The acquisition wasn't complete until October of last year. Not even six months ago. I'm sure one of their motivations for spending $8.5 billion includes getting their stuff to work on Windows Phone before worrying about Linux.
If you give most people a choice between Linux vs Windows, they will choose Windows. If you give them a choice between Windows that wont run their apps, and Linux that wont run their apps but at least already has a large library of software, then they will Choose Linux.
Most people? That's pretty lofty. Care to cite your sources? Or are you just pulling shit out of your ass and sucking up fanboi karma?
I know, right? I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but hey, $0.99 is a steal. When I went to purchase the album, there was a clear indication on the page that downloads were delayed. I just left my Amazon Downloader going and it was still done in only a couple hours. Some people are just whiners.
Longhorn as it was called during its development scrapped some functionality during its development cycle. (It even got so much redefined that it was renamed from blackcomb to longhorn)
Not quite. Longhorn before the code reset in 2004 is now generally referred to internally as Longhorn Alpha. Thew new Windows Server 2003-based codebase was still known as Longhorn until the final name Vista was picked. Blackcomb was the original name for the post-Longhorn OS that would eventually become Windows 7. When the Vista name was picked for Longhorn, Blackcomb was re-named Vienna. However, once actual Windows 7 development began, it became known as Windows 7 internally and the name stuck for release.
I'm pretty sure that they've installed the Ultimate edition, which has everying including the kitchen sink. I would be more interested in seeing how a more reasonable SKU for a netbook (like one of the Home editions) performs. It may take up less HD space as well as have fewer services running.
Besides, I have no idea what criteria Windows uses to determine what my "likely" programs are, but if it's even remotely like the criteria it uses to display "Often Used" and "Rarely Used" in the Add/Remove Programs applet, I have zero faith in it whatsoever.
Here's good evidence that you don't know you're talking about. Win7 (and even Vista for that matter) doesn't display any data about how often it thinks you use a program.
Right, which I find annoying. As soon as I have my desktop up I want to open my usual host of applications, and I'm stuck waiting forever for them because the system is thrashing about trying to load a bunch of other crap Windows thinks I might possibly want to load at some unspecified point in the future.
Perhaps you should try installing Win7 and seeing what happens before drawing your conclusions. Based on your previous comment, you haven't even tried.
Finally, I'd like to say that features like the bat signal should be included in Windows 7, but disabled by default.
The problem there is that if it's in the box, it has to be tested. Any time there are UI changes, it has to be tested again just to make sure a change in another area didn't break that feature. That can get expensive. If it's not something they think many users will use (and by many, I mean it needs to be in the millions considering the size of the install base), they'll yank it so they can concentrate their efforts on other features that more people use often.
Sorry, but you're wrong. They keep turning International Roaming onto my account because I've been a customer with them for the last several years. I call in to get it turned off and at the next billing cycle, they just turn it on. They acted as if they couldn't do anything about it since it's automatic. Pretty annoying since I want mine off so I can't get into these types of situations. However, now I'm permanently stuck with International Roaming on TWO phones.
Another thing is that they do make you aware of the fees and try to sell you another package, but this other package, while having lower per-minute costs internationally, has a fixed per month fee in addition to any minute charges you rack up. You'd have to use the service quite a bit on a regular basis every month for it to actually be cheaper than just turning on the International Roaming switch.
This is not a sell to save you money; it's an up-sell that will make the reps look good.
They just want people to sign up for the "cheaper" plan, go on their overseas vacation, then forget to get the plan taken off and continue to pay $5.99/mo.
...it became apparent that microsoft is like a government job with tons of bureaucracy
I currently work at Microsoft and previously I worked at a Dept. of Energy nuclear laboratory. Microsoft is nothing like a government job. The amounts of bureaucracy don't even compare. Here I have my computer set up the way I want, I don't have to punch a timecard every day, I can be open with my opinions to my boss and my team, I get as long of a lunch I want, I wear what I want to work, etc. etc.
Microsoft has a lot of process (which we need -- and are trying -- to improve), but I wouldn't equate that to the "red tape" type of bureaucracy that a government organization has. The two aren't even close in terms of bureaucracy. Please don't make that comparison.
The Executive Branch does not have the power to impeach those in the Judicial Branch. That has to come from the Legislative Branch (more specificially: the House of Representatives).
(lower-casing/deprecation of "I" and "I'm" intentional; many other languages do not arrogantly case-place the self of the speaker above the listener or observer-- even though other languages tend to have separate words (honorific and plain/familiar) for the western/Latin "I"). So, it is my mission to start a movement to deprecate the importance of "I" and force it to "i"... Um, ok, good for you. You're still supposed to capitalize the beginning of a sentence, though.
In orthography, this pronoun is comparable to proper nouns. In most writing I is always capitalised. This convention dates to the late Middle Ages, when the form i first developed from the earlier ic. Writers of handwritten manuscripts began to use a capital I because the lower-case letter was hard to read and sometimes mistaken for part of the previous or succeeding word. This practice continued after the introduction of printing partly because it was already established and partly because it improved readability.
It's still a vulnerability. It's allowing something that shouldn't be allowed. Does that mean people will take advantage of it and exploit it a lot? Not necessarily, but it's still a vulnerability.
MSFT is one of the richest companies on the planet...rich from our $$$. Why don't they dip into those billions and provide those poor people in IT a little relief. That's why MSFT has provided WSUS for free instead of charging for it. Even if MSFT dips into their billions to provide those poor (self loathing much?) IT peeps some relief, it still doesn't guarantee that it'll be 100% perfect when it goes out the door. Windows is running on millions of systems with countless different configurations and existing patch states. The IT admin knows their environment and situation better than MSFT does... or at least they should.
I don't know who convinced you otherwise, but an undocumented spaghetti mess of an interface is not the right way to make things work.
Did I ever say it was the right way to make things work? Nope, I said that this is the way of the world sometimes. Learn how to read.
Modularity and well-defined APIs help develop reliable software.
Yes, but over-engineering can happen if you take modularity (loose term, btw) too far and that can be just as devastating to a design as spaghetti code because now you're stuck supporting scenarios for which you never intended nor wanted your API to be used for. This can also increase your time to market for your product whereas if you would've just kept it closed or less modular with a couple caveats (that all internal programmers properly account for), you'd be out there making money.
Try working in a large software engineering house for several years where you have to make tradeoffs like this all the time and see what tough decisions you have to make sometimes. The software world isn't perfect and acting like you are is just you talking out your ass.
Yes, actually it is really hard if you want it to be reliable, well documented, etc.
Usually why APIs stay closed is because they don't meet the bar of documentation quality and in order to use it you have to overcome several idiosyncracies and have tight communication with the team that wrote the API.
Probably MS didn't have enough time to make it as extensible and documented as they would've liked and maybe they figured it's just file search so keep it closed and avoid the support can of worms you would have to deal with when you open an API that isn't ready for the increased traffic.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe Democracy Now! has what you're looking for. Here's a link to the latest in the series they've been calling "Expanding the Debate".
The acquisition wasn't complete until October of last year. Not even six months ago. I'm sure one of their motivations for spending $8.5 billion includes getting their stuff to work on Windows Phone before worrying about Linux.
If you give most people a choice between Linux vs Windows, they will choose Windows. If you give them a choice between Windows that wont run their apps, and Linux that wont run their apps but at least already has a large library of software, then they will Choose Linux.
Most people? That's pretty lofty. Care to cite your sources? Or are you just pulling shit out of your ass and sucking up fanboi karma?
I know, right? I'm not a huge Gaga fan, but hey, $0.99 is a steal. When I went to purchase the album, there was a clear indication on the page that downloads were delayed. I just left my Amazon Downloader going and it was still done in only a couple hours. Some people are just whiners.
Someone forgot this Bing technology which microsoft has innovated so greatly is mostly just yahoo under the hood
Citation, please.
Longhorn as it was called during its development scrapped some functionality during its development cycle. (It even got so much redefined that it was renamed from blackcomb to longhorn)
Not quite. Longhorn before the code reset in 2004 is now generally referred to internally as Longhorn Alpha. Thew new Windows Server 2003-based codebase was still known as Longhorn until the final name Vista was picked. Blackcomb was the original name for the post-Longhorn OS that would eventually become Windows 7. When the Vista name was picked for Longhorn, Blackcomb was re-named Vienna. However, once actual Windows 7 development began, it became known as Windows 7 internally and the name stuck for release.
- It takes 7Gb of drive space to install.
I'm pretty sure that they've installed the Ultimate edition, which has everying including the kitchen sink. I would be more interested in seeing how a more reasonable SKU for a netbook (like one of the Home editions) performs. It may take up less HD space as well as have fewer services running.
Besides, I have no idea what criteria Windows uses to determine what my "likely" programs are, but if it's even remotely like the criteria it uses to display "Often Used" and "Rarely Used" in the Add/Remove Programs applet, I have zero faith in it whatsoever.
Here's good evidence that you don't know you're talking about. Win7 (and even Vista for that matter) doesn't display any data about how often it thinks you use a program.
Right, which I find annoying. As soon as I have my desktop up I want to open my usual host of applications, and I'm stuck waiting forever for them because the system is thrashing about trying to load a bunch of other crap Windows thinks I might possibly want to load at some unspecified point in the future.
Perhaps you should try installing Win7 and seeing what happens before drawing your conclusions. Based on your previous comment, you haven't even tried.
So, why is a typo in the headline (which isn't much of a surprise on Slashdot) which is pointed out in a snarky manner considered insightful?
Well that's good, because with your attitude you'd make a lousy beta tester anyway.
Finally, I'd like to say that features like the bat signal should be included in Windows 7, but disabled by default.
The problem there is that if it's in the box, it has to be tested. Any time there are UI changes, it has to be tested again just to make sure a change in another area didn't break that feature. That can get expensive. If it's not something they think many users will use (and by many, I mean it needs to be in the millions considering the size of the install base), they'll yank it so they can concentrate their efforts on other features that more people use often.
Vista sucks for not encapsulating the exception
And how does your favorite operating system deal with fatal errors while in kernel mode?
Sorry, but you're wrong. They keep turning International Roaming onto my account because I've been a customer with them for the last several years. I call in to get it turned off and at the next billing cycle, they just turn it on. They acted as if they couldn't do anything about it since it's automatic. Pretty annoying since I want mine off so I can't get into these types of situations. However, now I'm permanently stuck with International Roaming on TWO phones.
Another thing is that they do make you aware of the fees and try to sell you another package, but this other package, while having lower per-minute costs internationally, has a fixed per month fee in addition to any minute charges you rack up. You'd have to use the service quite a bit on a regular basis every month for it to actually be cheaper than just turning on the International Roaming switch.
This is not a sell to save you money; it's an up-sell that will make the reps look good. They just want people to sign up for the "cheaper" plan, go on their overseas vacation, then forget to get the plan taken off and continue to pay $5.99/mo.
...it became apparent that microsoft is like a government job with tons of bureaucracy I currently work at Microsoft and previously I worked at a Dept. of Energy nuclear laboratory. Microsoft is nothing like a government job. The amounts of bureaucracy don't even compare. Here I have my computer set up the way I want, I don't have to punch a timecard every day, I can be open with my opinions to my boss and my team, I get as long of a lunch I want, I wear what I want to work, etc. etc. Microsoft has a lot of process (which we need -- and are trying -- to improve), but I wouldn't equate that to the "red tape" type of bureaucracy that a government organization has. The two aren't even close in terms of bureaucracy. Please don't make that comparison.
The Executive Branch does not have the power to impeach those in the Judicial Branch. That has to come from the Legislative Branch (more specificially: the House of Representatives).
Mine is on by default. IE8 on Vista SP1.
i LIKE FF...
i can't stand...
(lower-casing/deprecation of "I" and "I'm" intentional; many other languages do not arrogantly case-place the self of the speaker above the listener or observer-- even though other languages tend to have separate words (honorific and plain/familiar) for the western/Latin "I"). So, it is my mission to start a movement to deprecate the importance of "I" and force it to "i"... Um, ok, good for you. You're still supposed to capitalize the beginning of a sentence, though.
Also, it's not due to arrogance. It does have some history behind it. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_%28pronoun%29:
In orthography, this pronoun is comparable to proper nouns. In most writing I is always capitalised. This convention dates to the late Middle Ages, when the form i first developed from the earlier ic. Writers of handwritten manuscripts began to use a capital I because the lower-case letter was hard to read and sometimes mistaken for part of the previous or succeeding word. This practice continued after the introduction of printing partly because it was already established and partly because it improved readability.
It's still a vulnerability. It's allowing something that shouldn't be allowed. Does that mean people will take advantage of it and exploit it a lot? Not necessarily, but it's still a vulnerability.
I actually WANT the police to overreact in cases like this in order to keep me safer.
I don't think an overreaction is appropriate in any case. I'd rather have appropriate reactions to keep me safer.
I don't know who convinced you otherwise, but an undocumented spaghetti mess of an interface is not the right way to make things work.
Did I ever say it was the right way to make things work? Nope, I said that this is the way of the world sometimes. Learn how to read.
Modularity and well-defined APIs help develop reliable software.
Yes, but over-engineering can happen if you take modularity (loose term, btw) too far and that can be just as devastating to a design as spaghetti code because now you're stuck supporting scenarios for which you never intended nor wanted your API to be used for. This can also increase your time to market for your product whereas if you would've just kept it closed or less modular with a couple caveats (that all internal programmers properly account for), you'd be out there making money.
Try working in a large software engineering house for several years where you have to make tradeoffs like this all the time and see what tough decisions you have to make sometimes. The software world isn't perfect and acting like you are is just you talking out your ass.
Yes, actually it is really hard if you want it to be reliable, well documented, etc. Usually why APIs stay closed is because they don't meet the bar of documentation quality and in order to use it you have to overcome several idiosyncracies and have tight communication with the team that wrote the API. Probably MS didn't have enough time to make it as extensible and documented as they would've liked and maybe they figured it's just file search so keep it closed and avoid the support can of worms you would have to deal with when you open an API that isn't ready for the increased traffic.
I think they have enough money to take care of that.
The Zune team is in Redmond.
Um, I can't help but think you're leaving something out of this story. It just doesn't sound plausible.