11.12.10

Microsoft XPS/Metro Appears to be Dead

Posted in Microsoft, XPS at 6:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: All signs indicate that Metro is just history, so XPS is no PS (PostScript) or PDF

A FEW years ago people started worrying about XPS, which was supposed to be Microsoft’s proprietary ‘PDF killer’. We opened a whole new category for XPS, only to be accommodated with 8 items as time went on, the last one going over a year back. What’s happening with XPS/Metro then? Despite looking closely at Microsoft news over the past year (close to 1,000 headlines/week) we found nothing about it. Google News currently yields nothing. It’s quite likely that it died faster than Silver Lie, but Microsoft never arranged a funeral or declared the death officially, e.g. with an announcement or a quick blog post. █

Share this post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

Pages that cross-reference this one

4 Comments

TemporalBeing said,

November 12, 2010 at 1:57 pm

Sadly, XPS is the default print driver installed on all Windows computer right now. There are people that do use it, though what they read it with is a mystery.

twitter Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
This annoys people. Excellent PDF print and reading support is one of those areas where GNU/Linux remains far ahead of Windows. Respect for user choice is something non free software will never have. Windows users can download a pdf printer and set it as a default for each user, but that’s a chore.
twitter said,

November 12, 2010 at 11:01 pm

Here’s a measure of how many people are using XPS, a Google search for common terms using the “filetype:” term, as in “filetype:xps christmas”. The results are amusing, to say the least and run about 1 million to one against XPS.

Christmas. 2.3 million pdf documents vrs 1 Polish language xps document. That is 1 as in singular, not 1 million, 1 hundred 1 dozen or one pair, just one lonely result. “June” 55 million pdf, 9 xps. “Cats”. 11 million pdf, 2 xps.

Just in case readers are tempted to say that Google hates Microsoft and is burying evidence of widespread xps use, I tried the “cats” search with Bing’s “decision engine” and others without luck. Bing, clueless thing that it is, offers me shopping results in my town and an advertisement for software to “open xps” by scanning and repairing Windows, just in case Windows is broken – that never happens and friendly malware authors are so helpful when it does. Yahoo, “powered by Bong! is the same but with more advertisement links and zero results. Lycos, zero for xps, 610,000 for pdf. Ask.com turns up some xps results that are mostly senseless. Doing things their way does a little better but ask.com does not count the results. Looking for pdf files on ask.com turns up a handy page about how to use search engines for this purpose. It seems as though no one but Google bothers to index XPS, though Yahoo does return an impressive 250,000 results about Dell XPS computers, bbq grills and arctic trolling motor batties. That should be compared to the 24 million pdf documents about cats that Yahoo actually indexed.

I’d say that’s dead as dead can be. Not even Microsoft’s search engine can find xps documents with common words published online. The almighty Google search bots managed to turn up a few dozen, perhaps in their deep web searches. Not even accidently shared files are xps documents.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
November 13th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Excellent survey. Thanks for defending the point about XPS being a dying breed.

What Else is New

Links 19/4/2018: Mesa 17.3.9 and 18.0.1, Trisquel 8.0 LTS Flidas, Elections for openSUSE Board

Links for the day
The Patent Microcosm, Patent Trolls and Their Pressure Groups Incite a USPTO Director Against the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and Section 101/Alice

As one might expect, the patent extremists continue their witch-hunt and constant manipulation of USPTO officials, whom they hope to compel to become patent extremists themselves (otherwise those officials are defamed, typically until they're fired or decide to resign)
Microsoft's Lobbying for FRAND Pays Off as Microsoft-Connected Patent Troll Conversant (Formerly MOSAID) Goes After Android OEMs in Europe

The FRAND (or SEP) lobby seems to have caused a lot of monopolistic patent lawsuits; this mostly affects Linux-powered platforms such as Android, Tizen and webOS and there are new legal actions from Microsoft-connected patent trolls
To Understand Why People Say That Lawyers are Liars Look No Further Than Misleading Promotion of Software Patents

Some of the latest misleading claims from the patent microcosm, which is only interested in lots and lots of patents (its bread and butter is monopolies after all) irrespective of their merit, quality, and desirability
When News About the EPO is Dominated by Sponsored 'Reports' and Press Releases Because Publishers Are Afraid of (or Bribed by) the EPO

The lack of curiosity and genuine journalism in Europe may mean that serious abuses (if not corruption) will go unreported
The Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Organisation (EPO) Complain That They Are Understaffed, Not Just Lacking the Independence They Depend on

The Boards of Appeal have released a report and once again they openly complain that they're unable to do their job properly, i.e. patent quality cannot be assured
Links 18/4/2018: New Fedora 27 ISOs, Nextcloud Wins German Government Contract

Links for the day
Guest Post: Responding to Your Recent Posting “The European Patent Office Will Never Hold Its Destroyers Accountable”

In France, where Battistelli does not enjoy diplomatic immunity, he can be held accountable like his "padrone" recently was
The EPO in 2018: Partnering With Saudi Arabia and Cambodia (With Zero European Patents)

The EPO's status in the world has declined to the point where former French colonies and countries with zero European Patents are hailed as "success stories" for Battistelli
For Samsung and Apple the Biggest Threat Has Become Patent Trolls and Aggressors in China and the Eastern District of Texas, Not Each Other

The latest stories about two of the world's largest phone OEMs, both of which find themselves subjected to a heavy barrage of patent lawsuits and even embargoes; Samsung has meanwhile obtained an antisuit injunction against Huawei
The EPO Continues to Lie About Patent Quality Whilst Openly Promoting Software Patents, Even Outside Europe

EPO patent quality continues to sink while EPO management lies about it and software patents are openly being promoted/advocatedEPO patent quality continues to sink while EPO management lies about it (the article above is new) and software patents are openly being promoted/advocated
SCOTUS on WesternGeco v Ion Geophysical Almost Done; Will Oil States Decision Affirm the PTAB's Quality Assurance (IPRs) Soon?

Ahead of WesternGeco and Oil States, following oral proceedings, it's expected that the highest court in the United States will deliver more blows to patent maximalism
Links 17/4/2018: Linux 5.x Plans and Microsoft's 'Embrace'

Links for the day
The European Patent Office (EPO) Grants Patents in Error, Insiders Are Complaining That It's the Management's Fault

The EPO has languished to the point where patents are granted in error, examiners aren't happy, and the resultant chaos benefits no-one but lawyers and patent trolls
The European Patent Office Will Never Hold Its Destroyers Accountable

With only one in seven EPO stakeholders believing that Battistelli's pick (António Campinos) will turn things around for the better, it certainly does not seem like people are happy and there's no real hope that Battistelli will ever be held accountable for his abuses after his immunity expires
With Liars Like These...

The European Patent Office continues to lie about the Unified Patent Court (UPC) amongst other things, still revealing its reluctance to say anything which is truthful or work to repair the damage caused by Benoît Battistelli
Links 16/4/2018: Linux 4.17 RC 1, Mesa 18.0.1 RC, GNOME 3.28.1

Links for the day
IAM, Patently-O and Watchtroll (the Patent Trolls' Lobby) Try to Stop Patent Oppositions/Petitions (PTAB)

In spite of fee hikes, introduced by Iancu's interim predecessor, petitions (IPRs) at the PTAB continue to grow in number and the patent maximalists are losing their minds over it
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is Ending Software Patents One Patent at a Time

At an accelerating pace and with growing determination, PTAB (part of AIA) crushes patent trolls and software patents; the statistics and latest stories speak for themselves
Academics and Think Tanks for Patent Maximalism

Right-wing think tanks and impressionable academics continue to lobby for patent maximalism, rarely revealing the funding sources and motivations; in reality, however, such maximalism mainly helps large (already-wealthy) corporations, monopolists, and law firms
Killing Patent Quality and Encouraging 'Covert' Software Patents Using the Buzzwords Du Jour

The epidemic of buzzwords and/or hype waves that are being exploited to dodge or bypass patent scope/limitations, as seen in Europe and the US these days
Crisis of Quality at the EPO Extends to Staff (Notably Examiners) and Management as Institutional Integrity is Severely Compromised

A rather pessimistic but likely realistic outlook for the European Patent Office (EPO), which seems unable to attract the sort of staff it attracted for a number of decades
The 'Blockchaining' of Software Patents (to Dodge the Rules/Guidelines) Now Coming to Europe

A lot of software patents are being declared invalid (or not granted in the first place); having said that, using all sorts of hype waves (like calling databases “blockchains”) firms and individuals manage to still be granted software patents and sometimes patent trolls hoard these
Links 14/4/2018: Wine 3.6, KDE Elisa 0.1

Links for the day
East Asia Should Have Adopted the Patent Strategy of South Asia, Notably India

China seems to be so interested in patent maximalism that it has lost sight of the effect on foreign investment, e.g. US/European/Taiwanese/Japanese/Korean firms operating/manufacturing in mainland China
Samsung is the 'New IBM', Sans the Trolling With Patents

The 'relic' company, IBM, loses its patent leadership (as measured using some yardstick) to Samsung, a company which is relatively calm when it comes to patent activity (unless/only when sued, as happens a lot nowadays)
David Barcelou May or May Not be a Patent Troll, But He is Certainly a SLAPPing Bully and Watchtroll is Fine With It

Like a thin-skinned person/entity (which many in the patent microcosm are), David Barcelou and Automated Transactions (“ATL”) SLAPP their critics and surprisingly enough it's Watchtroll, who has been threatened by WIPO, coming to the bully's rescue (double standards)
Links 12/4/2018: Stable New Kernels, Neptune 5.1

Links for the day
The USPTO Has a Nepotism and Lobbying Problem That Jeopardises the Rationality of US Patent Law

The influence games of Washington are spilling over to the US patent office and poisoning/harming its ability to conduct professional operations without corporate influence (from either side, both corporations and law firms)
Patent Trolls in the United States Show the Importance of Stopping Software Patents (Trolls' Favourite) Worldwide

The abundance of entities that exist for no purpose other than to initiate lawsuits is a contagious threat to real innovation (or science and technology being practiced); a new jury verdict (record-breaking $500,000,000) is a reminder of this