Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 28th Nov 2012 15:17 UTC
"As we pass the one month anniversary of the general availability of Windows 8, we are pleased to announce that to-date Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses. Tami Reller shared this news with industry and financial analysts, investors and media today at the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference. Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades." Not bad, but there are the usual asterisks, as Ars notes.
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Member since:2009-08-18
Vista is unfairly picked on. There were only 1 major bug (the file copying), the rest was unpowered machines being sold with it and bad drivers.
Also Windows 2000 and XP were bloody awful at release.
Windows Vista 64bit, used the same kernel as Windows Server 2008 R1 and was damn solid.
RE[2]: Comment by MOS6510
by MOS6510 on Wed 28th Nov 2012 20:06
in reply to "RE: Comment by MOS6510"
Member since:2011-05-12
Yes, but given a choice between XP, Vista and 7, would there by any reason to pick Vista? If the hardware can handle Vista then it should also run 7. XP will run fine on hardware where Vista and 7 don't run well on.
If 8 is added to the list, does it really improve on 7? I don't like the split between Metro and classic. It should be either, not both.
Even if 8 is fine, I'm not sure it currently is a must-have upgrade to 7.
Windows 7 is great and I would have liked Microsoft to have improved upon it and not started the Metro experiment.
Member since:2005-06-29
There were only 1 major bug (the file copying)
Perhaps in your experience, but in mine and thousands more across support forums over the first three years of its release, it had serious issues with WiFi connectivity. Regardless of the chipset, driver, manufacturer or interface, wireless connections with Vista were notoriously unreliable and difficult to diagnose.
It wasn't until the second service pack that these issues were cleared up; apparently there was a nasty bug in the networking stack (I've heard more than one network expert refer to it as "a broken mess"). I ran into this bug again just yesterday, reinstalling Vista Business on a client's laptop. It simply refused to connect via wireless to three different networks, until I connected a hard line and finished all of the Windows updates. Two reboots later, it finally connected successfully to my router and my phone's WiFi tethering.
Vista can be a decent OS once it's set up properly, but with support dropping soon after XP goes to the pasture, it makes no sense to continue using it today. I'd rather someone use Windows 8 than Vista at this point.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.More Features »
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Member since:
2011-05-12
In my personal experience, which may or may not differ from yours, rarely anyone ever buys Windows. Most people buy a PC with Windows pre-installed.
A lot of people don't even know what version of Windows they are using even if it has been Windows XP for the last decade. I doubt these users will suddenly feel an urge to buy a new version of it.
It is interesting to me is the marketshare of XP, Vista and 7. Vista has the smallest, probably because it wasn't very good at the start (it did improve). If Windows 8 also turns out to be not very popular it may also end up with a small share as customers and companies will stick with Windows 7.