02.21.10
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Kernel, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 7:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Vista 7 proves to be too heavy for devices and it adds features that Linux has had for a very long time
Archos makes some fine gadgets that I’ve had the pleasure of trying. Archos has always been a great example of Linux being put to good use and recently Archos moved to Android and even liberated (made Free software) its customised, self-tailored platform. In more recent months (maybe about a year ago), Archos began ‘experimenting’ with Windows for whatever reason. But based on the following new review from the Canadian press, Archos should stick with Linux/Android. Vista 7 is just too bloated [1, 2, 3] to handle simple tasks on a mobile device*. Here are portions of this review:
Review: Sluggish Archos 9 demonstrates pitfalls of tablet PCs, need for new tack by Microsoft
[..]
Windows just doesn’t seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8 kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It’s sluggish, and the controls aren’t adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there’s no real keyboard or mouse.
[...]
It’s a little disconcerting that the Windows tablet experience is so poor, nine years after Microsoft made a big push for its Tablet PC version of Windows XP. Clearly, Microsoft hasn’t really adapted Windows properly for this type of device.
On the Android side, the Archos 5 has just gotten a firmware update:
Recently, I turned on my Archos 5 tablet for my nightly reading and found notification for the firmware update (1.7.77). Alas it’s still Android 1.6. The update went without a glitch but if you are wondering what was includes here’s rundown from the Archos support site:
* Extended Bluetooth™ support for cellphone tethering (DUN and PAN)
[...]
Features are being added on the fly. Can Windows do that? Does it ever do that? And if not, then why not? Let’s face it, the development model of Free software is simply superior as it allows larger disparate groups of developers to handle larger projects.
According to another new article, Vista 7 has a ‘dangerous’ ‘new’ feature:
Microsoft Windows 7, for example, contains software that allows a user’s laptop to do double-duty as a rogue Wi-Fi access point that masks the entry of unauthorized users onto the corporate network.
GNU/Linux has been able to do that for ages, as Slashdot correctly points out:
While this means a bit more policing for networks meant to be locked down, it sounds like a good thing overall. Linux users, meanwhile, have had kernel support (since 2.6.26) for 802.11s mesh networking, as well as Host AP support for certain chipsets.
GNU/Linux is about control by the user, Windows is about taking control away from the user. Microsoft is still catching up with Linux (technically) and drifting further away when it comes to respecting the user. █
____
* One of these sources suggests that Vista 7 is sometimes slower than Vista. Our reader Ryan, a former MVP of Microsoft, says that Vista 7 has more bugs than Vista, which is why he prefers the latter and he is not alone based on the news. But marketing lies from Microsoft made a real “Mojave” out of Vista. They called it “Windows 7″.
“Well the initial impression is how much it [Windows 7] looks like Vista. Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say.”
–Microsoft Jack Schofield
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02.18.10
Posted in Deception, Microsoft, UNIX, Videos, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 6:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Data from Devil Mountain Software shows that Vista 7 is a memory hog, which is therefore a lot slower for most users
A NEW study (data analysis rather) confirms what we’ve been saying all along. On many occasions we produced and shared evidence to show that Vista 7 was just too damn bloated (slower than Vista sometimes, except for cases where the reviewers had very modern hardware or received high-end hardware as bribe from Microsoft, in which case the bloat was harder to sense).
Anyway, the study at hand was covered by Gregg Keizer, who is one of the best guys at IDG/ComputerWorld.
Most Windows 7 PCs max out their memory, resulting in performance bottlenecks, a researcher said today.
Citing data from Devil Mountain Software’s community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet), Craig Barth, the company’s chief technology officer, said that new metrics reveal an unsettling trend. On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.
The above from Barth says that Vista 7 is “larger and more complex”, which is a gentle choice of words for “bloated”.
In the following new video from Linux Magazine (“Andrew Tanenbaum on Bugs and Minix’ Reincarnation Server”), the inspirer of Linux explains that many operating systems have become too bloated. Sorry about Flash alone being an option for viewing. █
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02.12.10
Posted in Deception, Marketing, Microsoft, Security, Vista, Vista 7, Vista 8, Windows at 8:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Lots of hot steam but no substance at all
Summary: Microsoft exploits children so as to pretend Internet Explorer 8 makes them secure/safe from exploiters; Huffington Post advertises Microsoft products that do not exist (vapourware)
Microsoft’s publicity stunts that exploit children are nothing new and the latest such stunt is a promotion of Internet Explorer 8. We wrote about this stunt in [1, 2] and Sirius does that too:
At a click of a button on Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (and only on Microsoft Internet Explorer 8) a secret code is launched which reports an individual to a Government organisation called CEOPS which in turn accesses the Police databases.
[...]
Guilty until proven innocent must be the default position. Prove me wrong Microsoft, give your code to your competitors, Open Source it and we can all help save children.
People ought to pay attention to this recurrence/theme. Microsoft uses children even in order to sell Vista 7. British television channels are full of evidence and a parents television council has already complained. But now, to make matters even worse, Vista 8 vapourware is being promoted in the UK (Ziff Davis [1, 2, 3]) and in Microsoft’s new platform for shameless self-promotion, namely the Huffington Post [1, 2, 3, 4].
“Microsoft uses children even in order to sell Vista 7.”“Note that MS-Huffingtonpost is talking about Windows 8,” told us a reader a few hours ago. It seems like any time Bill wants news printed, he can count on his good friend Arianna. Of course if they are talking about Windows 8, that means 7 is as big a disaster as we thought.
“Also note the BLING search box – but that if you use the search box at the top of the page Google is the search engine. Maybe Bling isn’t capable of doing what HuffPost wants.”
This coverage is just more vapourware with no details, not even vague ones. A few days ago we showed Windows Mobile 7 relying on similar tricks (fake “leaks” and “sneak previews” for hype). Vista 7 is just the same as Vista in many ways (almost no progress made in 3 years of development) and by all early indications, Vista 8 will be pretty much the same. Many of the Windows managers have quit the company, so this key product lacks vision, direction, and leadership. █
“Well the initial impression is how much it [Windows 7] looks like Vista. Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say.”
–Microsoft Jack Schofield
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02.10.10
Posted in Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 5:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Vista 7 enters the status phase of Windows Vista (as of late 2007)
SOME THINGS never change. Yesterday we posted a detailed analysis of some of the latest Vista 7 flaws (which are merely some among many more).
Microsoft apologist Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has just done that as well. He titled it “The Windows 7 honeymoon is over”
Over the past few weeks, Windows 7 has been hit by several problems, which while being high profile, may or may not only exist in the minds of the users. There’s been the battery issue, where users claim that Windows 7 is causing battery deterioration, and on top of that claims that a reliability patch released by Microsoft is actually causing problems. According to Microsoft, the battery issue is a non-issue and Windows 7 is working normally, and the company is investigating claims that the reliability patch is causing BSoDs and startup/shutdown issues.
We rarely link to Kingsley-Hughes because he is a lover of Windows. But this actually adds to the magnitude of his criticism above. This is not just some “Windows basher” tarnishing the reputation of Vista 7 in this case; it’s a proponent of Windows reaching the conclusion that things are going wrong. █
“Well the initial impression is how much it [Windows 7] looks like Vista. Which I think is…uh…the thing I’m not supposed to say.”
–Microsoft Jack Schofield
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02.06.10
Posted in Hardware, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 7:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft shows its true weakness as new vulnerabilities in its business model and lack of technical merit become public knowledge
IN reality, Xbox was a financial disaster, exceeding in terms of losses even Microsoft's failed attempt to steal Google's thunder (that cost Microsoft over $5,000,000,000 in losses).
Microsoft may be trying to change this doomsday scenario by cutting costs and cutting products. “I guess [it is] another way to attempt to push up sales,” said Oiaohm a few moments ago, pointing to this new item from Slashdot:
Xbox Live For Original Xbox Games Shutting Down
itwbennett writes “Giving no explanation beyond that it ‘will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community,’ Microsoft’s General Manager for Xbox Live, Mark Whitten, announced that as of April 15th, Microsoft will be shutting down its Xbox Live service for the original Xbox and its games. ‘Cold comfort for those of you who still enjoy playing Xbox titles like Halo 2 with your friends,’ writes blogger Peter Smith. But Smith notes that Whitten’s announcement does hint at some form of restitution for those affected, encouraging users to check their LIVE messages for more details and opportunities.”
This was covered last night by our reader Goblin, who wrote:
Now it appears that as of April 15th 2010, fans of old Xbox titles such as Halo 2 will no longer be able to play them on Xbox live market place. Microsoft (as usual) reports this news as if its a good thing (and unless I am mistaken Halo 2 is still loved by many)
“R.I.P., Halo 2 on Xbox Live,” says the Microsoft-sponsored TechFlash.
Microsoft early this morning delivered some bad news to holdouts continuing to use its Xbox Live online gaming service to play games originally created for its first Xbox. As of April 15, the company is discontinuing Xbox Live for the original Xbox, according to the post by Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten (via VentureBeat).
So here we have another dead product, joining the ranks of many others.
Our reader Goblin also wrote about the latest serious problems with Vista 7, the “battery killer” [1, 2], noting that it is starting to look more and more like Vista:
So why does it appear that Microsoft is “investigating” now? Remember Vista and “early good reports”? It doesn’t come a surprise to me that people were complaining before now and you can see some of the plea’s for help here.
So remind me again (and in particular if you are a Netbook Windows 7 user) once Aero is switched off and you’ve managed to finally get that pesky XP package working….whats the advantage here of wanting 7 on a netbook over XP when there are reports of bad battery life? People often ask if 7 is the version to finally replace XP….I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Almost no businesses are moving to Vista 7, just as predicted last year [1, 2]. Microsoft has been faking numbers [1, 2, 3, 4] to give the impression that Vista 7 is selling well. █
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02.02.10
Posted in Deception, Finance, Marketing, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 7:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The truth about Vista 7 is far to the left from what Microsoft is claiming and we have evidence to show it
Microsoft’s latest results suck, but Microsoft is lying about them. It relies on PR and the foolishness of observers. Our contributor Oiaohm was particularly concerned that reporters wrote about results that had no been audited. “They should have learnt their lesson from Enron,” he wrote as he looked at the official rules.
As we pointed out last week, Microsoft’s numbers are actually down, despite the release of Vista 7. According to this new headline from TechWorld (IDG), “Windows 7 business sales weak”. Yes, read that again if necessary. Microsoft tried generating a lot of hype about Vista 7 when it announced the results on Thursday, but when it comes to business, Vista 7 is just another Vista. Businesses see no compelling reasons to ‘upgrade’.
We’ve received a lot of insightful comments also from Malroy, who wrote:
Quoting the title: “What Makes Hollywood Happy: Microsoft Sues BitTorrent Tracker for $43,000,000″
—————————————————————————————
First MS come out with WGA. Then MS sues XP copywrite commercial infringers (pirates). But don’t forget the Russian Schoolmaster that was sued indirectly and Billy G. would not intervene on his behalf. This title is about another way of MS using the patent lockin to sue torrent p2p outfits, so to slow down the piracy of MS products, except that MS would like control of the torrent technology itself by extending it with patents/encryption.
As MS continues to decline in profits they will become more disparate for money. It is clear from a comment at Mini, the direction of things to come short term at MS:
http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2010/01/microsoft-fy10q2-results.html?showComment=1264876924027#c8201273057094733373
Quote: “Windows 7 was available for ordering in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010.
Revenue July–Dec 2008 was $31.7B
Revenue July–Dec 2009 is $31.9B
Virtually flat. We have launched a new operating system, and still making only as much revenue as during the recession season.
Now let us look at the net income equation.
Income July–Dec 2008 was $8.54B
Income July–Dec 2009 is $10.23B
A growth of almost 20%. Where is this growth coming from? Cost cutting and layoffs. Expect more of what worked.”
————————————————————————————–
Also expect more lawsuits for copywrite/patent infringement. And how can you be sure, that MS will never sue individual user like the media companies have? MS has data mined much of their software to phone home, including Windows and Office. Its not like they do not have the data already who to sue.
Again, if MS continues to lose Market Share and Profits, at some point, it is not unreasonable that they go after those who do not pay in mature markets.
Another reader of ours, who prefers to remain totally anonymous, has asked: “How do you spin Microsoft layoffs?”
He points to this new report from IDG:
Microsoft exceeds goal of 5,000 layoffs
Microsoft has more than made good on its plan from a year ago to eliminate 5,000 positions by the middle of June 2010, the company reported as part of its quarterly 10Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Was there ever a plan,” our reader asks. Well, this is not particularly surprising. Microsoft layoffs are far larger than the press ever reported.
A few days ago, The Register reported the implosion of yet another virtual branch of Microsoft:
IT training firm goes titsup
[...]
With headquarters in Worcestershire, Advent provided Microsoft Certifed Systems Engineer qualifications and other courses.
We gave another example a couple of weeks ago (bankruptcy in a Windows indoctrination factory). As the value of Microsoft skills declines sharply (based on several studies from 2009), businesses that depend upon it will be toppled. All that Microsoft has left now is entryism, which Slated describes as “Microsoft’s expansionist tactics through employee migration (MSBBC et al).” We wrote about this before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. █
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01.30.10
Posted in Deception, Finance, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 10:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Response to the financial deception which Microsoft has just spread to unsuspecting journalists (and the sobering reality)
MICROSOFT is bluffing big time, but almost nobody calls them on it. We contacted one Microsoft-focused journalist (Joseph Tartakoff) who was parroting Microsoft only to find that in defence of his writings, he only repeats more Microsoft talking points*. A lot of reporting is done by one journalist who echoes another, who is affected by seeding from Microsoft’s PR people (whose role is by definition to deceive and it comes to show how far PR goes). Yesterday we explained why Microsoft is lying in its report, so we won’t be doing that again. Microsoft can claim to have only “embellished” the results, but the outcome is still the same. Microsoft can adjust their expectations (for analysts to be “surprised”) and it does this all the time. We have shown this repeatedly for years. Since 2008 in fact, we have exposed the ways Microsoft was spinning, cooking numbers, and lying about its results. Microsoft is almost obliged to lie in order to paint a good picture to its clients. It’s a form of mass hypnosis.
“Microsoft can claim to have only “embellished” the results, but the outcome is still the same.”Anyway, few people did actually engage in some investigative reporting and got hold of the real numbers. These show that Microsoft is down in almost every area of business, even compared to the slump of last year (right after Wall Street had crashed) which should be easy to beat. Many companies beat that quarter, many by huge numbers (like hundreds of percentages in profit growth).
Joe Wilcox deserves credit for actually doing some work and extracting real numbers from Microsoft’s bundle of lies. In his article he states that “Business [is] down 3 percent from $4.88 billion a year earlier [is] Online Services Business [is] down 5 percent from $609 million a year earlier [and] Entertainment & Devices [is] down 11 percent from $3.26 billion a year earlier.”
And this is what Microsoft calls a good quarter? A lengthy discussion about this took place in our IRC channel yesterday. It starts here.
Chips B. Malroy explains that: “Overall, I see this quarter as a failure for MS in dollar terms, once the deferral is out of the picture, it looks like a decrease to me. In fact some divisions lost, especially Xbox360 lost. Wilcox article actually shows decreased on most things.”
DaemonFC says that “they don’t like to lose, so they force themselves to put up with loss every quarter in divisions that are never going to do well.”
And on it goes…
Microsoft employees from Mini Microsoft are apparently not foolish enough to believe the spin from Microsoft. One commenter writes (identity unverified): “if you take out the deffered revenue out of the report, microsoft missed on the revenue side by about half billion dollars and barely makes it on the earning side due to cost cutting. summary: expect more cost cutting since that seem to have neautralized the revenue miss.”
As Pogson puts it:
The figures are now in. That other OS client division brought in $2.8 billion more revenue than in the same quarter last year. The sad thing is that $1.7 billion of revenue counted this quarter was deferred income from sales of Vista (with upgrade rights to “7″). That means they got a 20% increase in revenue when PC production returned to normal from the slump. That means no “pop” in the quarter in which “7″ was released. The CPU and PC sector saw 30 and 15% increases. Up-selling is just not working…
Yes, Microsoft growth from Vista 7 debut is outpaced by overall growth in the market. This is telling. One of our readers told me yesterday: “They can only fake things for so long of course. The bang you are hearing in the future is MS hitting a brick wall.” Not even a brand new release of Windows managed to put a smile on the face of Microsoft’s CFO. He quit the company last month and the Seattle Times reveals that he got himself a “hush deal”:
In addition to the $1.9 million sayonara payout disclosed last month, Liddell’s Dec. 1 “resignation agreement” bars him from ever writing, speaking, blogging or podcasting anything about Microsoft and its executives covered by a confidentiality agreement he signed in 2005.
Going back to the numbers, Chips B. Malroy says: “Wilcox, big fanboi that he is, still does dive into the numbers more, for that I too give him some credit”
Compare that to Joseph Tartakoff, who is parroting Microsoft’s claim: “Msft has sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses over two quarters #pcbuzz”
These are of course fake numbers and we have already explained why (many times in fact). Microsoft used exactly the same tricks with Windows Vista. These numbers are bunk, just like Microsoft’s results, which will easily have the readers forget that Windows revenue was down by a staggering 40% in the previous quarter (Microsoft announced this on the very same day that Vista 7 was released, so the financial news was buried by design). █
____
* For instance, he uses “official” Microsoft numbers when he writes that “MSFT headcount down 8 percent year over year #pcbuzz”. Many more were temporary and external staff, but Microsoft does not want reporters to pay any attention to them. I also told him that “MSFT faked their results through deferral” and he then referred to analysts, whose expectations are always being beaten because Microsoft ensures they are set that way by revising them. The state of reporting is depressing when people who call themselves “journalists” become lazy and prefer to be told what to write (by companies).
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01.29.10
Posted in Deception, Finance, Microsoft, Vista, Vista 7, Vista 8, Windows at 10:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft generates hype in very dishonest ways and Vista 7 is shown to be buggy and disliked by some
WE already know that Vista 7 is about as heavy as its predecessor and our reader Ryan, a former Microsoft MVP, insists that Vista 7 is more buggy than Vista (which is why he prefers Vista). Microsoft runs a campaign of disinformation for Vista 7, just as it did for Vista back in 2007. The latest round of disinformation revolves around the financial results, which seem like another case of book-cooking [1, 2] (Microsoft's CFO quit the company at the end of last year). We will provide more details on that at a later stage, but in the mean time, here are our long discussions about it (just yesterday in IRC, but this carries on today). To quote just a fragment of the points being raised:
| DaemonFC |
a negative quarter disguised to look like their best one since the launch of XP is what they did |
Jan 29 00:27 |
| DaemonFC |
by delaying pre-sale income |
Jan 29 00:28 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
its all in the math, the preception, the PR, the spin, the lies of marketing of M$ |
Jan 29 00:28 |
| DaemonFC |
they borrowed heavily from their third quarter to bolster their fourth quarter |
Jan 29 00:28 |
| DaemonFC |
on paper |
Jan 29 00:28 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
DaemonFC, yes, but I give them a small bounce out of Seven. Give the devil his due |
Jan 29 00:29 |
| DaemonFC |
It’s like if I borrowed $300 from myself this month and put it in savings and had a shitty hell of a time breaking even |
Jan 29 00:29 |
| DaemonFC |
then next month I’m $300 ahead |
Jan 29 00:29 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
exactly the same thing |
Jan 29 00:29 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
Ballmer wants to pretent that MS is now recovered |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
but Seven has been selling for awhile now |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| DaemonFC |
it’s not that I did better next month, it’s that I put the hurt on myself this month to have a great on paper bank statement next month |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| DaemonFC |
yes, that’s a common trick in business |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
that last link had some interesting figures on how much stock MS is buying |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
wow |
Jan 29 00:30 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
they are trying to drive the stock price up is my thought |
Jan 29 00:31 |
| DaemonFC |
Chips_B_Malroy: In business you want to cut expenses or make more sales, preferably both |
Jan 29 00:31 |
| DaemonFC |
Microsoft isn’t doing either very well |
Jan 29 00:31 |
| DaemonFC |
Walmart does both very well, despite how evil they are |
Jan 29 00:32 |
| DaemonFC |
they know that if they put in skylights they can turn most of the lights off and lower their electric bill |
Jan 29 00:32 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
DaemonFC> M$ isn’t dead or dying, just wounded right now |
Jan 29 00:32 |
| DaemonFC |
their PR department then calls it “going green” |
Jan 29 00:32 |
| Chips_B_Malroy |
it will die, if it continues on its present path |
Jan 29 00:33 |
According to this new report from The Register, technical problems are afoot for Vista 7. Microsoft desperately needs to sell the illusion that businesses are adopting Vista 7, even if whenever they buy a new computer/XP it still counts as “Vista 7″ (that’s a trick Microsoft also used to fraudulently inflate Vista numbers).
“In order to give the impression that Vista 8 is just around the corner, Microsoft is creating some new buzz and dates are named.”The Register writes that “Laptop owners upgrading their Windows XP and Windows Vista machines to Windows 7 are complaining that Microsoft’s new OS has severely reduced their available battery life.” The author quotes a person who wrote: “I was having excellent battery life until I installed the RTM of Windows 7 – all RC and beta builds that I installed I had nearly three hours of battery. Now, I have about 20 minutes and Win7 shuts down my laptop…”
As Richard Rasker puts it (regarding the above), “I don’t see the problem. Not only does this save a huge amount of energy, as the cause seems to be flaky Windows behaviour, not actual battery drain, but it incites people to get off their lazy ass and do something useful instead of staring at their laptop screens.”
Microsoft need not worry though. It has already moved on to Vista 8 vapourware. This one will fix everything, they promise us. In order to give the impression that Vista 8 is just around the corner, Microsoft is creating some new buzz and dates are named [1, 2]. █
“The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the OEM and ISV level. In this respect it is JUST like the original Windows announcement…
“One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have vaporware, that people will stop buying 486 machines, that we will have endorsed RISC but not delivered… So, Scott, do you really think you can fight that avalanche?”
–Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft
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