Posts by Belardi 241 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Sep 2012
LOL.... yep.
Check this out.... Windows 8.0 still has Windows 3.1 crude code built in. You can see it easily.
Go to Drive Properties from the desktop... the ugly blue and purple drive pie-chart... zero difference from Windows95 and a bit updated from Win3.x.
Microsoft has little talent.
I don't have issues. I'm stating things as they are, nothing more. Yeah, it sucks that an inferior product out-sold a much better one. That credit goes to Microsoft's marketing and business team... while Commodore was managed by morons and greed... some Cayman Islands type games.
Did MS-DOS work? Yes. Did it run Word, yes. Did it run WordPerfect, yes. Was it easy to use? no. Was it powerful, meh.... it worked.
MS-Word is quite good, greatest of all time... whatever. Word 2003 or OpenOffice - no real difference. Even today, I'm sticking with Office 2003. It runs and does everything I need. How it marked mistakes is great, etc.
But back in 1990 or so, Final Write did some pretty amazing stuff - before Word for Windows and things that most word processors still don't do. Final Writer's spell checker didn't use a list. It LOOK at the words you typed and gave you a list based on what it looks like you were trying to spell.
I admit, I have dyslexia. I count on spell checkers to help me on words. Final Write (for Amiga and WYSIWYG before Windows3 came out) was more helpful. While MS-Word, even today - counts on its list of mis-spellings to offer a correction. Example: refrigerator (correct)
refigerator MS-Word can fix it.
refegerator MS-Word can't, but Final Write COULD. This is the choices that Word2003 gives me: regenerator/s.
Of course... that was then... today, Final Write is junk and IMHO - fails the same reasons that many Linux developers are failures or fail at fixing problems with product. Designed by programmers for programmers. Rather than "for programmers and end-users". Final Writes biggest flaw is the lack of an UNDO function. Accidentally delete a page of text? Too bad, its gone! But it has great formatting controls, color options and AREXX support. I talked to the Owner of the company when I was sent a letter about a $20 upgrade deal (includes 2 diskettes worth of fonts!!) I considered it for the fonts. I said "when you are going to add an Undo?" he said "that will be when the programmers decide that its needed". WTF?! I told him, no thanks.
I used CygnusED on the Amiga which is 1000x more powerful than notepad (DOS or Windows version) - it had an undo history of 5000 or so characters. I could select text vertically too, which was important. Yet, a word processor lacked that? Today, I use Notepad++ (its free) and is one of the very best text editors out there (My favorite). And even with OpenOffice, its the same stupid game. I told a few of the guys who actually work on it "You need to add an Outlook type PIM/Email module to get the MS-Office market" Here it is, almost 10 years later... their solution? Get Thunderbird and some other PIM.
That kind of thinking is stupid. How hard is it to program a PIM? Outlook works very good because its integration into the rest of MS-Office. In general, someone like me doesn't need MS-Office - especially nowdays.
MS-DOS was a successful product. It made some people into billionaires. It created the industry we have today. But it was never a good product. If IBM kept PC-DOS and MS was never allowed to make MS-DOS - no clones. Amiga and Macs would be the leaders in the market, Linux would be larger too. In hindsight, the CEOs/board of Commodore never had the vision or talent to make the Amiga take over the computer market. If Bill Gates owned Amiga, he would have done it.
I know, that back in the late 80s.... Bill Gates knew MS-DOS/Windows1-2 were garbage. I'm sure he was happy that Commodore was a bunch of morons. Let me tell you this, A 1985 Amiga computer CAN access the internet (limited colors) A 1992 Amiga and use the internet today (mostly). MS-DOS cannot. And I doubt that there is a single living person using Windows 3.x on this planet.
The past is the past, but for many people today - they we not around back then. So I make a point to state things how they were (at least from my experience). How many people on this site had their first computer be a 64K or less system? I can still somewhat marvel at my $100 cellphone, which is way beyond the abilities of my $2500 Amiga 3000 + camera + video camera + music player + voice recorder + a phone! Today, 16GB of RAM is about $100... vs the 6mb on my old Amiga.
But Win3/DOS didn't really do much. It was always a garbage hack system. I didn't say it wasn't a 32bit OS, I said that Windows 3 itself is NOT an OS.
AmigaOS was always a 32bit OS from version 1.0 with its 16/32bit CPU. So when Amiga 3000~4000s came out (pure 32bit CPUs), there was no re-compiling code or other mess.... software JUST WORKED.
Windows 95 gift to the world : PnP (Plug N Pray) - whatever... Amiga had PnP since 1985... you plugged in a modem, video card, etc... they worked.
Thumbs down for calling out MS-DOS for what it was?
FACT: Windows 1~3 were NEVER an Operating System (NT is an OS).
FACT: MS-DOS is a re-engineered version of C/PM that was sold to Billy Gates for about $20,000 when they half-lied to IBM "yes, we have an OS".
FACT: MS-DOS was always garbage. When you used a REAL modern OS in the 80s, you'd know that MS-DOS was crap. Yes, in 1985, the Amiga 1000 CLI mode (before the GUI loaded up) would run circles around MS-DOS. Far more powerful, far more flexible. Running DOS-Shell in 9x is so crumble-some.
Try this in 1988: Running 8 MS-DOS windows on a PC.... oh, you couldn't. But on AmigaOS, you COULD. And each window could be a different size and shape. I grew up with the Amiga, and when Commodore died and took Amiga with them, I *had* to move to the Microsoft world for work... man, using MS-DOS/Windows 3 and Win9x was always a severe downgrade.
Cannot be all pissed over a fact.
Needless to say, as horrible as Windows95 was, it was better than MS-DOS with its pseudo long-file names. Win98 is when they got their consumer running decently. NT 4.0 was almost useless as it was a crash magnet... nothing like installing a SP which kills the ZIP-Drive driver, re-install the driver, kills the SP... and around we go. So not until XP did Microsoft get their OS in order... but that was the start of activation hell.
Windows 8 drove me back to using Linux along with my Windows7 computer.
Thank you Linux.
"WFW 3.11 was Redmond's first fully 32-bit OS" - er... uh, no.
Windows 3.x was never an Operating System. It was a GUI overlay that ran on a piece of shit OS called MS-DOS. Remember the days of 8.3 file names?!
CATPI122.JPG
CATPI125.JPG ~ etc, instead of "My Cat Picture in Chicago 1996.jpg" which the Amiga and Macintosh were doing since the mid 1980s.
If you built a new PC, got out your Windows 3.x disks (and only those disks) and tried to install it... you wouldn't get far since you needed MS-DOS 5~6 INSTALLED first.
MS-DOS was always garbage. it was fine for 1970s~ 1982 standards.... that's it.
You were quite happy with MS-DOS, eh? (barf)
Kind of hard to adjust the size of a multi-tasking windowed environment without a pointing device... and the mouse was and is the cheapest and easiest way to do that. Macs don't use touch screens... iPads do. Tablets are a different form-factor than a desktop computer.
Its stupid to use a mouse with a tablet as its dumb to use a touch screen for a desktop.
So basically... we would have been perfectly happy with Windows 7.1... all the improvements under the hood without the shitty looking flat-skin.
Then, they should have thrown in the METRO as a launcher, if you want or need it... like if you happen to have bought a MS tablet or phone. That is the thing...
Metro / TIFKAM is not a "Windows OS". They should have kept the METRO name... and called it Metro 2.0 for the tablets and phones.... and left it at that... Everyone would know what the difference.
"Reller said Microsoft is launching new programs aimed at getting developers and resellers on board with Windows 8, including a "User Experience Design Competency" training program for designers, plus a program called TouchWins that offers distributors and resellers incentives to carry Windows 8 PCs and tablets with touchscreens."
Gee... with Windows7 and XP even, microsoft didn't have to strong-arm developers or resellers to sell windows based products. I'm confused about the last part a bit... are they offering Windows7 systems? It doesn't matter how cheap the good incentives are, if people DON'T WANT TO BUY OR USE WINDOWS Fracking 8!
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
I was active on the Opera 10x beta program. It was great working with the team, helping to tweak 10.0 into the great browser that it is... and that 12 builds on that. Even with some of Opera's quirks - its the most flexible and power browser on the market. Chrome is most compatible - but is somewhat pain in the ass compared to Opera.
According to Tomshardware, there are some differences in performance and function compared to Chrome.
But if in function, its just Chrome with an Opera badge... then why bother?
Great features of Opera I use:
- Grouped tabbing (big time)
- Text find features
- custom layout
- I do kind of make use of Speed Dial
- zoom functions.
There are some compatibly issues in Opera that means I have to use Chrome or (ugh) Firefox. I very rarely ever use IE. On my Linux notebook, I use Opera over ff.
Looks like I'll be using FF12 for a very long time :(
No, just as Tom35 has states. Now, what Microsoft said about 2 months ago is that they SHIPED/SOLD Win8 licences as fast as Windows7... which of course means nothing as that is sales to OEM. Who have paid for Win8 but not sold or shipped Win8 computers.... so Microsoft is playing with the numbers.
Lets say you buy a notebook like the ThinkPad with Windows7 Pro. It still counts as a Win8 sales that has been "downgraded" to windows 7.
"Launch it without Office installed, and it will be a running application in about a minute while the application continues to install in the background..."
Who gives a shit?
Anyone that much of a hurry to start writing a letter? Hell, install LinuxMint in 15 mins and it includes LibreOffice pre-installed. Windows8, Office 2013, XBO can suck a dead horse.
I agree with most of what you are saying. Adding a bit.
- the touch UI aspect of win8 is flawed because of hidden buttons and functions with no visual clues. The start button was always there, but being a hidden pixel in a corner was plain stupid. Making metro apps run on full screen was stupid. Keep in mind a metro app for win8 isn't the same one as for winRT or wp8. So developers have to makem3 versions to debug, etc. also making win8 desktop ugly isn't cool. MS is so stupid, they make IE10 for win7 using win8 skin!
- the touch UI fails when MS promotes win8 keyboards with special HOT keys for basic functions.
- I've liked the metro UI on wp7 back when it first came out, I ran a launcher on my android phone,MIT was great. I was planning on buying a WP8 phone... And the metro launcher for the desktop seemed like a good idea to me since most people use a few apps at the same time.
But after using win8 preview for 20 mins, I knew it was crap. I and others warned MS the problems. With MS stupidly, why would I trust them with anything else? I got an android 4 type phone and love it. I hate metro and windows 8 and been driven to LinuxMint... Which made far more sense than windows8.
My family is going with playstation4 like many others.
I think many of us have NO CONFIDENCE in Microsoft. Everything has been a FAIL since 2012. And we no longer need them. Windows 8 has only hurt the PC far more than if it never came out
Next week... Apple sues Samsung for being on the planet Earth.
Stop it Apple, you look like assholes. You generally a have the best tablet in the world... I like my iPad-1. But this BS makes me not want to get another Apple product. I already only stick with Android phones... I don't care for the Apple UI for a phone.
Return the HP computers... you should have done research.
Lenovo sells ThinkPad notebooks with Windows7Pro by default - they are $450~1800USD, takes about a week to get them in. And since they are business computers, they do NOT come pre-loaded with crap. hell, even their consumer IdeaPad lines doesn't come preloaded with 1/4 the garbage as HP.
Vista was garbage. Sure it got mostly stable by SP2, but its memory sucking problems were never fixed. And in truth, Vista worked like a re-skinned XP. The finer features of Win7 makes its quite different from Vista on the surface.
But even ON NEW hardware, lower end computers at the $300~500 range were HORRIBLE! A typical low-end NEW vista computer with 1GB of RAM was a nightmare compared to an older or just previous model with WinXP that has 512mb. Back then, 4GB of RAM was about $400USD! Vista really needed 64bit with 8~12GB of RAM to function well and MANY PC makers sold such systems. That added $300~700 to the costs of the computer! I recently worked on a Win8 notebook with 1GB RAM. I disabled and removed junk and settings, spend $25 on 2GB of RAM (very expensive, but its for an old computer) and the customer loved how it runs better than it ever did out of the box.
Today, you'll find low-end Win7/Win8 systems with 1-2GB of RAM because of the memory problems.
I'm already going to Linux in my household. Windows7 is my last. WinOS PC sales will end up being 25% lower overall since the release of Win8. Face it, nobody loves Windows 8... and those that do say the same things:
- "Its not that bad"
- "Its fine once you add XXX-Start menu replacement, and I never go into Metro"
- "Spend 15 minutes learning it"
- "Once you learn all the keyboard shortcuts, its faster" - huh, but the whole point is that its a "touch" UI that should work great without a fracking keyboard.
If you are avoiding Metro, you are avoid HALF the feature seat of Windows 8. So why bother "upgrading" for a better copy/move window and a *gasp* fast boot up?
The other half of Win8 users just deal with it... unhappy... as its the only thing they have in stores and don't know they can order ThinkPads with Windows7Pro - which costs a bit more money.
Win8 is not hard to learn, its just a very stupid, crumblesome and ugly OS UI. I've gone to LinuxMint because of Windows8 and its easier to use as it works like a COMPUTER OS. And better, its free. No keys to enter, no activation, no spying.
The 360 and PS3 (and even the WiiU) are using 8 year old technology. And it shows.
So its long over-due for new generation. And with 4K TVs hitting the market today, I would expect the NEXT generation of consoles to hit in 5 years.
The PS4 looks a lot better than the XBO... Its slicker. And whose to say that MS didn't copy SONY?
There was only a few weeks difference between the public release of the two consoles. And overall, it looks like MS is in a rush-job again with many of their demos running on Windows7 PCs (what, no windows 8?)
Learning HOW to use Windows8 and like actually working with Windows 8 are two different things.
Many of us own Android, iOS and WindowsOS products at the same time and use them everyday. Hell, in the space of 1 min, I've touched all 3 such devices in my home.
Windows 8 is a crappy UI, for an OS platform that is sinking.
They did... those were called Netbooks. You can still buy them... somewhat. Like the HP Mini 1104 for $589USD. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834256244
Oh yeah! The iPad totally murdered the netbook market two years ago.... even when the netbooks were $250~300USD.
Sorry Nigel11, but WindowsOS has suddenly become irrelevant! That is exactly why MS has made such a radical change to Windows by coming up with a NON-Windows UI.
Let me explain: If we go back to 2005 with Windows XP being used in 95% of personal computers (Mac at around 4%, everything else under 1%) and NOT including servers which were/are mostly Linux. Then as we see, Windows *IS* the OS to have. Everyone bought WindowsPCs and with Vista in 2006 being the performance dog it was - people had to spend a lot of money on CPU and memory to run that POS.
FastForward a few years to 2009: Windows 7 is out, its leaner... but hardware is a lot cheaper. Quad core CPUs are $100, 4GB of RAM is under $100 (When Vista came out, 8GB of RAM would have cost you $400~600 - Hell, when I built my i5-3570K PC last OCT, I paid $75USD for 16GB of RAM).
The iPhone 3GS and Android 2.0 entered market causing the smartphone market to really explode. Microsoft sales of Win7 is excellent, the Netbook sales are becoming popular. Microsoft controls about 94% of the PC market.
Then in 2010 (5 months after Windows 7 went public), something happened. Which Microsoft and geeks said was a "fad" and laughed it off.
The Apple iPad. Which ran iPhone software out of the gate. Its was $400~700 depending on configuration. Netbook sales tanked instantly. Then the iPad 2 came out just when Android tablets started coming out... which were sub-standard to the iPad1 and couldn't compare to the iPad2.
Over the course of 2 years, as people bought tablets - they actually LIKED them. Sure, they were not as WORK savvy as a notebook, but for most people, it was an excellent portable device. Some of those same people started using their tablets over their regular computers. (( In one of my offices in which all desktops and notebooks are Win7, everyone *I mean EVERYONE* has an ipad and/or an iphones)). I know people who DON'T use their notebook computers anymore, just the tablet.
I have a few notebooks in my home, but they require a power cord - their batteries at best worked for 2hrs and I'm not going to spend $100 replacing them. Ever tried using a notebook on a sofa while laying down? You can't. If I want to look up something I see on TV, I can press a button and start searching in seconds... with my notebook - I'd have to either power it up or wait for it to wake up.
There is a trend here, and MS researched this big time. They dumped WinPhone6 to come up with WP7 that is totally incompatible with WP6, etc. It looks kind of slick (I ran an a WP7 Launcher on my Android 2.x phone). But in reality, it was WP6 under-the hood and has problems. WP8 will come out a year later and burn WP7 users - in the mean time - MS is like the titanic, too big, too slow to move. No tablet OS while iPad sales are 5~10m per month... Apple has out-sold the Xbox360 in 2 years, each one a profit.
Now, 2013: Many people use their phones and tablets AS THEIR PERSONAL COMPUTER. My wife uses her phone 95% of the time, rather than her notebook or my iPad. So yes, ipads, Android tablets COUNTS as computers... and here is the thing...
Most people NEVER liked Windows. I sure as hell didn't. Win7 is the first MS-OS I actually liked. I loved my Amigas, MS-DOS was always garbage. Windows3 was never an OS and is pure garbage. Win95 was functional hell. XP was finally a stablish OS. But no, people just wanted access to WEB/MySpace > Facebook and MS Office... the rest games. But, Microsoft makes consoles and help kill PC gaming, so less reason to buy a WindowsPC if the games you want is on a console! (Halo3? Gears of War 2~3? etc ) Yes, us people who use computers to MAKE things, like the PC and IT IS needed for the tools we use. Which is what most PEOPLE don't do.... hence, the tablet or smart phone works just as well - but far more portable.
So again, 2013: Microsoft now has less than 24% of the computer market (not including servers). The IDEA for Windows 8 / TIFKAM / Metro is that Windows was always too hard to use, so they dumbed it down. They want to bring back the USERS to Microsoft. The idea is this: People will Love or learn to use Windows 8, which means they will LOVE Windows 8 tablets and phones. The LOGIC is sound, the execution was not.
Microsoft FAILED to understand the form-factor and function of tablets vs desktop/notebook computers (read above). First, Metro *IS NOT WINDOWS*, there are no Windows in Metro. Metro is not a desktop-oriented UI... nobody ASKED for it.
So, what MS did was take Windows 7, fixed it up a bit - took out some junk (good things), then they made it UGLY, then they bolted on TIFKAM and showed it to the world. Many were not impressed. I myself thought the logic of Win8/Metro was a good idea, UNTIL I USED IT. So now people are NOT buying PCs or buying Win7 when they can. (I have one un-used Win7 disc/lic to use if I ever need it as I migrate to Linux). Yes, the economy is poor. Even Apple desktop sales are down a bit. If that was true, Windows8 PC sales should be down by 5~6%, NOT 14+%! MS chose to ignore the warnings from us... but they offered upgrades for $40, even from the beta version! Win8Pro has never EVER been this cheap! Even cheaper than Win3.1!
Microsoft has gone stupid and no easy ways to fix their problems. They are slow-middle-management no-talent types which is how you come up with crap like Windows 8. Office 2013 is blinding white ugly mess to go with ugly Windows8. Even IE10 for Win7 has been "Win8-skinned" for some stupid reason. So its UI elements doesn't match the rest of the system. This is childish and stupid on their part. Think Apple would be stupid enough to do this? (iOS7 UI is not a good sign - but thats another story).
I've had clients buy extra copies of Office 2010 while they could. I've had one ask me to locate him an Office2010 as he just wasted $400 on office 2013 and doesn't like it. He's SOL... perhaps ebay, he can buy it for $400+, as its sold out in stores.
So, other than a platform to run Office 2013 and a few other business programs - WindowsOS has become irrelevant! By 2014, WindowsOS should be under 20% PC market.
This is what happens when we have a choice. Microsoft deserves to fail... they did it to themselves.
But Windows8 is NO faster than Windows7. Other than its hybrid boot system is more than twice as fast. But get this, I put my Win7 computers to sleep... it wakes up in 1 second or so. I rarely reboot or powerdown my computers since I've started using Win7 (XP and older were never stable enough).
Hell, LinuxMint boots up as fast as Win8 on an HDD... And nobody should be running a 1.7Ghz single core anything for desktop use. The P4s were always slloooooow, even for WIn98.
You got that right, most people needs simply work well with a tablet. I use my tablet (iPad 1) for internet use about half the time, because its more relaxing and I can do it anywhere. I even respond to blogs and such - even thou my Quad-core i5-3570 with a 24" 1920x1200 monitor is in the same room.
I transferred hundreds of my VHS tapes into digital onto a single 2TB HD. I used an old 2Ghz AMD x2 CPU, it took many many months.... but it still got the job done. Not something for a tablet. But now that the videos are on a computer, I can stream those videos to any computer in my home :)
Giving away Office to sell $380~400+ mini-tablets? And they are supposed to go against the $330 iPadMini?
I think Microsoft is throwing darts... but they all seem to be landing on the floor.
Over-priced, over-powered for what is needed with extra bells and whistles trying to get more than a handful of people to buy their junk. The licencing is confusing too... always has been and it gets worse with each new release.
I had to re-build a PC for someone... they had a sticker on the side... but it didn't match the legit key used on the disc he gave me (He has about 6 computers) (Win7Pro)... so I had to pull the key off the computer (Win7Home) and I used my own disc - with his key. He can't keep up with his own stuff.
With Linux... there are no keys... no Pro or home versions.... no issues of having the 32bit vs 64bit versions. Just get what you want or need and install it. So much less hassle.
"Windows 8 without being a user who fully utilises the shortcuts provided in Windows already"
Same stupid argument.... To get the most out of Windows 8 with its TOUCH-DESIGNED UI, you must learn how to use the KEYBOARD Short-cuts to get around because the Touch interface is such shit.
And pretty much every Windows8 user who LIKED Win8 I have ever meet in person (I think 3 so far), say the same thing "Its not that bad"....
WTF?! ITS NOT THAT BAD?! Even those who like it... don't love it. And a huge chunk of them are running a Start-Menu replacement.
As of this moment, there are 20 major Start Menu replacement programs out there... who knows how many are trojan infections. And that is WHY corporations are not going to mess with Win8 with a 3rd party add-on for basic functionality.
Kenius said; "I'm still using windows 7 and will continue to do so till Microsoft realized that desktop and tablets work differently, and so do their users."
And what if Microsoft continues with TIFKAM? The rumors are, that in a few years with Windows9, they will remove the old UI all together. Which case... what would it be called "Windows" at all? To a huge degree, TIFKAM on a tablet and phone IS NOT WINDOWS since there are no Windows.
So what then?
Seriously dude, I've already started my migration OFF of Microsoft OS. Windows8 drove me to try out LinuxMint and it works very well. I can swap data instantly with one of my USB flash drives... it just works. LinuxMint boots up just as fast as Windows8 without that hybrid boot-up BS. I know because I replaced Win8 with Linux on the same notebook.
Using LinuxMint is fine. Afterall, TIFKAM isn't compatible with Windows, neither is Linux - so why bother with the crappy UI design that costs $100~200?!
You can run LinuxMint off a live DVD too...
You need a mirror. Obviously you're as narrow minded as the people at microsoft. It wasn't about the button itself as the whole mess of mixing two UI at people. Its an ugly messy package.
Hell, Windows8 has made me download and start using LinuxMint... which is usable, unlike metro.
So... MS took a basic top-down shooter game, apply some HALO character graphics, shove a "story" between levels.... and called it "HALO"?! This is not a HALO game. Its marketing crap.
Wow, a crappy game for their crappy phones and "desktop" OS. Meanwhile, in the land of iOS and Android, we have real FPS games that have graphics better than HALO 2.
JDX said " annoying perhaps but unusable, absolutely not."
Why should I or anyone else use, much less PAY for an annoying product?
I've had Win8 for months. I'd try to use it... and yes, I know/knew some of the short cuts and where things are at... but Windows 8 is butt-ugly and just not enjoyable to use.
True... almost.. But the world is a difference place now than... 8 years ago. There was only WIndows, 3% Apple Macintosh and a sliver of Linux on desktops. (Not counting servers) - Smart Phones were less than 1% of the total phone market (Windows CE) and Symbian.
The tablets and smart phone changed everything. By 2014, tablets will over take notebooks... ouch. In todays world, as long as you have access to the internet and not a business that requires MS-Office... you don't need Microsoft. For gaming? PC Gaming is very weak... with most games going to console, which look better on a 60: screen compared to a typical 24" display.
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