Comments

• SquareHead

  2009-01-17 02:49:49

  Wow! A negative comment about Windows 7, posted by a guy we've never heard of, to a Usenet group dedicated to Linux. This is breaking news!

• The Mad Hatter

  2009-01-17 04:07:19

  Well SquareHead, who's ever heard of you, either?
  
  As to the quote above, I tend to believe it. Many companies that I have worked with or for have this belief that the best way to keep customers is to try and lock them in, rather than supplying the best product possible. When a company decides lock in is the best option, they put their efforts towards that, rather than making a fantastic product, and product quality suffers. Then they wonder why their customers are willing to spend so much effort to escape the lock in, and try harder to lock customers in, and product quality suffers further.
  
  This is why Apple, which was once nearly dead, has become so successful. They work damned hard at producing a product that people love to use. Quite frankly the best computer I've ever owned is a MacBook.
  
  Compare the software industry to the musical instrument industry. It's impossible to use "lock in" as a business strategy if you are a guitar manufacturer. To compete a guitar manufacturer has to offer a guitar which combines quality, price, looks, and playability, as a result of which the cheap guitars available now, are better than the mid range guitars which were available 10 years ago, and the top of the line guitars available now are absolutely incredible. The same is true of any industry where lock in is not possible. Compare the cars of today, with the cars of 10 or 20 years ago, and the changes are incredible, while in the Operating System space, because of how Windows is sold, Microsoft has not had to innovate to the same degree (after all, if it's going to be installed on a computer anyway, why do they need to change it?)
  
  Get rid of lock in, and we would see an incredible jump in software quality and capabilities. Actually we are seeing this, it's just that only OSX, Gnu/Linux, Gnu/BSD, and Gnu/Solaris are improving this way. Microsoft now realizes that they have a problem, but since decisions are made at the top, and top management does not directly connect with the end users, the changes they are making are probably not the right ones.

• SquareHead

  2009-01-18 17:47:59

  Thanks for completely missing the point and giving me a response not at all related to my comment.
  
  You could have told me why this quoted opinion was credible, or why Linux biased usenet forms are a good source for accurate information about Windows. But instead, you wondered off into a long winded lecture about "vendor lock-in". Because if you can't answer the question, you can at least spend time attacking Microsoft. You even threw in a car analogy as a bonus. Brilliant!

• BW

  2009-01-18 21:37:20

  The funniest thing about Windows 7 is how Vista has lowered everyone's expectations *so* much that even a marginal speed improvement over XP is suddenly great news. :P

• Dan O'Brian

  2009-01-19 00:15:33

  SquareHead: Welcome to Illogical Land, the land that only exists inside Roy Schestowitz's head, where credibility is measured by how much Roy likes what you say and how well it meshes with his black&white view of the world.

• twitter

  2009-01-19 01:51:36

  Gee Dan, do people in your gray world like Vista? On Earth, Vista's failure is as close to a consensus opinion as you can get. I've collected a lot of people's professional opinions and personal rants. Windows 7 is looking like more of the same despite the kind of massive hype so many press people ended up apologizing for when Vista bombed. Really, just look at the single low digit business adoption of Vista. More people believe the moon landing was a hoax than actually want Vista.
  
  We all know you hate Roy for some reason. You and your nym friends come here to nit pick and insult him all day long, as if it was your job or something. That's your problem and it makes you look like an ass. Nothing could be dumber, however, than pretending Vista was anything but the most hated version of the least technically competent OS ever conceived by business greed. People who comes to this site should see this block headed defense of Vista when they read your latest hate.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-19 02:28:24

  Windows had become a dinosaur well before the release of Win2001 (XP). It's amazing that some people still defend and harbour it.

• G. Michaels

  2009-01-19 06:26:14

  We all know you hate Roy for some reason.

  
  
  Anyone reading your Slashdot journals can see that you are completely fixated with the term "hate" and you use (ineffectively) it as an emotional trigger. Anyone who disagrees with you hates you, anyone who posts things that you disagree with hates Slashdot (and I guess now BoycottNovell), anyone who does not share your exact same views of FOSS hates free software, anyone who offers constructive criticism on something also hates that something, etc. etc. etc. How do you live with so much anger, Will?
  
  

  You and your nym friends

  
  
  Oh heavens, that just borders on the epically ironic coming from you.
  
  

  come here to nit pick and insult him all day long, as if it was your job or something. That’s your problem and it makes you look like an ass.

  
  
  Yes, anyone who disagrees with the information put forth here must be employed to do so, and must be insulted. This is a game you know well.
  
  

  People who comes to this site should see this block headed defense of Vista when they read your latest hate.

  
  
  Uh-oh, I smell another little red text disclaimer appended to someone's post, like mine. I wonder if Roy will acquiesce this time? More work for him I guess :)
  
  Note: writer of this comment adds absolutely nothing but stalking and personal attacks against readers, as documented here.

• The Mad Hatter

  2009-01-20 02:29:58

  Vista Flight Software
  
  Desktop Windows - is it time to cut and run?
  
  A Software Populist who Doesn't Use Windows
  
  Is Microsoft In Trouble?
  
  Virus writer signs off in cordial Trojan message to MS
  
  First Windows 7 beta puts fresh face on Vista
  
  Superworm seizes 9m PCs, 'stunned' researchers say
  
  Yawn.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-20 03:09:29

  They all misspell "Vista7". ;-)

• 7 Work Great

  2009-01-23 00:22:02

  Windows 7 64-Bit Build 7000 works great on my Core 2 6600, 4GB, GeForce 8800GT system. I reluctantly loaded it on my main development/gaming system. To my surprise IT IS F'IN GREAT!
  
  ALL OF MY PROGRAMS WORK PERFECTLY AND THAT'S A LOT OF PROGRAMS!
  
  A few weeks now with no crashes at all! All games including steam games work way faster then Vista SP1(Not That They Were Slow At All Before)! New task bar is great. Zune works great too!
  
  NO CRASHES OR LOCKUPs AT ALL EITHER!
  
  AND No I DON'T WORK FOR MICROSOFT EITHER. I AM JUST A LONE SELF TAUGHT TECH, SOFTWARE DEVELOPER AND GAMER!
  
  Don't be a LINUX WEENIE!
  
  Just conform I did after the death of the Commodore Amiga systems.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-23 00:28:50

  @Mr. "Work Great":
  
  

  AND No I DON’T WORK FOR MICROSOFT EITHER.

  
  
  Shills never work for Microsoft. They get hired by a firm like Waggener-Edstrom.
  
  Sony does such garbage too. From today:
  
  

  Outdated Whois Information Might Lead to False Light Tort--Meyerkord v. Zipatoni

  
  
  'Unfortunately for Sony--and Meyerkord--the campaign did not go well. Bloggers and others got suspicious of the overly colloquial site, unmasked the astroturfing and decided to "out" the people involved. They pulled up the Whois records, saw the outdated information that Meyerkord was the registrant, and mistakenly assumed he was involved in the campaign.'
  
  http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2009/01/outdated_whois.htm
  
  Exploding batteries, DRM menace, now this...
  
  

  Man Sues Former Employer For Not Updating Whois... And Then Acting Stupid

  
  
  'in 2006 Zipatoni was the company behind the disastrously stupid "fake" viral marketing campaign known as All I Want For Xmas is a PSP. After that was exposed, blogs went to town making fun of Sony... and Zipatoni. As part of that, people went to the whois and "outed" Meyerkord, including calling him a "douchebag."'
  
  http://techdirt.com/articles/20090121/0558113474.shtml

• Victor Soliz

  2009-01-23 03:06:34

  Zune works great too!

  It is a Vista7 miracle!

• David Gerard

  2009-01-23 15:24:28

  I am trying the Windows 7 beta in a VM with 512MB. (1GB laptop. Ubuntu and XP fly on this thing.) It's really pretty. Ridiculously pretty. But oh my goodness is it slow.
  
  (thinks of something nice to say about Microsoft)
  
  Um ... I love my Microsoft Natural keyboard. It's really a great idea and brilliant for anyone who can type properly.
  
  Except they put the 6 in the left-hand cluster, not the right. WHAT.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-23 15:36:18

  Except they put the 6 in the left-hand cluster, not the right. WHAT.

  
  
  BetaVista7 is technically Windows 6.1. Will the keyboard be Vista 7 compatible?

• The Mad Hatter

  2009-01-23 23:54:25

  I wonder how successful Windows 7 will be? Oh, it will be pre-installed on a lot of machines, but boxed copies sell off the shelf to existing Windows users who are running XP, the way people like myself bought Windows 95? How many people will find it a compelling replacement for Ubuntu or Mandriva?

• David Gerard

  2009-01-23 23:59:40

  @The Mad Hatter - I think you know the answer. Proportionately, very few people buy the boxed versions of Windows - it's overwhelmingly OEM. That's why Linux has finally hit Microsoft so hard by the mere fact of offering OEMs choice. And it's all a completely unintentional side effect.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-24 00:01:58

  An increasing number of users rely on Web-based 'tasks' like Wikis, documents, Facebooks, etc. so barriers to migration go away.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-24 00:05:25

  Oops. That last comment was a reply to The Mad Hatter.
  
  David, you should see what OEMs said about this subject, as phrased eloquently in the Comes Petition. Can you lend us a hand at the Wiki?

• David Gerard

  2009-01-24 10:43:59

  I would love to lend a hand at the wiki ... except I'm getting a better grasp of time management! In between work and a toddler, I can just about keep up with my email ...

• The Mad Hatter

  2009-01-24 15:43:28

  Roy,
  
  I don't use any proprietary software anymore because there is no need to use any. There are free software alternatives to everything. Oh, the Gimp may not have all the features that Photoshop has, but it took me less than an hour to figure it out, so it's very cost effective. Free software on top of Windows is what enabled me to dump Windows - everything I used was available on both platforms (and it's all available on the Mac too).
  
  The amount of high quality free software that's on the market has Microsoft very worried (if it doesn't, they are idiots).

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-01-24 15:51:15

  Yes, even specialised software runs OK with Wine if there is no native port.