Posts Tagged ‘windows’

Upgrade to Windows 7 Because.. It Sucks Less?

Well, after a busy couple of months I’m finally back. I did miss the release of Windows 7 on my blog, but I definitely enjoyed watching the fireworks between Apple and Microsoft through their commercials on tv. Microsoft has definitely come out with a product that the public seems to like (which ultimately is all that matters). One of the commercials, however, caught me a bit off guard.

In the commercial, ‘Angela’ says: “I don’t want to worry about my computer freezing or crashing … and suddenly, Windows 7″. Uh, what? Did we just hear an admission from Microsoft that Vista had problems? I hate to add to my anti-Microsoft list of blog posts, but seriously, what are they thinking with this ad? They should’ve just said: “Upgrade to Windows 7, it sucks less than previous versions”. Definitely not the positive spin on Windows that I was expecting.. With a product out the door that the company can definitely be proud of, I expected them to tout some cool new features, but that’s not the stance we’ve seen from previous versions.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (4) : Nov 4th, 2009

Is Microsoft Supporting Old Products Only When It Feels Like It?

It was barely a month ago that the web development community watched in horror as Microsoft told the world that dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 was not an option. I completely understand and would agree with the rationale here. They released Windows XP with IE6, so a freshly re-installed desktop would be unsupported if they had dropped support for IE6, which is certainly a bad plan. However, that doesn’t seem to be the same Microsoft that we saw this week when they told us that they won’t be patching the critical TCP/IP flaw found in all versions, but patched in Vista.

What really leaves me scratching my head about these two circumstances is that Windows XP is used by far more users than Internet Explorer 6. It’s commendable that they continue to support IE6 even after some very serious push from the community to try and force users out, but Windows XP market share is still extremely high while IE6 market share is waning. Perhaps the Windows team has been a bit busy lately with patching new vulnerabilities being discovered (though disclosure of the last one was pretty irresponsible assuming it really was released publicly first) as well as finishing off Windows 7.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Sep 16th, 2009

Just What Is Google Doing with Two OS’s?

I just got done reading TechFlash’s account of Steve Ballmer‘s comments regarding the newly announced Google Chrome OS project and he raised some good questions. Now, I have about as high opinion of Ballmer as the next open source person, but when the CEO of the largest operating system maker in the world speaks, you better at least entertain what he has to say. You can view the webcast here, but here’s the money quote:

The last time I checked you don’t need two client operating systems. We tried it before. Windows 95 and Windows NT. It’s good to have one. So I can’t.. I don’t really know what’s up at Google.

Obviously Steve knows about as much as the rest of us about Chrome and if he knows any more, he’s not saying. He calls into question Google’s strategy with building two different products with a bit of overlap on netbooks. He has a good point there. Microsoft’s tried it and failed with having a home and professional edition. But, what about Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and Windows Vista? You can’t tell me that those are the exact same code base. Two of those run on embedded devices that have processors measured in Megahertz and memory measured in Megabytes. Vista barely runs on a machine with 2 Gigabytes of RAM, a fairly new processor, and has a minimum of 15 GB of hard drive space.

Okay, so Microsoft is doing the same thing, just much more quietly. But why would Google? It’s quite simple, really. They were built for different purposes. Of course, I can only speculate, but I’m guessing that since the two are meant to serve two completely different needs, it would be a waste for them both to contain code that’s not shared. A waste of hard drive space, memory, and processing time. Each of those will contribute to a slower-running OS. Chrome is supposed to be built as an OS for web-applications, not for local applications. Cell phones are a world of local apps that utilize web services, especially in a world where network connectivity isn’t always all that fast on cell phone networks.

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Filed under News, Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jul 15th, 2009

Microsoft to Refine Netbook Definition to Manufacturers.. And Charge More for Not Being Small Enough?

Ugh. Microsoft is at it again. Reportedly, Microsoft is going to put some sharper restrictions around rules on what they define as a netbook and charge different prices for netbooks and non-netbook laptops. They plan on charging slightly less “Windows Tax” (yes, Windows tax, not Apple tax as they liked to call the extra price associated with purchasing an Apple.. somehow we let them help us forget that just a couple short years ago one couldn’t buy a prebuilt PC without Windows on it) for a “netbook” than for a “laptop”. Whatever the heck that means. Perhaps later they can tell us what “cloud computing” means.. Anyway, they plan on bumping the size restriction on the term “netbook” down to a maximum of 10.6 inches from 12.1 before.

I’m certainly not going to pay slightly more for an OS on a laptop just because it’s 11 inches instead of 10.6. That’s crazy talk. However, I’m certainly not going to go and purchase a laptop (excuse me, “netbook”) with a smaller screen just to save a few dollars. No, I’m going to purchase what I need to get my job done. Good economy, bad economy, okay economy, whatever.. People and businesses purchase computers as tools to make their jobs easier.

Forcing people into an upgrade, of course, is an old trick for Microsoft, but let’s be serious. Let’s call anything with a mobile processor like the Intel Atom a netbook and call it good. I can just hear the conversation at my next meeting: “Oops, we have to move the projector closer to the wall. My laptop only came with Windows 7 Ultimate 4′ Edition and the projector is causing my screen to show at least 5′ across on the wall”. Call me a fanboy or whatever you want, just give me Linux or Mac OS X where they don’t charge me more just because the stupid screen is slightly bigger than some arbitrary size. What’s next? Is my hard drive too big? Too much memory? Too many bookmarks in IE?

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : May 27th, 2009

A Little Taste of What It’s Like

Converts from Windows Vista to XP may be getting a bit of a taste of what it has been like to be a Linux user. I heard a story from an acquaintance the other day of how his laptop didn’t run Windows Vista very well, so he decided to downgrade to Windows XP. Unfortunately, the drivers for the disk controller weren’t included in Windows XP and were only included with Vista. That isn’t a huge problem, one can usually get drivers for machines directly from the manufacturer’s site (in this case HP). Unfortunately, to install the drivers at Windows installation time, one needs to throw the driver onto a floppy drive and this was a laptop. The only solutions that I could come up with were 1) buy or borrow a USB floppy (not sure if that would work or not), or 2) slipstream the driver into the Windows XP installation CD. I’ve done step 2 and know for a fact that it will work, but it’s also a lot of work to do. Plus, one needs a working Windows installation to do it. Thus, begins a long, complex process just to get a fresh installation of Windows XP working on a laptop. My, how the tables have turned..

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Apr 28th, 2009

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