate desktop and put IE 11 for awhile when we switch to Windows 10 in the next 5 years until MS adds these features back.

    I am trying hard not to be trollish as IE has drastically improved by the POS it was last decade! However, the faster MS is on changing and being not bad the further webkit and even Mozilla plow ahead even faster.

    IE haters it is only beta so it might change and according to smashingmagazine.com the trident team mentioned 3,000 bugs were removed when they re created the whole engine into something new. So kudos Microsoft.

    But all this change freaks the hell out of business users and are parents still clinging to XP for life as the best OS and the last when that worked with things in the right spots etc

    1. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The difference in speeds between all the major browsers now is pretty much irrelevant from a user perspective. For the average user the browser isn't what is the slowest factor. IT is nice to see constant speed and efficiency improvements but we are well beyond where they are a selling point to users. html5 is also still very much in its infancy, HTML5 was only released as a standard late last year, Spartan seems to support about every part that anyone really uses at this point, pretty damn good for a beta.

    2. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except html5test isn't standards compliant itself.

    3. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by RoLi · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a Linux user I'm sometimes jealous of a browser that doesn't change every month.

      Recently, Google announced that they would support IIRC the latest two versions of Chrome and Firefox for their services. The only browser they support for longer than a year is ... (drumroll) ... IE.

      I was really getting my hopes up for the LTS version of Firefox, but they do everything they can to sabotage it (just try to find the LTS version on their website - it's impossible, you have to specifically search for it, they intentionally hid it and do not provide links to it).

      Recently Chrome on my Android tablet changed (it now reloads the site when you scroll to far up). Gosh - I'm really starting to hate Google. And I already hate Firefox for their chicken-brained release schedule. And on Linux there is not really an alternative.

      Somebody has to fork Firefox and offer a stable platform. The funny thing is that they would not really have to do a lot - just fork it and maintain it.

      Until about 2 years ago I was still using Firefox 2 (yes, two) and I didn't have any problems until Google decided to "drop support" (= intentionally break) Google Translate.

      Browsers were "good enough" 7 years ago. Firefox was great except for memory consumption and instability. Today, Firefox is adequate (no longer great, they messed up the UI too much for that) except for memory consumption and instability. So all the real issues of Firefox were ignored while we got "features" we don't need.

    4. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      It is frustrating.

      Here is a flip side? How would you like to write apps (assuming you are a developer) or shell scripts (if you are an admin) which are source compatible with Solaris 9, 10, 11, Linux (from 2006 - present), AIX, and same with c++? Talk about a nightmare!

      IE is an extreme in the other direction and holds back developers 10 years. IN the good old days of the 1990s we had rapid growth and skillsets. If your browser was a year old forget it!

      Then the pointed hair bosses started using it for mission critical apps written for IE 5.5 and IE 6. Then it became "Don't alienate customers! You wouldn't open a store and tell 1 out of 10 customers to leave would you! " So the changes on the web you see now are 10 years old from 1998 standards! IE 6 forced you to have an inferior web experience on Linux because PHB's said develop for everyone.

      So where do we draw the line?

    5. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a Linux user I'm sometimes jealous of a browser that doesn't change every month.

      I switched to Seamonkey back when FIrefox 4 came out, and have been quite pleased. I just need to manually update it since it doesn't have a very active maintainer, it is currently missing on most platforms. I'm not some technical luddite, but I like the standard style. I'm not using a eeePC so, I can have a navbar large enough to use, and actual menus. My only wish is that Firefox would support more of the HTML5 spec (except the DRM support. FUCK THAT!), and then port it down to Seamonkey.

      (Firefox could use some help with not eating all the system resources during a slow connection, but I'll probably get around to ghetto-patching that locally over the summer.)

    6. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is this like complaining that a program is a space hog, using, omg, 200 mb of disk space ?
      you know, with a 500 gig or Tb disk, that 200 mb per program really eats away at storage....NOT !!

    7. Re:Caught up to Chrome 20 from 2012 by blind+biker · · Score: 1

      Recently Chrome on my Android tablet changed (it now reloads the site when you scroll to far up). Gosh - I'm really starting to hate Google.

      "Changed"? You mean, you updated it, I guess? We have 5 Android devices in our family, and we all have control over which app we update and which we don't. E.g. the latest gmail for android is shit and buggy as hell, so I rolled back to the previous version, and did not update it on my phone. My wife doesn't update anything by default. So while there's good reason to hrl criticism at Google for their latest versions of their softwares, at least they give people the option to use the older, less sucky, versions.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  9. Spartan? by Skiron · · Score: 0

    My only thought is that of the trojan horse. Aptly named, I think.

    1. Re:Spartan? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

      Yes, it seems like they finally figured out that Rome is burning and no matter how large their army, nothing can save them now :-)

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      would you rather practice safe browsing habits utilizing Microsoft's new ''Trojan'' browser? it is ribbed for your pleasure, and has a nice tip, but it's full of holes...

    3. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but they thought of that. The actual filename is ThisIsTotallyNotATrojanHorse.exe

    4. Re:Spartan? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Why aptly named? The Spartans had nothing to do with the Trojan horse mythology, that was the Trojans and the Greeks.

    5. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why aptly named? The Spartans had nothing to do with the Trojan horse mythology, that was the Trojans and the Greeks.

      Spartans are (not was, because they still exist) Greeks, and the mythological -as in Homer's literature for example- cause of the Trojan War was the queen of Sparta, Helen, that was "abducted" by Trojans, so Greeks (Spartans and other) went to save her - the "Trojan Horse" was built by Greeks (so Spartans also - it was about their queen!).

    6. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Spartans had nothing to do with the Trojan horse mythology, that was the Trojans and the Greeks

      The Spartans were Greeks. Menelaus was the king of Sparta and Helen of Troy was his wife. The Spartans are central to the story of the Trojan War.

    7. Re:Spartan? by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Why aptly named? The Spartans had nothing to do with the Trojan horse mythology, that was the Trojans and the Greeks.

      Spartans are (not was, because they still exist) Greeks, and the mythological -as in Homer's literature for example- cause of the Trojan War was the queen of Sparta, Helen, that was "abducted" by Trojans, so Greeks (Spartans and other) went to save her - the "Trojan Horse" was built by Greeks (so Spartans also - it was about their queen!).

      That's all moot because this is named after Halo Spartans.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    8. Re:Spartan? by Buchenskjoll · · Score: 1

      You might be thinking of Spartacus. Spartans never set Rome on fire.

      --
      -- Make America hate again!
    9. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thou arst rekt

    10. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am Spartacus!

    11. Re:Spartan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why aptly named? The Spartans had nothing to do with the Trojan horse mythology, that was the Trojans and the Greeks.

      Spartans are (not was, because they still exist) Greeks, and the mythological -as in Homer's literature for example- cause of the Trojan War was the queen of Sparta, Helen, that was "abducted" by Trojans, so Greeks (Spartans and other) went to save her - the "Trojan Horse" was built by Greeks (so Spartans also - it was about their queen!).

      That's all moot because this is named after Halo Spartans.

      I did not answered the "[Spartan?] Why aptly named?" question; but... "Spartan" may indicate more (than just "Halo" stuff): "Laconic"?

  10. Complain, complain... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Im not fussy perfectionist. Ill try it and ill give it a good long chance. Long live the browser wars

  11. Now if only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only they could fix Windows Update already. It keeps offering me Intel Graphic updates yet it doesn't install it(not compatible with my tablet in any case so I'm thankful that it's not installing). Let me choose which update I want to install or hide forever damn it.

    1. Re:Now if only... by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      I still find Windows Update to be one of the most flaky components of Windows. There's a too high chance of updates failing to install, and the Windows Update dialog in Control Panel can be stuck displaying 0% while the backend is making progress just fine. Also they removed the "New updates are available" system tray icon, which I find disappointing. Also you have to keep automatic updates turned on so that the Windows Defender malware definitions are kept up to date.

    2. Re:Now if only... by sosume · · Score: 1

      > Windows Update dialog in Control Panel can be stuck

      Windows update has been in the new settings app since a few preview builds ago.

    3. Re:Now if only... by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Does it work properly?

    4. Re:Now if only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAHAHA... you're kidding, right? This is Microsoft we're talking about...

  12. Cortana by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mr Clippy, is that you?

  13. The war is over. by miffo.swe · · Score: 0

    Microsoft lost, unless they conform to standards. And considering how bad they have been at that i do not have high hopes for this trojan horse.

    What i find most interesting is how they are going to handle all the various in-house and backoffice applications that only works with older Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. Given the gun to their heads the developers of those wont code for a browser with non-existent user base but rather for Google Chrome/Firefox.

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
    1. Re:The war is over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Microsoft lost, unless they conform to standards."

      Or succeed in marketing.

  14. Like Chromium/Chrome - why can't MS do this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most people grab Chrome, just as people will D/L 'Spartan'.

    However, there is a pocket of users which use Chromium instead.

    I feel it's time MS offered something of the same. An alternative where people could more easily look for bugs and help in development.

  15. Re: Approx. every other version of Windows is shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You forgot NT which just got better from 3.1 to 4.0...

  16. Evil, EEEEEVIL!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Not quite sure what it is but since it involves Microsoft it must be EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!!!

  17. Not another new rendering "engine" by Viol8 · · Score: 2

    Just how many have their been over the years? Just how hard is it to render HTML?

    Or is it similar to the move away from skeuomorphism with GUIs - its just arrogant new teams trying to prove that they can do better than previous teams whose ideas are "past it"? I've seen this pointless reinventing the wheel so many times in my career it makes me despair. The amount of wasted manpower....

    1. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by dave420 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft has very specific requirements for its browsers - namely corporate use. Other browser manufacturers don't have this pressure. Rendering HTML is actually very difficult, and that's ignoring media, JavaScript, extensions, user profiles, bookmarks, system integration, and so on. Saying it's just HTML isn't really helping the discussion...

    2. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by Viol8 · · Score: 1

      "Rendering HTML is actually very difficult,"

      Rendering core HTML has been a solved problem since the 90s. HTML5 obviously adds complexities but other vendors have managed without a total rewrite. Perhaps MSs rendering library was rubbish to start with.

      "user profiles, bookmarks, system integration"

      Whats all that got to do with rendering?

    3. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by Shados · · Score: 4, Informative

      Rendering HTML in the 90s was easy. Rendering html today, is really, really fucking hard (there was stuff added between the 90s and HTML5 you know...)

      There's 2 big issues.

      First, there's just a lot. The CSS3 spec alone would take forever to implement from scratch. Well, no one finished yet.

      Second, the spec is full of holes. FULL of holes. So people just lean on each other to figure out what to do. If you implement the spec exactly as is, you could still make something totaly useless, because you're not handling the undocumented edge cases the same way Firefox or Chrome do.

      At this point, pretty much no one can realistically write a browser rendering engine from scratch. Even Spartan isn't from scratch. They're just getting rid of the parts of Trident that are holding them back, but very much keeping big chunks of it.

      If all of a sudden, all rendering engines and their memories were to spontaneously go poof, but all existing web pages still remained as well as the html5 and related specs, it would be a very, very long time before we could browse the existing web again.

    4. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      HTML 5 is too ambitious.

      What needs to happen is HTML 5.1, 5.2, etc.

      W3C is trying to work this way. Google and Apple have their own organization. Why I welcome some of this I think it is a nightmare to have pictures api, 2 primptives, etc. It is like they want a visual studio + macromedia shockwave experience.

      Just crazy for a web browser. It should focus on content and use special tools like codecs for particular jobs. WebGL should be doing the 2d primptives as an example right?

    5. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Microsoft has very specific requirements for its browsers - namely corporate use. Other browser manufacturers don't have this pressure.

      I'm afraid you got that backwards. MS imposed very strict requirements on corporate use because IE (and MS) gave the finger to standards compliance for a very long time. Now that they have a huge install base on a browser in a mess they created. Either IE breaks with backwards compatibility for standards compliance on the next version or they have to release a different browser (Spartan) and keep IE for legacy. Either way it's going to be painful.

      Rendering HTML is actually very difficult, and that's ignoring media, JavaScript, extensions, user profiles, bookmarks, system integration, and so on. Saying it's just HTML isn't really helping the discussion...

      Basic HTML is easy. HTML5 and extensions like scripting are harder; however, that's why other browsers have spent years working on these whereas MS has tried to stay entrenched on their browser and lock-in. They are just playing catchup now.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    6. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Just how hard is it to render HTML?

      Hard. If you don't render the page exactly like other browsers, and the web pages 'break' in your browser as a result, then no one will use your browser. The result is you need pixel-perfect rendering of a standard that was designed specifically to not allow pixel-perfect rendering. And of course, there are multiple HTML standards......

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:Not another new rendering "engine" by dave420 · · Score: 2

      Their current renderer (Trident) was first released in 1997. A re-write is not entirely uncalled for. The other things I mentioned are part of a browser, and suffer from the same issues of an old code-base which doesn't deal well with more modern approaches, and which make a re-write of the browser itself more necessary.

      Their product has been running various parts of code written in 1997. Them rewriting the browser entirely (which is what Spartan is - EdgeHTML is the engine) makes a lot of sense.

  18. Project Spartan by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Called Project Spartan because it comes with 300 security holes built in?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  19. Fonts are awful by PRMan · · Score: 1

    The browser is unusable to me because the fonts look like they came from a Linux machine in 2006. Firefox, OTOH looks gorgeous in the font department. It's a non-starter to me when I hate reading anything on it.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  20. still corrupts mp3s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe they will finally fix the TXXX id3 tag bug they have had in mp3s since 2009. Because they half assed the fix of total corruption. Just checked last night and still corrupts them. So if you use replaygain or picard do not let windows media player anywhere near your mp3s...

  21. Ideum, Idea by 0xG · · Score: 0

    The "suggestion box" page for Project Spartan is already filling up with idea from users

    One ideum. Two ideas.

    --
    A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
  22. Re: Approx. every other version of Windows is shit by aliquis · · Score: 1

    I didn't forgot NT.

    I wrote consumer versions first.

    I didn't wrote Windows 2k or 2k3 there either. So no NT product until there was no further win9x product after ME.

    I later wrote them separately as one consumer version and one server version where I put in NT 4. I never bothered checking what the versions was further back.

  23. That's encouraging. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I really want is standards compliance. If they do a good job of that, I will be a happy web developer and user.

  24. Browsers and Web Developers by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 2

    Users may or may not want stable software. Developers want to be able to use new CSS features. As for the Firefox developers, I'm not sure what their UI goals are, but presumably they have them. That's two strikes against stability.

    I suspect you have no idea how difficult it is to support older browsers, as a web developer. The development workflow usually goes like this: first, you code to the spec, and test in a browser that reproduces the specification well. Then you start trying to find out why it doesn't render correctly in Internet Explorer. For each incompatibility, you have to add a workaround. Then continue this process for as many old browser versions as your client has money for.

    It is not free to continue supporting old browsers. It's usually shockingly expensive, frustrating, and very limiting for the developer. If you don't like something about your browser, please become involved in its development — file a bug report if nothing else. Please do not use old, incompatible, insecure browsers.

    However, if you ever want to induce a mental meltdown in a web developer, tell them their new job is making sure all the sites are IE6 compatible. Even just saying "IE6" a few times can cause convulsions in susceptible developers. I'm not brave enough to try the same trick with earlier IE versions though: Cthulhu alone knows what kind of eldritch horror might be summoned.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  25. New Microsoft Slogan: by neminem · · Score: 1

    Give them nothing! But take from them... everything!

  26. Tonight . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    . . .we browse in HELL!