Ars Technica Reviews Leaked Windows 8.1 Update 194
A reader writes to note that ArsTechnica's Peter Bright has reviewed the leaked Windows 8.1 update that was temporarily available from Microsoft's own servers. Here's how the article starts: "Leaks of upcoming versions of Microsoft's software are nothing new, but it's a little surprising when the source is Microsoft itself. The Spring update to Windows 8.1, known as Update 1, was briefly available from Windows Update earlier this week. The update wasn't a free-for-all. To get Windows Update to install it, you had to create a special (undocumented, secret) registry key to indicate that you were in a particular testing group; only then were the updates displayed and downloadable. After news of this spread, Microsoft removed the hefty—700MB—update from its servers, but not before it had spread across all manner of file-sharing sites... Just because it was distributed by Windows Update doesn't mean that this is, necessarily, the final build, but it does present a good opportunity to see what Microsoft is actually planning to deliver."
Nobody cares (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to me it's more hate for Windows 8 than it's hate for Microsoft.
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Informative)
That's the real point. I use Windows 7 and it's actually ok. I had Win8 on one of several machines, and after struggling with it for months, finally installed Windows 7 Pro and called it good. They can call it Microsoft Hate if they want (which is really the geek equivalent of hollering "racism") but it's really Windows 8 that sucks.
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Insightful)
I have extended family members. One daughter got a new Windows 8 tablet/ultrabook Lenovo hybrids for Christmas and loves it. She brings it out in the island in the kitchen to browse facebook, do homework with MS Word, etc. Her mom grabbed it for recipes, they used it for skype more relatives, her brother kept fighting to use it for things.
I mentioned how HORRIBLE ITS UI was and offered to put Windows 7 on. They looked at me like EWW that GUI is for old people that doesn't run applets.
Like the EEE it is super portable.
The issue us geeks need to use muscle memory to relearn something and we used to laugh at those who could not adopt to change. Now the joke is on us.
The millennials like their apps, tiny sizes, portability, long battery life, etc.
Windows 9 will be a refined balanced UI. Tile applets on a Windows 7 desktop if you plug in the keyboard and mouse (mouse-first UI) if rumors are true. MS nees an answer to iOS and Android with battery life, smooth graphics acceleration, and applets. It is NOT GOING AWAY.
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It's possible (billly gates??) that this is a joke and it's gone zoom! right over my head. But assuming for a moment it's legit:
Yeah, sorry, that's a made-up story. Test by: (1) the great majority hate Windows 8 as you're well aware. The story of people loving 8 is usually some kid who just can't put it down, and how it's old fogeys who can't move with the times who want their start button back. That story is getting old. (2) "Windows 9 will be a refined balanced UI" etc etc, something that neither yo
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Interesting)
my very non technical mate got a sony vaio flip thing 10 days or so ago with windows 8 installed. he LOVES it, despite complaining non stop, it also auto updated itself this week, i think to 8.1, he certainly didnt do any registry hacks but had a text rendering issue with chrome that is apparently an issue caused by 8.1?
ive had a play and i dont really see the problem, sure its a bit different but its not a world ending calamity, i do prefer my mac tho
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for me, it's that I fired it up, and a whole bunch of relatively important functionality is hidden. There is no real visual indication that "if you have the mouse in this corner, a bunch of options you probably want to use, will appear".
It's like they saw Apple's Dock, and that it could be hidden, and said, let's use that UI, only it will default to be hidden, and we won't tell the user about it. It's like a game of "Where's Waldo", only with basic Windows functions.
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Strange, the first time you log on there is supposed to be a quick tutorial showing the hover features. I decided when I built my new computer to jump to 8.1. I wouldn't have jumped to 8 though but I have to say it's fine once you get used to the changes. I do admit some of the changes left me scratching my head but I am sure if moving to another OS I would have gone through the same familiarization. With that in mind, I could see this being a point where people choose to move elsewhere since it's almost th
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There's a difference between Win8.1 and 8.1 pack 1, anyone with Win8 can get 8.1 for free.
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Actually, even that isn't true. I live in China where legit software is hard to come by.
So you're complaining about buying non-legit software, and all the rest. You could have bought it like most people did from MS, hell you could have bought it dirt cheap for your region directly from MS. If MS got one thing right, it was charging $5(USD) for a copy in China/India/Pakistan when they had the "upgrade" offer over a year ago.
Re: Nobody cares (Score:2)
I know it's surprising to you, but some people like the new UI. Or don't hate it enough to bitch about it all the time.
Sqeaky wheels...
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Not the point. If you look hard enough, you'll find fans of every single product Microsoft farts out, including ME and Microsoft Bob. With a large enough installed base, it approaches a statistical certainty that someone somewhere enjoyed it, no matter how odious. Just as the world's least liked food is probably enjoyed by a few individuals.
But the stories of people who "love" windows 8 have a sameness about them that seems to indicate that (a) they're oft-repeated stories about the same person, or (b) t
Re: Nobody cares (Score:2)
Or some people just like it and learn how to use it. No script necessary.
I'll agree that there always room for improvement, though.
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j don't believe that one either.
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Funny)
Bill Gates? Is that really you?
Only a few weeks ago you were having no end of problems [newyorker.com] with Windows 8.
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of what you wrote is typical shill-chow, but I want to stomp this one tidbit in the bud:
The issue us geeks need to use muscle memory to relearn something and we used to laugh at those who could not adopt to change. Now the joke is on us.
Now this is funny, because I find myself learning new GUIs on a very regular basis (the latest? This month is all about learning VMWare vCloud Automation Center. A few months ago, it was all about Cisco UCS Manager.)
I also know the Metro GUI very well - and I've discovered something: I really, really detest computing-by-easter-egg.
Mind you, it's 500x worse with having to use that stupid wasteful GUI on a server. (Yes, I know all about the mantra of "OMG use PowerShell and Core!!!111!!" but we both know that's bullshit, nobody does it on any serious scale, and it completely guts the Microsoftie argument of "OMG you have to use a command prompt in Leenux!!111!!" - but I digress.)
Point is, many of us who detest that abortion of a UI have already had to work with it, we know it, and we think it still sucks in spite of knowing it.
If some of the ordinary user crowd loves it, hey - well and good. Thing is, the majority does not, and for good reason.
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"Windows 9 will be a refined balanced UI. Tile applets on a Windows 7 desktop if you plug in the keyboard and mouse (mouse-first UI) if rumors are true. MS nees an answer to iOS and Android with battery life, smooth graphics acceleration, and applets. It is NOT GOING AWAY."
Honestly if Metro doesn't go away, I will... lol
Away to Linux or Android...
That will be a while though as they will have to pry Windows 7 from my cold dead hands.
It's pretty sad, I do love me some Windows and I have been using it for a lo
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Honestly if Metro doesn't go away, I will... lol
Away to Linux or Android...
That will be a while though as they will have to pry Windows 7 from my cold dead hands.
It's pretty sad, I do love me some Windows and I have been using it for a long long time since the 3.11 days, I even liked Windows ME. But I just can't love Windows 8 and it's abomination of a UI. I can't count how many times I have installed Classic Shell in Windows 8 machines because the owners couldn't stand Metro.
http://www.classicshell.net/ [classicshell.net]
I am sure it is fantastic on a tablet though? I have an Android tablet so yeah.... I am already in the process of ditching Windows :( If my PC didn't function as my home server and general PC work, I would probably be trying to figure out some way to go Android PC right now.
Yeah, I could have written this. I've heard arguments that "oh, you W8 haters just don't like change". True, people are generally resistant to change, but I don't think I necessarily reject all change out of hand. I liked the Vista-style Aero visual improvements (never cared for XP's look), although the OS performed poorly and had lots of small problems. I did like the improvements to the task bar in Windows 7 as well. I thought the Ribbon interface in Office was a necessary and fairly bold step in UI
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I loved Vista, but I also beefed up my machine before it launched with an extra 4GB's of RAM and a better video card (brought me up to 8GB's).
Mostly the people who hated Vista had 4GB's or less of RAM and shitty video cards, toss in some off brand sound card with no driver support and no Direct Sound (MS removed it from Direct X for some odd reason. I have heard rumors it was some sort of feud with Creative?)
At launch with Vista you needed 8GB's to fully enjoy it, and if you did have 8GB's it was a buttery
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OMG. Dude that is horrible back in 2006 era requirements. You are looking at it with 2014 colored glasses.
Keep in mind most computers which were new at the store (not even mentioning existing ones!)only had between 512 - 1 gig in late 2006! A few workstations had 2 gigs of ram as high end gaming or video editing systems. Core2Duo's were brand new and expensive with no mobile versions yet. Pentium M's and Pentium IV's were still being sold as core2duo's were the luxury items for power users. To have that ju
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Naaahh I was running a Pentium D (dual core Pentium 4 pretty much.) 3.6Ghz OC'ed to 4Ghz on a 1,066Mhz bus with 8GB's of RAM (4 full slots)
for Video I want to say I was still running my antique at the time 9800 Pro 128MB but I was probably running an X1950 either at launch or shortly after.
That was back in 2006 back when if you wanted a gaming PC you needed to upgrade your PC every 2 years.
So no I am not looking back with 2014 glasses lol But hey if you just got a PC with lots of RAM and a decent video card
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I built a brand new core2duo in October of 2006 with XP. Recalling from memory it had 1 gig of ram,(maybe 2 ??) NVidia GTX 7600, its hard disk size I do not remember as this pc did not last long. My wife at the time was not happy at the price tag which was $1300 after everything (I already had a monitor) CRT style. Very good gaming PC. Not freaking awesome like yours, but hey it can run WOW, battlefield 2, and other mid 2000's decade titles very well.
I also bought a laptop for school early that summer in 20
Re:Nobody cares (Score:5, Informative)
As an older guy who has received an Unltrabook recently, and trying do do production work instead of consuming media, I had some issues. Installing older paralell port printers attached to my LAN via Trendnet or other devices proved to be very difficult. Visiting the manufacture of the printers for updated drivers was a total failure. As mentioned, there is a learning curve. To get the drivers, you have to use Windows Update instead. Trying to sort a list of files proved difficut too. A long list has the traditional scroll bars on the right just where you expect them. Dragging the bar does scroll the list, but at the top and bottom are the two buttons which also used to scroll the list without dragging, usefull if you only want to scroll small distances in a long list. Unfortunately in Windows 8 they are only decorations with no function. You either need a touch screen to scroll the list, or highlight a file and arrow up/down through the list, which defeats picking multiple files for copy by Control Click. A small wiggle on a extended list can scroll it by several hundred items making picking files difficult.
Maybe there is a trick to this I haven't learned other than drag drop each by itself..
The touch screen is not the preferred method of picking files from a list. My fingers are about 5 lines tall. A mouse is a much better and precise way to do fine motor skills. Photo editing suffers the interface issue too.
I tried to burn some CD's from a band I recorded. Windows 8 had a serious issue with my external USB DVD drive. Using Windows Media Player had no problem burning ONE disk. The media player on the left side properly identified if the drive contained a music CD, Data CD, or Blank CD. The information IS NOT passed to the right side which stubbornly recommended I insert a Blank CD before I could burn another. I went back to a Windows 7 machine which did properly recognise blank disks in the right side. Too bad they didn't keep Windows 7 functionality in the Window 8 Media Player.
In a nutshell, don't ditch your other machines when you get a Windows 8 machine. You may need the older machines to do older tech stuff like burning CD's, sorting photos, editing audio tracks, editing photos, etc. The Windows 8 machine is a great Facebook, Skype, social media and connected machine, but for production, keep your other hardware.
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I was going to say this update fixes this and puts the functionality including booting to desktop back in. Do not know about burning CD's.
What this tells mere weeks away from BUILD where Windows 9 will be demo'd is that MS is backtracking for desktop users.
I still use Windows7 as I am not ready to switch but at least desktop users are being acknowledged.
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In all seriousness, it's past time to retire your old parallel-port printers. Those USB adapters are bandaids and don't work well to begin with no matter what operating system you're using.
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Because all modern USB-compatible printers are $100 pieces of shit, obviously. Idiot.
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Idiot. Grandparent's got an ultrabook. Ultrabooks haven't parallel ports and often enough don't have ExpressCard slots either. USB->parallel converters are uniformly shit, and aside from Thunderbolt in the high-end models, Ultrabooks only have USB and video-out ports.
If grandparent had a different sort of laptop that had an ExpressCard slot, he could find a better-quality adapter such as this one: http://www.startech.com/Cards-... [startech.com] and then he could keep his old tank of a printer with nary a complaint
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I have a wireless LAN. I can use the Ultrabook, Netbooks, Subnotebook, etc in a recliner, no cords. Using printer, NAS, etc is all wireless. The printers sit on a shelf out of the way. Cutter is moved to the closet. Ok I have to get up to retrive a print job, but that is much better than damaged USB ports on a laptop. Yes I have several machines as some are optimised for specific tasks and backup for the new machine when it fails to perform. I have Ubuntu, Linux Mint, XP, Windows 7, and the Ultrabook
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On printers, I prefer them wired to my LAN. Interface is unimportant other than the correct Net printer protocol for a network port has to be used in addition to adding the printer to the Network Printer Port. My comment orignally was in regards to finding the PRINTER driver, not finding it's LAN port.
Comments regarding older printer is right on. The laser printer was an office tank. Toner carts are less than 1/3 the price of ONE Color ink cart for my inkjet. Drafts are defalted to the laser. OEM price
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I agree with your observations, but not with you conclusions.
It's true that, especially for touch-screen capable devices, Windows 8 satisfies the casual user and less computer-savvy. The only reason these people find it usable is the ease of which one can launch a basic selection of apps from the Metro UI. It's like having a big program launcher / menu system bolted onto the front of everything.
The millennials are pretty fixated on "cloud based services and apps" right now. You could give them a modern day
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"When I compare Windows 8 to Apple's approach with OS X for desktops and iOS for smaller devices, the Apple method makes a lot more sense to me."
IMO you can see computing portability as a spectrum, at one end you have the desktop (highly capable, not portable at all), at the other you have the smartphone (highly portable but very restricted capabilities). In between you have a whole plethora of devices of different prices, capabilites and levels of portability.
Apples soloution is to draw the line between ta
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I do not praise it.
However, it was a wake up call for me.
Here is what is nice about a tiny netbook and tablet with touch. PORTABILITY. It is like a cell phone but bigger and can do real work. Windows 7 and Gnome 2 are nice if you have lots of regular apps (not applets) with a dock/taskbar in a system of organization to launch things right?
Starting with win 7 I just type what I want and rarely use anything on the start menu. I occasionally do when I need a component or something. I use jumplists. If Metro ap
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They looked at me like EWW that GUI is for old people that doesn't run applets.
Like the EEE it is super portable.
The issue us geeks need to use muscle memory to relearn something and we used to laugh at those who could not adopt to change. Now the joke is on us.
Yes, the joke is on us when "Wahhhh! My computer isn't working - fix it! FIX IT!" OMG I can't get to Facebook and Twitter"
"Sorry honey, I don't do system 8. " I relish the day when that joke is on me. "Fix your own computer smart trendy person who can adopt to change!" Looks like you're going to adapt to learning your own trendy computer".
You are quite simply wrong. Thinking that W8 hate is an inability to adapt to change is silly. It's like bringing out the Pontiac Aztek, and saying "This is the
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you have told her its a Windows tablet and not an iPad, right?
See the millenials don't want the old desktop UIs - fair enough - but then they don't care that its Microsoft either. I think its more us oldies who care that it runs Word, the kids will just fire up whatever app there is that does the equivalent and use that, assuming they even bother to use an app and not some web page instead.
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In the 20 years I've been using computers, the only people I've ever heard say, "That computer is for old people" are fellow geeks.
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Accounting... don't forget the accounting excuse...
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So your argument is M$ is going for the computer dummies and quite basically fuck the power users. Why be fucking asshats, why not a second interface, seriously fuck M$ and their desire to force a 'PHONE' interface on the desktop in some crazy fuckarse scheme to force people to become accustomed to windows phones and the buy them like mindless idiots.
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This is what I keep thinking but dont say.
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The thing is there is a non-trivial number of computer users that used Win9x extensively and then 2000/XP and everything else after that who are used to that "old GUI". Honestly I think that old GUI is much better suited to any task that is complex enough to require the user to operate multiple different applications together to achieve a higher goal. I suspect that your teenage daughter's most complex computing task is typing her school papers. She probably doesn't create a whole lot of diagrams and pic
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I agree with you that you can do lots of entertaining things on a tablet or phone interface and that is great for domestic consumers. However they are locked out of any expectation of creative use of computing by the interface and applets. Its sad that it took only 20 years for the internet to become no more than a metro app.
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The issue us geeks need to use muscle memory
No it isn't. The issue is that us geeks do real work and have things called 'files' on the computer.
I'm sure Windows 8 is fine for using Facebook and playing online games.
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The issue us geeks need to use muscle memory
No it isn't. The issue is that us geeks do real work and have things called 'files' on the computer.
I'm sure Windows 8 is fine for using Facebook and playing online games.
Could, in a rhetorical question work in an environment that is more polished where applets, touch, as well as opening files work in a GUI? Windows 8 was not the best and implementation could have been very different. However I can open files just fine on a VM running 8.
For the record I use Windows 7 and CentOS with gnome 2. I am not ready for this change either, but I am open after seeing this. These kids are starting to enter the workforce and in a few short years start to influence purchasing decisions at
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Could be. But did anybody ask her if she'd have preferred a Windows 7 laptop plus a nexus 7 tablet for the same price? Then she wouldn't have to lug around this 11 or 13 inch ultrabook just to look at recipes in the kitchen. It sounds like she's using it as though it's two separate devices - which it kind of is (that's the problem with Windows 8 and Metro). I'm sure you (assuming you bought the Christmas gift) thought it was a great solution, but unless there's little to no price premium for these thing
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Agreed.
And its big things which makes Windows 8 sucky, such as the lack of easy ad-hoc connections. Nobody has been using this for wireless anyway, but, some wireless devices require adhoc for initial configuration (such as the Global Cache Wireless products). There is no real legitimate reason to remove this.
Whats even more concerning is that during testing, Microsoft didn't realise that people would require google to find the power-off button. Whilst this is finally being fixed, usability problems such as
Re:Nobody cares (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a friend with an Asus Transformer hybrid and he likes Windows 8, but it's also exactly the kind of device it's designed for. The hate comes from trying to force everyone down that road, I mean if you big non-touch monitors then you don't want the tablet interface. I don't want to use it at work. I don't want to use it on my gaming/workstation rig. I might want to use it on an alternative to having an iPad or Android tablet. Sadly Microsoft knows they can totally ignore that market and it's not going anywhere. No, really it's not. Most of the "heavy" users are so stuck with Windows-only thick clients it'll take ages to migrate to something else. See Vista, it sucked donkey balls. Did users leave the Windows platform? Largely no. I left Windows in favor of Linux for 3.5 years and came back to Windows 7.
I hate to say it to geeks but if you look at Microsoft's stock performance they're still making money hand over fist despite what geeks think about Win8. They're not hurting. They're not failing. We hate them but Apple has largely abandoned the professional market (one trashcan design swallow does not a summer make) and Linux well I probably don't need to tell you about the current holy wars between Unity and Gnome 3.0 and KDE and whatnot chasing the tablet, nobody is taking charge to kill Microsoft on the desktop. I don't understand why everybody is leaping after the next big thing, it also means the competition will be intense. Why not try to outflank your competition or hit them in the rear in the markets they mostly ignore? When giants clash it's best not to be an ant with delusions of grandeur, you're likely to get stomped.
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I hate to say it to geeks but if you look at Microsoft's stock performance they're still making money hand over fist despite what geeks think about Win8
Go read their annual report. About 60% of their operating income comes from MS Office. Another 30% comes from Servers and Tools - SQL Server, VS .NET, Azure, etc. And yes they do a good job with those. Windows division revenue is flat, while operating income is down - "primarily due to higher cost of revenue and sales and marketing expenses". Bing has been a disaster for years in their "Online and Services Division" and Xbox is a drop in the bucket overall.
So stock is doing well but its not because
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Windows 7 was the first version of Windows I actually enjoyed using since Windows 2000. Microsoft lost me when they came out with Windows XP and I switched to Linux. I would never have considered going back to Microsoft, but then Gnome and Unity both tried to force their own vision of Metro on me. I used Windows 7 in the office, and was actually ready to buy a new computer and go back to Windows. But, when I showed up with my money, there were no Windows 7 computers to be had, and I needed a laptop, so
Xubuntu (Score:4)
Gnome and Unity both tried to force their own vision of Metro on me.
When Ubuntu 11.10 started pushing Un(usabil)ity harder, I just did sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop and never looked back.
Posted from my Dell Inspiron mini running Xubuntu 12.04 LTS
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I've been running 8.1 on my work computer since it came out. It's really not bad with Classic Shell installed to give it a sane interface again. I never even see the Start Screen, by choice.
Re:Nobody cares (Score:4)
I am... A future where MS is driven out of the consumer market.
Android is all maximized all the time (Score:2)
That's why Android is expanding to desktop computers. It's more capable in both roles than Windows 8
Let me know when Android can even put two windows on the screen. RIght now, only select apps for select Samsung devices can do that. Unless an app uses a multi-window mode flag in its XML manifest, it's allowed to assume that the screen size will never change after installation, and only Samsung devices honor that flag. Use a non-Samsung device or an app by someone who doesn't have a Samsung device on which to test, and it's all maximized all the time. At least Windows 8/8.1 (x86 and x86-64) can go back to
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Let me know when Android can even put two windows on the screen
My Galaxy Note II can do that.
I said other than Samsung (Score:2)
only Samsung devices honor that flag. Use a non-Samsung device or an app by someone who doesn't have a Samsung device on which to test, and it's all maximized all the time.
My Galaxy Note II can do that.
I already mentioned your Galaxy Note II. Let me know when the majority of new Android tablets from more than one major manufacturer support multi-window mode.
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Let me know when Android can even put two windows on the screen.
2012 called and wants its ignorance back.
http://liliputing.com/2013/09/... [liliputing.com]
Alright there Mister Patronising... Not really Android is it though? When Android for vast majority of devices effectively means stock+tweaks+Google Play, solutions that are only for manufacturers to implement is a bit useless for the rest of us, isn't it?
Let me know when I can buy such a device (Score:2)
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+1 to this, I have no problems whatsoever with Windows 7 and use it every day as my primary OS. But I wouldn't use Windows 8 even if someone paid me to use it.
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Power button. (Score:3, Informative)
As someone who DID spend time looking for how to shut down the first time (alt+f4 to the rescue) I'd booted Win 8, thank you MS for making it more obvious.
The writers idea that you'd just hit the power button is idiotic. I would NOT expect to get an orderly shutdown from that (possibly because that's how I have my "BIOS" configured). If I don't know for sure, I won't do it. I'm going to gamble with my filesystem, am I?
Re:Power button. (Score:5, Informative)
Windows Control Panel - Power Options (reachable directly by Start search since Vista, of course) - "Choose what the power buttons do" - "When I press the power button:" [Do Nothing | Sleep | Turn Off]. This is on my desktop which boots from an SSD, so I disabled Hibernate, but normally that would be there too. The default option is Turn Off.
This has been there since *at least* Windows 2000. Congratulations, you're almost 1.5 decades behind the times...
Re:Power button. (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry to self-reply, but a bit more info:
You can also configure the Sleep button (if you have one in hardware, or have one on your keyboard as many users will) and the lid-close action (if you have a laptop). So for example, you can make closing the lid just go quickly to sleep, but taking the time to press a button first cause a full hibernate. It's also very handy to have the power button configured for a (reasonably safe) shutdown; it can be used to get the machine out of various states where the UI is hung so you can't use a normal software shut down, but don't want to hard-kill the machine (which is pretty much never a good idea).
Oh, and every single computer I've seen since I first found this feature also supports press-and-hold on Power to do a hard shutoff anyhow, in case the system is *so* frozen that it can't even turn itself off (or in case there's some process which is continually aborting the shutdown).
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Cool, good for you. I don't know why the hell you'd map Power to Sleep when I guarantee that your laptop's keyboard already has a Sleep key, but hey, whatever. I wasn't talking to you, though, I was talking to the AC who was complaining that they don't know what happens when they hit the Power button. You obviously do know, so why the fuck talk back at me like I'm trying to tell you how to do things?
Not all laptops have a sleep key (Score:2)
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Huh... every device I've seen with a dedicated keyboard either had an actual key or (more often) a simple key chord (Fn+F3 or similar) for sleep. Odd.
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"almost 1.5 decades"? Almost 2. August next year will be 20 years since Windows 95 was released.
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Here's the issue: Everyone can configure it differently.
And for many geeks, we end up being tech-support for friends so we can't risk learning a muscle-memory default that might be wrong elsewhere.
So as a result, if it's customizable we tend to disable everything we can on our own hardware and only learn the one sure-fire way to do something elsewhere.
And for 1.5 decades, yes, it was "start menu... power buttons right there" as the safe way to guarantee something would shut down cleanly. So that became our
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The sleep you describe sounds a lot like hibernate. Sleep shouldn't need time to load crap into memory because it never unloaded memory - it should use the minimum power necessary to maintain state.
What maybe should happen is that after sleeping due to, say, lid closure, if the lid has been closed for a specified interval (say, 20 minutes), the state is also saved to the hibernate file, and after some further interval (say, an hour), the power to maintain sleep is also cut.
There seems to have been a mixin
If you need to search it's broken (Score:2)
Re:Power button. (Score:5, Informative)
press windows+r for the run prompt
type "shutdown -s -t 0" and it will magically shutdown. Works for all version of Windows since 2000. Maybe earlier NT versions too.
You can use -r to reboot instead of -s
It's pretty much the same as linux, except "-t 0" is equivalent to "now" and -s for shutdown instead of -h for halt
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If that's too hard to remember, you can put the command into a file called "halt.bat" or similar, move it to somewhere in your PATH, and then type "halt" in your terminal window.
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Don't even actually have to use Run (Win+R); the Start search accepts command line arguments. So WinKey and just type the command works fine too.
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Windows NT has had a journaling FS since its introduction in 1993.
But (on any OS) a journaling FS usually just means that the file system metadata itself is consistent; most journaling FSs don't journal data changes as well, so you could have a half-committed change to the contents of a file from a program. Even if it did, that still doesn't guarantee that a program will issue file operations in a way that has any chance of being considered atomic.
You could make an argument that journaling fixes some of the
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Uh... if that's an OS cache, your OS has serious problems (and you have a LOT of RAM). If that's on-disk cache... where do you buy your disks?!? Mine has 64MB of cache, that's it...
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Microsoft didn't copy HPFS, they wrote it.
Doesn't put the HP in HPFS (Score:2)
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I don't know, it was 25 years ago.
Reviewer hates users (Score:2, Insightful)
I couldn't get through the article. The reviewer seemed positively baffled about changes that would give more control to the user. Why would anyone want that? He kept asking. Yeah that's how Microsoft used to think throughout the past 2 decades, it's time for them and you to get past that ridiculous mindset. Give MORE control to the users, not less. And make MORE information available to the users; stop hiding things behind registry keys, obscure log files, and generic and highly misleading error messages.
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Apple made it's bank on a decision, in the early 2000's, to treat it's user base as lobotomised retarded proto-lifeforms.
Still pissed off about the industry moving away from CP/M, I see.
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I don't really agree with you. In 2000 Apple gave the world a powerful commercial UNIX workstation OS that "just worked," along with a fantastic IDE and development tools for free. There were lots of things in there for power users that may not have been advertised or easily discovered, but they were there and documented somewhere if you knew how to look.
Now, the workstation OS started going to shit as you described after they moved to intel, supposedly Mavericks fixes that a bit. I don't know, never owned
Harps on about power button (Score:4, Insightful)
Does anyone with a desktop machine actually _want_ to use the power button to turn off the machine? Personally, mine is tucked away under my desk well out of convenient reach.
Keypress turns the damn thing on, start-> shutdown turns the damn thing off.
Only time the power button gets used is if the machine freezes and need a kick.
Oh my god (Score:5, Funny)
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It didn't seem to me that he was critical of Microsoft as much as he was desktop users. I could barely get through the article due to rage, but this is how I parsed it:
"Look at all these redundant features Microsoft felt they had to add to appease stupid desktop users who haven't learned anything from Vista's UI 7 years ago. These users need to go away, they are forcing Microsoft to clutter up my Metro!
Look, a power button! A power button for Ballmer's sake! Who the hell needs that? If you are a laptop us
True (Score:2)
Re:True (Score:4, Funny)
It is probably because he is trying to defend himself instead of Microsoft, which means he needs to defend his previous defences of Windows 8.
Funny stuff.
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posting from windows 8 (Score:4, Interesting)
- install a start menu replacement to get application menus back. Application menus are handy when one has a number of applications with similar names.
- disable search and system speed jumps. Don't use it anyway, and it's pointless for a programmer like me.
- constant delays in performing tasks
- chrome can open 1/10 the tabs of linux on same hardware. That's perhaps a bad sign.
I've actually found my ability to work effectively on this platform has degraded to the point I just don't anymore.
I now use windows as a game platform and occasional (and frustrating) web browsing.
With Steam (etc), the issue with not being able to find my applications anymore stopped being relevant - I stopped using them under windows at all.
so when I want to do real browsing, real programming, or pretty much anything other than playing games, it's back to Mint for me. (because I similarly find unity and other "tablet" interfaces - interfaces less useful and intuitive than either IOS or Android - pointless)
Start Menu Search (Score:3)
Perhaps this is speculation too far, but this pair of changes almost suggests that many Windows users haven't changed the way they use the operating system—or their computers—since the mid 1990s. The Windows Vista-era mechanism of "Start and then type," now seven-years-old, apparently hasn't caught on and quite plausibly isn't even known by many Windows users.
Am I missing something important, or does this idea where you're expected to type the thing you want to do kind of abandon the whole point of using a GUI instead of a command line?
I'm not exactly opposed to having the feature there, but if you automatically have to resort to it, then your GUI needs to be reconsidered.
Re:Start Menu Search (Score:4, Insightful)
When you find a command line that lets me launch programs by typing the first few letters of any word in their name (in the case of multiple results it defaults to the one you run most often), let me know, OK? Oh, and by name I don't mean just the binary name, but the program's full name and any description you've given it in the Start menu/screen.
I mean, I use command line stuff a fair bit. I've got two windows of cmd and one of bash open right now, and I'm surprised I've only got one session of the latter running. But, that's mostly developer stuff (Visual Studio Tools in the one, manpages in the other; yes I write portable code in VS). Aside from programs that are inherently CLI-based though (like man), I rarely launch programs from the CLI. It's much faster to hit the WinKey and type "not" [ENTER] than to switch to a command line and type "notepad++" (even with command completion, which will get stuck on other expansions) and that assumes Notepad++ is in my path.
Still crap (Score:5, Insightful)
Wake me up, when they concede to bring the Windows 7 start MENU back.
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Given the normal response patterns when someone complains at a Linux installation your inability to install the free Classic start menu feels odd.
This is a Microsoft-unsupported shell tweaking application that Microsoft can break at any time.
I don't want to support Windows 8 by purchasing, UNTIL the user experience is good out of the box.
Summary: still a rightfully maligned pile of shit (Score:2)
I read the article on Ars the other day. 8.1 has not really improved, it has just made some small, and ultimately meaningless, concessions to address a small number of complaints. The result is an awkward juxtaposition of UI paradigms that just makes things worse.
I see a lot of harping on here about how geeks should just accept it. Why? Why should I accept this inferior bullshit that malevolently decides to randomly screw with me when I'm trying to actually get things done?
I can accept change when it is
Wrong approach for PCs (Score:2)
A marginal improvement on a poor OS (Score:2)
My wife has Windows 8.1 which installed itself last night without asking on her new ultrabook with Windows 8. It's a pretty unusable OS. The tiled front screen is full of spam with no obvious way to remove anything. No obvious way to shut it down. I gave up working out how to uninstall software. The new added Start button is a help but the whole UI experience is awful. Also Chrome is messed up out of the box, everything looks blurred compared to IE, but fixable through some options. They have a LONG way to
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Reading the comments to this article confirm this like nothing else I've seen.
Christ, it's a shitty operating system, marginally better than Windows 7, and you're making out like someone's raped your sister and then tweezed your nose hair. For fuck's sake, get some perspective.
I mean, do operating systems even matter any more? The only people who care about this are the sad sacks that do corporate end-user support...Oh wait, that's it isn't it? You have a sh