Who Cares?

As long as Google and other engines deliver the goods, no matter what Microsoft offer in this area is going to be small fry, irrelevant and have an insignificant market share.

Only the people swayed by the "I'm a PC" ads will be even slightly affected by this move.

Breaking news: Waste of time & Money spotted in Redmond.

HaHa

So you can remove IE8. Big deal especially when there are still many pages on Microsoft's own web site that require you to use IE.

I don't use Vista and haven't tried Windows 7 but if I recall properly, the dreaded WGA won't work with anything but IE. Does Win 7 have this? If so will you be able to :-

1) Register Win 7 using Firefox or Opera or any other browser?

2) Get updates?

Is this just paying lip service to the 'Unbudlers' and you have to install IE8 in order to get the updates? Oh well, at least you can uninstall it later.

Mines the one with an eeePc in the pocket running Fedora. Sorry Microshaft, I've left the fold and have no intention of retuning.

Silverlight 3 = the path to Total Lockin

to Microshaft products.

Yeah I know about moonlight but they haven't even got V2 Silverlight functionality out yet. As soon as V3 is out the guys from Redmond will be all over people who use it for their sites to upgrade to V3 thus denying anyone who uses anything but a Microsoft O/S access to their sites.

The longer they can keep other O/S's out and the more sites they can get to run V3 the more locking they will have and eventually people will give up with these 'toy alternative Operating Systems' and return to the Microsoft fold.

Then the killer will be that full V3 support will be on Windows 7 ONLY. That is the way to get the masses off of XP & Vista in short order.

The result?

PROFIT

PROFIT

and more PROFIT

for the monopoly.

And also

As an addendum to my previous comment

If Silverlight 3 is a success (in terms of adoption) and they make it difficult for other OS's to run it then it is going to piss off Google big time especially if they succeed with the subsidized netbooks(tm) as in http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/04/schmidt_on_netbooks/

What will they think of next?

Charging us for tha air that we breathe in the flight?

Has the boss of RyanAir been drinking too much of the black stuff?

How will they deal with passenger getting on in foreign parts with NO UK Currency?

Paris because she always needs a loo handy.

Do they still have UK Call Centres?

Eh?

Call centres in the midlands & Northwest?

Everytime I called them I got some ????? in India reading from a script who would ask me for my Bank Account details as part ofthe verification process.

Yeah right. As If I'm going to say them over the phone whrn I'm in a public place.

Glad to say that I'm now an ex customer.

In a further statement

A Microsoft spokesman said that this was going to be the default behaviour for Windows 7 when it is released and that they had made changes to the update system so that it was impossible to switch off or change its behaviour.

When asked why the spokesperson said

"It is to enhance the user experience of our wonderful operating system"

Then someone observed that the spokesperson had his tongue firmly in their cheek.

Silverling <> Moonlight

The problem with Moonlight (apart from the patent threat) is that even with it installed many sites that use Silverlight won't display because they look for SILVERLIGHT ONLY.

At the moment Moonlight is Naff all use to man nor beast so why bother with this useless POS at all?

Well (Sigh) we are going to have to because of Microsoft.

Personally, because of the problems I have had with moonlight, I:-

1) don't install it anymore

2) don't visit sites that require it. It is your loss of business

Look Flash was bad enough but has got a lot better recently. I just don't need this extra hasstle.

3) I hate sites which are totally Flash enabled with NO FRIGGING ALTERNATIVE.

They are just as bad as each other...

not for me thanks....

Flash laden sites are bad enough but if I get to any site that has Silverlight forced on me is one that I will avoid.

Yep, I use Linux but I am very suspicious of the legality of all that Mono c**p.

Sorry microsoft, I'll live with Flash but I can live without Silverlight(and its derivatives)

And a thank you to the writers of Flashblock. At least with that I get a choice about what I view.

Paris because she would rather be in the Flashlight than the Slivery light of the moon

This is old news....

Keeping upto date with the news eh El Reg?

This happened last Friday.... Totally unannounced.

Tiscali have seemingly taken over my DSL connection and what is more worrying, they seemed to have all my personal details to hand. I got my temp access code from them. They signed off as 'Thank you for calling 186k'. They are really taking the P**s.

I have requested a MAC code. They have until 15:30 Friday to deliver it. One minute later and I'm making a formal complaint to Ofcom. I've had billing problems with them in the past and as such I would not trust them any more than some other prominent DSL providers.

Thumbs down because of the way Tiscali are trying to put another ISP out of business. Thankfully, I have a mobile broadband modem otherwise I would have really struggled to get back on line again.

re HUH?

The $1200 price tag is probably because 8GB of DDR2/3 SODIM in two 4GB sticks are not mainstream (yet?).

I'm pretty sure that you would have to tke out the existing RAM and install completely new ones to get the density needed.

even so, you may soon be able to get this amount of RAM cheaper from places like Crucial. With the changes they are making to the Macbook Pro, they might make installing the new ram far more difficult that it is with existing devices.

Mines the one with a 2007 17in MBP in the backpack (far too big to put in the pocket....)

Alternatives or has IPTV had its day?

There is always Talk-Talk who in my experience don't Talk-Talk to the different parts of their organisation.

With more severe capping and throttling of ADSL likely things like IPTV and even BBC iPlayer streaming are going to be fondly remembered things of the past very soon.

There are still plenty of smaller ADSL suppliers out there who don't throttly you like some of the big ones in the evening. Give them a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Mine's the one with a WIMAX kit in the pocket.

re @Penguins

What is your point about Fedora? (The core got dropped some time ago)

I'm running an Internet Accessible Weberver using a Mac Mini (PPC Type) using F10. No problems whatsoever.

It has been running the various versions of Fedora since FC6. It gets updated once a month (or whenever I can be bothered to login)

It sits there and runs just like my MacBook Pro has done and the other Two Mini's I use on a daily basis.

All installed the latest update without issue.

I'd rather have Tux as a friend than anyone from M$

Adblockers

And what exactly is so wrong with Ad blockers?

Many organisations forget that the Internet is a global thingy.

For example if I'm browsing a site hosted in France from the USA why would I be interested in adverts for a French Bank.

I'll expect that some bought and paid politicial somewhere want to pass a law to ban adblockers to please their masters but that is a few less sites to visit.

Mines the One with Adblock+ in the back pocket.

Probably US Only

If how they sold the Zune is anything to go by.

But the real question is WHY?

The Mobile Phone market is ultra competitive and (apart from the iPhone) AFAIK, margins are pretty slim on each unit sold.

Henc my question Why?

Why do they want to get into this market which has probably reached maturity in most developed countries where the returns on each unit is very small and highly competitive?

They could continue to develop the OS platform but I see that being left behind unless they have (As sugested by a previous poster) completely redesigned the whole UI bit to make it work like the iPhone. Bear in mind that they have to watch out for the inevitable patents held by the likes of Apple and Nokia for the UI stuff.

This (if true) strikes me as being nothing more than a 'Me Too' stunt by Balmer.

Anyway, I wouldn't want one any way so this is a moot point indeed and no I don't own an iPhone.

Mines the Brown Coat to match the Brown Zune in its Pocket...

Memo To microsoft Bright Ideas Dept

Instead of compiling this useless list, why don't you inform all those 'Popular' sites that don't work with IE8 in STANDARDS MODE, to get their ass in gear and make them Compliant.

This way even Joe sixpack/plumber will be able to view them without consulting said useless list every time they want to go to a new site.

Surely the onus is on MS to get all those sites who had to go through hoops to get them to work with older versions of IE to update their sites to use w3c standards.

Unless, MS is only playing lip service to web standards?

Who knows.

Mines the coat with a USB Stick in the pocket containig Firefox & Thunderbird and all my data.

And spotted Over Redmond

No not Black Helicopters but Flying Chairs.

Air Traffic Control reported several UFO's originating from the Microsoft Campus. They were all tracked south towards Cupertino CA whereupon they disappeared from Radar Screens.

Those were the Days....

A DEC PDP 11/40 with 28KWords of Ram and a Single RK05 Disk Drive.

Run DOS V8 and get the odd F342-Odd Address or other Trap 4.

Guess what I used for my Degree Project?

The PDP 11 range was great but already showing signs of age when the Venerable VAX was Released in 1977. 32Bits - Brilliant.

You could have 20 people logged in and running applications on a 1Mb Machine. Can't do that today can we?

I remember fondly the 'pig'. This was the 240v->110v Inverter we had at Dec Arkwright Rd in Reading. The first VAX we had was a 110v beast.

It will stil send a message to El gordo

If they don't listen, and NuLab MP standing for re-election on an 'We must have ID Cards' manifesto stands the risk of getting the old have-ho no matter how safe the seat.

And remember, El Gordo needs his Scottich chums to stand any hope of having an iota of a chance to still be PM after the votes are counted.

Mines the one with the Polling card in the pocket. Just wishing that the General Election was next week.

Only to be expected.

So I'm waiting for the Silverlight version of Flashblock for Firefox so I can avoid ever downloading this piece of cow dung.

If I encounter a site so heavily riddled with flash that it is unusable and I wanted to buy something from he store on the site I send an email to the owner politely stating that they have lost a sale due to the way their site is put together. I'll start doing the same with Silverlight riddled sites.

There again, I don't use sites like Facebook so I am probably in a minority here.

Paris, becasue she always wants to be in the SilverLight of press Flash guns.

Risk Assesments....

You will soon need one just to get out of bed in the morning.

RIP the last vestiges of common sense left in our so beloved NuLab Government who by the way couldn't organise the proverbial piss up in a brewery. Of sorry, there is sometheng else thay want to ban. No more Breweries = No more people getting pissed and there goes all that nice police overtime.

Paris becasuse she won't be able to hear her fav tunes and have a drink at the same time

Well done your Lordships

But I fear this will only lead to a further attempt to neuter your powers by NuLab in the forthcoming Queens Speech.

Flash is bad enough

But do I have to block more of this <add animal excrement of your choice here> from web sites that I visit?

I browsed to a site that uses Silverlight the other day. All I got was a totally blank screen. At least with flash, you know that there is something that you can play if you want to.

Thumbs down because crap website designers will start creating whole sits with this sh1t.

Re: Bye Fedora

I did a 'yum update' on a PPC MacMini running Fedora 8 two days ago. no problems. Then I did an update on a Fedora 9 in a VM and it worked fine.

How many times did you try?

Oh Dear

They'll have to drop the bit about the 'home of the worlds first programmable computer'.

All my friends in the USA totally believe that the USofA was the home of that. Even an exhibit I saw at the Smithsonian some years ago repeated that fact.

Otherwise, I totally support this venture and after visiting it some time ago I gave a donation.

Remember if you want to do this in the UK, to use 'Gift Aid'. This way el Gordo adds a considerable sum to the amount especially if you are a higher rate tax payer.

Ban them!

I received a broken nose and severe bruising last month when a really fat american using one of these contraptions ran smack into me in Vienna. No insurance! I took his photo and the police nicked him and was charged with Assault. Then he skipped the country.

As a cyclist I think these things are a real menace

As for powered skateboards? They would be a big challenge to Motorcycle for the title of Mobile Organ Donor vehicles.

Mines the one with a long pointed stick in the pocket