back to article Vaunted Windows 8 RTM updates 'actually featured from Win2000'

Has Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sinofsky gone too far in stating the brilliance of his team's work on Windows 8? “Yes,” say some ex-Microsofties, who reckon Sinofsky is taking credit for something that’s not new on Windows 8, due on Thursday. What’s got them riled is a 10 October Sinofsky blog where he boasted Windows 8 …

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  1. RyokuMas
    Paris Hilton

    Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

    "Also, never mind the Apple tax, read about why Windows 8 Surface and ARM-tablets are priced to fail, and discover why your apps will work on Windows 8 but Microsoft wants you to re-write them anyway.

    Plus: Is it time to for MS to rest on its laurels? Why the channel believes Microsoft will be off-target when it declares "job done" on Windows 8."

    Paris, because she's about as clued up when it comes to staying objective.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      It is actually sponsored by the Synarchic Knights of Templar Rebirth ("TRES") bent on world domination through relentress baiting of entrenched "fans" of various "technologies".

    2. yossarianuk

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      The Taxpayer doesn't fund Apple

      They do Microsoft.

    3. Arctic fox
      Happy

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      Well, to be a little more fair and objective than The Vulture was being in this article it has to be said that El Reg' modus vivendi is to take the piss out of all of the above. You have only got to take a look at the threads attached to articles where the focus is on Cupertino or Mountain View and read some of the postings from the more "tribalist" amongst our fellow members where they are positively foaming at the keyboard over something in the article concerned to see that Redmond is not being especially singled out for a "Regging". Indeed those articles where El Reg is actually being deliberately satirical are often even more amusing given that a fair proportion of the "committed" (and some of them no doubt should be) appear to be satire-dyslexic and end up in the most enormous bate over something that is not intended to be taken seriously at all.

    4. kb
      Thumb Down

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      So speaking the truth is a "pro Apple" bias these days? WinRT is an app wasteland, even less than WinPhone, the reviews of Windows 8 have had such colorful titles like "Windows Frankenstein" and "Win 8..yes its THAT bad" and you are surprised when The Reg joins in on the mockery?

      I have NEVER owned an Apple device, not even an iPod, I only use Gmail for a spamdump, and I sell and service Windows devices exclusively...and Win 8 is full of fail, its a fail cake with a feces icing! MSFT tried to keep the OSes apart like Apple with iOS and OSX...only to find they couldn't give away WinPhone 7, so they are now forcing WinPhone onto the desktop to try to "get people used to it" in the hopes they'll buy WinPhones and WinTabs because X86 has slowed to a crawl sales wise because the chips have been crazily overpowered for years.

      I've had a Win 8 system set up in the shop for people to try since Feb, its a pretty typical NON TOUCH system as that is what 95%+ of X86 units are, know what the reaction is? "This is stupid" "Who thought this was a good idea?" "I can''t find anything!" "How do I close?" "Can I make it act like Windows XP?" and my favorite, from a little old lady.."Why would I want my computer to be a cellphone?"

      So its NOT about "resting on it laurels" its about MSFT IGNORING the customers, the grunts that sell their product, and everyone else in Ballmer's never ending quest to be an ersatz Apple. Well we already have an Apple, we don't need an ersatz and certainly not for the same price as an iPad. I've advised my customers to avoid Win 8 unless they are getting a tablet, because that is the ONLY place where it is better than Win 7, everywhere else its a bad Apple knockoff and if they keep the MSRP of their WinRT units I'll advise them to buy iPads, at least they have a good resale value.

    5. N13L5
      FAIL

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      No, they have just recognized that Sinofski is full of shit.

      Most of the Windows 8 changes amounts to moving deck chairs on the Titanic.

      After installing it on my system, I don't mind so much that things were changed, but I do mind some of the absolutely dumb, half baked changes. I thought they had long enough time and blabbered enough about their own brilliance of conception to at least get basics right...

      But all those metro style settings screens etc are full screen only, and while they grind away doing something, you can't even flip to another window to do some work, while keeping an eye on the progress.

      And once you switch to using your microsoft account for the windows log-in, all of a sudden, the whole advantage of booting with lightning speed from your SSD is wasted by the login suddenly taking 30 seconds or longer!

      There are a few improvements that are actually useful to computer users, but most of this rearrangement is done in hopes to start selling phones and tablets, and is totally counter productive on a computer with a large screen and extensive multitasking capabilities.

    6. Dana W
      Meh

      Re: Is the Register sponsored by Apple/Google these days?

      Its perfectly reasonable, if you are no fanboi of any system. Surface, much like the iPad mini is priced to fail.

      Both are bad judgement calls.

  2. Mog0
    FAIL

    The Reg is overstating the claims

    He only claimed that some of the updates that are done for OEMs were not released to the public until the SP in previous versions but are in Win8. He did not claim that no updates were released, just that SOME weren't and these are now released as well.

    Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: The Reg is overstating the claims

      So what he is saying is that this time round there happen to be none of the sort of updates that MS generally withhold for a while. That's *still* not a new feature. It's just an accident of history.

      Given the hype that MS are trying to blow up around Win8, I think El Reg are perfectly entitled to take a sharp pin to it when it goes too far.

  3. MarkL

    Wow - that bootnote is about as biased as they come. I'm noting at least one Microsoft bashing story a day on the Register these days, and none of them are heavy on objective justification. Terrible stuff.

    1. 404
      Alien

      Nefarious El Reg Hacks

      Obviously aren't getting the love they demand from Microsoft - used this 'trick' in the 90's at Comdex. Poke holes about somebody's software/hardware, marketing notices if you do it right, and they send you free kit to 'try out' - thus getting positive feedback from reporters/important tech trendsetters, etc.

      This is a cry for Surface tablets @El Reg.

      ;)

  4. MrF
    Meh

    Natural for Sinofsky to gild the farthing, where it suits his vanity...

    ...since everybody knows he's gunning for Ballmer's job.

    1. K
      Pint

      Its all a ruse to prepare for the 2nd coming..

      Its all a ruse so that Billy Gates can do a "Steve Jobs's" and have a 2nd coming, he'll return as the saviour of in 2014..

      Looking into my Crystal ball, I see that Windows 8 is going to flop, Sinofsky will be thrown to the wolves as the architect of the failure. Ballmer will go shortly after. Billy will state "he feels people frustration and pain, and promise to fix the mistakes", Windows 9 will then be released and praised as the true successor to Windows 7 (As Windows 7 is to XP).

  5. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Really it's about the feature of "Released before it was actually ready".

    And, no, that isn't new. Windows 95 had it (brain-damaged Internet features). Windows XP had it (brain-damaged security features).

    What we aren't getting this time is "Pretending there isn't a fundamental problem for a year or two and then finally fixing it in Serive Pack TWO."

    Unless of course we are. Maybe I should lay a bet on Win 8 SP2 being the release that unifies the best features of classic desktop and Metro interfaces. Such as, PROGRAMS THAT RUN INSIDE WINDOWS DRAWN ON THE SCREEN, THAT YOU CAN MOVE AROUND HOWEVER YOU LIKE.

    As far as I can make out, it could be a trade description issue in the product name, because Metro DOESN'T give you windows. Metro gives you one big pane.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      LOL - maybe they should change the names to...

      Window RT and Window(s) 8

  6. Ged T
    Alert

    Two variants and the new "app store" vector of Win 8 to support

    What sets this release of Windows apart from the others is that there are two distinct variants: one for X86/X64 win-tel/amd hardware platforms and the other for ARM-based hardware. In addition, there the new "App Store".

    Purely on the end-user platform side, the spin-hype out from Microsoft, with respect to pre-to-post RTM patches/hotfixes etc, seems not to acknowledge this significant change to its delivery model. It will be interesting to see Microsoft's response and priorities to these disparate platform markets/consumers, should something nasty emerge out of the wilds of the internet that affects both platforms - Are tablet users of more value and of a higher marketing profile than the "traditional" desktop market? Will tablets be "corrected" first, I wonder?

    Also, the "App Store" is a new departure/venture for Microsoft and one which has panoramic scope over the tablet and desktop - Again it will be interesting to see Microsoft's response to issues arising "in store"...

  7. Mage Silver badge

    Hot Fixes

    We only had wet string and CDs in the post.

    So NT 3.51, NT4.0 had Hot Fixes for bugs and additional drivers before SP releases. Either on the Monthly CDs or via Dialup. We got ISDN, then ADSL during life of NT4.0

    It's just more of what they had before, more streamlined due to broadband.

    BTW, where is my SP7 for NT4.0? The beta USB driver worked great, though I had to install on the scanner or whatever on Win2000 and copy files as stupid installer checks OS version and not available features (which was the MS recommendation actually).

  8. Big_Boomer Silver badge
    Meh

    SP1??

    The main reason why most people have gotten into the habit of waiting for "SP1" is to give the addicts plenty of time to find the bugs and "features" and get them fixed. So, by that time the rest of us can buy knowing that many of the most obvious issues have been resolved.

    Personally I would never install a "new" OS on anything that I need to remain productive as you spend too much time trying to find new ways to do what you need to do.

    RTM = final Beta release(s). Would it be any different if they called it Gamma or Beta-Final?

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      It's not "most people", it's business users.

      If you run a business using Windows PCs, you probably want a standard of reliability that an RTM productgdoesn't have. So, you maybe set up a couple of PCs with the new software, just to test whether the things that you already use and depend on still work, but you don't upgrade all the computers in your company, which presumably are working well with a supported earlier version, until you see that the new product works at least as well as the one that you're already relying on. And that translates to Service Pack 1.

      In past times, there may also have been an expectation that you would use the Service Pack as the only updates that you apply to all of your computers. But nowadays, a defect in the software can mean that Internet-based hackers can break into your computers and steal or change your data, and waiting for the next Service Pack to come around isn't acceptable practice. You need to update all of your PCs promptly with every fix that is released for general use.

  9. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    SP0

    So microsoft introduce the concept of service pack zero - one released before the OS?

    They should patent that !

  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Hi Steve,

    Can we have Jim back please? Vista is forgiven.

    Thanks.

  11. Levente Szileszky
    Stop

    Sinofsky was always a lying sack of...

    ...arrogant MS bubblehead* so what's new here?

    *: a head honcho living in their exec bubble, believing his own excellene thus usually talking laughable jack, straight out of his bottom part, constantly sounding like an utterly clueless fool as a result...

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