Steven Sinofsky, who oversees Windows 7 development, has really committed to keeping us in the loop on the new Engineering Windows 7 blog. In today's post, "Measuring the Scale of a Release," he discusses whether or not Windows 7 will be a "major" or "minor" release. It's a pretty good piece that really makes some good points. Read on for our perspective.
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Member since:2005-04-01
If it's a huge hit that people are willing to pay for, why give it away for free?
Ah... gotta love the Microsoft mentality. Why put something of value into a product when we can gouge our customers for more dollars?
How about because 33% of Vista sales are immediately downgraded to XP? How about because Macs are now the #1 selling laptop in the USA? How about because when people sink their dollars into something as mundane as an OS, they expect it to be truly useful, not come with a shoddy second rate program that they will then have to pay to upgrade to the proper program?
Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
As for the backup, why can I only select broad categories for backup? Does it backup system files? And can I restore my entire PC from it? Who knows? Time Machine works like this:
* plug in external drive
* Do you want to use for Time Machine? Yes.
* Backup
Windows works like this.
* Plug in external drive
* "No, I don't want to open the volume or execute any files"
* Go to Start > Programs > Windows Backup... wait, that's not there
* Go to Start > Programs > Accessories, wait... not there
* Go to Start > Programs > Administrative Tools, wait... not there
* Go to Control Panel
* Click on Backup and Restore Center
* Choose Backup Files (or choose Backup Computer, which creates an image)
* Check things I want to backup
* Set schedule, which can be run once a day at most
Remind me why this is better? Do you know ANYONE AT ALL who uses this as their primary backup method?
Member since:2006-07-04
I see you didn't bother to respond to the antitrust issues that would arise were Microsoft to bundle Outlook. How about actually adressing the issues I raised before starting with the insults?
BTW, you accuse Microsoft of having a mentality of price-gouging while praising Apple, who has a history of charging people for the ability to watch videos in full screen mode??? Which is more petty?
(Regarding your claim that 33% of Vista sals are downgraded to XP, no, it's 35% of "Business" computers that are supposedly downgraded to XP.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sentinel/archives/2008/08/bursting_the_...
This is not a shock since many business wipe whatever is on the drive and install a standard setup provided by the IT dept. I'm surprised that the number was that low.)
Second, I never said Vista's backup functionality was "better" than Time Machine, I just asked you what you thought was wrong with it. Despite your problems with the UI or whatever, many people are using it for backup.
Member since:2006-01-12
Member since:2005-11-10
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
"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."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.
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.
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.
"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."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.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, ...)"."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."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.
Member since:
2006-07-04
What's wrong with it, exactly? It does incremantal backups, uses shadow-copy under the covers, and supports automatic backups that can be scheduled a frequently as the user wants. What's the problem?
While I'm at it, you suggest bundling Outlook (or something as powerful) rather than Winows Mail (which you mistakenly referred to "Windows Live Mail", which is a downloadable desktop client for hotmail and other Live services). There are two problems with this:
1. If Microsoft were to do that, the EU would be levelling a two billion dollar fine the very next day.
2. It makes no sense for Microsoft to do this because Outlook is, as you say, "a for charge add-on that is a huge hit". If it's a huge hit that people are willing to pay for, why give it away for free?