Windows 8.1 Passes Windows Vista In Market Share 249
An anonymous reader writes "With the release of Windows 8.1 to the world in October, January was the third full month of availability for Microsoft's latest operating system version, which was just enough time for it to pass Windows Vista in market share. While Windows 8.1 is certainly growing steadily and eating into Windows 8s share, the duo only managed to end 2013 with 10 percent market share, barely impacting Windows 7."
LOL (Score:4, Interesting)
Wake me when it passes XP
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
Wake me when it passes XP
Well, that was the most funny bit in the article: XP is on the rise.
Windows XP meanwhile managed to regain some share after falling below the 30 percent mark at the end of 2013, increasing 0.25 percentage points (from 28.98 percent to 29.23 percent).
Re:LOL (Score:5, Interesting)
Chances are this will be from the folks who have no migration path from the software they're using, and they're unwilling to drop it because it "does what it needs to do." We're in a rather interesting era for software, for businesses XP does just fine. The software works, and does it well. So unless your machines have internet access, you're probably going to hold off as long as you can.
On the consumer side, we don't have any big software pushing development. For gaming it's the same deal. And now with Microsoft not sure what it's doing with DirectX, other API's are looking more attractive to developers. OGL and Mantle chiefly, so could this be the beginning of the end of MS desktop dominance? Very possibly. If say Mantle catches on, it could be the deathknell for it. Since it works on AMD and Nvidia cards, it works on any OS since it's handled by the drivers.
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We're in a rather interesting era for software
That's a first.
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Nope. At the very least it will not be the death spell of MS in the office desktop market. What's true for IBM for ages is true for MS today: Nobody ever got fired for buying MS.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
2014: the year of XP on the PC.
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They could be listing the individual Windows OSes as percentages of the whole OS landscape. Except the subtotals should then add up to 90.72% and as you point out, they don't.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Informative)
I just added the figures myself and they add up fine. Parent needs to get a new calculator.
They are breaking down the Windows OSes as a part of the whole enchilada , not just Windows.
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Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
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The rest might be using 95 or earlier.
Except the graph already has those tabulated "Windows old, 0.10%"
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With no Windows Updates, and with no WGA, MS would have no way of knowing which XP out there is pirated and which isn't.
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Some people are still actively supporting/updating Windows XP: https://thepiratebay.se/torren... [thepiratebay.se]
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They can. Their argument would probably be that because Win XP Home minimal edition is not available anymore you would have bought the ultimate superduperawesomespecial version of Windows 8.1.
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Having said that, I would not blame you when you would "pirate" XP after having bought a new system with a forced inclusion of the latest MS OS version which you do not want (the So-called MS tax).
Microsoft has a long history of creating "lock-in" products then dumping support for them. If you need XP because of something Microsoft did in the past and they're not selling XP any more then I think you have a right to cheat on them.
Plus there the whole business of them making newer products which stink and/or won't fit on old machines due to lack of RAM/disk space/drivers.
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Flea market, probably.
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What, you want to be the sleeping beauty that will never meet her prince?
Count the both minor versions... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Count the both minor versions... (Score:5, Informative)
While Windows 8.1 is certainly growing steadily and eating into Windows 8s share, the duo only managed to end 2013 with 10 percent market share
I think they did, "the duo" here seems to refer to 8 and 8.1 while the preceding sentence talked about Vista and 8.1. You could just as easily read it as Vista and 8.1 is "the duo" eating into the market share of 8 though, except it doesn't make any logical sense. Very confusingly written.
Re:Count the both minor versions... (Score:4, Insightful)
So at this rate, Windows 8 and its derivatives will have less than 20% market share even after two full years since the release of Windows 8. That's a terrible statistic for Microsoft. Granted, another issue is that people who just use web browser and office productivity apps really don't have any reasons to upgrade if they already have an Intel Core 2 based system or better.
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Granted, another issue is that people who just use web browser and office productivity apps really don't have any reasons to upgrade _period_.
Knowing what I know now, I would have purchased a Windows 7 license for the laptop I bought last year that came with Windows 8.
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Well, my observation is that older Pentium 4 systems are kind of slow, even for simple web browsing. The issue is not with the CPU, but that a lot of PCs from that era come with little memory, like 250-500MB. I have seen a few friends neighbors upgrade because of that. But PCs from the time when Core 2 was around normally came with more memory, enough for office productivity or web browser.
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Step 1: Buy ~$100 refurbished desktop with Windows 7. If it comes with installation media, install on your laptop and skip to Step 5.
Step 2: On the cheap desktop: sysprep
Step 3: On a linux system or with a LiveCD: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb (or whatever).
Step 4: If you get an error: Shift F10
cd..
cd c:\windows\system32\oobe
msoobe
(which
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Granted, another issue is that people who just use web browser and office productivity apps really don't have any reasons to upgrade if they already have an Intel Core 2 based system or better.
And people who use anything else don't have any reason to "upgrade" to Win8.
Tell me.... (Score:3)
The only percentage regarding Windows that I care about is what percentage of a reasonably priced SSD it will take up. Now, I realize that metric is subjective ("reasonable" being relative), but honestly, that's the worst part of the Windows tax: on a 240GB SSD, the footprint is something like 10%. Am I the only one who feels that's absurd?
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Am I the only one who feels that's absurd?
No, I share that 'absurd' feeling about the amount of disc space that Windows wants for an install.
In my case with Win 7, it wanted 40GB free space for the install. That's crazy!
I can install most(if not all) modern GNU/Linux distro's on one of my spare 4GB USB thumbrives, and have a lot of space left.
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No considering the drivers and everything else built in. I'd only see that being an issue if you were full up and needed some of that 24GB back. Windows 8.1 system requirements is 16 GB. Did you upgrade and not run a cleanup to delete the previous Windows installation?
Are we gonna compare every service pack to vista? (Score:5, Insightful)
Aren't windows 8 and 8.1 the same thing?
Re:Are we gonna compare every service pack to vist (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, if you ignore the Metro interface, Windows 7 and 8 are the same thing. Except 8 performs better. Get rid of the tablet interface and everyone would want to move to 8.
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Honestly, if you ignore the Metro interface, Windows 7 and 8 are the same thing.
If you ignore the Metro interface, and the desktop, and the apps, Windows 7 and 8 are the same thing.
I've seen a ton of people complaining about the new Office interface, for example, because it's apparently all been 'flattened' to look as crap as Windows 8 does.
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If you ignore the Metro interface, and the desktop, and the apps, Windows 7 and 8 are the same thing.
The apps only run on the Metro side, so I consider the "apps" and Metro one and the same. Easily ignorable. There are no "killer apps" that are only available through Microsoft's stupid store (except the 8.1 updater, which doesn't require a Microsoft Store account to download).
The Desktop is pretty close except the lack of a Start menu. Add Classic Shell and it's back to business as usual if you don't want to just pin all your programs to the Taskbar like I do. I have Classic Shell installed but don't reall
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Aren't windows 8 and 8.1 the same thing?
Right. Windows 8 is for people who haven't yet figured out the cabalistic hand gestures necessary to invoke Windows Marketplace and do the free upgrade. It's really the same OS.
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Windows 8.1 features an update that allows bypassing the metro screen (the bit everyone complains about). In simple terms, It's the "fixed" version of Windows 8.
Can be translated into: (Score:3)
And in other news... (Score:5, Funny)
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Star Trek? (Score:2)
confusing interface (Score:2)
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No one is "forced" into purchasing a Windows machine of any type, let alone Win8/8.1.
New Egg and other places sell all the hardware a person needs to build his own desktop. There are several vendors for Linux laptops, and there is always Apple. Mobile devices free of Windows are all over the place.
It's more than a decade since I have paid for a Microsoft license. That was Windows ME - my worst and last mistake with Microsoft.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Informative)
Or you could buy a chromebook or one of the many android-based laptops (often tablet/laptop convertibles) or there's the dell xps developer editions which comes with linux pre-installed or Lenovo Thinkpads [lenovo.com] or failing all of that you could get a refund [theopensourcerer.com] on the windows license if you dont want it as many people have done.
The only party with an interest in pretending Microsoft is the only game in town for pre-installed systems is Microsoft, there are in fact plenty of other options.
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When I built my new PC I had the choice of which Windows version to install on it. I've used Windows 7 in the past and have Windows 8 on my work laptop.
So I went with 8.1 through choice. I *like* the Start screen, it's much more visual than previous incarnations of the start menu. Can't say I'm too bothered with the live tiles on a desktop machine, and still don't get the point of the charms bar. As an overall OS however, when taking into account the Start screen and the Explorer ribbon UI, I would choose i
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't say I'm too bothered with the live tiles on a desktop machine
There are few enough live tiles and they can be deleted by hand. What you cannot delete by hand[*] is the Start Screen entries that are created by software that you install:
> dir "C:\Users\tftp\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" /s /s
[...]
Total Files Listed:
52 File(s) 77,633 bytes
77 Dir(s) 395,226,988,544 bytes free
> dir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu"
[...]
Total Files Listed:
485 File(s) 743,447 bytes
401 Dir(s) 395,092,660,224 bytes free
How long will it take you to scroll horizontally through 537 tiles that all look alike?
[*] You can delete the tiles from the start screen; however you have to do it one by one, and instead of using the DEL button you need to use the right-click and then select from menu at the bottom. It can take quite a while before you figure out what needs to be deleted and then delete it. Worse still, some of that may be still necessary, but there is no backup. It's insane for millions of people to be forced to do such things in this day.
Windows <8 has this problem taken care of by using hierarchical start menus. MSVC may drop 50 shortcuts into the menu when you install it, but you will never see them until you need one... and if you use it often you can copy it into the next tier of access (Pin to Start, Pin to toolbar, copy to desktop, assign a hot key.) The idea of the Start Screen comes from mobile world where one application has at most one launcher. This is not how it works on a PC - a large application may have tens of sub-components that are all independent applications, and you may need to run them from time to time.
Upgraded from 8 to 7 (Score:2, Interesting)
At some point a Microsoft update bricked my wife's laptop (HP Pavillion). Don't know how updating files could mess up the partition table but it did. We'd had enough of 8 so I used a spare license for 7 to upgrade it to 7 Pro. It's still Windoze but at least it's stable and doesn't have the sucky "Metro" (or whatever Microsoft is calling it now) UI.
Cheers,
Dave
Sort of (Score:3, Interesting)
I have no love for Win 8's UI. But Classic Shell to the rescue. My current system has the best of both worlds. Win 7 UI, Win 8 OS under the hood (which does have some nice improvements).
Re:Sort of (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no love for Win 8's UI. But Classic Shell to the rescue. My current system has the best of both worlds. Win 7 UI, Win 8 OS under the hood (which does have some nice improvements).
We found an easier solution. Press F9 on boot, choose system recovery. After about 40 minutes, we have Windows 7 UI, and Windows 7 OS under the hood. Don't have to mess around with the Windows Marketplace, we don't have to worry about third party tools to make the OS usable, ain't no "hot corners" or "charms bars" and it doesn't go full screen at random frakking times. The Windows 8 Pro box goes back on the shelf until some future update where perhaps Microsoft gets their collective head out of their collective ass.
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Windows 8/8.1 under the hood is better than Windows 7 under the hood.
Under the hood, don't care. The things for which I use a PC are about as far away as one can get from doing OS benchmarks. The only reason I'm not still using XP is because I needed to allocate more than 4 gigs of memory. 7 is fine. There's nothing in 8 that warrants having to screw with it.
8.1 allows you to boot directly to desktop, disable the hot corners, go directly to all apps when you press Winkey and use your wallpaper as the background for the start screen. No third party software needed.
And sticking with Windows 7 means I don't have to google how to boot directly to desktop or disable hot corners, and I have a real start menu that I don't have to download, install,and configure myself, and I
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The OS is not an application. The OS loads applications.
which is why it boots to a screen which is simply a grid of application icons, simple.
Which is not what the user wants. Simple.
Re:Sort of (Score:4, Insightful)
No, users don't want a start screen that is full screen and completely obscures the other windows that are loaded. On a desktop it's distracting - especially in a multi-monitor setup.
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Well, hang on, I don't see a lot of geeks on Slashdot saying that people should just love Windows 8. I mean, there are a few, but I think that at least some of them are anonymous cowards trying to do damage control for Microsoft. The majority of responders of Windows 8 related threads appear to revile the OS. I agree, the average joe doesn't want something new and different that they have to figure out. The average joe is not a geek, and doesn't research OS settings for fun. But I believe the average j
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Just so you know, this "average joe" mostly uses his PC to manage a bunch of Linux sessions and Adobe content creation tools. The big difference between 8 and all the Windows before it is that 8 is primarily geared towards content consumption -- mindless scraping and poking at garish tiles -- and is a poor fit for content creation. Yes, it's possible to twist Win8 all around and make it useful to developers, but it's not necessary, as Win7 already fulfills that niche.
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It's not a matter of not fathoming it. It's a matter of not caring. Why should I pay money to "upgrade" to an operating system that's a pain to use? How does staying with the OS that works, so that I can get my work done, being lazy? I'm not paid to learn operating systems, I'm paid to do work for which I need an OS that does not get in the way. Windows 8 gets in the way. Of course there are solutions, but there is no benefit to implementing them. At best, after a lot of work and configuring of third
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We also heard the same thing from people like me about WinME, Windows Vista, and Win8. And we were right.
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Windows 8/8.1 under the hood is better than Windows 7 under the hood.
I haven't seen that yet. I just rolled back to Windows 7 on a Lenovo x230. Even with Windows 8.1 drivers the NIC sometimes wouldn't work after waking up the laptop. Will drivers make Windows 8 remembered like Vista?
When Windows 8 came out I tried it and call it, "My eight hours on Windows 8". With 8.1 and StartIsBack it's OK, but I realized I jumped through a few hoops to make it exactly like Windows 7 so why deal with the headaches and removed features (manage wireless networks I'm looking at you), hidden
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Actually, the ACPI driver for my Asus laptop would work with 8.0, but would error out with 8.1. There didn't appear to be a driver on the manufacturer's website that would work. I did not mention it previously because it was not really important, as I had decided that 8.1 was a loser before I realized I had driver problems.
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8.1 also has a load of inconsistent mush. Click the volume control - get a Windows 7-style popup. Click the network icon - get a Metro thing pop up. Open Media Player - see Windows 7 shiny style controls. Icons in Explorer are still from Vista (3D, nicely drawn) whereas the window controls were changed to an 80s-style flat look just before release. Except, that is, in MDI programs which still use the Aero Basic theme from Vista. Oh yes, insert a memory stick and you'll be invited to "tap to choose" what to
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Windows 8 is a lot faster. It does look better too and games preform better. It's hardly Vista.
The start menu think was fucking dumb and they really should released an "official" start menu that works, instead of having to pay $5 for a 3rd party one.
But other than the Start Menu, Windows 8 is actually just a faster Windows 7. I don't see what everyone is bitching about.
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I personally don't care about the start menu either way because WinKey+Q brings up a nifty search overlay
... that is much cleaner, thanks. Still; I shouldn't be forced to use it. Maybe I can map it to an unused mouse button.
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Its a whole lot of noise about nothing. If you really dont like it then set boot-to-desktop and then the only time you need to see the only thing that has changed (the start screen) is if you need to open an application that isnt pinned to the taskbar
You make it sound like that scenario is rare - it's not and it's very frustrating.
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Well, even if that is just "two hard" in comparison to the "one hard" of using the start menu, I would still choose the option that is less hard. If a new version is worse than the old, then there is no reason to switch in my mind.
And when I see the user base at our company, which freak out if the icons on their desktop change place, I can say that for at least 75% of that user base "just start typing" is *definitely* "too hard"
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Well, if you're on a mac, it kinda explains why you're so pro win8. MS sticking to 8 rather than rolling back to 7's UI is about the only chance apple has at becoming relevant on desktop outside US.
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No, it's just a hilarious commentary, because everyone except few who appear to be either paid to say so, or have a vested interest in windows failing in desktop market say it's horrible.
And they're not saying it with empty words but with heavy wallets.
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Well, I can't speak for the GP, but I don't keep any shortcuts on my desktop and pinned items are a bare minimum of common-use apps (Outlook, Firefox, PowerShell, etc). Having icons sprayed everywhere just feels extremely messy.
Admittedly, since getting a Mac at home, I have gotten into the habit of just hitting the windows key and searching for what I want (similar to Cmd-Space for Spotlight), which works better in Win8, but I still find the start screen incredibly annoying and inconsistent compared to the
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're leaving out the fact that the start screen is full screen. This has been discussed many, many times.
This isn't a case of people just not wanting change - it's a case of trying to force a square peg (tablet/phone UI) in a round hole (desktop environment).
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Nobody cares about what gets shown on sign in. That is the only time that Metro is not an annoyance.
We're referring to launching apps during a work session.
It's not clear why a Mac user is lecturing Windows users on the virtues of Windows 8/Metro. It's clear that you don't use Windows for anything significant.
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On the mac if i want to open a application...
Drag the applications folder to the right area of the dock. Congratulations, you have just made a stack.
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Pretty much all the time?
My taskbar is filled with the programs that are open. My desktop is filled with the window of the program I'm currently using. Programs I plan to start are found by clicking that icon in the lower left corner of my screen, clicking on "programs" and then selecting the program I plan to launch.
Launching a program is a task that happens in a way lower frequency than switching between open applications or using a control in a program I am using. Hence that activity is not one I put on
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This reminds me of simply navigating to C:\Program Files to launch stuff, I would do that in win9x sometimes. This is how I launched games mainly, navigate to D:\games\, pick a game folder and run the .exe (or .bat, or .com). Most games weren't "installed" anyway, either because they were DOS games or because Windows had been reinstalled but no need to reinstall the games. Later I had a quicklaunch with about ten games, the great stuff like CS 1.5, quake 3, AoE 2 etc.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
The "noise about nothing" is that Win8 is a solution in desperate search for a problem that turned into a problem in desperate search for a solution.
Win8 changed something that was useful, and now you tell us about "solutions" that allow us to emulate what we had in the first place, i.e. what was useful to us and what we wanted. We should not have to reach for solutions for problems we should not have.
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You are SO politically incorrect. You're not supposed to notice that the retarded kid is retarded, and you should NEVER notice crippled kids! You must be some kind of bigot - my progressive friends say so.
Oh - wait. I don't have an progressive friends. Forget I said anything.
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Slashdot, news for fucking bastards, stuff thats fucked up the ass.
That was the original slogan but then marketing had to get involved....pfffttt marketing.
Re:Vista's not that bad (Score:5, Interesting)
I think Microsoft is using Windows 8 to force the Windows Phone UI down everyone's throat. Eventually, they will give up.
Their stubbornness is going to start affecting their enterprise business, so they need to wise up soon. Fortunately, the new CEO comes from the enterprise side so he will likely understand that they're playing with fire.
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That is going to depend heavily on who they pick as the new Chairman (it's looking like Gates is on his way out) and how interested the Board is in sticking with the whole "Devices and Services" thing. One thing is for certain: neither the new CEO nor the Chairman will have anywhere near the influence that Gates and Ballmer do, so I could easily see a scenario where the Board kind of runs rough shot over any strong long-term goals in support of trying to become the next Apple.
Keep in mind that once Gates
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Right. Because "enterprise" hasn't stuck with XP and all the little warts and moles that it has brought with it for nearly 14 years now... They'll jump ship ASAP because Win7 just won't suit.... Yeah... You keep thinking that.
As short as your post is it's lacking everything but "This is teh year of Linuxxx!!!!!11111!!!!onehunderedeleven!!HERP!!!"
I'm sorry I'm not parsing this. Some companies are starting to migrate to 7, some are sticking with XP, but I don't know any companies that aren't actually doing Win8 development that have plans to upgrade to Win8. In fact, what I'm seeing is execs driving Apple on the desktop, in the briefcase and in the pocket. My company is over 30% Apple and growing, partly because the execs like the interface and partly due to the perception that Microsoft is currently rudderless and may not have an enterprise-suita
Re:Vista's not that bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Not sure you read or understood my post. I want Microsoft to succeed as I'm a .NET developer. I am worried, however, that this misguided stubbornness with Metro is going to start eroding the stranglehold that Microsoft has enjoyed in the enterprise.
Whether you want to admit it or not, the Metro interface does not belong on a server.
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Windows Vista is not that bad. It just needed a couple years of bug fixes. Microsoft did the smart thing by release a new version of windows with cosmetic changes, and a new name, once the bug fixes were in place.
I think Microsoft is using Windows 8 to force the Windows Phone UI down everyone's throat. Eventually, they will give up.
That lie keeps being spread and is somehow truth.
My 2007 era AMD turion from the Vista era disagrees. Vista is ssssllooooowww and takes several minutes to boot even on a fresh install. It swaps constantly and has 2 gigs of ram. Windows 7 on this ancient machine and it runs fine. Yes that is with the latest service packs too. The indexing service takes 20 minutes to build. Windows 7 a few seconds! network SUCKS. It is unusable in a moderate business environment.
True an i7 with 4 gigs of ram and a ssd will pr
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8.1 Just isn't that bad. The only problem I've had with it so far is that some of the default drivers for my laptop were crappy. Admittedly, if I didn't know what was going on, this would have made 8 a complete flop.
The interface itself is OK once you get used to it. I find it somewhat nicer than 7 though not a huge improvement.
The Slashdot beta isn't annoying. It's shit. (Score:4, Insightful)
You're being too kind on the Slashdot beta by just calling it "annoying". It's much, much worse than that. It's pure and total shit.
Every single aspect of it is flawed in one way or another. It wastes space. The font sizing is disproportionate. The text color and background color do not contrast enough. The layout is confusing. The story images are way too big and pointless. The discussion threads are far more difficult to read. It's harder to post comments. It feels a lot slower than the existing site.
The Slashdot beta is a failed software project in every single sense. The only sensible thing for Slashdot to do is cancel the project, throw away the code, apologize profusely to us for subjecting us to it randomly for at least a month now, and then never again do something as utterly stupid.
Of course, I don't think that'll happen. I suspect we'll see the beta site replace the existing site at some point soon, and it'll be a Digg v4-style disaster. The few remaining valuable users will flee, and Slashdot will wither more than it already has these past few years. It will be forever remembered as yet another casualty of a hipster-inspired "Web 2.0" design shitfest gone wrong, up there with Digg, GNOME 3 and Windows 8.
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Agree on all points. A cheap Wordpress ripoff is in no way an improvement. In a world of a million look-alike websites, why put yourself in that group?
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For example here's why the Beta sucks for "real slashdotters"- it hides user IDs. Real slashdot nerds are not afraid of numbers, we're not afraid of extra info, in fact we often thrive on extra info. I've noticed enough imposters around on Slashdot so we need those numbers to more easily tell them apart. Beta also hides times and dates, and other stuff.
We're slashdotters. What's useless noise to normal people might be location coordi
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Be fair.
Shit has never lied to me so I would comment about shit lying to me. So your metaphor falls apart right there.
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Excuse me, why do you go to that beta.slashdot.org site at all? I saw it once when it was announced and I never went there again. I'm logged in and I don't get the javascript-heavy design either. For me the slashdot looks almost the same as it looked 15 years ago (1 [tinypic.com], 2 [tinypic.com]. Perhaps with rounded corners on story titles.
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In case of win8, they probably just torrented 7 to install on it.
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Steam is gaming machines. Gaming machines are about the only machines that need frequent hardware refreshing. They also generally don't come with anything less than for last couple of years. So steam tells you approximate percentage of gaming machines that got refreshed during the period that win8 was out. It has little to no relevance outside that.
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Should say "they don't come with anything less than 8"
Re:Windows 8 woes (Score:5, Informative)
(you have to dig somewhere in windows 8 to "unlock the bios", reformat the drive for a different file type, etc)
That's not Microsoft's doing, the hardware vendor shipped the computer with Secure Boot enabled, which Windows 8 supports, but 7 does not. You can't blame them for enabling a new feature. If it's hard to go back, the hardware vendor wrote the user interface, not Microsoft, so put the blame where it belongs.
... only to find out that I couldn't get all the windows 7 drivers. Even basic stuff like the ethernet did not work. I had not experienced to what extent a new PC was non functional after installing the OS. I had to restore it back to windows 8, and buy a different laptop with windows 7 installed.
Once again, the hardware vendor was the one that decided not to distribute Windows 7 drivers. I've found many cases where the driver actually works with Windows 7, but the installer is specifically coded to refuse to run on 7. It's more of the hardware vendor trying to reduce its expenses by not training tech support staff on more than one operating system than an actual flaw with Windows.
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Linux manages most of the time even though practically no vendor ships the drivers.
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Might be just your machine. I've used several different flash drives to copy multi-GB images on Windows 8.
It worked before the upgrade to 8.1.
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Please check that your memory is not corrupt. You might have a real hardware problem. I've had a number of cases where I had bad ram, e.g. doing a memcheck at boot failed. It's amazing that the OS could run at all in these cases, but it did. Installing new applications and moving big files were problematic, but everything else worked .
I'll check the memory but I doubt that's the problem. The laptop is a year old and only rarely gets used. It's asleep most of the time.
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Stocks of various chair manufacturers are already registering a significant dip.