here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/win8-metamorphosis.htm
blog: fact or fiction?
Moderators: fgagnon, nikos, Site Mods
Using the most famous denizen of Prague (one of the few truly artistic cities left in civilisation) as a backdrop for a rant would be more effective if you A) actually had a real desktop computer and not a laptop, and B) aren't you the guy who bought a Kindle awhile ago? That kind of makes you part of the target audience!
Interoperability of Devices with a single UI Paradigm is what they're trying to achieve - a laudable enough goal in an age when Apple are responsible for the true dumbing-down of computer users throughout the world - that MS will fail is pretty much a forgone conclusion (they always do) - but it's amusing to see the corporate assumption at play on a market stage.
Considering just the other day MS decided to completely kill-off their Vista/Win7 desktop toys (Windows Kills Sidebars) instead of simply fixing them speaks to their blind intent. A pity that geeks do not have the political clout they believe themselves to have - for the common-user will actually buy into this nonsense sooner or later if they are force-fed it long enough. As Falls Wichita, so Falls Wichita Falls.
Interoperability of Devices with a single UI Paradigm is what they're trying to achieve - a laudable enough goal in an age when Apple are responsible for the true dumbing-down of computer users throughout the world - that MS will fail is pretty much a forgone conclusion (they always do) - but it's amusing to see the corporate assumption at play on a market stage.
Considering just the other day MS decided to completely kill-off their Vista/Win7 desktop toys (Windows Kills Sidebars) instead of simply fixing them speaks to their blind intent. A pity that geeks do not have the political clout they believe themselves to have - for the common-user will actually buy into this nonsense sooner or later if they are force-fed it long enough. As Falls Wichita, so Falls Wichita Falls.
Figured you'd get that.nikos wrote:why throw pat metheny into it?
Stock American political philosophy says if you conquer the minds of the midwest (Kansas is - well, Kansas), you will sooner or later influence the more significant states who like to believe in their roguish good looks (in this case, Texas), rather than their intellectual prowess. So, MS figures if you bamboozle the masses with shiny baubles you can then lead them anywhere - lest people forget that Win95 changed the face of windows only because Mackintosh dug their own grave first, this is just the next iteration of them passing the shovel 20 years later. 
Start8 : www.stardock.com/products/start8Tuxman wrote:Still wondering whether there will be some patch to directly boot into the desktop tile.
Features
- Adds a “Start” menu to the Windows 8 taskbar
- Enables quick access and searching of your installed applications
- Adds Run... option via right-click menu
- Adds Shutdown... option via right-click menu
- Choose a custom Start button image
New in v0.87, July 2012
- Automatically load your Windows desktop on login (vs the start screen)
-
longfellow
- Silver Member
- Posts: 244
- Joined: 2004 Jun 16, 15:09
Great opening line, Nikos! LOL!
tuxman, there's also this method of booting directly to the desktop in Windows 8: http://www.techspot.com/guides/551-bypass-metro/
tuxman, there's also this method of booting directly to the desktop in Windows 8: http://www.techspot.com/guides/551-bypass-metro/
Good Blog Post
Well written blog post, I like the dream presentation. Win8 is scary, but we know how it goes - Windows alternatives between good and bad releases. WinXP was great, but Vista stunk. Win7 is great, but Win8 stinks. And if you go way back in time, WinXP was really just a Win2000 SP, with WinME being the prior crappy release and Win98SE being the golden egg before that 
Just wait to upgrade at every other release, and all is well. Win7 will keep our desktops happy for years to come
I don't blame them (MS) for such a seemingly bad release (disclaimer - I haven't even tried Win8 yet), but let's be honest here - the 'OS' as a software product is done. The OS was only supposed to provide a common environment, with hardware abstraction and some standard libraries. We've seen incremental improvements with this aspect, but this is why WinXP is still a valid OS - it handles this task nearly as well as any modern OS. To me at least, I'll say Win7x64 is the 'final' (Windows) OS, although WinXPx64 could easily be argued to own this role.
Now that we've 'finished' the OS, it's all about applications - and it's got to be at least a little exciting to hear that people are actually buying applications, and frequently. Sure, you have to have a lean dev crew making a lean app or 2, but I see so many success stories where the old desktop companies had to fight hard for each sale. App Stores - starting with mobile devices - was the revolution towards this end. Your CC is already linked - why not spend 99¢ to have a flashlight app? Oh! Oh! I'll pay $2.99 to fire birds at walls while I wait for my doctor's appointment! ;)
Microsoft knows this, at least in the classic sense that you can't continue to repackage hardware abstraction with a $150 price tag. There just isn't enough GUI tricks to pull to make things look shiny and different enough - it's all been done before. They have to adapt to stay relevant and competitive - App Stores are the future. They sell a $40 'upgrade' which gets you the same underlying Win7 OS, plus a unified MS App Store that links all your devices - Desktop, Tablet, and Phone. This is their hope for survival vs Android and iStuff.
And I want to see a world with an extra mainstream competitor, so good luck Mr. Microsoft!.... I just don't plan to really participate in any of them and will stick to my Desktop, thank you very much :=)
Just wait to upgrade at every other release, and all is well. Win7 will keep our desktops happy for years to come
I don't blame them (MS) for such a seemingly bad release (disclaimer - I haven't even tried Win8 yet), but let's be honest here - the 'OS' as a software product is done. The OS was only supposed to provide a common environment, with hardware abstraction and some standard libraries. We've seen incremental improvements with this aspect, but this is why WinXP is still a valid OS - it handles this task nearly as well as any modern OS. To me at least, I'll say Win7x64 is the 'final' (Windows) OS, although WinXPx64 could easily be argued to own this role.
Now that we've 'finished' the OS, it's all about applications - and it's got to be at least a little exciting to hear that people are actually buying applications, and frequently. Sure, you have to have a lean dev crew making a lean app or 2, but I see so many success stories where the old desktop companies had to fight hard for each sale. App Stores - starting with mobile devices - was the revolution towards this end. Your CC is already linked - why not spend 99¢ to have a flashlight app? Oh! Oh! I'll pay $2.99 to fire birds at walls while I wait for my doctor's appointment! ;)
Microsoft knows this, at least in the classic sense that you can't continue to repackage hardware abstraction with a $150 price tag. There just isn't enough GUI tricks to pull to make things look shiny and different enough - it's all been done before. They have to adapt to stay relevant and competitive - App Stores are the future. They sell a $40 'upgrade' which gets you the same underlying Win7 OS, plus a unified MS App Store that links all your devices - Desktop, Tablet, and Phone. This is their hope for survival vs Android and iStuff.
And I want to see a world with an extra mainstream competitor, so good luck Mr. Microsoft!.... I just don't plan to really participate in any of them and will stick to my Desktop, thank you very much :=)
-Thracx
"Man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so, he is no longer a man."
-Fridtjof Nansen
"Man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so, he is no longer a man."
-Fridtjof Nansen
Re: blog: fact or fiction?
Why the articles' list here is not updated?nikos wrote:here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/win8-metamorphosis.htm
http://www.zabkat.com/blog/index.htm
heh, sorry to mislead you with my comedy remarks...Tuxman wrote:Oh my, Thracx, you paid money for Angry Birds? Get an Android device, pal.
Also, Vista does not stink. You can pretty much make it rock, it only takes you some time.
The Angry Birds comment was meant to be as-if from the average App Store customer, I don't own it and in fact have barely even played it. I think I tried like 3 or 4 lvls on a XBLA trial or something and that was it. It was mildly amusing but I think I'll stick to my SC2
I use a Droid 4, and still find many uses for my old Droid 1. I've never used Windows Mobile, and wouldn't touch iStuff with a 13.37 foot pole
(...but that's not to say that they are bad! I'm sure they are great for many people.)And the Vista comment was also mostly a joke, just pandering to most X² forum readers who seem to really dislike it. It was only 'bad' because it was before it's time, Win7 is pretty much just Vista with a facelift and I love Win7.
-Thracx
"Man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so, he is no longer a man."
-Fridtjof Nansen
"Man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so, he is no longer a man."
-Fridtjof Nansen