Worse than Windows 10

Limux is finally done for:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/linux-pioneer-munich-poised-to-ditch-open-source-and-return-to-windows/

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Politicians at open-source champion Munich will next week vote on whether to abandon Linux and return to Windows by 2021.

The city authority, which made headlines for ditching Windows, will discuss proposals to replace the Linux-based OS used across the council with a Windows 10-based client.

If the city leaders back the proposition it would be a notable U-turn by the council, which spent years migrating about 15,000 staff from Windows to LiMux, a custom version of the Ubuntu desktop OS, and only completed the move in 2013.

The new plan, put forward by officials in the CSU and SPD parties, states a Windows 10 client has to be ready for use across the council by 2021 at the latest.

“The proposal aims to ensure that no later than by the end of 2020, a new Windows Basic Client should be the standard city client,” a Munich city council spokesman said.

The use of the open-source Thunderbird email client and LibreOffice suite across the council would also be phased out, in favour of using “market standard products” that offer the “highest possible compatibility” with external and internal software.

The full council will vote on whether to back the plan next Wednesday. If all SPD and CSU councillors back the proposal put forward by their party officials, then this new proposal will pass, because the two parties hold the majority.

Dr Florian Roth, leader of the Munich Green Party, said he expected the council to back the proposal, given the greater number of SPD and CSU members.

“The direction is back to Windows,” he said.

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Yeah, no further comment neccessary I think. Too bad they couldn’t have waited at least one more year for the ten year anniversary of LHB.

Freetards come back, all is forgiven

Windows 10 already felt on release like an OS from an alternative-reality dystopia, the anniversary update makes it even “better”.

As everyone knows, Microsoft tightened the screws and removed some group policy settings in the Pro version which were there to control ads (“recommendations”) and the lock-screen (other, more pricey versions, still have that control however):

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3101947/microsoft-windows/more-forced-advertising-creeps-into-windows-10-pro.html

Removing these options is bad enough, the the real kicker is the following page from Microsoft:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/manage/manage-tips-and-suggestions

 

OH SHIT!

Sure, there are still ways to circumvent that stuff by other means, but that “NO” means that Windows 10 Pro Edition (the only higher-tier version without the need for a contract with MS itself) just got an forced DOWNGRADE!

The feature to control this stuff through group policy was an official feature in Windows 10 Pro just yesterday, but now, it’s gone!

It doesn’t matter that there are still some ways to achieve the same resullts – the feature itself shouldn’t be there anymore according to MS. That’s the true kicker. By referring to that page, they could deactivate the cmdlets and other means to script the removal of ads/app recommendations with another series of patches.

That’s the true kick in the balls of Windows 10’s “service” model: It’s only servicing Microsoft. Windows 10 is an OS that can actively work against your interests, in case your interests don’t align with Microsoft’s. They can take away stuff at whim now, downgrade whole editions and your only way to escape is deactivate the updater service entirely, but then  you’re at risk falling victim to other cyber criminals. Tough luck.

To further insult the customers, Windows 10 Pro isn’t free anymore in any case. If it were  completely free of cost every time, well.. you get what you pay for. But getting such a treatment over a paid product is truly the icing on the cake.

I used to laugh at the freetards regarding their paranoia, but some of those crazy mid 90s Linux newsgroup posts are too close to home now, which is quite incredible.

It’s not paranoia anymore when you see a forced downgrades gleefully announced on the respective websites.

Deja vu

Windows 10: Stranger than fiction.

 

Small businesses and NuMicrosoft: A world of pain

NuMicrosoft managed to piss of lots of people since 2012, but with the advent of Windows 10 one customer-segment especially got the “fuck you”-treatment: Small businesses.

Microsoft’s volume licensing schemes are just too costly for these customers. It’s far more cheaper for them to buy OEM-licenses on Amazon and other online-retailers than going the volume-license route, which are usually double the price if not more  in case of Windows. The only drawbacks are mutiple license keys, but an Excel-table is usually all you need to manage this.

But with Windows 10, MS basically created a new extortion scheme. Of all the editions, only one, the LTSB, is something you can live with if you have a business to run. It’s the only version where you get updates without forced upgrades and all the crap that comes with them since Windows 10: Removal of applications without notification during the update-upgrade, non-usable computers for more than a hour (possibly during critical work-time!) new sudden anti-features like ads in the start menu and regressions. The LTSB is also less spy-happy than the other versions.

But LTSB is only available through volume-licensing. Gotcha!

The scheme is clear: Either you pay massively up (LTSB costs around 350$ per seat on Open License)  or you live with a massively degraded experience compared to all previous versions of Windows. And even if you pay: The non-metrotard (win32) advantages of W10 compared to W7 are pretty negligble, if there are any at all. You basically pay for the extension of the patch-support.

A foretaste of the respect MS shows to SMBs in the post-W10 world can also be seen by the dreaded GWX-updates. Although they don’t show any nag-screens if the PC is connected to the domain (unless some “accidents” happen) they still download over five gigabytes of useless Windows 10 installation files everywhere they install. That issue becomes a real annoyance in case of SSDs and virtual machines, where every gig is precious.

The problem intensifies, because one of the most popular Windows Server versions especially designed for small businesses, Foundation Edition, doesn’t come with WSUS! So you either guard the update-process on every single PC or you just give up and live with lots of wasted space for no good reason at all. And any attempts to remove these updates through scripting become an endless Whac-A-Mole, because MS constanty re-issues these fucking things on Windows Update. Clever. The extortion is clear once again: Pay up for a better server version, asshole, OR ELSE.

So much for Windows 10 being free of cost.

NuMicrosoftLHBLinuxWindows8Broil

Well, the apocalypse happened after all.

Techbroil vanished from internet just one day after TMR  was ravaged by CSS- and javascripts hacks. I have no idea whether both events are related, but the timing makes you wonder. Was techbroil somehow hacked as well?

I hope Techbroil and Jerkface will come back soon.

In the meantime, TMR and this blog is apparently all that’s left from the LHB community. All broiltards (and TMRers) are welcomed to carry on.

Maybe I will  open up a new blog later in addition to this one, because the name “penguinday” implies a Linux-focus, but the freetards have been over-analyzed to death and the topic is pretty much done. A new blog is definitely going to be “techbroil II”, just without any SJW-stuff.

So yeah, carry on in the comments sections of this post.  This blog uses a wordpress subdomain instead of an own domain-name, so it shouldn’t vanish like techbroil did, or piestar (or TMR for a few months). WordPress is also less buggier than blogspot and doesn’t blow up once a certain number of comments has been reached.

The e-mail, website and name fields are optional by the way. If you don’t enter anything into them, the comment still gets posted. I wish I could remove the e-mail field, but that’s only possible with scripts, and scripts are only allowed with the paid-for packages. But as we have seen, blogs you have to pay for monthly tend to disappear.

Is your son a metrotard?

Two years ago, my wife Tami and I decided that our children’s education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Dell to learn with. Our son Larson was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at writing comments on the net. When Larson began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Tami advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Julie, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: “Larson is a metrotard!”

After going through this ordeal with my own family, I was left pondering how I could best help others in similar situations. I’d gained a lot of knowledge over those few days regarding metrotards. It’s only right that I provide that information to other parents, in the hope that they will be able to tell if their children are being drawn into the world of online-shilling.

Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Stevos Sinofkos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called “Windows”, which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by metrotards to turn other people’s computer systems into oversized smartphones. They may also be used to break into people’s PC to turn their local accounts into a “Sinofsko Account”, using the “universal apps” program. Sinofkos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as “metro”, which is used by metrotards (inept followers of Sinofskos) to break Windows machines on the internet by replacing their applications with “apps”.

Are you finding programs on your computer that you don’t remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some metrotard software to convert the installed genuine Windows system into a Sinofsko program. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under “Install/Remove Programs” in your control panel. Popular metrotard software includes “PrepareWin7ForWindowsTechnicalPreview.exe”, “KB2990214” and “KB3035583”.

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to “download” one of the metrotard applications through Windows Update. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

Has your child asked for new hardware?

Metrotards are often overwhelmed by conventional computer hardware. They may request “easier” input methods, like a touch screeen, even on a desktop computer. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer’s manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new “Surface RT” from a company called “NuMicrosoft”, this is genuine cause for alarm. NuMicrosoft is a third-world based company who make inferior, “knock-off” copies of the American company Apple. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they are deliberately incompatible with software made for the operation system of the once proud American company Microsoft. Surface RT devices are never sold in regular stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites or go to seedy “NuMicrosoft Stores”. Do not buy this “2 in 1” tablet! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

Does your child read metrotard propaganda?

If you pay close attention to your son’s reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up and perfume is well aware of the effect that improper influences can have on inexperienced minds.

There is, unfortunately, lots of metrotard propaganda available on the internet today. A few propaganda pieces to be on the lookout for are: “Windows 8 will stomp everything” and “Who needs the Start Menu?” by Dotmatrix; “Windows 10 is beautiful” by Ed Bott; “Sinofskos is a genius” by Hal Berenson and “Metro is untouchable” by Paul Thurrott.

If you find any of these metrotard propaganda on your child’s computer, delete them immediately. You should also petition websites to remove these articles from their CMSes. You may meet with some resistance at first, but even media networks have to bow to community pressure.

How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your son spends more than thirty minutes each day on the computer, he may be using it to shill other peoples sites. Shilling involves spreading Windows 10 and metro on other people’s machines, and using it to tie up vital internet services. This can take up to eight hours. If your son is doing this, he is breaking the law, and you should stop him immediately. The safest policy is to limit your children’s access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day.

Does your son use the Windows app-store?

The app-store is an online marketplace used by metrotards. It is a unpopular meeting place and trading ground by the general public, but highly frequented by metrotards, where they buy third-rate knock-off programs called “apps” for the Sinofkos Windows 8/10 OS. Many metrotards develop anti-social tendencies due to the use of this virtual world, and it may cause erratic behaviour at home and at school.

If your son is using the Windows app-store, you should make him understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the credit cards in your house are carefully locked away. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school.

Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

As a child enters the electronic world of online-shilling for Sinofkos, he may become disaffected with the real world. He may lose the ability to control his actions, or judge the rightness or wrongness of a course of behaviour. This will manifest itself soonest in the way he treats others. Those whom he disagrees with will be met with scorn, bitterness, and even foul language. He may utter threats of violence of a real or electronic nature.

Even when confronted, your son will probably find it difficult to talk about this problem to you. He will probably claim that there is no problem, and that you are imagining things. He may tell you that it is you who has the problem, and you should “back off” and “stop smothering him.” Do not allow yourself to be deceived. You are the only chance your son has, even if he doesn’t understand the situation he is in. Keep trying to get through to him, no matter how much he retreats into himself.

Has your son radically changed his appearance?

If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a metrotard on your hands. Metrotards tend to dress in ironic, vintage rags. They may wear scarfs even in the middle of July, ridiculous caps and unkempt facial hair to match their clothes. They may also wear fake oversized glasses. (I have no idea why they do this). There are many such metrotards in schools today, and your son may have started to associate with them. If you notice that your son’s group of friends includes people dressed like this, it is time to think about a severe curfew, to protect him from dangerous influences.

Is your son struggling academically?

If your son is failing courses in school, or performing poorly on sports teams, he may be involved in a metrotard group, such as the infamous “neowin” metrotard association. Excessive time spent on the touchscreen, communicating with his fellow metrotards may cause temporary damage to the eyes and brain, from the electromagnetic radiation. This will cause his marks to slip dramatically, particularly in difficult subjects such as Math, and Chemistry. In extreme cases, over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia, meningitis and other psychological diseases. Also, the reduction in exercise may cause him to lose muscle mass, and even to start gaining weight. For the sake of your child’s mental and physical health, you must put a stop to his shill-activities, and limit his computer time drastically.

I encourage all parents to read through this guide carefully. Shilling is an illegal and dangerous activity, that may land your child in a marketing department, and tear your family apart. It cannot be taken too seriously.

Windows 10: Of upgrading and shit-eating

And so it begins:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/25/windows-10-automatic-update-problems/

Windows Update in W10 pushes faulty nVidia drivers out which are unstoppable/unhidable and already trash PCs.

Of course, given the NuMicrosoft tradition, it doesn’t stop here.

I knew exactly this would happen. Basic common sense. I had seen more than enough cases where PCs got bricked by faulty updates and the remedy was to hide the offending updates. You really don’t need crystal ball to conclude that removing the ability to control updates would thus cause huge problems in the long run. In fact, just recently I had a problem with Windows Update on W7 that would have been an outright catastrophe on Windows 10:

I’ve had again crashes with IMAP and Outlook 2010. Microsoft knows this issue but doesn’t list all updates which may do this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3061014

So anyway, it crashes again, and this time KB3054976 is the perpetrator (released last patch day, and not on the above list). When I have it on, I get a crash, when I uninstall it the crashes are gone. It’s reproducable.

Now of course, after I uninstall it, it appears again on Windows Update. So I have to hide it. On Windows 10 this is not possible anymore. At best you can disable WU completely through a registry hack or the services-list, which is a very sub-optimal solution to say the least.

Once you get such a situation (not exactly uncommon!) you’re completey FUBARed on Windows 10: You either live with crashes (in this case on every Outlook start-up!) or you have to deactivate Windows Update completely! So much for the improved security the forcing and crippling of WU W10 brings.

Well OK, I can think of another “solution” in such case on W10: You save the working files and kludge up some batch file that copies them over the faulty ones Windows Update shoves up on every reboot. What a bizarre result of Microsoft “simplifying things”.

Either Microsoft’s programmers are gonna be replaced by magical fairies or control of updates is a must. Everything else is a disaster, it’s really THAT SIMPLE.

Now let’s look at the two main arguments the shills and MS do come up with:

Browsers do this, as do iPhones!

Oh really?!

Sorry, but a PC OS is a far more complicated affair than a browser or a smartphone, given all the possible software and hardware configurations and use cases. Microsoft reasonings on this matter probably fall into a dozen of “argumentum ad..” fallacies.

Some people don’t have automatic updates activated!

SO WHAT?

We haven’t had an outbreak of Blaster-proportions for quite some time, so the update regime seemed to work more or less. And it probably worked because the updates weren’t done in a dictatorial manner. Had a problem? Hide the update! You’re doing something where a restart would be a problem? Deactivate updates for a while! FUCKING SIMPLE STUFF.

But now you need to cripple brute-forcely the Windows Update Service as a whole: How the heck is that better? And that’s just what people will increasingly do the more annoying WU gets. The internet is already full of tutorials on how to kill WU completely on W10. People will do this. How is completely killing WU better for MS than the fine-granular control in W7? Stupid.

This company is whacked since 2012, completely whacked. Windows 8, Original Xbone, bleached out Office, the updater in Windows 10.. it was so frigging retardedly obvious that all this stuff would bomb, you really don’t need to be a genius for this, turning on basic common sense and it flies straight into your face how STUPID all these decisions were, at the first frigging glance.

Microsoft’s main problem is that all their conclusions since 2012 are completely loontarded and defy the simplest forms of logic. They all go like this:

1. Flies eat excrement
2. Flies and humans are lifeforms
3. Humans should eat shit

1. Boats swim
2. Boats and cars are vehicles
3. Cars swim

Yeah, it’s totally stupid, but exactly this logic forms the basis of ALL newer Microsoft products:

1. Smartphones are touch-based
2. Smartphones and PCs are computers
3. PCs should be touch-centric

Usability and ergonomics? What’s that?

1. Many games on the PC are online-activated
2. Consoles play games
3. Xbone should have maxi-DRM

No thought whatsoever that the reason many gamers ended up on the console in the first place was because they were fed up by that DRMization on the PC, and no thought whatsoever about the established practice of second-hand games on consoles. That they would reap a shitstorm was an absolute given.

1. Chrome doesn’t let you control the update-process
2. Chrome and Windows are both software
3. The update process on Windows should be crippled

Microsoft’s logic of the past three years makes sense only for like 100 milliseconds: The timespan the brain needs until all the logic-centers are activated. After this your brain just screams “Wait, this doesn’t make sense at all. This is STUPID”.

Damn, I once liked this company.

Nu Microsoft is a Linux distro

Microsoft seems to turn more and more into something that resembles a Linux distro company at the end of the 90s. We have the fanboi army, we have the compatibility-is-bad mindset, we have the über-arrogance of the guys in charge (despite the availability of more mature products in the targeted marketplace [tablet] and the obvious problems of Win8), we have the complete disregard of the current reality and customers and instead a messianic focus on some mythical future – Metro and apps in Microsoft’s case, Year Of the Linux Desktop in the case of their forebearers. Also, a healthy dose of stupid politics, at the expense of the customer, is there as well. Non-GNU software is bad! Let’s make it as miserable for the customer as possible if he runs commercial software! New Microsoft: Desktop is bad! Let’s make it a hassle to run the desktop and desktop software! And not to forget the complete snottiness: Windows 8 – Linux, is perfect! Everyone who says otherwise is a moron!

The similarities are stunning.

The old Microsoft never thought its products were perfect, and that mindset is one of the reasons they won the desktop. In the Kingdom of Metronia though it’s sunshine everyday and Metro is gift from the gods.

Here’s more how MS “transforms” to semi-freetardism:

Standards-even-if-it-hurts. According to freetard orthodoxy, a fart app is more valuable than a program that could generate stock market predictions without fail, if the former is “open” and/or adheres to standards. Same bug is creeping into MS. They have raped their .NET stack (worse: annoyed their WPF/SL devs) in favour of.. HTML! Steve Jobs wannabe Sinofsky was a champion in this regard. In opposite to that look what the “real” Jobs did: Steve Jobs blasted Flash not because HTML is great, but to take out a competitor to Apple’s proprietary offerings. Why championing HTML 5 and Javascript of all things? The main languages of IOS and Android (Objective C and Java) resemble C# far more than HTML+JS. And they want ports from these platforms.

Ideology over function: Metro apps would profit from chrome. The Skype app is a hassle compared to the desktop version. But, ideology says no! Notro must be chrome-free, it’s what the design language says after all! That’s freetard-think, just like kernel devs won’t allow binary drivers/blobs, even though the customer would profit from it. But GNU says no, sorry.

We-support-only-good-standards: One reason why Linux audio is subpar, is because just when an audio stack gets entrenched, a new one appears that has a slightly better design in theory but is completely untested and underdeveloped. Of course the community ditches the old one, implements the new one, hillarity ensues, the cycle repeats, but the ideology is served. Same thinking with MS: The mail app in Windows 8 doesn’t support POP3. IMAP is supported though, because it’s “better” in ways only nerds care about, even though POP3 is far more prevalent. Users are screwed, but the ideology got served. Worse, instead of not just offering ther POP3 option, THERE IS a POP option, only when you click on it the programs angrily berates you for using that shitty POP standard. It reminds me of “Spread Firefox” fanatics from 2004 “How do you dare to visit my site using the 90% market share browser!? Go away, scum!”

GNU/Linux quest: That’s minor, but the whole Metro yada reached almost FSF’s Linux naming quest. They had to change name because a German conglomerate owns the trademark (too snobby to run a trademark check, NuMicrosoft?) and MS acted totally freetarded here. Instead of just changing the name, they started to dicking around, claiming that it was never called Metro in the first place. Microsoft even wanted to ban apps from the store if they contained “Metro” in the name (what’s if your app is about the Paris Metro?). Thankfully this has been averted.

Windows 8 fucking sucks

First of all, let Microsoft themselves speak about what they thought a good UI should be like. Suzanne Hansen, a product manager at Microsoft, explains:

——

While the Visual Studio 2010 visual appearance is unique, it does follow the Microsoft Windows UX guidelines. Microsoft does not use one standard visual appearance for all its products for multiple reasons, including:

* Not every product has the same users and therefore the same UI is not appropriate everywhere
* Microsoft has such a wide range of products, it would be impossible to do one visual appearance that is a “one size fits all.” For example, it would be virtually impossible to use a single UI design for Zune, XBox, Visual Studio and Bing.
* Different visual appearance of different products helps differentiate/brand them.
* Having a single UI appearance would not give individual products flexibility to evolve as needed in response to trends, customer and business needs.

Thank you, Suzanne Hansen, Program Manager, Visual Studio Platform Shell Team
[…]
——-

Suzanne explains here why Visual Studio 2010 has a different look and feel than Windows. And the explanations make perfect sense! (unlike the stuff they tout out with Windows 8) But isn’t this the complete opposite from the current Windows 8 design philosophy? And yet, this was Microsoft’s credo just two-three years ago! How is it possible to trust in Microsoft’s Windows 8 vision, when they were able to flip their own philosophy completely on its head within such a short timespan?

Windows 8 is clearly a “one size fits all” rush-job that was driven in a dictatorial fashion by its main-overseer at Microsoft, Steven Sinofsky (the man “left” the company shortly after the Win8 debute. Signs and wonders). Countless of people have raised their voices on the official Windows 8 blog when the OS was in development, yet the dev team and Sinofsky have demonstratively ignored the highly technical issues that were brought up and only answered the simplistic ones. it went something like this:

—
Sinofsky’s Blog
user 1: Hi there! I like Windows 8.
user 2: You said Aero shouldn’t be in Windows 8 because it harms battery life, but that doesn’t make sense because Aero can be turned off when the computer is on battery. It actually wasn’t long ago that Microsoft was defending Aero as having minimal impact on battery life. Are you now going to claim that Microsoft was wrong? In fact I have multiple links showing specific benchmarks that Aero only uses 1-4% when on and…..
user 3: Will Windows 8 have a Twitter app?
Sinofsky: That’s a great question that I’d be happy to answer. Yes Windows 8 will have a Twitter app.
(week later user 2 comment is gone)
—
(Quoted from the blog “Techbroil“)

I was reading the W8 blog regularly, it was EXACTLY like this.

But let’s concentrate on the product itself – Windows 8 has a new programming interface, called WinRT, and a new GUI, formerly called Metro. What’s the problem with WinRT and Metro? Here’s the list:

1. The desktop has multiple windows, Metro has not.

2. Desktop programs can be resized, Metro apps cannot.

3. The desktop has drag and drop between applications, Metro has not. Instead of just selecting the items you want to export and actually move them into the other program, you need to handle with “charms” which comes across far more unintuitive than just dragging and dropping.

4. The desktop has nearly unlimited multi-tasking abilities, Metro has not.

5. Metro apps are far more limited in scope, by design, than desktop programs.

6. Desktop programs have depth and 3D, Metro apps on the other hand seem to be approved by the Flat Earth Society.

7. Desktop programs are usually more colorful and vibrant, the Metro design principle consists of CGA style mono-color.

Winzip for Desktop:

WinRT version:

Which one does look more like a C64 program?

8. You can open up other programs in the desktop, through the start menu, without disrupting workflow. On the other hand the start screen is something like the “item menu” in games where you dress up your character with weapons etc. Everyone knows that it is quite distracting switching between item menu and game world in games, and Microsoft brought this concept onto its flag ship product! Hooray.

9. Desktop programs can be easily distributed, Metro desktops are locked-in into the store.

If an alien would just land on our planet and see Windows 7 and Windows 8 (and its programs) for the first time, without no prior knowledge, he would think Windows 7 is the successor, not 8. And that’s just the problem of the WinRT part. The fact is that Win8 has multiple control panels and update mechanisms and is a duality monster. Win8 apologists in all seriousness propose arcane keyboard shortcuts as solution for some of the glaring problems, where previous versions worked just fine without using them. Also the Metro start screen offers absolutely no indication that it is searchable, yet it is. It’s full of little news items and ad-like graphics. It resembles something like cnn.com, only that CNN HAS a search box! Would you “just start typing” at cnn.com, if the site had no visible search box?

So, fine. Use ONLY the desktop then! But here’s the catch, and the reason for all this negativity – Microsoft put away the start button. If you click on the hidden start button, you’re back to the Metro interface. It’s a jarring experience. They want you to force going Metro, yet the whole Metro and WinRT experience is so limited and smart phoney, it’s just insane to use it on a screen bigger than a tablet. No one, and I mean NO ONE was able to tell me what the heck the benefit of the start screen is for desktop and laptop users or why the Metro apps are this castrated (the mail app can’t handle the most common mail protocol IN THE WORLD!), yet MS forces you to use them (the default image/video/music viewers/players are awkward Metro apps in W8.. even in desktop mode! They look as if they consist of one single code line). The explanations only come to “newer mobile devices have something like that, so.. eh.. and you will get used to it!”.. And that’s pretty much it. That’s not a compelling argument to warrant such a hassle.

Oh, and did you know that for multiple users Windows 8 is just arsed? The “All Programs” system is bonkered in Windows 8. Let me explain: If installers (of Win32 programs) put links into the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder, they ARE NOT GLOBAL. Not really that is. The link appears in the start screen for the user who installed the program, but all other users don’t see it. It’s only visible for them if they right-click and chose the “All Apps” screen (yes, IT’S HIDDEN ON DEFAULT!)

Windows Vista and 7 didn’t highlight newly installed programs in the start menu for other users as well, but the “All Programs” submenu-button wasn’t hidden, so it wasn’t such an issue like with W8.

Oh, and let’s also not forget that W8 Metro “apps” need to be installed per user, undeleted per user and updated per user. Just try it out: Install the updates of all the default apps through the appstore, create another account on the computer and log-in to the app-store. What do you see? You need to install the updates for that user as well! Trying to manage this for multiple users is hell! At the moment, the only reasonable tactic if you have multiple users and you want to use them apps is to let them use ONE account only and lock that one down with scripts etc. BACK TO DOS, BABY

And it’s not only about the metro-menu and all the headache that brings, it’s the whole approach. For example the darn “apps” themselves: How hard could it have been to include a “Pro mode” (with scary “You’re on your own now!” warnings if needed) or something like that which would allow sideloading? They could still have their store and still make the enthusiasts and “Pros” happy. It would have been easy to make the Metro-Notro-Win8stylestoreapps-whatever more appealing to the laptop and desktop users. How about more features availble the bigger the screen is? “Windows has detected you have a 24 inch screen, multi-tasking and windowing of Metro apps is enabled now”. Stuff like that wouldn’t be too hard, freeware like Bluestacks does it! But no, Microsoft has chosen the most limiting and existing-customers-repulsing way possible. That is why there are complaints and bad feeling all around. That’s where the “walled garden” and “dictatorial” accusations come from. MS was a quite comfortable choice between the strict Apple- and the free-for-all linux world, pretty much the golden middle, now they are doing their darndest to change themselves into a totally redundant MicroApple and this generates ill felings. The many game developers were annoyed for good reasons IMHO. And let’s not start on the limitations of the metro apps.. Oh sure, they aren’t forcing metro down on you, except they do:

Now let’s forget the start screen, just open up an audio file on the desktop.. BAM – You’re on a full screen monstrosity, with “parental advisory” graphics from obscene rap album covers and stuff like that. With no obvious way to get out of it. PROGRESS. They wanted to simplify Windows 8. That’s why instead of clicking on an easy to spot bright red X, (that’s faaar to power user for the common idiot to understand) you need to “grab” the application by its invisible head and drag it down the drain so that it can disappear. And if you managed to close it, you’re back on the metro screen instead of the desktop (where you started). Just fabulous! So just playing a darn audio file means switching through completely different GUI environments and playing a mini-adventure. Same is happening when you open up pictures and movie files. Yes, that’s what I call a great user experience right there. Then there’s the DVD codec issue and WMP not playing them even if you have the codecs installed, mail apps that can’t handle common protocols.. No one is going to change their provider just because subpar OS update decided it wants to out-hipster the whole world.

Sure, you can hack-around to link WMP back to the files etc. but shouldn’t an “upgrade” make stuff.. you know, better?! How’s stuff like that a good default experience? In the first beta versions, the welcome screen could not be clicked away. You had to drag it away with the mouse! Totally insane. That’s one of the very few things they have fixed, but the fact that something like that made it into an alpha version, yet alone beta, makes it clear what kind of carelessness the “design” of Win8 truly was/is. I am pretty sure the main reason the server got metro too is to prevent “power users” running Server 2012 as a desktop replacement.

All that is just NOT comparable to the previous versions. Never before were there such regressions in usability of Windows and “feel” of the company.

Then there’s the whole subplot about their handling of developers and the whole Silverlight affair to promote the W8 craplets – killing SL just when it was going strong as LOB tool. The amount of badwil they have created with this OS among their (former) allies, devs and supporters is just staggering.

Steve Ballmer compared Windows 8 multiple times to Windows 95, yet the comparison doesn’t hold water in the slightest.

Windows 8 is the anti-95.
Win32 programs didn’t gave you the feeling that something is amiss compared to Win 3.1 applications. (with Metro you have this feeling constantly). Even the first generation Win95 programs at launch felt more capable than their 3.1 precursors (Corel Draw 6, Office 95). Notro provides the complete opposite feeling.

Windows 95 came with uncrippled winfile.exe and progman.exe (the win 3.1 GUI), and you were able to boot directly into it without even seeing 95’s explorer.exe at all (“shell=progman.exe” in system.ini). (works in win 98 too) There was even an official option at the Windows 95 setup for that if you upgraded from Win3.1.

You also were able to directly boot into DOS with ease (just set bootgui=0 in msdos.sys, that also worked in Win 98).

Windows 95 is the anti-thesis to Windows 8. The philosphies were completely different. The team had enough courage to provide all these options because it truly seemed as if they were proud and confident about the system to stand on its own. Windows 8 on the other hand comes across as coward’s darling – “the users are too stupid to appreciate our beautiful hippster GUI, let’s cripple the desktop as much as we can to force them to this”. Windows 95 didn’t need any crippling, users chosed explorer.exe because it was better, and they had the ability to use the old GUI without compromise If they wished to do so.

Windows 95 is confidence. Windows 8 is cowardice.

And Linux still sucks

One year ago a brave soul (also known as the great Lunduke) proposed ways to improve the Linux Desktop:

Well, 12 months have passed and Linux on the desktop still sucks. Lunduke’s proposal in this video was that Linux desktop users should pay for software, donate 100$ per month for GIMP… madness. Yes, this would most likely make desktop Linux better, but it won’t be the same Linux we all love so much anymore.

He is forgetting what the motivation for most people is to run Linux. Take any of those “why linux is better” websites, what are the main reasons it is “better”?

Here:

http://www.whylinuxi…index.php?lang=

Don’t pay $300 for your operating system

http://www.whylinuxi…index.php?lang=

Why copy software illegally if you can get it for free?

http://www.whylinuxi…index.php?lang=

Play hundreds of games for free

Hundreds of games are released under a free (as in “free beer” and as in “free speech”)

Take the “free” (as in beer) away and Linux crumbles totally. It’s the only thing that truly speaks in its favour as desktop OS. The rest (stability, viruses) are moot points, Windows and Mac are just as stable now. Maybe even more.

Lunduke’s only argument why his proposal might work, is that some Linux users paid for his programs (1 in 50 visitors?). But he doesn’t explain what programs those were. And just why should someone pay 100$ dollars per month for GIMP if he/she can just as well buy the much more powerful Photoshop? Just because Gimp is “libre”?

If you want pay for your software regulary, run Windows and Mac. You will get better software to boot.  OK, I’ve forgot, there is still the fanatical FSF sect who cares primarily about the ideological purity. But with the “popularity” of Ubuntu, this sect is getting marginalized even in the Linux world. The cheapskates are the main audience.

Let’s face the truth: There is NO technical superiority of the Linux system anymore compared to Windows and Mac.  It was the case in the 90s, Linux was indeed technically a better OS than the Win9x line and classical Mac, but this is the ancient past now.  Freetards can now cry “Viruses, Viruses!” as long as they want, but the truth is, it has much to do with market share and the fact that users like to install shady software, as Android is experiencing right now. If you like deathmarches, you can depend solely on repositories of course, but the bad outweighs the good here. The only argument freetards bring forth at this point is usually the ancient “IIS Argument” which has been debunked long ago as well.

And seriously, get rid of the “Linux is secure by design” trademark. That design was even present in NT 4.0 already. Seriously, it’s comical how freetards still to this day are just floored by user account separation.

In short, there are only two realistic reasons to use Linux on the desktop today:

1. You have an axe to grind with MS/Apple
2. Cost

Paying for Linux kinda defeats the most important point. So of course, it’s one year later, and Linux still sucks.