A look ahead: 2012 is Microsoft's turning point

[jimbo45]

Microsoft is huge company they don't work for your best interest like Google they work for the Governments best Interest

Now that is a theory you really have to explain. How does Google work for our interest and MS for the goverment?

Hi there

???

Why on Earth should MS / Google etc work for the Government -- doesn't matter WHAT country you are from has there EVER in the whole of recorded history been a SINGLE INSTANCE where ANY Government has shown itself capable of spending taxpayers money wisely

I've seen cases in England where the Chief "Executive" of a tiny "Local Council" gets paid an absolute FORTUNE (well in my eyes a Salary (less "bonuses" !!!) can amount to around 300,000 EUR / 280,000 GBP a year !! and that to me is HUGE) and to cap it all even comes with an almost hugely obscenely large Pension Pot for doing almost NOTHING apart from signing a few checks and saying OK to a few dubious "Micky Mouse" type of contracts.

I'm sure this type of B/S happens planet wide as well.

Why om Earth would M/S want to pour its profits into this type of bottomless "Sink hole".

Ms IMO would be far more capable of spending its money more sensibly than almost ANY Govt dept in any country that I could ever think of.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Coke Robot]

Microsoft is huge company they don't work for your best interest like Google they work for the Governments best Interest

Now that is a theory you really have to explain. How does Google work for our interest and MS for the goverment?

Hi there

???

Why on Earth should MS / Google etc work for the Government -- doesn't matter WHAT country you are from has there EVER in the whole of recorded history been a SINGLE INSTANCE where ANY Government has shown itself capable of spending taxpayers money wisely

I've seen cases in England where the Chief "Executive" of a tiny "Local Council" gets paid an absolute FORTUNE (well in my eyes a Salary (less "bonuses" !!!) can amount to around 300,000 EUR / 280,000 GBP a year !! and that to me is HUGE) and to cap it all even comes with an almost hugely obscenely large Pension Pot for doing almost NOTHING apart from signing a few checks and saying OK to a few dubious "Micky Mouse" type of contracts.

I'm sure this type of B/S happens planet wide as well.

Why om Earth would M/S want to pour its profits into this type of bottomless "Sink hole".

Ms IMO would be far more capable of spending its money more sensibly than almost ANY Govt dept in any country that I could ever think of.

Cheers
jimbo

The reason why google would work for governments is simply because it's everywhere. Google, Gmail, YouTube, Google +, Google Docs, android. It's a perfect spying tools, from conversations, to messages, to documents, to social activity.

 

[Coke Robot]

I personally like metro design. The essence of it is design that is clean, easy to read typography, and is vibrant, all what software design has lead up to. I think the Start Screen can use more work, that's fairly obvious, the but the at the core, it's what a user interface should be, clean, easy to read, and vibrant.

As for the cloud approach, I doubt Microsoft will really pull a google chrome os on us. They're a software company and they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot like apple does with its hardware suppliers. I'd imagine they take the cloud approach, like in Windows 8, to have user settings and apps and programs be able to be from one local machine to the next. I'd like that, and I'm pretty sure many a IT professional would breathe a sigh of relief in having Windows Live ID accounts take place of networked drives.

This thread reminded me of the envisioned "one system rules them all" approach with metro. Initially, I though it'd be sucky, but thinking about it, it's pretty nice. Windows will literally be everywhere. The Windows Phone 8 will be running most likely the Windows 8 NT kernel. The new Xbox 720 will be running Windows code. And PCs, well yeah. All three different devices have their strengths, the phone being mobility, the Xbox for gaming, and the PC being the combinations of the two along with content creation and productivity. Three different devices will have a similar interface, so no needing to adapt to different controls or wondering, "Why can't this do this when this does this?" type of thing. I for one, will be buying the Kinekt for Windows 8!

 

[lehnerus2000]

I suspect that these new GUIs are designed to "soften the blow" of having to move to a "Cloud" OS.

I say screw the cloud. I want my stuff on my devices.

Absolutely. For my data the cloud is no solution and I don't think the cloud will get much use from desktops.

But for running some heavy hitter applications from a phone or a tablet, it may be ok.

Funnily enough I agree with both of you.

It's strange how phones are getting "smarter" and yet there seems to be a push to make PCs "dumber" (i.e. more like terminals).

As for the cloud approach, I doubt Microsoft will really pull a google chrome os on us.

The "Cloud" is the "Holy Grail" for software makers:

• If you don't get access to the code, you can't pirate it.
• They get to "tax" you every time you use it.

What's cheaper, renting a device (long term) or owning it outright?

 

[dreamer]

Why you people no love for metro

I for one think metro is not a mere eye candy for desktops and laptops.I mean just imagine the possibilities of live tiles showing you the most relevant info without launching any app/software.If developers really create more apps,we could "see" our mails,fb feeds,twitter etc etc right there on the main screen.Also productive applications can be launched/viewed directly from metro.

For those people who hate metro they can revert to traditional desktop by just one click.

Thats just my opinion though.If MS handles it carefully metro might truly turn into game changer.

 

[lehnerus2000]

For those people who hate metro they can revert to traditional desktop by just one click.

You need to hack the "Registry" to get the "Start Menu" back.

Thats just my opinion though.If MS handles it carefully metro might truly turn into game changer.

That is true enough.

However:
Is it an improvement?
Does it boost my productivity?

 

[jimbo45]

I say screw the cloud. I want my stuff on my devices.

Absolutely. For my data the cloud is no solution and I don't think the cloud will get much use from desktops.

But for running some heavy hitter applications from a phone or a tablet, it may be ok.

Funnily enough I agree with both of you.

It's strange how phones are getting "smarter" and yet there seems to be a push to make PCs "dumber" (i.e. more like terminals).

As for the cloud approach, I doubt Microsoft will really pull a google chrome os on us.

The "Cloud" is the "Holy Grail" for software makers:

• If you don't get access to the code, you can't pirate it.
• They get to "tax" you every time you use it.

What's cheaper, renting a device (long term) or owning it outright?

Hi there
Depends on what you mean by "Pirating".
Have you ever heard of the term "Reverse Engineering".

In the early days of PC's when MS was still a fledgling company they designed MSDOS to run on PC's in a similar manner to the original IBM PC. Now IBMDOS in those early days had patented its BIOS .

MSDOS to be compatable had to "reverse Engineer" the BIOS so its own OS could make the appropriate hardware calls and perform in a similar manner to the original IBM DOS.

This actually opened up the whole PC market to 3rd party suppliers -- until that time IBM had a monopoly since nobody else could "replicate" the BIOS.

Today both parties would probably be emplying 1000's of lawyers and clogging up 90% of the worlds court system with obscure "Patent Infringement" cases but at that time IBM and MS actually worked quite closely together.

So if software is being used via the Cloud somebody somewhere will reverse engineer it -- most of the available multi media codecs (both audio and video) that many "Free" players use were probably reverse engineered -- for example if you mount ANY regional encoded DVD as a Virtual DVD drive as an ISO stored on a HDD or USB drive -- just a straight ISO copy -- no decryption / CSS removal etc etc VLC will play it without a problem whatever the firmware setting of your physical DVD drive has.

So the Virtual Drive Mounter can obviously dynamically change the "regional encoding" parameter at will. As this is 3rd party software on W7 there might well be reverse enginerring of the "DVD Firmware regional settings" depending on the DVD being mounted.

However on W8 developer preview edition there is a BUILT in ISO mounter and similarly VLC will play ANY region DVD that is mounted as a Virtual drive -- and I doubt if MS is breaking other people's copyright deliberately too.

However there must have been some reverse engineering here as well to allow multi region playback.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[lehnerus2000]

Hi there
Depends on what you mean by "Pirating".
Have you ever heard of the term "Reverse Engineering".

I have heard of that.
I don't consider "Reverse Engineering" to be pirating.

My bad.
I meant examining the code, so that DRM & anti-counterfeiting measures can be removed.

Also some companies consider everyone to be a IP/software pirate.
Remember WGA on XP?
Remember DRM on music and videos?

Today both parties would probably be emplying 1000's of lawyers and clogging up 90% of the worlds court system with obscure "Patent Infringement" cases but at that time IBM and MS actually worked quite closely together.

Indeed.

However on W8 developer preview edition there is a BUILT in ISO mounter and similarly VLC will play ANY region DVD that is mounted as a Virtual drive -- and I doubt if MS is breaking other people's copyright deliberately too.

However there must have been some reverse engineering here as well to allow multi region playback.

Maybe they're using FOSS/OSS code.

 

[whs]

As it stands right now, the Metro is too cluttered. They seem to make a tile for every .exe - even for an uninstaller .exe. With a full blown system that can be rather annoying. Yes, you can delete the tiles one by one, but that is rather tedious. What would be needed is

1. A 'tile cleaner' that presents a list of all tiles and where I can check off what I want to be deleted

2. A 'tile editor' that allows me to put my own verse into the tile and lets me change the color. That way I could easily make groupings by color

 

[DeaconFrost]

i felt 2011 was apples year imo hopefully they surpass apple and Microsoft brings out some good products

Apples year for what? To offer 6 month old technology at twice the cost? The logo is a status symbol, catering to the non-tech savvy who don't understnd the specs of the computer to being with....or else they'd never justify the cost. All Apple does well is market to create a false perception.

 

[Coke Robot]

Why you people no love for metro

I for one think metro is not a mere eye candy for desktops and laptops.I mean just imagine the possibilities of live tiles showing you the most relevant info without launching any app/software.If developers really create more apps,we could "see" our mails,fb feeds,twitter etc etc right there on the main screen.Also productive applications can be launched/viewed directly from metro.

For those people who hate metro they can revert to traditional desktop by just one click.

Thats just my opinion though.If MS handles it carefully metro might truly turn into game changer.

I agree!

 

[Coke Robot]

i felt 2011 was apples year imo hopefully they surpass apple and Microsoft brings out some good products

Apples year for what? To offer 6 month old technology at twice the cost? The logo is a status symbol, catering to the non-tech savvy who don't understnd the specs of the computer to being with....or else they'd never justify the cost. All Apple does well is market to create a false perception.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!! That's so true!

Noobs..... :sarc:

 

[Coke Robot]

Absolutely. For my data the cloud is no solution and I don't think the cloud will get much use from desktops.

But for running some heavy hitter applications from a phone or a tablet, it may be ok.

Funnily enough I agree with both of you.

It's strange how phones are getting "smarter" and yet there seems to be a push to make PCs "dumber" (i.e. more like terminals).

As for the cloud approach, I doubt Microsoft will really pull a google chrome os on us.

The "Cloud" is the "Holy Grail" for software makers:

• If you don't get access to the code, you can't pirate it.
• They get to "tax" you every time you use it.

What's cheaper, renting a device (long term) or owning it outright?

Hi there
Depends on what you mean by "Pirating".
Have you ever heard of the term "Reverse Engineering".

In the early days of PC's when MS was still a fledgling company they designed MSDOS to run on PC's in a similar manner to the original IBM PC. Now IBMDOS in those early days had patented its BIOS .

MSDOS to be compatable had to "reverse Engineer" the BIOS so its own OS could make the appropriate hardware calls and perform in a similar manner to the original IBM DOS.

This actually opened up the whole PC market to 3rd party suppliers -- until that time IBM had a monopoly since nobody else could "replicate" the BIOS.

Today both parties would probably be emplying 1000's of lawyers and clogging up 90% of the worlds court system with obscure "Patent Infringement" cases but at that time IBM and MS actually worked quite closely together.

So if software is being used via the Cloud somebody somewhere will reverse engineer it -- most of the available multi media codecs (both audio and video) that many "Free" players use were probably reverse engineered -- for example if you mount ANY regional encoded DVD as a Virtual DVD drive as an ISO stored on a HDD or USB drive -- just a straight ISO copy -- no decryption / CSS removal etc etc VLC will play it without a problem whatever the firmware setting of your physical DVD drive has.

So the Virtual Drive Mounter can obviously dynamically change the "regional encoding" parameter at will. As this is 3rd party software on W7 there might well be reverse enginerring of the "DVD Firmware regional settings" depending on the DVD being mounted.

However on W8 developer preview edition there is a BUILT in ISO mounter and similarly VLC will play ANY region DVD that is mounted as a Virtual drive -- and I doubt if MS is breaking other people's copyright deliberately too.

However there must have been some reverse engineering here as well to allow multi region playback.

Cheers
jimbo

I doubt highly that's not Microsoft's approach to software. Of course one could pirate, but there are drawbacks. Firstly, morality of such. If that doesn't stop you, then there's the fact that the pirated software can be detected. If that can be outdone (as it has with Windows 7), you will not be able to connect to an online multiplayer for games, or certain software will not be able to be updated automatically without having to do reinstall the new software with a newer crack.If you're caught uploading software (P2Ping), your internet provider will make you go through some steps to re-enable your internet. If you're caught uploading more times, your provider will terminate your contract with them. Or, if the US congress decides to go with big business and industry, they'll just pass SOPA related bills to make every copyright violation removed from the interweb highway.

Microsoft has taken a passive approach to piracy with Windows 7 though. They'll actually allow updates, to a certain extent with the 1033 update, because if a pirated Windows without the latest security updates fell into the hands of a remote hacker/attacker, there is potential that an array of Windows machines could be infected with some malware to do whatever and that could spread to non-pirated copies of Windows.

I don't foresee Microsoft putting all their software in a cloud environment, maybe somewhat limited versions, but if the cloud rules, a whole computing industry will die. NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, ASUS, Dell, and all their related manufacturers will loss a lot of consumer business. The only thing they could build are chromebooks. Bleh.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The Weirdest Thing

I don't foresee Microsoft putting all their software in a cloud environment, maybe somewhat limited versions, but if the cloud rules, a whole computing industry will die. NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, ASUS, Dell, and all their related manufacturers will loss a lot of consumer business. The only thing they could build are chromebooks. Bleh.

That is the weirdest thing about this "Cloud" nonsense, why aren't all the hardware makers campaigning against it?

 

[dreamer]

Quite late to the reply.
@lehnerus we just have to wait for windows 8 beta to see whether the one click revert to start menu option is there or not.What developer version showed us was a taste of metro and how people will react towards it.

As for the productivity i would say yes.Imagine you don't have to launch any browser to check mail.It sits right there on your tiles and updates automatically as you get new mail.Clicking on tile opens your mail application.

Same goes for your RSS feeds,music,vidoes,netflix etc.The possibilities are endless IMO.This was never seen before on a desktop or laptop computers.One touch access right on your screen will definitively boost productivity.If developers work in seamless co-ordination with MS,even for industries or offices you can have one click solution to various tools and what nots.

Like with all new OS releases its the change behind the scenes that matters like faster boot up times,increased security,fewer hang ups or BSOD,adaptation to newer faster hardware etc.Look at windows 7 it is way better than XP or vista.In same way Windows 8 can improve on 7.

 

[Influx]

Metro UI is just that UI that will look nice to many and bad to much, but will look bad to all afterwards. :/

 

[lehnerus2000]

As for the productivity i would say yes.Imagine you don't have to launch any browser to check mail.It sits right there on your tiles and updates automatically as you get new mail.Clicking on tile opens your mail application.

Same goes for your RSS feeds,music,vidoes,netflix etc.The possibilities are endless IMO.This was never seen before on a desktop or laptop computers.One touch access right on your screen will definitively boost productivity.If developers work in seamless co-ordination with MS,even for industries or offices you can have one click solution to various tools and what nots.

The thing is if you want those things, you can already do them, WITHOUT having to leave your Desktop.

Like with all new OS releases its the change behind the scenes that matters like faster boot up times,increased security,fewer hang ups or BSOD,adaptation to newer faster hardware etc.Look at windows 7 it is way better than XP or vista.In same way Windows 8 can improve on 7.

From my perspective (and I suspect some other people's) they are wasting time (and presumably money) on this Metro UI.

They could be using that time (and money) fixing up various glitches, performance lags and security vulnerabilities that exist in Windows 7 (i.e. so they don't exist in Windows 8).

 

[AllOnTheBus]

From my perspective (and I suspect some other people's) they are wasting time (and presumably money) on this Metro UI.

They could be using that time (and money) fixing up various glitches, performance lags and security vulnerabilities that exist in Windows 7 (i.e. so they don't exist in Windows 8).

I agree whole heartedly. I was one of the people who only had the
good fortune to come into contact with 7 about 18 months back.

I thought - hey - this is great - Vista with all the bugs ironed out
and then next thing I know 8 is on the way.

IMO Windows 8 is looking (and I only say that after viewing images)
like a cheap IPAD lookalike. I have to say that being the clean freak I am
I will have to have the dry cloth and monitor cleaner out every 5 minutes
due to this touchscreen garbage. Seriously, I would prefer to exercise my ring finger double clicking a program shortcut than that (my main mouse clicking finger was looking so fit and now it's gonna gain weight).

We seem to be getting lazier and lazier to the point where I await the arrival of the technology promised me in The Lawnmower Man. I do however want the model where I can lay horizontally on my king size and merely blink to communicate with my system should that become a reality.

Windows should be Windows.
Touchscreen - I'll buy an IPAD if I so please.
Linux - keep that as it once was to and that way we wont have to one day touch the shortcut icon on the Ubuntu desktop to open a Terminal that accepts commands through voice recognition.

 

[whs]

The Lawnmower Man

Yeah, that would be nice. A GPS controlled lawnmover that I can run from my desktop.

 

[Ravi5kumar]

From my perspective (and I suspect some other people's) they are wasting time (and presumably money) on this Metro UI.

They could be using that time (and money) fixing up various glitches, performance lags and security vulnerabilities that exist in Windows 7 (i.e. so they don't exist in Windows 8).

That's what I wanted from Microsoft. I hope Metro UI will be removed form the final version of windows 8!!