Lenovo to ship all new PCs with Start Menu replacement You wanted the Start menu back in Windows 8.1. Microsoft listened ... and didn't give it to you. Now Lenovo says that if a Start Menu is what it will take to get you to start buying Windows 8 PCs, then by gum, a Start Menu you shall have. By now, everyone should be aware that the Start icon that's coming to the Windows 8.1 …
this is typical of every situation where there is a high demand for something and a company refuse to deliver it. ever seen those 'make your facebook pink' scams? again it's preying on a feature that a large demographic want (teenage girls?) to trick them into having something bad / spammy installed.
instead of the start menu it sounds like people are going to get additional scumware.
in this instance you could easily debate over which scumware is worse, the metro start page and integrated Bing search junk, or this, but it's just the same.
so by refusing to provide the experience people want Microsoft are opening up the Windows 8 to a whole bunch of new scumware / adware or worse installed by people desperate to get it for free.
Nobody comes out smelling of roses from this, and while Lenovo want to spin it as something good for the users the same way Microsoft attempt to spin Metro as good for the users if either had any ethics they'd just provide one of the free and clean solutions instead, but there's no money in that is there?
Okay, what Linux distro has
+ Support for my current and planned hardware that includes stuff like WACOM/NTrig pens, Miracast / WIDI etc.
+ Software to make use of that hardware with good handwriting and speech recognition
+ Reliably runs my development tools including Oracle DB and Word (customer demands and we obey!)
....
I got a new lenovo y500 the other day and spent the first 2 hours of ownership uninstalling about 20 applications that they had put on there.
Macafee would not uninstall either, ran the uninstaller from controll pannel but it remained and I had to go to the macafee website to download another specific tool just to remove that shite from my computer.
Then onto tackling windows 8 only to discover that UEFI has damaged the ability to easily install Linux on another partition.
It is technically still possible to do but requires lot's of editing of grub files to get it to boot.
Things have gone backwards
A manager at work needed to replace an aging home PC, he settled on a very resonable Asus laptop with Windows 8 (lack of choices in the target cost range).
I told him to see how he gets on with it, do the tutorials use the windows key and hoped that being a slightly older chap (the ones I hear take to it really well) he would prove my reluctance to recommend it misguided.
After a few hours getting to know it he shared with me his initial impression. - I Quote
--
"Hate it Hate it Hate it Hate it Hate it Hate it Hate it
How much is Windows 7"
--
Windows 8 is hurting sales at this address as I just won't say it's a good idea yet, really.
Windows 8.1 is better but little things like WIFI stopping working within a short time have not filled me with the required level of trust that the changes are addressing the fundamental problem, but is introducing new ones. It is better, a little bit, but at the risk of appearing rude with a company the size of Microsoft one would fucking hope so.
First thing I do with any new PC is run Everest/AIDA to take a note of driver details then wipe & reinstall. Then I know it's clean. Back in the old days of XP/2000 you had to have the right media to match the license (e.g. I couldn't use an MSDN CD and enter an OEM license code), so I've got a whole set of XP CDs with different setupp.ini files. But with Win7 it's easy, just use an MSDN DVD and enter the OEM key on the PC, then go through telephone activation. So with a new PC I can wipe & reinstall in 45 minutes and know that I have a clean system. No spyware, no crapware.
No idea if Win8 will give me the same flexibility 'cos I'm not going anywhere near it.
Just going through the process of upgrading a Toshiba C850 from Windows 8 to 7. A head-scratching moment was when the install crashed because I hadn't realise there were two places in the BIOS I had to disable secure boot/UEFI.
I am envisaging the day when there is no option to disable UEFI and you are forced to stick with the supplied OS (a la those big selling Surface Tablets)......
Windows is sinking. Come join the penguins. One of the species will work for you. I swim with the Debians myself. Runs on all kits, the ye-old PII laptop, AMD64 desktop, and 4 ARM devices. I wouldn't be without packaging mangement and it rolling in Debian Testing is awsome.
I know it is scary, and if you want to be a tech/power user on Linux, it's a bit of a learning curve, but the gain is far more than the pain. It's also unlimited, you can learn everything about anything.
Why cling to the slow, expensive, oppressive, ship Windows? If it's some legacy Win32 only software, you can always give Wine a shot, or keep a virtual Windows for those old apps. If you a programmer, join in with Wine to get that software working. It's a nice codebase (much better than the leaked Windows 2000 source.......)
I just don't get Windows tech guys. Non-tech, fine, they know no better. But tech, well, yes it mean a lot of unlearning and relearning, but it's not like Unix is some new fad.
Ok, done, yer I know a bit trolly, but I just don't get why not dump Windows already.
> How about because I'm a C# dev by trade who uses Cubase 7 to make music in the evenings, when I'm not playing Fallout NV or Bioshock Infinite.
The generic answer to that was "wine or VM". But specifically:
C# == Mono (you already know this)
Audio/music, no idea not my bag but: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/audio-production-software-linux-ubuntu,2860-6.html
Games, again, not really interested my self but:
Fallout NV = http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=21692
Bioshock Infinite looks like it require dual boot to Wintendo.
If Windows becomes just Wintendo to you, then Win8 is a lot less annoying.
> So...what DO you do with your PC...just so we know? CAN you do anything worth the effort?
The normal, TV/movies (XBMC running on TVs), web browsing, spread sheets and word processing, plus nerd stuff. Quite a bit of programming, use to do the odd bit of artwork with Gimp and Inkscape and a tiny bit of Blender. Home server, mostly for media files, but also remote access and website to share photos with friends and family not the world. Plus lots of dicking about just to learn more. ;-)
"So...what DO you do with your PC...just so we know? CAN you do anything worth the effort?"
Edit 1080p/50 video
Edit RAW photos
Generate panoramic photos
Scan/print in colour & B&W
Program in a considerable number of languages
Layout & design PCBs
Program PIC microcontrollers
Access my other (remote) machines by ssh/fish/rdp
Run a file/odds&sods server and a Samba server for the wife's Nexus 7 & phone
Run considerable amounts of scientific software including hardware 3D modeling
+ all the usual wp/spreadsheets/browsing/video watching/GoogleEarth/Skype/e-mail
More to the point there isn't anything that I want to do that I can't.
Despite the scale of trollery and moaning/bitching that people do, the honest fact is that Windows generally works for what people want it to do.
The reason there are millions of sales of Windows is not down to what certain Register hacks and general hatemongerers will have you believe, it's not just down to PC sales 'in the Channel'. IT people don't just buy whatever is put in front of them, you are given a spec and then you modify it, including removing the OS if you want to, and send it back for requoting.
Windows is a surprisingly easy-to-use environment that has a huge development base and a massive array of supporting servers and technologies. Linux, on the other hand, despite it's many sterling qualities - which I won't deny because I'm not a raging fanboi - just doesn't have the platform uniformity, ease of use, software base or degrees of protection (yes, I said it - grow the f--k up if you can't recognise that the whole security nightmare of yesteryear went out two whole OS's ago).
Security-wise, Linux is viewed as a joke, and if there were enough installs out there there would be hosts of malware pouring themselves across the platforms. File storage is awkward from the outset. User friendliness is extremely low. Even I, a stalwart IT guy, found myself staring at an install of Ubuntu thinking 'OK, now what?'. I didn't have my files, I couldn't work with my data, I could play some shitty or some titles-that-were-big-7-years-ago games from Steam.
I found myself wondering about how to customise a couple of things, but then discovered I couldn't, and then when I looked up how to do it I realised I had to start up a CLI and start tapping away a litany of commands, each with a set of overly-verbosely-described parameters that I only half-understood (and yes, I do know my stuff)...and I just ended up thinking 'Why should I have to bother with this shit again?'. It's like PowerShell - I know it's enormously powerful, but there's a reason why I use the GUI for servers and systems - and I don't buy a system that doesn't have a GUI - because a GUI is a fucking easy-peasy thing to create nowadays - especially if the creator of the system actually knows what it is it's creating.
Windows 8 is not slow. My home PC boots from BIOS to login in about 6 seconds, and logs in in about 4 more seconds. The Desktop takes a few seconds the first time after a cold boot to come up, and I can work, play, browse, whatever without wondering even once 'how the heck am I going to do this?'.
So it's not oppressive, nor is it slow - you can claim anything is expensive if it's not 'free' but then free never actually is - because if it was then businesses would all crumble. Why is learning the awkward multi-kernel'd world of Linux any easier than the one-code-fits-all of Windows? Why would I want a virtual machine or 'Wine' to run those nice new, fast, AAA games at a slower rate (if at all)?
It's not scary, and learning curves aren't a problem - I have a history of playing with and dealing with some very awkward and hard-to-learn systems, but the problem with Linux is that it's not a new learning curve. It's a matter of having to relearn different ways to get the same result that we got years ago. I don't understand what you mean about 'it's also unlimited' - that just raised my 'bullshit flag' up to 3/4 mast from the outset. Windows doesn't have some magic limit that intentionally stops you from using it. You talk about 'gain is far more than the pain' - what 'gain' do I make? Remember I don't give a crap about what system I actually use - just that it does what I want, does it quickly, and has a good selection of applications.
I think you showed you 'don't get Windows tech guys' from the outset when you started out with 'I swim with the Debians myself' - an inane comment that immediately highlighted the first and biggest problem with Linux - the fractured ecosystem of multi-kernel'd mess that it is.
The worst bit is that I come out at the end of this all looking like a raging Windows fanboi, and I really am not. I'm just a bit tired of the same old tripe about the supposedly slow, oppressive world of sinking Windows - I've been hearing that same litany for at least a decade, and it's just not clever, nor even endearing, any more.
Several reasons (and i say this as a die hard Linux user by the way)
Linux is NOT suited to enterprise level rollouts
Almost every business on the planet runs Active Directory: There is not (yet) a viable alternative to this in the Linux World - (Samba4 , Resara, 389, etc are not simple drop in replacements -or don't have the same functionality or maturity)
Training: Most enterprise staff are Microsoft trained - Big investment shifting them to linux
The "it's different problem" When 90 of an office staff spend 90% of their time using oulook and Word. ANYTHING that is remotely different will floor them.
Sharepoint or Office documents: Good luck migrating to a sharepoint alternative, or finding any linux office application that will flawlessly migrate all your Word/Excel macros without problem.
i don't say this to troll, as I passionately believe that Linux can be excellent and there are some brilliant things out there: Openchange for example (drop in replacement for exchange)
Sadly Linux on the enterprise desktop, just isn't going to happen anytime soon
It's weird. I bought (through the company) a Lenovo Yoga 13 and the first thing I did was wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows 8, then downloaded the proper drivers. I then installed 8.1's preview. I think it's great.
It does what I want, the tiles show me quick info, the Desktop is readily available. I get to read and/or watch videos on the way to/from work on the train, and it sits by my desktops ready for a quick reach-out-and-touch-for-info like such things from travel information to Twitter without a shitload of clutter and crapware loading up in the background (except for Twitter, because - seriously - that service is just a fucking waste of existence, it's just a shame I have to use it) - because when I install stuff I make sure that I set the preferences properly, and I stop unnecessary shit like the java scheduler and adobe updater launching in the background.
All this, and I can do my day-to-day job on it, including managing and monitoring 6 sites.
And this all happens because I remove every bit of bloatware.
"By now, everyone should be aware that the Start icon that's coming to the Windows 8.1 desktop doesn't behave like the old Start Menu at all. It just an icon that, when clicked, takes you to the same old Start Screen that debuted in Windows 8 (with a few UI tweaks)."
If you right click the Start icon in 8.1 you get a number of options for items like Control Panel, Task Manager,System Shut down, Restart, and a whole lot more.....
At least open your mind to what 8.1 offers. If one never tries to learn or expand their knowledge....well then thats their choice.
http://www.geek.com/microsoft/windows-8-1-lets-you-shut-down-from-the-start-button-disable-hot-corners-1560037/
True. Indeed, I've seen it. It's a rather bland list of afterthoughts put there, no doubt, so that apologists can make such arguments as this. The list, however, is hardly a replacement for what you could do with the original start menu, even the one that shipped on Windows 95!
Been there, done that. Spent last weekend running Windows 8.1 on a VirtualBox, not really impressed. Seen similar menus, start and otherwise, like this. Not really impressed.
The point is that people didn't just want the button back, nor did they just want the menu back. They wanted the whole thing, the button, the menu and the functionality. They didn't want menus that blocked out the entire screen. They didn't want the broken continuity of the "Windows" key that they have seldom ever used in the past, usually because the alternatives often made more sense.
I never use Bing as the times that I have accidentally used it proved it to be total crap. I doubt that Pokki will be different, but it is no different to the importunity of being nagged to install the Ask toolbar when installing Java, or the insistance by Microsoft that Bing is your default search engine out of the box. Advertising whores about and we do nothing about it.
But this has all been said before. Do we need to say it again?
Answer: YES. Because the idiots at Microsoft will never get it until we hammer the point home.
It is even worse, java update doesnt nag to install the ASK crap. If you dont pay attention or are not a savy user you just click and it gets installed automagically. it is an opt out, not an opt in. Still bewilders me that Oracle chooses to do that, not that they have a good reputation, but this is surely a new low. They must really hate java for some reason.
For all you guys who are scratching thier heads over whether it's better or not, what alternatives are better, and what uninstalls properly, I suspect there are hundreds of us out here watching with bemusement and feeling completely vindicated that thier decision not to move on from Win7 or even XP was absolutely the right one.
Can someone remind me again why Win8 is supposed to be so worthwhile? Does it make Outlook, Excel or Firefox run better? Or is it just "the newest thing you just don't need"?
For me it is simple:
It has some nice improvements over Win7 in parts that I use (WLAN connection, re-establishment of drive mappings on boot etc) that saves me time and effort when I start my client
For me it works fine on tablet pc AND desktops. And since I use both (privat) or a convertible (job) that means one system for all units. I prefer that to the "what was the way to do x on OS y" of using more than one OS.
It can replace a smartphone completely. My privat "smarty" is basically reduced to "long running but overpriced MIFI router" since whereever I lug a Note2/can use it - I lug and can use a tablet pc. For job use I would like some Modern apps that offer a bit more in the mail/contact range (A "modern style Notes" since we use Notes/Domino)
There may be better tablet os (don't use iOS much, Android sure isn't) and better desktop os (Mac-10 sounds nice) but Win8 is the "best blend" of both.
... put Bing as default full system search engine without asking, forces you to load a brand new api to run their adware network, design an entire system around making you use their services, hose an UI to constantly bring you back to a gigantic launcher filled by ads of their services, kindly asks every now and then to register their services, and in last update kindly try to trick you to save data on their cloud, so NSA can spare some connectivity money directly having your files on their servers...
oh, sorry, this is MS
Q: What kind of organisations buy Lenovo: Enterprise
Q: What will they book looking for in a Windows 8 Start menu: Clean, unclutter, WinXp/Win7 like drop down/pop up menu without ads, without security risks and without showing stuff to their their users that won't be able to install due to their group policy and non administrator status.
Q: What have Lenovo produced: More Crapware that an self respecting sys admin will remove instantly
Q: What have Lenovo done by doing this: Given yet more reasons for their main market to stop buying Lenovo. As if the "lenovo give the chinese govt a back door to your computer" rumour wasn't enough, As if Windows 8 wasn't also enough. Let's add a gimmicky, pointless, bit of cruft that doesn't match our target market or meet the needs of anyone at all.
Q: What will be the end result:
Dell. HP, MSI, Asus, Acer, Sumsung etc all make gains while Lenovo loses
Hi Ballmer, Lenovo makes more revenue that other OEMs you are talking about, because refused to follow crazy MS business plan and have 1) downgrade friendly policies for 7 2) button/store replacement (and don't forget fix for metro full screen madness) for masochists buying w8.
And I remind you that most of the fabs of other companies you are talking about are based in China, and most components come from China, so you point reduces to nothing.
Btw, Ballmer was fired today. Good riddance, good luck to the new MS.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
