03.26.16
Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 10 at 10:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Both were terrible in terms of acceptance, so rigged statistics (biased by selection) come to Microsoft’s rescue and wrongly generalised/extrapolated!
Pro-Microsoft sites (the above is a Microsoft advocacy site) have a new ‘source’ to lean on, just like the Microsoft-connected Net Applications
Summary: New examples of Microsoft-leaning brainwash, telling us that Vista 10 is a “success”, just like “Microsoft loves Linux”
AS we noted here the other day, Vista 10 is now being compared to Vista (even in the corporate media). Both are massive failures that Microsoft prefers to forget about. Just look at the latest financial results; it’s chaotic. At the same time, Microsoft is desperate to convince the public to adopt (if not force the public to adopt, as in the case of Vista 10, through covert ‘updates’, not just secret OEM deals) based on the false perception that “everyone else is doing it!” and it’s “inevitable” (or something along those lines).
“Digital Analytics Program (DAP) is quite meaningless and not a proper indicator of market share (never mind if inside the US or outside of it).”Microsoft must be frustrated that people aren’t as gullible as Microsoft needs them to do. The ordinary people know that Vista 10 is terrible and many people actively avoid it by all means possible (even if that means not buying a new PC, or only buying a Chromebook or something along these lines). Microsoft’s ability to fool the public is surely eroding. The typical folks know they don’t need Windows anymore and they know that Microsoft cannot love FOSS. As Christine Hall has just put it: “As for Microsoft’s continuing open sourcing? There’s nothing new here, move on. When Redmond loves Linux and open source enough to quit suing open source projects over patents it claims it has — that will be news.”
We were rather disturbed to find this new IDG brainwash titled “Windows 10 passes 20% share in the U.S.”
“The title and the summary say very different things,” iophk wrote to us. “This reeks of desperation.” Did the editor at IDG choose this misleading lie? IDG equates “Digital Analytics Program” with “share in the U.S.” What next? Digital Analytics Program (DAP) is quite meaningless and not a proper indicator of market share (never mind if inside the US or outside of it).
“Don’t be so shocked that DAP is Microsoft Windows-powered and even distributes MS Word files (rather than ODF or PDF).”“For the first time,” says this article, “Windows 10 accounted for more than one-fifth of the visits to sites tracked by the Digital Analytics Program (DAP), which mines traffic to more than 4,000 websites on over 400 different domains maintained by U.S. government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service and the National Weather Service.”
Don’t be so shocked that DAP is Microsoft Windows-powered and even distributes MS Word files (rather than ODF or PDF). Something doesn’t smell right. DAP has been used to disseminate other pro-Microsoft talking points at IDG (same writer). A lot of government employees are simply forced to use Windows and are not given a choice of browser, version, etc.
Next up: let’s judge the market share of GNU/Linux in the US based on universities’ research departments. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
04.18.13
Posted in Antitrust, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 8, Windows at 10:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Survival instincts?
Summary: In addition to filing an antitrust complaint against Android, Microsoft is committing antitrust sins when forcing OEMs to make hardware Microsoft-dominated
The Vista series, starting with Windows Vista, has been crushing the Windows franchise. Microsoft repeatedly extended the life of XP, now a 12-year-old system, in order to keep GNU/Linux at bay (Microsoft also used corrupt business practices to achieve this).
The other day we saw Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols saying that Windows is pretty much finished. To quote:
Windows: It’s over
You can think Windows 8 will evolve into something better, but the numbers show that Windows is coming to a dead end.
Vista 8 is indeed a dead end as Microsoft already leaps to vapurware, or imaginary replacements. ZDNet has this piece titled “What really signed the PC’s death warrant? Microsoft’s decision to support netbooks” (to keep GNU/Linux down).
“Some of the reasons for the collapse of the the PC market go a lot further back than the reception of Windows 8,” argues the author. By bribing to keep GNU/Linux out of netbooks Microsoft devalued Windows, which had already seen its value deflating after Vista came out.
There is a shameless attempt at spin, blaming hardware rather than software and given that Microsoft’s hardware is rejected as much as its software, this distraction does not hold water. We covered this before with examples.
One reader of ours asked: “Which real reviewer actually praised Microsoft Surface?
“It’s DOA like Vista 8 is.”
Indeed.
The Microsoft boosters too acknowledge Microsoft’s defeat, but their new strategy is to just discredit the opposition, as we shall show in a later post. Here is what the booster says:
The tablet market will grow this year by 38% to 150 million units, but Microsoft won’t be a beneficiary, says a new report from ABI Research. Windows tablets, BlackBerry tablets and “unidentified OS implementations” currently make up only 3% of the total market, and don’t show signs of significant growth.
The ABI Research report says that an estimated 150 million tablets will ship in 2013, worth an estimated $64 billion. The total number of tablets will grow by a projected 38% over 2012, and the total revenue will grow a projected 28%.
Realising that Linux is unstoppable and the demise of Windows to minority userbase imminent, Microsoft filed an antitrust complaint through a proxy. ECT has an analysis of it here. The overview says “Microsoft has “tried forcing people to license Android from them to try to kill Android, and they’ve tried putting out their own mobile OS to try to kill Android,” said blogger Mike Stone. “Both initiatives have failed on every level. People are still buying Android devices as fast as they can be made. All that’s left is to follow in Apple’s footsteps and sue sue sue. It stinks of desperation.””
“Other people may turn to Windows in such a scenario.”Well, the latest antitrust violation is Microsoft’s, which according to yet more articles like this one is suppressing GNU/Linux adoption.
It is about UEFI restricted boot. “UEFI BIOS and Secure Boot work perfectly well with only Linux installed according to the experiments I have conducted on my own PC,” writes Jamie Watson this week. It has become complicated due to Microsoft’s dirty trick. Yesterday after an in-place distro upgrade I had to resolve a GRUB issue before I could boot again, so I know the feeling of discouragement through complexity, I nearly gave up and installed everything from scratch. Other people may turn to Windows in such a scenario. Some might simply stay with it, no matter how fed up they are. This is Microsoft’s last hope. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
01.23.13
Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Vista 8, Windows at 3:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Articles of interest about a fatal incarnation of Vista, which simply cannot keep up with Android and other Linux-based operating systems
The release of Vista 8 has been such a disaster because the software is widely loathed. It’s a technical failure, not a marketing failure (over a billion dollars were spent on marketing). Some Windows shops now make money from the service of downgrading back to Vista 7 or XP. This is Vista all over again. I tried both, so I would know. It doesn’t shock me that the man behind Vista 8 already got sacked. Rather than give Vista 8 away Microsoft is raising the price now:
Say what you will about Windows 8; at least the upgrade from Windows 7 is cheap. Or it is for now. After January 31 will be a different story.
Ever since Windows 8′s October 26, 2012 launch, Microsoft has been offering retail Windows 8 Pro upgrade DVDs for $69.99. Online upgrades have been even cheaper, at $39.99. And customers who bought new PCs or laptops with Windows 7 preloaded got the best deal of all: If they registered with Microsoft, the online Windows 8 upgrade cost them just $14.99.
By raising the price Microsoft can discourage usage of this total disaster. Vista 8 RT is also a disaster. The Register writes
Microsoft’s ARM blunder: 7 reasons why Windows RT was DOA
Industry doomsayers were circling Windows 8 like buzzards before it even launched, but they picked the wrong carcass. Microsoft’s real 2012 roadkill was Win8′s ARM-powered cousin, Windows RT.
The chattering class’s comparisons of Windows 8 and Windows Vista are premature – it will take several more quarters before we can gauge how Redmond’s latest OS will play out in the marketplace. But with the holiday season behind us, it’s now plain that Window RT is a flop.
A Microsoft booster in the same publication writes that Microsoft is concerned about jailbreaking of this OS.The daily news in this site are getting more political because Linux already sells and spreads more quickly than Windows, thanks to Android and advanced in hardware. Now we must worry about freedom and rights. This includes jailbreaking. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
01.06.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 8, Windows at 7:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: More UEFI stories and some numbers which show even Vista outpacing Vista 8 in terms of adoption
WE are looking for more UEFI stories as part of an attempt to show how anticompetitive it really is.
Jamie Watson, a Brit, experienced yet more problems when he tested distributions on new hardware which is improperly marked:
I’ve been trying to set up multi-booting with Windows 8 and Linux – with limited success.
[...]
I have a difficult time even finding out from the pre-sales technical information if a system has EFI boot or not, much less whether it is configurable or not.
Here is another new story about UEFI issues. It sure looks like Microsoft is eager to prevent Linux and GNU from gaining ground by persuading hardware makers to restrict what can be booted. There is no denying the fact that Vista 8 is a failure, worse even than Vista based on some new numbers that are charted here:
Windows 8 usage uptake has slipped behind Vista’s in the same point in its release. Windows 8 online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PC’s which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista commanded at the same two month mark after release.
The source of this data is moreover close to Microsoft (and partly funded by it). We wrote about it in:
When even a Microsoft booster is saying negative things about Vista 8 adoption, then you know if might even be worse than claimed and reported. But what seems to be under-reported is the degree to which Microsoft is screwing with GNU/Linux installations. That needs to change. █
“We all know Linux is great… it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.” -Linus Torvalds about the superiority of Linux on the Amterdam Linux Symposium
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.25.12
Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Vista 8, Windows at 11:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Antifeatures that are associated with spying have been included in Vista 8, raising concerns for those who need protection in their private lives
THERE are many reasons to believe that Vista 8 will fail just like its predecessors (after XP).
Vista was not just horrible but it also introduced massive violations of privacy, which ought to deter and scare businesses. Having Vista or later installed is like having Stalin on your hard-drive. It ‘phones home’ a lot, gathering information about the users. This information is stored remotely and indefinitely.
“It ‘phones home’ a lot, gathering information about the users.”Now we learn that Vista 8 goes much further than Vista. It uses insecure means to help Microsoft spy on the users’ activity. To quote: “There are a few serious problems here. The big problem is that Windows 8 is configured to immediately tell Microsoft about every app you download and install. This is a very serious privacy problem, specifically because Microsoft is the central point of authority and data collection/retention here and therefore becomes vulnerable to being served judicial subpoenas or National Security Letters intended to monitor targeted users. This situation is exacerbated when Windows 8 is deployed in countries experiencing political turmoil or repressive political situations.”
See what Microsoft did in Russia. Remember the sound bite: Stalin on your hard-drive. █
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
–George Santayana
Permalink
Send this to a friend
08.23.12
Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Vista 8, Windows at 10:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: After very poor adoption of Vista and Vista 7 (especially in businesses) it is expected that Vista 8 will bring more of the same
THE failure of Vista 8 is foreseen by many. It is profound enough for OEMs to complain about it already [1, 2] and Dell joins the antagonists by making its stance known.”In the earnings call to discuss its latest financial results,” says The Register, “Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden said the introduction of Windows 8 in October would have a limited effect on Dell’s results at first, since the company is really focusing on enterprise systems, and he expects the new OS to have limited appeal early on in that sector.”
“Our guess is that Linux, the kernel, which is common to all these platforms, will thrive on desktops just as it does on phones, servers, and increasingly tablets too.”The interface of Vista 8 makes it unsuitable for serious use. To quote another new article: “Though Windows 8 is winning rave reviews for its touch-friendly tablet experience, many feel that the operating system’s “Modern-style” UI makes life more difficult for PC users. Count usability expert Raluca Budiu of the Nielsen Norman Group among these critics. Though she has not conducted any formal studies on Windows 8, the former Xerox PARC researcher and user experience specialist has used the new OS enough to conclude that, for productivity tasks on the PC at least, Windows 8 is less user friendly than its predecessors.”
GNU/Linux is alive and well, but Android too is looking for growth at the expense of Windows while Chrome OS gains a more favourable position among OEMs. Our guess is that Linux, the kernel, which is common to all these platforms, will thrive on desktops just as it does on phones, servers, and increasingly tablets too. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
03.07.12
Posted in Marketing, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Vista 8 at 3:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft reassures us that bribes are not a mistake but a deliberate act of marketing
THE MARKETING company known as Microsoft just cannot learn a lesson, or maybe there is no lesson to be learn when bribery is simply the business model rather than a “rotten apple”. Previously in this Web site we wrote all about Microsoft bribes that we are aware of. Vista 8 will be no exception because it is already happening. Ryan from #Techrights (IRC) writes: “They did something like this when Vista and Vista 7 went out. In that case, they sent out Alienware laptops to bribe favorable reviews for Vista from the people that got one. LINK (Archive.org copy, the original was disappeared)
“Now it appears they are promoting Vista 8 like this as well, only it’s tablets this time.”
Vista and Vista 7 had bribes as well. One former Microsoft manager wrote at one point: “I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.” The blog post is titled “bribing bloggers, █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
09.25.11
Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Windows at 11:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: How Silverlight died and why it is highly probable that Microsoft will always fail in the mobile arena
OVER a year ago we explained the connection between Vista Phony 7 (WP7) and Silverlight. That was just before Silverlight died. What’s amazing is that a lot of people forget that the fall of Silverlight is a prelude to the fall of WP7. One loosely depends on the other.
Windows Mobile was a massive failure that cost Microsoft a lot of money before Sidekick and KIN injured Microsoft as well (Microsoft tried to hide those losses). Just like in search, Microsoft keeps swapping brands, always with the same outcome and the same amazing losses.
According to this, Microsoft may have started a disinformation campaign for WP7. To quote Christine: “I can’t swear this item is Microsoft FUD, but it sure smells that way. On Wednesday a writer on CNET’s Microsoft beat reported on a study released by NPD Group. Although the article is never quite clear on exactly what is being studied (unless I missed something – tell me), the point seems to be that lots of potential buyers just can’t wait to get their hands on Windows Phone 7. Again, I could be wrong, but this sounds like the beginning of some sort of Redmond financed campaign to me.”
Since it is based on XAML to an extent, its fate is closely related to that of Silverlight, whose own people say was “destined to fail”. Quoting the new blog post:
Why Silverlight was destined to fail and my time as one of its custodians.
[...]
Death of Silverlight is sad, but at the same time good. Yes I said it, as for years I’ve sat behind this product watching it grow in an amazing ways across the globe. It went from this science project existence that I remember saying it wouldn’t last through tot his highly competitive technology that had both Microsoft and Adobe at each other’s throats over.
The war between Adobe ended though and over time the technology become somewhat a questionable approach to solving a whole bunch of issues within the .NET community.
So how did we arrive at this point? Here’s my mini memoirs of my time at Microsoft and in the Silverlight Product Management / Evangelism space.
It’s a long read, but take some time to stick process it all. I’ve left out a whole heap of juicy crap, simply because it would turn into a novel!!! And you wouldn’t believe me if I wrote it anyway.
The failure of Silverlight will cascade down to other Microsoft products. Vista was supposed to make a lot out of XAML and it failed. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
Content is available under CC-BY-SA