Antifeatures inside

MICROSOFT MAY not be competent enough to produce a robust operating system, but it deserves credit for at least being consistent. Since the very early days of DOS and through the early days of Windows, Microsoft was very capable of deliberately destroying (attorney Conlin called it "technical sabotage") the operating systems of superior competitors like OS/2 and DR-DOS. Such behaviour lives on to this date, namely in Windows Vista.

All the evidence -- including detailed explanations -- we already provided one month ago, so repetition is not necessary. However, here is some unsurprising news: Vista 7, just like all of its successors, is reportedly nuking GNU/Linux even when it needn't. The complaint comes from an IDG-owned blog:

When I installed the Windows 7 beta on Disk 1, I hoped that it would ignore Disk 0 completely. No such luck: it found the Vista boot block, ignored the grub menu, and created a new Windows boot menu for itself and Vista on Disk 0. (I probably should have unplugged the Samsung disk for the installation. Now I think of it.) The Ubuntu ext3 and swap partitions are still there, but I can't boot to Ubuntu.

There is actually a lot more that could be our focus today if Vista 7 scrutiny is the subject at hand. According to several reports, early suggestions that Microsoft was rushing Vista 7 through the production line are correct. Here is a new discussion from The Register:

Microsoft has moved to contain growing criticism from beta testers that it's railroading the Windows 7 and Windows Live test programs, leaving bugs unfixed.

There is more in IDG:

Development team responses like "won't fix" or "by design" seem to be the the norm for even serious issues, leading many testers to conclude that the product was feature complete (i.e. no longer subject to significant modification based on tester input) long before they received their first code drop.

[...]

I've long felt the Windows 7 development process was a bit too opaque. After the near transparency of the Vista soap opera -- where we all tuned in weekly to learn of the latest axed feature or slipped ship date -- Windows 7 has been a veritable "black box." Most of us knew nothing about the new version until we received our pre-release PDC builds, and by then much of the OS' design and feature set was already frozen.

And as for the public "beta" charade, more than one person has accused Microsoft of using the threat of limited availability and a fixed cut-off date as a kind of PR stunt, a way to generate buzz by showing how much pent-up demand exists for their new baby.

[...]

Wake up, folks. It's all been a big lie.

That last sentence is key: "It's all been a big lie." Boycott Novell said exactly that last year. There are other nasties which get unraveled by The Register:

Microsoft plans to issue non-update update for Win 7

[...]

“These updates allow us to test and verify our ability to deliver and manage the updating of Windows 7. We typically verify servicing scenarios during a beta,” he said.

LeBlanc was at pains to emphasise that the updates wouldn’t actually update anything. Instead they would “simply replace system files with the same version of the file currently on the system,” he said.

It becomes more likely than not that Vista 7 will be a minor improvement over Vista once the hype is over. It's hard not to do better than Vista, whose image was defeated even by its predecessor from 2001 (XP). Why not just upgrade to GNU/Linux, which is right here right now? Not tomorrow, no ifs and maybes with regards to features. GNU/Linux is about what we already have, Windows is about what Microsoft might have (and probably won't ever have). Does anyone still remember WinFS?

“GNU/Linux is about what we already have, Windows is about what Microsoft might have (and probably won’t ever have).”Hype is deceiving and Vista 7 never existed. People only toyed around with a beta, whose resemblance to the final product will remain an enigma for a long time. It's unknown until release.

Betas of Windows Vista back in 2006 (or Longhorn prior to that) sure impressed some early testers, reviewers, and adopters. The backlash only started to come in 2007 when marketing was unable to counter an insurgence of authentic rants.

Expert users who love Windows tend to become Microsoft's privileged 'guinea pigs', but they are not average users. What happens with Vista 7 right now is eerily similar to false promises about Vista. It's almost a reflection of what used to be, even with similar memes like "will kill Linux" being tossed around.

Vista

Microsoft was sued for the second time over its failures with Windows Vista and this could soon become a class action. This came one year after a first class action over a marketing scam and collusion around Vista -- action that recently lost its status as "class action" but carries on nonetheless.

Here is a good headline from Masnick: Next, Microsoft Will Release An Even Worse Operating System To Jack Up The Prices On Vista...

The launch of Vista has been a massive disappointment for the company, not a part of a nefarious strategy to jack up the prices on XP.

Regular readers might remember Edelman, a Microsoft-hired marketing gun that bribed influential bloggers for positive reviews of Windows Vista. Well, according to PR Watch, Edelman has moved on to advocating for companies that kill people.

The major military contractor ITT Corporation has hired the PR firm Edelman, to promote the company "in the defense in the defense and commercial markets, as well as raise awareness of its ongoing CSR," or corporate social responsibility, efforts.

According to this report, there is no ethos that can stop Edelman from inflicting great damage upon society. Need it be wondered why IDG's PCWorld pondered boycotting Edelman, whereas Microsoft hires Edelman on a regular basis/contract? ⬆