Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 24th Jul 2008 22:04 UTC
As someone who uses Windows Vista practically daily, I've always wondered where all the negativity in the media comes from. Sure, Vista isn't perfect (as if any operating system is), but I just don't see where all the complaints are coming from. It runs just fine on my old (6 years) machine, all my software and hardware is compatible, and it's stable as a rock. Microsoft has been wondering the same thing, and after a little test, they may have found out why people seem to dislike Vista so much.
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RE: It's a marketing problem
by Laurence on Thu 24th Jul 2008 22:42
in reply to "It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2007-03-26
My guess is that one of the reasons "Mojave" got positive feedback was that no one promised the users it would "revolutionize the way you work with computers".
Or it might be because Microsoft controlled the experiment. Users weren't shown the daily complaints about Vista but instead were fast-tracked to the eye candy et al.
Like when I show Linux off to my mates - I don't go "look at me load a Windows wifi driver through the command line" but instead i show them Compiz-Fusion with applications popping out of a rotating cube and windows wobbling as I drag them from one side of the screen to another.
RE: It's a marketing problem
by CrazyDude1 on Thu 24th Jul 2008 23:47
in reply to "It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2007-09-17
IMHO Vista sucked but Vista SP1 is far better. It is not still as stable as XP SP2 but it is much better. I have only had explorer hang on me twice in 2-3 months and outlook hang once. On XP, they never hung in 2-3 years.
I was the one who was forced by my employer to upgrade and as a developer I was really skeptical. But now that I have used vista for few months, I don't think I would go back. The whole experience of Vista is better and the code is much more readable on Vista due to better fonts + rendering.
Edit: Btw one tool without which I wouldn't have liked vista is "vistaglazz". This allowed me to keep transparency enabled when applications are maximized since I always keep my apps maximized and I hated the black border original vista does. Maximized apps are one reason I never liked OSX. Why force these choices on user, I never understand.
Edited 2008-07-24 23:52 UTC
RE[2]: It's a marketing problem
by PJBonoVox on Fri 25th Jul 2008 08:43
in reply to "RE: It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2006-08-14
RE: It's a marketing problem
by google_ninja on Fri 25th Jul 2008 00:52
in reply to "It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2006-02-05
My guess is that one of the reasons "Mojave" got positive feedback was that no one promised the users it would "revolutionize the way you work with computers".
Who doesn't do that though? Apple's ad campeigns are made to make you feel smarter and cooler then your neighbours, hell, firefox 3 claims to give you a whole new internet.
RE[2]: It's a marketing problem
by dreamlax on Fri 25th Jul 2008 08:26
in reply to "RE: It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2007-01-04
General rules of thumb:
The word "then" is always related to time.
"It happened then."
"Back then, things were better quality."
The word "than" is always related to comparisons.
"It was better than yesterday."
"Back then, things were better quality than they are today."
Edited 2008-07-25 08:27 UTC
RE[2]: It's a marketing problem
by bornagainenguin on Sat 26th Jul 2008 20:04
in reply to "RE: It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2005-08-07
google_ninja said...
Who doesn't do that though? Apple's ad campeigns are made to make you feel smarter and cooler then your neighbours, hell, firefox 3 claims to give you a whole new internet.
I was with you until you brought in Firefox....
Go ahead and download the latest Firefox. Install it and head over to addons.mozilla.org and install the following extensions:
Adblock Plus
Adblock Element Hider
No Squint
Stylish
OPTIONAL:
No Script
CustomizeGoogle
BugMeNot
After you get all that done, and selected a few basic lists for adblock Plus to use, hit up userstyles.org for some of your favorite sites to see how different they can be!
If that isn't a whole new internet, I don't know what is!
--bornagainpenguin
RE: It's a marketing problem
by Clinton on Sat 26th Jul 2008 01:29
in reply to "It's a marketing problem"
Member since:2005-07-05
My guess is that one of the reasons "Mojave" got positive feedback was that no one promised the users it would "revolutionize the way you work with computers".
I agree with you.
I think Microsoft really shot themselves in the foot with Vista. Probably 20% of the things people hate about Vista are technological and 80% were caused by marketing. However, that 20% is stuff that stares you in the face on a daily basis.
I know this is a small thing, but the thing that pisses me off most about Vista whenever I have to use it is the sidebar disappears when you click the "Show Desktop" button in the Start bar. The Sidebar should be part of the desktop and be there when you show the desktop. The current functionality is just wrong. Maybe you can configure it somewhere, but this is the default behavior and I don't use Windows enough to want to learn how to tweak it.
There are a lot of other things like that too. Vista is a decent OS, but there's just a lot of stuff that was poorly thought out from a usability standpoint, I think.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."More News »
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Member since:
2005-11-11
My guess is that one of the reasons "Mojave" got positive feedback was that no one promised the users it would "revolutionize the way you work with computers".
They probably also didn't get to see this first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ifQvQCO7Y to get their hopes up.
And finally, they probably didn't have to wait for a few years before getting to try it out.
Vista isn't bad, and in my opinion it's probably the best from Microsoft so far, but you're not going to make people happy with something good (a few years late) if you promised them something wonderful.
Microsoft's biggest problem with Vista is their own marketing who managed to make people upset with something that actually isn't bad.