Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric – it won't hit one billion devices by mid-2018 When Windows 10 launched, Microsoft claimed it would have the new operating system on a billion devices by mid-2018. That isn't going to happen, however, Redmond has now admitted. For the past year, Microsoft has offered the new OS as a free upgrade for both desktop and mobile users (provided the phone can handle it in the …
I'm gonna call bs on that; throughout its existence ms has been pulling dick moves. It's what they do. And every time you'll take it, and still get on the bandwagon, because it's what you do. Perhaps not 'you' in an individual sense, but certainly in a general one.
It won't be any different this time.
>Pulling dick moves has historically worked really well for Apple. People only resent it when MS does it.
Funny I don't remember Apple ever being convicted of abusing a monopoly position (at least in software, hardware) which is one of the quickest ways to cause resentment among customers and a once bitten twice shy towards a company in new markets. Apple do have somewhat of a large piece of the affluent consumer market in electronics with the fat margins which cause Microsoft resentment but they have had to earn that through marketing and of course putting out the only phone that is both even half way secure (FBI and McCain still pretty butt hurt) and has a decent app ecosystem.
Traditionally to be convicted of abusing a monopoly you have to have a monopoly. Apple tried very hard to have one on dick lawsuits but didn't quite manage it, got nowhere near on hard or software. Still acting a bit dickish though...
Back in the days of //e's, //c's, GS's and very early gen mac's, apple was charged a number of times, because they fought tooth and nail to keep all "clones" out of the US. Apricot comes to mind as they had some amazing apple compatible hardware, as well as complete systems capable of running DOS 3.3 and ProDOS. But then there was the huge power transfer at Apple and Jobs was out and Skulley was made head cheese.
Apple can pull dick moves because the majority of their customers aren't buying a computing environment first and foremost, they are buying into a brand and how the brand functions is largely irrelevant. MS sell to a large number of people who are vastly more educated (despite MS sponsored training) about how the whole ecosystem functions and is paid for.
I dont think MS resents Apple, its too busy trying to work out how to stay relevant at the moment.
Steve Jobs
Claiming they invented the iPOD
Apple III
Apple Lisa
Macintosh TV
Pippin
Quicktime
Over the top secretive
Blame everybody else (Jobs' famous "your holding it wrong rant")
Walled Garden
oh wait, how many did you say?
name 6 dick moves from apple
Suing their main component supplier for "copyright infringement" thereby putting up the prices of their components to levels that made their products entirely uncompetitive. That silly lawsuit nearly killed them off. Samsung are still laughing about the massive price increases they've managed to impose on Apple - that they're forced to pay!
Another five would be trivial to list. Their ineptitude will ensure that they're unlikely to survive the next five years....
No user replaceable battery.
No user upgradable memory.
High probably of bricking iphones when new IOS comes out, yes, every upgrade since I've had either my ipad or my company iPhone has caused them to be bricked.
Obnoxiously expensive equipment.
Hiring suppliers who thoroughly abuse their employees.
I can think of three right offhand-- if I used Apple devices, I am sure I'd have more. Nothing that can compete with Microsoft's, though; they really have been shooting for the stars with dickmovery.
Here's the ones that I, as a non-Apple user, know of offhand:
Putting DRM chips in their charging cables to ensure that people had to buy their overpriced replacement items.
Putting batteries with very short service lives into the original iPods intentionally, to hasten planned obsolescence.
Pushing out an update that bricks your iDevice if it had been repaired with a non-Apple touchscreen.
There are more, like iMacs that have the touchscreen and the LCD fused into one piece so they have to be replaced together at additional cost, gluing their batteries to the aluminum case innards so that changing a dead battery was major surgery, things like that, but they're just extensions of what they already did before to new devices, so it feels like cheating to get to six if I list them individually.
"Simulation-Computer-Graphics-Robert-Bridson/"
Every version of XCode, and OS redacts some more useful things, and prevents old software from working, like 32 bit stuff. And users get to use a 'free' OS update which means that software magically stops working so they have to update it at cost.
You have to pay $100 a year just to be a developer on one OS type, otherwise it warns the user that your software is 'unknown' when installing, even if you paid Apple at the time the software was first sold.
That will make far more than seven but I can't be arsed to detail any of it, because as a developer, I fucking hate Apple, sorry. They've got to be the biggest twats of them all.
Name six dick moves from Apple ? I know these don't fall strictly within the same boundaries as MS's recent superdick moves, but they piss me off sufficiently that I avoid the Apple brand.
iTunes (worst commercial software yet encountered)
Pricing.
Faulty OS update downloads.
iPhones locked to first SIM inserted.
Close to unlawful returns policy on faulty stuff outside 1-year warranty.
Crippled USB on iPhone.
Crippled Bluetooth on iPhone.
Fixed battery (iPhone, iPod, iPad).
Fixed hard drive (that broke) (early iPods)
Glued casing (laptops).
OS distrib CD customised to model (can render old Macs fit only for landfill if CD is missing).
Apple doesn't do what Microsoft does.
I use mostly Windows and a few Apple machines and Apple has never done what Microsoft has done over the last year. Microsoft has tried every dirty trick to get people onto its new computing model while Apple makes most of its money from its hardware sales.
Micrsoft is to blame for its own conduct. Apple has nothing to do with it.
Apple is a lot more subtle about it. They offer gizmos you don't need, like iPhone Siri and iTunes Genius that quietly collect your personal data. Microsoft just slips it into Media Player. Apple offers upgrades to features you didn't ask for and don't need, like the ability to answer your phone on your computer. Microsoft just surprises you in the morning, when you wake up to Win10 and find all your applications are broken.
They try to out-do each other being dicks.
"Historically, yes. But those monopoly days are over for MS. Now we can tell them to take a hike."
Try buying a laptop from a major vendor without Windows (or Mac). You can either go the somewhat specialist route of system76 or the like, or start arguing with sales about Windows refunds which is often near impossible. Acer will let you buy the computer then mail it to support (at your own cost) for an unspecified refund. Dell used to offer some linux machines but that is harder and most Dell's suck.
I agree 100%. MS removed some handy features since Win7 - and UWP without phones is just crap (and now office and other softwares suffer from it). MS should start some serious innovation, listen to customers and present update as something worth doing of rather than forcing it down the users' throats
The two main dickmoves being telemetry and forced updates. I feel like the needle stuck in the groove when I say that if I could have verifiable control of all data within the telemetry (so I can turn it all off), and could have full control of updating back, then I'd like to try Windows 10. I'm not fussed about the interface so much though I know others are.
But MS seem to be intent on trying to turn Windows PC into Xbox PC where everyone gets updated or they don't get online.
I'm less bothered by the existence of the telemetry than I am by how shady MS implemented them. If they just offered a screen on install with simple toggles to allow you to customise which bits are sent, most home users will just click ok to all anyway and those of us who are more conscious of these things could turn off all the bits that bother us without having to resort to third-party apps to dig in and set all the registry keys for them.
As a user, I haven't really noticed that the updates are any more forced that on previous versions, but I can appreciate the concern that network admins have about this. Again, being a bit more upfront about the whole situation and providing better GPO control of these things would eliminate virtually all of the worries admins have about these.
It's the same old MS in that they could've so easily alleviated all of these concerns, but seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot at every turn.
"I'm less bothered by the existence of the telemetry than I am by how shady MS implemented them."
You should be bothered by more than the implementation; the implementation can be changed at will by an update you can't block. The real problem is the open-ended nature of the T&Cs which, at least last time I looked, let them gather your log-in credentials and transactions without limits, not just your creds & transactions with MS.
This gives me a problem this weekend. I have a granddaughter with an upcoming birthday about to move to secondary school where she will need access to a computer which should be able to run MS Office (I'm not convinced they'd know the difference if she turned in work from LO in MS formats). We're thinking of getting her a laptop. So do I get her a Win 7 version, still available new if Laptops Direct website is to be believed, which will be EOL before she finishes school or something that will own her as much as she owns it?
Options appear to be:
Find one with Win7 (or a spare install licence) and lock it to block win10 updates, living with the EOL risk.
Get a Mac and use the Mac version of Office
Use a VM on Mac/Linux to host Windows & Office. That way you can deny it network access and use, for example, the VMware shared folders so stuff can be up/down loaded by email.
Use Linux and on-line Office365, after all it will be based on web standards?
"Appears you can use Office365 using a Linux based web browser:"
I have to do this at work occasionally when people send me things. Normally presentations to look over and forms to fill in.. But large files wont open in the browser version so the presentations rarely work and lots of other features don't work including the in-word form thing. Maybe this improved over the last few months. I just log into a VDI machine for these things, but it is ridiculous that we need to do that.
I think the solution will be a Win 7 machine* which may well be dual-boot by the start of term. Unless they extend the free upgrade "due to demand" it'll just miss that by the time I give it to her. If the school has a bulk licence agreement for any form of Office they can provide that, otherwise - or also - it'll be LO.
*According to Laptops Direct website they still have W7 stock. As soon as I finish this cuppa I'll drive over there and see.
Or put Windows 8 on it and do the various modifications to make it look and work like Windows 7... Classic Shell, that kind of thing. I've never used Win 8 personally, but some of the other "never 10" guys I talk to on other sites (who also like Windows 7) say that 8 modified is as good or better than 7. 8.1 is good till 2023!
It might also be a good time to start exploring Linux. While I will offer no prediction of any year really being the year of the Linux desktop (it's been called a million times and never happened), Linux has some really good distros now, like Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon, and they keep getting better while Windows keeps getting worse.
This growing disgust with MS has gotten a lot of previously happy Windows customers interested in Linux, and I have been one of the flood of newbies on the Linux forums lately. I am really impressed with Mint; I am using it now, and while I do have my Windows 7 available in dual boot form, I seldom boot it anymore, and I've only been using Linux for a couple of weeks in earnest. I had dabbled with Kubuntu and Mint KDE on a "test" PC before, but I thought to really get to know Linux1, I had to put it on my main PC, and it was the right move.
WINE may also be an option; I have heard some versions of Office run well in it.
@ Updraft102
8 plus Classic Shell is a possibility. I have a 7/8.1 on order so have the option. I'll probably set it up dual boot. Linux only would probably be a mistake as her teachers will probably expect her to use Windows.
You might be new to Linux, as an old Unixer I've been using it for years. My take is that with systemd distros are getting less Unix-like so, from my POV, worse. So my next move will be to BSD once Wheezy is no longer the basis for Debian LTS..
Wine, in my estimation, made a big mis-step years ago when they broke use of video-drivers from that minor H/W player Intel that used 24-bit colour. It didn't affect Office 97 but it did resulted in a whole lot of other bug reports from users of various other applications. The really stupid thing was that they kept sending out bug reports asking if the bug was still present event though they were refusing to fix it, having turned down a patch. According to them it was a feature added for performance reasons.
"It's a bit of a culture shock but I'm happy with the end result."
I had a trial run at BSD some months ago. It depends where you're coming from. My background includes Unix V7, System III, HP-UX, SCO, Dynix and various other Sys-Vs so another Unix version is just another Unix version.
Using Linux Mint 17.3 (for ease) and LibreOffice 5.0, which handles MSOffice stuff seamlessly now. No viruses (if you download from certified repos), no crashes, auto updates of everything (asks politely first). Talks straight to my Note 4 and syncs. Just works. Oh, and it's all free. Why Windows?
"LibreOffice 5.0, which handles MSOffice stuff seamlessly now"
No it doesn't. It's still miles behind in terms of enterprise features, is not fully compatible and it doesn't run Excel addins. It might be just about OK for a one man band that doesn't ever need to exchange stuff with other people, but it's way way inadequate for any normal business. Hence why adoption rates are close to zero even though it's "free".
And LibreOfficedoesn't have an Outlook equivalent that handles email and calendar across all my devices.
Or a Notes equivalent, like Onenote ( or Evernote, sadly now reduced to 2 devices for the free version, no good to me). Sometimes its formatting can be quite quirky still, especially in tables.
It use it for most of my everday stuff - but have to keep Office 2010 as well. ;-(
Since my post I just hit a biggie for compatibility. I was sent a WORD document that needed to be opened in editable mode, it was read only. Which I could do fine in WORD.
But initially I tried to open it in Libreoffice and clicking the button to open it in editable mode didn't work. They must both lock documents in a different way.
My daughter built her own Linux based desktop system to go off to uni with, four years ago. Apart from having to get the uni IT dept to allow her a 'non-Windows, non-wizard'(!) login to the WiFi system she had no problems whatsoever using LO for 'Word' based notes/essays/projects. In her case it turned out most of the specialist software used for her Linguistics dissertation was Linux based anyway (with random Windows ports available), so it turned out to be an even bigger win.
We bought her a Chromebook for portable use, and used Crouton to load Linux on that as well. That little device has now been passed on to my son who is now at uni.
Well the key point is "access to", ie. it is a home system, not a laptop to be taken to school. Hence I suggest you get a system you are happy to maintain.
If the school actually required students to take a laptop/tablet to school they should either provide a system or provided the parents with full specifications (and rationale) and a 'favourable' purchase and support service option.
Hence I would recommend you ensure she has access to a 'Windows' system as suspect the key requirement will be access to the school extranet which may require a browser hosted on Windows - which may be a problem if you are a Mac fan; one of my neighbours had to resurrect a Windows machine just so his son can do his homework...
Personally, I wouldn't worry about Win7 going EOL before she finishes school, I doubt any one will remember the current version of Win10 (due to be replaced at the end of this month) in 2021, whereas it wouldn't surprise me if "Windows for Business" looks much like Win7. Also my children quite happily move between the XP, Win7, Win8.1, iOS, Android and xBox platforms and using Office 2007/2010/2013 for homework. The only complaint has been about needing Scratch installed...
> "which may be a problem if you are a Mac fan; one of my neighbours had to resurrect a Windows machine just so his son can do his homework..."
Given that Macs from 2006 on are PCs, and have the option of running:
- bootcamp
- x86 VMs
- crossover office
Why did they need a seperate windows box?
Why did they need a seperate windows box?
Simplest and quickest solution.
He had only a few weeks previously put the retired Windows system in the garage, so the simplest solution to getting a Windows PC running was to take this system and install it in the son's bedroom...
This also ensured there was an air gap between systems...
Microsoft can expect an upsurge in Windows 10 installations from PC users toward the end of the month, when the free upgrade offer ends.
and how is the weather on your planet?
Naturally a few years down the line, bona fide microsoft addicts won't have any choice; until then of course.
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