Looks like even the "Microsoft sympathetic" media are joining in a bit of a boot fest:


Windows 8 Criticized for its Part in Ailing PC Growth

... 1) Win8 reviews are mixed due to a confusing UI; 2) there is a lack of Enterprise interest in Window 8; 3) tablet form factor complicates positioning (Win8 vs. Windows RT), 4) continued substitution of PCs by iPads/tablets ...

... With a $1.5 billion investment in marketing for Windows 8...


Report: Sinofsky Killed Windows 7 Tablets

... if the report is accurate, it appears that hardware makers came up with the idea for a tablet substantially earlier than Microsoft did. Windows 7 was released in October 2009. Of course, if the report is accurate, it is also possible that Microsoft completely screwed its partners by first denying support and then releasing its own Surface RT tablet.

... initial Windows notebook touch screen designs emerged as early as 1998 - and the following aggressive move to turn every Windows device into a system that prefers touch input could backfire twice. Not only is Microsoft late, but it may also have to fix Windows 8 for PCs.



For my view: All rather an eye-watering Ouch!


IT indeed is what we make it,
Martin


UI: User Interface (such as the "desktop")

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I tried out Server 2012 at work a month or two ago. While I appeared outwardly calm, inside my brain, behind my eyeballs, I was deep in the 9th level of vomit-hell.

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I tried out Server 2012 at work a month or two ago. While I appeared outwardly calm, inside my brain, behind my eyeballs, I was deep in the 9th level of vomit-hell.

Aw, c'mon, its a beautiful piece of work - inspired by Salvador Dali himself.

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Well the guys at We Got Served have a manual to convert Windows 8 into a home server. Reason being it has a form of "drive extender" that was missing from WHS 2011.

Seems like a better use as once you have set it up you never need to see it again :-)

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It's not that easy as WHS Bernie, for several reasons.

With WHS, one could add a system to the network running XP, Vista, Win 7 & they would be seen.

Win 8's Drive Storage compared to WHS has 3 main issues: -

1: it cannot be bootable.
2: WHS data can only be transferred over manually.
3: Not compatible with previous Windows versions.

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Rather unsurprising news that Win8 is not a big seller.

Windows 8 struggling to take off, survey and web data show

Net Applications data shows Windows 8 use at just 1%, compared to rapid takeoff which saw Windows 7 over 3.6% within weeks in 2009

I purchased a number of Win 7's the day before the official Win 8 release so that I have legitimate ones to install on a number of machines that I am upgrading. I have no intention of putting Win 8 on any of my fleet.

In fact I couldn't get the pre-release version to install in VirtualBox even. One of the guys at work also tried to install it under VMware and had the same issues.

I will look at things again when Win 9 is out, but if MS had any brains in senior management they wouldn't have tried to make a desktop run a tablet operating system (or vice versa). No doubt they will come to realise the commercial stupidity of it all in time.

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BOINC blog

Why change a winning team? (if we could call win 7 a winning team... that´s for another time...)

Just to help M$ make more money!!!

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Windows is a bit like the US government horribly broken except for every other one out there and yes i know about Linux i have been running it on and off since mandrake 2.1 i think hard to remember that long ago.You have to remember that bill gates made the argument to the California pc users group no good software would be written for free,when the apple 2+ came with an os at on charge way back when.
So it is not terribly strange that seeing the success of the apple store that MS is trying the same thing. It will be vary funny when MS finds out how different their user base is from apples!If we wanted over priced stuff we would have expected it to work and would have bought apple's.
as to toughs saying that xp is not dead all i can say to them is when the patches and security update's are larger than the os something has got to give and sooner or later MS WILL ONLY PROVIDE THE SUPPORT FOR IT THEY PROVIDE FOR 95
that is to say almost nun.
I already find the need for a floppy to install my raid and lack of support for other hardware on the install disk to be problematic.
so i agree that there needs to be a viable alternative to win 8 and with Ubuntu 12.1 pulling a lot of the same stuff as win 8 is i guess that i will now have to find so other Linux and figure out all over again how to make my programs work.

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I run XP on 8 out of my 9 rigs.
And can see doing so far into the foreseeable future. Especially considering these are crunch only rigs, and don't need the bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors, to run fancy new web apps to render the latest website or run the latest version of Flash.

I believe that XP can handle IPv6, if it comes down to that.

Look, I ran NT long after it's 'demise'. Until it was absolutely impossible to do so any longer.
Same goes for Win2K, it's successor.
Only reason I advanced beyond Win2K on 4 rigs was because new Seti apps required nVidia drivers which were not supported for 2K.

Although the kitties don't have a crystal ball, I can easily see running XP well into 2020.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

... so i agree that there needs to be a viable alternative to win 8 and with Ubuntu 12.1 pulling a lot of the same stuff as win 8 is i guess that i will now have to find so other Linux and figure out all over again how to make my programs work.

"Linux Mint" seems to be the new refuge for those wanderers from the Ubuntu imposition of the Unity 'mobile' desktop on people. The latest Mint is Linux Mint 14.

I too was on Mandriva for many years. Mageia looks to have followed through very nicely to usurp that. Meanwhile, Mandriva looks set to rise oncemore yet again (quite a story!)...


The Windows machine sat under my TFT here hasn't been switched on for a long time now... (Shame I have to fix broken windows elsewhere... :-( )

IT is what we make it,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

OK... So I guess the comparison had to be made somewhere...


A close look at Linux Mint 14: Windows 8 without the bad bits

This week, the developers behind the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint distribution announced the availability of Mint 14 (Nadia), and we installed it for a look at the goodies the OS offers. The new release boasts a number of incremental under-the-hood improvements and tweaks. ... the Cinnamon desktop is particularly interesting as it has created a hybrid between Ubuntu’s HUD interface and the traditional Gnome UI that is as usable and fluid as ever. ...



As a side note:


Linux Foundation UEFI Secure Boot key for Windows 8 PCs delays explained

Summary: Thanks to Microsoft, the Linux Foundation's program for booting Linux easily on Windows 8 PCs protected with Secure Boot is still stuck...

Comment: ... OEMs won't do anything unless Linux hostility results in significant lost sales. It's complete[ly] unrealistic for MS to give significant cooperation to an effort that is contrary to its financial interests.



No surprises there then...

IT is what we make it,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

And "METRO-style" advances...
Here http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support one more example of site with new windows8-like look... Acer advertize Win8 netbooks :/

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SETI apps news
We're not gonna fight them. We're gonna transcend them.

Interesting article (in russian) about Intel/M$/AMD collusion to put forward Win8 vs Linux/Android with some explanations why so: http://i-business.ru/blogs/22954

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SETI apps news
We're not gonna fight them. We're gonna transcend them.

Oh dear... Is this where Microsoft's Marketing Machine has gone too far?...


Microsoft's anti-Android Twitter campaign draws ire, irony

Microsoft has launched a repeat of a Twitter-based anti-Android marketing stunt that it first tried last year, but this year's campaign seems to have netted the software giant more than it bargained for.

On Wednesday, Redmond's official Windows Phone Twitter feed at @WindowsPhone laid into Google's mobile OS for being vulnerable to malware...

... In a series of tweets, the Microsofties went on to outline a rather sarcastic three-step plan for dealing with smartphone malware...

... While a few Android customers seemed willing to play along, however, ..., the majority of this year's participants were more inclined to treat the stunt with ridicule. ...

... "After all, they have long suffered having the Windows desktop operating system negatively compared to the likes of Unix and Mac OS X when it comes to the levels of malware infection." ...


Indeed so. From my own personal observations, I still know of no other operating system that supports malware in the same extensive way as Windows appears to!...


IT is what we make it...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

There not scurrility holes there feachers.

and o my was that a 550+ meg patch to win 8.

wonder how long it will be until the patches are bigger than the os again?

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Well I just upgraded to win8 pro upgrade download for 39.99 for my desktop and installed the same on my laptop but Microsoft said it was used on another pc so I bought a full win8 pro key for 69.99 pretty inexpensive 2 os for 110 dollars. Better hurry sale ends in January.. I don't like the metro and no start button even though metro replace the start menus. There are work around I can get to my computer buy clicking the file button and I can add a start button by downloading from vendors which by passes the metro also. I miss the side bar and the aero effect and win7 had better backgrounds. Unlike win7 once I upgraded to win8 there was no way to restore back to win7. I could also put the same copy of win7 on different pc's not so with win8.

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I would say 110$ is too high for crap even if crap comes in 2 portions ;)
Better spend on some hardware... Or for icecream for children at last ;D

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SETI apps news
We're not gonna fight them. We're gonna transcend them.

And the manufacturer of Windows also sells "anti virus" products and 'after-care' security updates and support to patch over the security holes in the original product...

Microsoft Security Essentials is free and so are all security updates. I am assuming you mean something else?

Yes, the 'paid for' 'enhancements'...

Are you reassured by a non-purchased closed product that is carefully named "Essentials" suggesting that you should be 'upgrading' to something a 'little more substantial'?

This just had to happen:

Microsoft Security Essentials fails AV-Test


Ouch!

Trying to lasso a bolted horse after it is well clear of the stable door is never going to work 100% of the time... Far better is to fix the problem at source...

Also note the corporate costs for those companies and organizations trapped in expensive lock-in on older systems whereby support is only available if paid for...


But still, so many years down the line, why do we still have such a malware problem requiring 3rd-party 'band-aid' fixes? As any good doctor would advise: It is far better to cure an ailment at source rather than merely treat the symptoms. (Unless perhaps that is you are talking placebo or alternatively palliative care...)

IT is what we make it,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I just did a completely clean install of a Windows 8 Pro full-pack.

It won't activate.

Office Depot purchase yesterday.

Gotta call during business hours to figure-out what the hell's wrong.

I love freakin' Microsoft.

You know, I sort-of made fun of everyone saving $100 by going to Linux. My comment was something like, "I'd rather get something done than fool with all the weirdness."

You know what?

I'm beginning to think that there is no weirdness too weird to avoid this kind of crap.

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