Exactly. Metro is just a trojan designed to harvest your data.
What they really want is you using Windows Live, getting news from their sites, searching with Bing, using Internet Explorer, play with their XBox, etc.
This is Microsoft's strategy to catch up to Google. If you can't bring the desktop to the web, you bring the web to the desktop.
There's always a new demographic. I'd say Windows 8 will appeal to younger users (those who think the computer was invented for tweeting or for Facebook). It's likely Microsoft has factored this is and is aiming in potentially new customers in the Asian markets, which are predicted to move to the middle class by hundreds of millions in the next few years.
Is it too late? I don't know. People are used to their iTunes for buying songs. The iPhone has sold a lot in China last year (when people don't have the money, they buy the Android). We are all used to Google (and Bing sucks too).
They do have the potential to bring innovation. Kinect could bring a whole new paradigm to interfaces, but we don't know if that's in the pipeline. Apparently, they are pretty much failing with the gestures thing (Apple is much better in this on the new iMacs).
You can't run 10 year old linux binaries on something that just works for years and years.
You can if you have the code. Even then, libraries might have changed. But it's mostly about using deprecated C standards -which should be easily fixable. This, by the way, is one reason that I don't trust languages like Python, Ruby, or anyone of these little languages-du-jour. Developers are still struggling with their design. Guido is still learning about programming language features, such as closures, or inheritance, or metaclasses, LOL!. That means that Real Soon Now, they'll get around to what the good and smart people decided on about language design long ago. Hey, maybe they'll even read their papers;-). OTOH, I can take C code from 1996, or I've ran Common Lisp code from 1998 without a problem. Same goes for Smalltalk. Vendors are still around, but there's open source if you wish to use it, good stuff, too.
Of course, you're talking software for John Doe, not some weird C code for wavelets or genetic programming.
GUI stuff is completely horrible in that way in Linux. If you want stuff to keep working you better stick with some very old toolkit for X Windows, like Athena, Motif, etc.
There is no reason to use Linux for non technical users in 2013.
There are lots of apps professionals use that Linux users don't, stuff for document scanning and formatting, engineering apps, etc.
Also, Windows protects your investment in expansive proprietary applications. Say, if you buy Matlab, you know you're going to keep it for a few years in your Windows, because Windows 7 has a 10 year life cycle. If you purchase one of these things for Linux, it'll break within 6 months when the developers change ABIs, move libraries around, or do any other of those thoughtful acts they always do. Besides, usually things work in a distro, but not in another, because they have no standard.
Proper library version isn't even an issue Linux distro developers worry about. If you complain, they'll tell you to fuck off and stop using proprietary software.
You mean you love having to click 4 times to open a photo on the explorer, than opening on a Metro app, than closing it, then back to Metro, then back to explorer...
Windows 8 usability is so fucked up right now there are lots of videos on YouTube of teenagers asking dad to open their documents after a Windows 8 install...They just can't do it...
Now, usability is considered optimal when it is so obvious how to perform a task that you hardly need to instruct the user.
Of course, teenagers get to think they're cool and extra-smart because they can do it, since they've spent many hours (since they don't really have a life or anything better to do).
So Windows 8 is going to be a huge success amongst teenagers who tweet all day, and who'll think they are superior human beings, while older adults are just stupid.
But, come to think of it now, Ballmer was probably right in firing the guy who designed this horrible annoyingware that is Windows 8. I have it installed in a machine and I can't bear the thing. It gives you head aches.
Of course, Ballmer fired him for the wrong reasons, but breaking shit up like they did in 8...you deserve to live on skid row.
"Cloud" is a marketing term that means: "We'll keep all your data, and we'll tax you too. We'll make you depend on us, just like you depend on your healthcare provider. This is because you've chosen to remain computer-illiterate, and now you must pay us."
100GB is too small for today's average computer user, IHMO.
With Dropbox, at 500GB you're looking at $499.00/yr which is outrageous. Unlimited storage is $795.00/yr. Now, that's one heavy, yearly "cloud tax", if you ask me. Is it cheaper to run a home NAS with ZFS support, if you're doing it for 4 years? Yes.OTOH, the problem is, home solutions require security maintenance. You might wanna factor that in, but I still think they have outrageous prices.
Rapidshare is much cheaper, but they create an md5 hash for each of your files. They say they don't check the user's files, but if they get a court injunction, all they have to do is hunt down all the files with the same md5 hash, if they're looking for pirated material, and then it's goodbye your account. And I pretty much doubt there is a human out there who hasn't at least one pirated file (even unknowingly possessing it). So that single file might jeopardize your whole back-up plan. At least they come clean on their policies. Others, I'm not sure what they'll do (e.g., Google Drive).
Does it have ZFS? No, probably, because it's Linux. Which means your files can be silently corrupted and you won't know about it 'till it's too late. I'm sorry, we're looking at things for the long haul, and unreliable filesystems based on Windows or Linux just won't cut it.
C'mon! Anyone who's promoting some shitty Linux-based tech with no ZFS is actually NOT HELPING the OP!
This is Linux-based old tech because there's no support for ZFS (Zettabyte File System), which is today's standard for this type of thing. How lame. the OP doesn't know it, but he wants a ZFS filesystem because, in the long haul, it can counterweight - amongst other things - silent data corruption (it's going on, but your hardware diagnostics says everything's OK).
Besides, the OP said he and his wife had Macs, and since Snow Leopard (10.6), Macs support ZFS. The old Mac just needs a memory upgrade to support Snow Leopard, probably.
Get a NAS box with FreeBSD inside (check out: www.freenas.org)
Since the OP is not one of the typical/. nerds, here's a nice You Tube video, by the nice msknight5, that explains why you need ZFS:ZFS - Home server - Why? (NB: she goes on a little rant about DVD, DRM, etc., but just bear with it).
Don't settle for less. Too bad for users of the lame Linux that their beloved GPL does not allow it on their kernel.
On Mac OS X, Unix is a whole lot of Objective-C. It has the semantics of the purest of OO languages (Smalltalk), but you can mix and match with C. That allows for speed and fast development without the pain and the bugs. It's probably the number one factor for the success of Mac OS as the number 1 Unix out there for users (power users included). No, actually, number 1 OS, period. If you ask me, Steve Jobs was wright.
One of the things I like about FreeBSD is their openess to languages (in contrast to OpenBSD, who think C is the only language around...) Throughout the years, FreeBSD developers reached out for what they thought were the best languages for the job: Modula-3 (for cvsup, though now deprecated), Forth on the boot loader (ideal, right? Can drop you into a little Forth shell), Ruby for ports infrastructure. In that way, they are not prejudiced about programming languages. Users contribute a great deal too. All the things you get in Debian (lots of languages).
FreeBSD developers also have ported important innovations that are open-sourced but lacking in Linux, because of pure ideology (the GPL doesn't play well with others): Apple's Grand Central Dispatch (a framework that implements concurrency *correctly*), and LLVM (which as a side effect, brings C blocks (effectively, closures for C).
Additionally, many vendors support FreeBSD. I, for instance, run Eiffel on FreeBSD (for the world's best introduction to Object Oriented Programming: A Touch of class. Common Lisp has vendors that support FreeBSD (LispWorks, Franz), and so has Smalltalk (Cincom, Smalltalk/X). All these vendors have free products and commercial support.
There's nothing stopping anyone from doing whatever they want with C++ on FreeBSD. But seriously, C++? Shouldn't you be looking at D?
What, are you stupid, or what? There was other stuff the decided to phase out, just like that, like the SmartRescheduler.
You must be one of those f*ing CSS/JavaScript-only kids. You go write a scheduling application, now, for Calendar. Tip: retake your Linear Algebra classes, as well as your Optimization classes. Oh you never took those, that's why you think what Google does is nothing! (just practically blow up everything, on everyone's faces).
Gee whiz, why, thank you, Mr. Slashdot business analyst, you must one of those recommending selling Apple stock! Oh, you're so bright!
Let me put it to you in writing: Google (e.g., Android) is beginning to look really, really bad. If they keep being ruthless to developers (and mobile phone consumers), one day people are going to start thinking that they would do better to spend on a company that really cares about its consumer experience (e.g., Apple).
Should we create a Google Haters Usenet newsgroups? Oh, wait, Google practically killed Usenet (rampant spamming).
'Coz, boy, am I hating Google now!
And, BTW, all those fucked-brain so-called "business analysts" you see on, say, Bloomberg, saying "open is better", "Android will win". Do they even have a clue about how ruthless The GOOG is??? (Answer: no, they're clueless).
They're doing like they do with everything they stick their noses in that's non-search related: they are very *violent* and *aggressive* on how they treat consumers of their products. They just leave you by the wayside. Fuck that! Better stick to iPhone development.
In fact, this is getting to be a hallmark of the way Google conducts business. Look at Android. It's almost guaranteed that your apps won't upgrade on Google Play, unless you keep up with the latest Samsung tablet (yeah, the other just won't do, I'm afraid).
Honestly, I'm losing my faith in them. Their business practices are beginning to look...evil. Hey, Google, whatever happened to "don't be evil"?
I guess I'm gonna go read that Objective C book in the reading queue after all.
Now, the question is imperative: can we trust Google as a platform we want to develop on, when they zap their own stuff, willy-nilly, *periodically* ???!!! (They have a date for that ??!!!)
Thanks Google. As I was about to schedule a meeting with an associate, in order to develop a product that involves one of you now-dead features, I now realize you really are a liability.
Fuck you very much Google.
PS: More and more I realize the errors of my ways: I should stick with Apple. They're serious. You're not.
Crypto: 0
As received by: Transceiver Relay03 at Relay
Language path: Cloudmark->Triskweline, SjK units
[Cloudmark is a High Beyond trade language. Despite
colloquial rendering, only core meaning is guaranteed.]
From: Transcendent Bafflements Trading Union at Cloud Center
Subject: Matter of life and death
Summary: Arbitration Arts has fallen to Straumli Perversion
via a Net attack. Use Middle Beyond relays till emergency
passes!
Key phrases: Net attack, scale interstellar warfare, Straumli
Perversion
Distribution:
War Trackers Interest Group, Threats Interest Group, Homo
Sapiens Interest Group Date: 61.12 days since the fall of Straumli Realm Text of message: WARNING! The site identifying itself as Arbitration Arts is now controlled by the Straumli Perversion. The Arts' recent advertisement of communications services is a deadly trick. In fact we have good evidence that the Perversion used sapient Net packets to invade and disable the Arts' defenses. Large portions of the Arts now appear to be under direct control of the Straumli Power. Parts of the Arts that were not infected in the initial invasion have been destroyed by the converted portions: Fly-throughs show several stellifications. What can be done: If during the last thousand seconds, you have received any High Beyond protocol packets from "Arbitration Arts", discard them at once. If they have been processed (then chances are it is the Perversion who is reading this message and with a [broad smile]),
then the processing site and all locally netted sites must be physically destroyed at once. We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative. You are under Transcendent attack. If you survive the initial peril (the next thirty hours or so), then there are obvious procedures that can give relative safety: Do not accept High Beyond protocol packets. At the very least, route all communications through Middle Beyond sites, with translation down to, and then up from, local trade languages. For the longer term: It's obvious that an extraordinarily powerful Class Two Perversion has bloomed in our region of the galaxy. For the next thirteen years or so, all advanced civilizations near us will be in great danger. If we can identify the background of the current perversion, we may discover its weaknesses and a feasible defense. Class Two Perversions all involve a deformed Power that creates symbiotic structures in the High Beyond -- but there is enormous variety of origins. Some are poorly-formed jokes told by Powers no longer on the scene. Others are weapons built by the newly transcendent and never properly disarmed. The immediate source of this danger is well-documented: a species recently up from the Middle Beyond, Homo sapiens, founded Straumli Realm. We are inclined to believe the theory proposed in messages [...], namely that Straumli researchers experimented with something in Shortcuts, and that the recipe was a self-booting evil from an earlier time. One p
Yes! This is precisely what the world needs, when it comes to smartphones: nerds giving tips on how to flash phones, going CyanogenMod-stupid!
Just it was so cool to wipe Windows off the laptop and spend ages to configure X - crossing your fingers so you wouldn't trash the monitor - aaah, those were the days! A whole lot of good it did to Linux dominance...
Sadly, in the end, all that's left for the Android user is to upgrade their devices by using these methods. Google is Evil.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. Metro is just a trojan designed to harvest your data.
What they really want is you using Windows Live, getting news from their sites, searching with Bing, using Internet Explorer, play with their XBox, etc.
This is Microsoft's strategy to catch up to Google. If you can't bring the desktop to the web, you bring the web to the desktop.
There's always a new demographic. I'd say Windows 8 will appeal to younger users (those who think the computer was invented for tweeting or for Facebook). It's likely Microsoft has factored this is and is aiming in potentially new customers in the Asian markets, which are predicted to move to the middle class by hundreds of millions in the next few years.
Is it too late? I don't know. People are used to their iTunes for buying songs. The iPhone has sold a lot in China last year (when people don't have the money, they buy the Android). We are all used to Google (and Bing sucks too).
They do have the potential to bring innovation. Kinect could bring a whole new paradigm to interfaces, but we don't know if that's in the pipeline. Apparently, they are pretty much failing with the gestures thing (Apple is much better in this on the new iMacs).
We'll see.
You can't run 10 year old linux binaries on something that just works for years and years.
You can if you have the code. Even then, libraries might have changed. But it's mostly about using deprecated C standards -which should be easily fixable. This, by the way, is one reason that I don't trust languages like Python, Ruby, or anyone of these little languages-du-jour. Developers are still struggling with their design. Guido is still learning about programming language features, such as closures, or inheritance, or metaclasses, LOL!. That means that Real Soon Now, they'll get around to what the good and smart people decided on about language design long ago. Hey, maybe they'll even read their papers ;-). OTOH, I can take C code from 1996, or I've ran Common Lisp code from 1998 without a problem. Same goes for Smalltalk. Vendors are still around, but there's open source if you wish to use it, good stuff, too.
Of course, you're talking software for John Doe, not some weird C code for wavelets or genetic programming.
GUI stuff is completely horrible in that way in Linux. If you want stuff to keep working you better stick with some very old toolkit for X Windows, like Athena, Motif, etc.
See here, for example: this libXaw(Athena) repository goes back to 2003 and patches are incoming in 2012, still.
There is no reason to use Linux for non technical users in 2013.
There are lots of apps professionals use that Linux users don't, stuff for document scanning and formatting, engineering apps, etc.
Also, Windows protects your investment in expansive proprietary applications. Say, if you buy Matlab, you know you're going to keep it for a few years in your Windows, because Windows 7 has a 10 year life cycle. If you purchase one of these things for Linux, it'll break within 6 months when the developers change ABIs, move libraries around, or do any other of those thoughtful acts they always do. Besides, usually things work in a distro, but not in another, because they have no standard.
Proper library version isn't even an issue Linux distro developers worry about. If you complain, they'll tell you to fuck off and stop using proprietary software.
s/than/then
You mean you love having to click 4 times to open a photo on the explorer, than opening on a Metro app, than closing it, then back to Metro, then back to explorer...
Windows 8 usability is so fucked up right now there are lots of videos on YouTube of teenagers asking dad to open their documents after a Windows 8 install...They just can't do it...
Now, usability is considered optimal when it is so obvious how to perform a task that you hardly need to instruct the user.
Of course, teenagers get to think they're cool and extra-smart because they can do it, since they've spent many hours (since they don't really have a life or anything better to do).
So Windows 8 is going to be a huge success amongst teenagers who tweet all day, and who'll think they are superior human beings, while older adults are just stupid.
But, come to think of it now, Ballmer was probably right in firing the guy who designed this horrible annoyingware that is Windows 8. I have it installed in a machine and I can't bear the thing. It gives you head aches.
Of course, Ballmer fired him for the wrong reasons, but breaking shit up like they did in 8...you deserve to live on skid row.
"Cloud" is a marketing term that means: "We'll keep all your data, and we'll tax you too. We'll make you depend on us, just like you depend on your healthcare provider. This is because you've chosen to remain computer-illiterate, and now you must pay us."
100GB is too small for today's average computer user, IHMO.
With Dropbox, at 500GB you're looking at $499.00/yr which is outrageous. Unlimited storage is $795.00/yr. Now, that's one heavy, yearly "cloud tax", if you ask me.
Is it cheaper to run a home NAS with ZFS support, if you're doing it for 4 years? Yes.OTOH, the problem is, home solutions require security maintenance. You might wanna factor that in, but I still think they have outrageous prices.
Rapidshare is much cheaper, but they create an md5 hash for each of your files. They say they don't check the user's files, but if they get a court injunction, all they have to do is hunt down all the files with the same md5 hash, if they're looking for pirated material, and then it's goodbye your account. And I pretty much doubt there is a human out there who hasn't at least one pirated file (even unknowingly possessing it). So that single file might jeopardize your whole back-up plan. At least they come clean on their policies. Others, I'm not sure what they'll do (e.g., Google Drive).
Also, a NAS that isn't Linux-based, because that sucks too, since it doesn't have support for ZFS. Which is crazy and lame, just lame.
Does it have ZFS? No, probably, because it's Linux. Which means your files can be silently corrupted and you won't know about it 'till it's too late.
I'm sorry, we're looking at things for the long haul, and unreliable filesystems based on Windows or Linux just won't cut it.
I think Rapidshare has the best deal (infinite storage).
However, I would encrypt files first.
I don't know why, but something tells me /. has been invaded by a whole bunch of Synology marketing people.
C'mon! Anyone who's promoting some shitty Linux-based tech with no ZFS is actually NOT HELPING the OP!
This is Linux-based old tech because there's no support for ZFS (Zettabyte File System), which is today's standard for this type of thing. How lame. the OP doesn't know it, but he wants a ZFS filesystem because, in the long haul, it can counterweight - amongst other things - silent data corruption (it's going on, but your hardware diagnostics says everything's OK).
Besides, the OP said he and his wife had Macs, and since Snow Leopard (10.6), Macs support ZFS. The old Mac just needs a memory upgrade to support Snow Leopard, probably.
Get a NAS box with FreeBSD inside (check out: www.freenas.org)
Since the OP is not one of the typical /. nerds, here's a nice You Tube video, by the nice msknight5, that explains why you need ZFS: ZFS - Home server - Why? (NB: she goes on a little rant about DVD, DRM, etc., but just bear with it).
Don't settle for less. Too bad for users of the lame Linux that their beloved GPL does not allow it on their kernel.
Linux is backed by corporations that sell per-seat licenses.
Linux was just a pawn to drive Sun Microsystems out of business.
Ask Red Hat to do it.
On Mac OS X, Unix is a whole lot of Objective-C.
It has the semantics of the purest of OO languages (Smalltalk), but you can mix and match with C. That allows for speed and fast development without the pain and the bugs. It's probably the number one factor for the success of Mac OS as the number 1 Unix out there for users (power users included). No, actually, number 1 OS, period.
If you ask me, Steve Jobs was wright.
One of the things I like about FreeBSD is their openess to languages (in contrast to OpenBSD, who think C is the only language around...)
Throughout the years, FreeBSD developers reached out for what they thought were the best languages for the job: Modula-3 (for cvsup, though now deprecated), Forth on the boot loader (ideal, right? Can drop you into a little Forth shell), Ruby for ports infrastructure. In that way, they are not prejudiced about programming languages. Users contribute a great deal too. All the things you get in Debian (lots of languages).
FreeBSD developers also have ported important innovations that are open-sourced but lacking in Linux, because of pure ideology (the GPL doesn't play well with others): Apple's Grand Central Dispatch (a framework that implements concurrency *correctly*), and LLVM (which as a side effect, brings C blocks (effectively, closures for C).
Additionally, many vendors support FreeBSD. I, for instance, run Eiffel on FreeBSD (for the world's best introduction to Object Oriented Programming: A Touch of class. Common Lisp has vendors that support FreeBSD (LispWorks, Franz), and so has Smalltalk (Cincom, Smalltalk/X). All these vendors have free products and commercial support.
There's nothing stopping anyone from doing whatever they want with C++ on FreeBSD. But seriously, C++? Shouldn't you be looking at D?
That was one hell of a good tip, dude!
...which is another way of saying: the GOOG shoots itself in the foot - ALL THE TIME!
What, are you stupid, or what? There was other stuff the decided to phase out, just like that, like the SmartRescheduler.
You must be one of those f*ing CSS/JavaScript-only kids. You go write a scheduling application, now, for Calendar. Tip: retake your Linear Algebra classes, as well as your Optimization classes. Oh you never took those, that's why you think what Google does is nothing! (just practically blow up everything, on everyone's faces).
They are?! People are moving away form Apple?!!
Gee whiz, why, thank you, Mr. Slashdot business analyst, you must one of those recommending selling Apple stock! Oh, you're so bright!
Let me put it to you in writing: Google (e.g., Android) is beginning to look really, really bad. If they keep being ruthless to developers (and mobile phone consumers), one day people are going to start thinking that they would do better to spend on a company that really cares about its consumer experience (e.g., Apple).
Sorry, not a fanboy, just a realist.
Should we create a Google Haters Usenet newsgroups? Oh, wait, Google practically killed Usenet (rampant spamming).
'Coz, boy, am I hating Google now!
And, BTW, all those fucked-brain so-called "business analysts" you see on, say, Bloomberg, saying "open is better", "Android will win". Do they even have a clue about how ruthless The GOOG is??? (Answer: no, they're clueless).
They're doing like they do with everything they stick their noses in that's non-search related: they are very *violent* and *aggressive* on how they treat consumers of their products. They just leave you by the wayside. Fuck that! Better stick to iPhone development.
In fact, this is getting to be a hallmark of the way Google conducts business. Look at Android. It's almost guaranteed that your apps won't upgrade on Google Play, unless you keep up with the latest Samsung tablet (yeah, the other just won't do, I'm afraid).
Honestly, I'm losing my faith in them. Their business practices are beginning to look...evil. Hey, Google, whatever happened to "don't be evil"?
I guess I'm gonna go read that Objective C book in the reading queue after all.
Now, the question is imperative: can we trust Google as a platform we want to develop on, when they zap their own stuff, willy-nilly, *periodically* ???!!!
(They have a date for that ??!!!)
Thanks Google. As I was about to schedule a meeting with an associate, in order to develop a product that involves one of you now-dead features, I now realize you really are a liability.
Fuck you very much Google.
PS: More and more I realize the errors of my ways: I should stick with Apple. They're serious. You're not.
Yes! This is precisely what the world needs, when it comes to smartphones: nerds giving tips on how to flash phones, going CyanogenMod-stupid!
Just it was so cool to wipe Windows off the laptop and spend ages to configure X - crossing your fingers so you wouldn't trash the monitor - aaah, those were the days! A whole lot of good it did to Linux dominance...
Sadly, in the end, all that's left for the Android user is to upgrade their devices by using these methods. Google is Evil.