Posts by Doug 3

Microsoft to rethink crash-prone Visual Studio extension model, shift towards cloud

Re: Extensions are "difficult to write"

Aren't they the professional software development company which invented ActiveX controls?

For a technology company they sure seem to suck at writing software but we already knew that since UNIX and even Linux were stable OS's back in the 1990s while Microsoft was still rewriting how the Ctl-Alt-Del buttons were used and picking the color of the crash screen. Now, we see them leveraging open source software to replace their failed attempts( Internet Explorer -> MS Edge built off of WebKit ).

Relying on this company and their treadmill is one way to keep paying the bills if you are a software developer and like things breaking all the time. Or you work in IT support. Once I'd switched customers over to Linux I was feeling like the "Maytag Repairman".

Xen Project officially ports its hypervisor to Raspberry Pi 4

Can you imagine a Beowulf Cluster of one of these!

Chrome suddenly using Bing after installing Office 365 Pro Plus... Yeah, that might have been us, mumbles Microsoft

Re: Antitrust

Yes, it was so hard to see that check box to install Chrome right there on the dialog box above all other dialog boxes. Nothing like how easy it is to find the check box buried in the Microsoft Windows Registry or in the admin tools folder with thousands of other options.

How dare Google have that option put right there in the installation process instead of buried in some other software settings page of another tool. Soooo evil!

Good news – America's nuke arsenal to swap eight-inch floppy disks for solid-state drives

Re: Is it really obsolete ...

New requirements are that it must have virus protection and recent contracts state that can only be supplied by Microsoft. Therefore, they have to get a Microsoft Windows box and because of that it also needs to be on the Internet for updates for both the OS and the virus protection. What could possibly go wrong?

Microsoft's only gone and published the exFAT spec, now supports popping it in the Linux kernel

tracking every one

Microsoft is famous for tracking what their competition is doing. This sounds like yet another way for them to try and track what Linux distributions are doing.

Still waiting for them to apologize to Barnes & Noble and the many others they threatened because of fake patent claims.

Microsoft Surface users baffled after investing in kit that throttles itself to the point of passing out

User: My Windows computer is running slow.

Tech Support: Have you rebooted the computer recently?

User: it's a Microsoft Slate

Tech Support: Have you forced a shutdown and restart recently?

User: yes, I've shutting down both applications and I have shut down and restart Windows and it slows down again after a few hours.

Tech Support: You should reboot while holding down the ESC and F1 keys and when the menu pops up chose option 2, Restore Operating System

User: but won't that replace everything on my computer.

Tech Support: Yes, that's why it is there.

Tech Support: Is there anything else I can help you with?

User: Will this thing run Linux?

The Year Of Linux On The Desktop – at last! Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 brings the Linux kernel into Windows

Just use VmWare and get the real thing

Instead of screwing around with Microsoft compatibility and kernel tweeks just use the real thing via VmWare Workstation and be done with it.

Who doing Linux web or other development would keep getting jerked around with partial implementations and who knows what kinds of under the hood hooks they are adding? Virtual machines have been around for a long long time and they work so if you have to run a host on MS Windows, use a vm to run Linux and get back to work.

Is this cuttlefish really all that cosmic? Ubuntu 18.10 arrives with extra spit, polish, 4.18 kernel

Re: "the system has a more modern and 'flatter' look"

Yup, Microsoft has had to go flat to lower CPU and GPU loads to help with battery life. If you don't recall, Microsoft Windows on portables has always been a big battery hog compared to all other OS's. So with Microsoft going "flat" that seems to be what some people think is "modern".

Linux distros should always stand up and stand out for what's better. Following Microsoft is never a good thing.

Microsoft to make Ubuntu a first-class guest under Hyper-V

Redhat

let me guess, trying to split away some of the power Redhat has by promoting Ubuntu.

Not a surprise but generally Microsoft just wants to be able to keep track of what their customers are doing. If some are migrating machines to Linux then they would rather they migrated in a way which allows them to track what is going on. A full on removal of Windows is what they have been willing to do illegal things to prevent. Probably some of the same going on here.

Stephen Elop and the fall of Nokia revisited

Re: "Elop's time at Nokia cost him his marriage, don't forget."

No, the collapse of Nokia happened too slowly since Elop had to have the plan to deliver Nokia to Microsoft.. It just took longer than they planned and so the result was less time at home, etc, etc.

If there was any other motivation for Elop than there was a complete and utter failure in the Nokia board to understand who they were hiring to run the company. I mean you don't publicly announce your OS being shipped on millions of phones each day is being replaced with incompatible software and OS. A department store manager knows that sales will plummet immediately. You don't pick that new OS to be one with single digit market share even after the company making the OS has spent billions marketing it. And you don't say that using the most dominant OS, which is open source and free, is no choice because nobody can make money competing when there were dozens of companies making profits doing just that.

You don't do those things. That is unless you want to harm the company enough to make it a tasty choice for Microsoft to purchase. And BTW, people were saying this since day one of his hiring at Nokia.

I see you're writing a résumé?!.. LinkedIn parked in MS Word

they suck in your email address from those you have contacted before, or shared your email address with. Those people allowed LinkedIn to suck up their addressbook and now have your email address.

let Clippy write your résumé for you

They know what you've been doing and when so just sit back and enjoy their taking you for a ride.

Munich council finds €49.3m for Windows 10 embrace

crystal ball showing what Windows 13 will be like?

No user training costs? No doubt that's just one of the smoke/mirror tricks used to help get this passed.

Why could they not spend the ~50 million and negotiations with software vendors to port their software to a cloud instead of paying them standard pricing for more client based apps?

This reeks of another Microsoft hard sell negotiation to eliminate a thorn in their eye which is another functioning large scale Linux implementation.

Another waste of taxpayer money and money in Microsoft's pocket for many years to come.

Microsoft's foray into phones was a bumbling, half-hearted fiasco, and Nadella always knew it

The Road Behind

That should be the title of his book since all he keep talking about is how he knew X was doomed or some other thing about the past which Microsoft missed or failed at. Trying to look good by using hindsight makes a CEO look flawed.

Microsoft Master File Table bug exploited to BSOD Windows 7, 8.1

Re: Applications are vulnerable?

As I recall, Microsoft lost that court battle and was to be split into 3 businesses. Microsoft appealed and then G.W. Bush took over as President of the United States, installed new people in the DOJ, he instructed them to stop the current appeal and settle with Microsoft. Microsoft got away with a slap on the wrist again.

It was a bad time for the tech industry as things like CORBA, JavaScript, Java and other technologies were gaining with traction from Netscape as the browser company and web server business. The industry was stalled for almost 10 years as Microsoft continued their practices of stomping on any new technlogy which didn't solely support Microsoft Windows.

What is dead may never die: a new version of OS/2 just arrived

Re: Some clarifications

I for one am looking forward to seeing the OS/2 desktop again. Was just a pleasure to have such consistency between folders, the customizations and the workspace feature where complete folder trees and applications would be started on one opening of a folder. Genious.

Thank you Lewis.

Re: It was the third version to be called "Warp"

Don't forget, OS/2 version 2.1 aka OS/2 for Window and code name Ferengi.

It was the version without the Microsoft Windows 3.1 subsystem and used your own version of Windows.

Re: Obscurity

There was EMX, gcc, gdb and XFree86 all on OS/2 providing source level compatibility with *nix apps.

I ran a number of X apps on OS/2 and even used it to write *nix/X apps before moving the source across the network to HPUX and building and testing on that target platform.

OS/2 was a great platform running multiple OS's from DOS, Windows, *nix, Java besides OS/2 apps.

IBM screwed up when they got OS/2 running full Win32 apps before Microsoft shipped Windows 95. Once Microsoft found out, they changed the SDK resource compiler such that it put a tiny amount of resources at the top end of their virtual address space. That was up at 4GB and OS/2 could only access 2GB of virtual address space so there was no way for OS/2 to run these Win32 apps any more. OS/2 stuck running just Win16 and Win32C apps. And with no compatibility there wasn't a migration path.

Microsoft taking CodePlex behind the shed and shooting it by Christmas

only one comment after being posted for hours

Microsoft and open source mix together like oil and water. They bash open source at every chance and they try to show they are open source friendly. So their users and developers either hate and despise open source or they under stand what open source really is and use what the rest of the world does.

I guess leaving the CodePlex wasteland showing for all the world to see was finally decided to be not a good idea. Echo!

Spotted: Bizarre SpaceX rocket-snatching machine that looks like it belongs on Robot Wars

buckled legs during transport worst

More likely is this will support the rocket in the even one or more of the landing struts has become damaged on landing. Currently they lock down the landing struts to hold the rocket in place for the transport back to the dock. A serious failure of a landing strut results in a failed landing but some have landed with damaged struts so this would provide a safer trip back to the dock.

It might even work as an unloading mechanism too.

Twas the week before Xmas ... not a creature was stirring – except Microsoft admitting its Windows 10 upgrade pop-up went 'too far'

Your devs were told to specially code that window control to fool your users

And you dance around the idea today that it might not have been the best choice?

You people at Microsoft are STILL piece of work. I REALLY hope you have a happy new year. And like you all at Microsoft Marketing, this interpretation of "happy" looks like lingchi.

This is the same old Microsoft and using the same dirty tricks we've known for 30+ years. And to do it to your customers shows another level of anxiety towards your market position.

Microsoft lures top Linux exec from Oracle to Redmond

Re: @ Doug 3 They have hired top Linux people before

Windows as a platform is their cash cow. They rake in a lot for MS Office yet they don't put MS Office on any other platform. I guess they have it on the cloud now and I'm sure it was no big deal when it was used on Android phones and tablets. But now that Google has Android apps on Chromebooks they have to be fuming it's enabling a competing platform to Windows.

We see and hear so much about Linux on the cloud but yet where is Microsoft software there? They are not enabling Linux with their server/services software. Do they put Bash on Windows? No, they move PowerShell to Ubuntu so that Windows admins stay with Microsoft tech.

So I still see Microsoft using Windows as it's cash cow and it's still their method of control. Remember BeOS was shut down because even after a couple of antitrust cases, Microsoft was still blocking vendors from installing other OS's at the OEM level. Remember Netbooks? Started as useful little and cheap Linux laptops but Microsoft had to shut that down by locking the vendors into bloating the hardware and preventing the low priced Linux devices from being sold.

If there is something new going on in Redmond, it's so minute it's like seeing an oil super tanker react to a course change.

"People will always go with what is familiar and comfortable for them,...."

The strange thing about this is that it is what was said about every OS which tried to get into the market Microsoft was dominating. OS/2, BeOS, PalmOS, UNIX, Linux, etc. 'too difficult to learn something different', 'Windows is familiar and training costs will be expensive', blah blah blah. Then along comes the iPhone and guess what, it's not Windows and people have no problem learning and using it. Android, the same thing. Microsoft tried a handheld OS and phone OS which looked and acted like Windows but it was painful to use on small screens with limited hardware. So what did Microsoft do? They changed the UI.

So much for familiar and comfortable being a good excuse to stick with a painful system. Misery loves company might work though.

Re: They have hired top Linux people before

I keep hearing Windows 10 is free so they are not making money on the Windows OS. So Windows 10 is free for a computer without an OS? No, it's a free upgrade after you've already paid them for a desktop Windows OS license. So not free and they still make lots of money, billions of dollars per quarter from Windows OS licenses.

yes they make billions from Microsoft Office for Windows, yes they make billions from Windows Server but those are all tied to and with the Windows OS so their business income, revenue and profits rely heavily on the Windows OS.

They will not be promoting another OS which threatens that income. All this Linux stuff they are doing is just to keep their customers from going to another vendor for this cloud stuff. The same cloud stuff which was created because of the virtual machine business became a way to save businesses from Windows server hell. The Windows server hell is because of the unreliability of the Windows OS which forced companies to have one service per PC and then a backup PC for redundancy. Dozens of server PC's and each one was under utilized because they needed to keep only one service per PC.

Re: @ Doug 3 They have hired top Linux people before

I should have stated "Windows and Windows based products". I'm aware that they still have 9x% of the desktop market so they don't support any other client but the Windows OS clients. Then there is iOS and Android and they are taking baby steps in that direction. Some would call it half-arsed efforts.

As for their support of Linux on Azure, it's a requirement their customers have and if they didn't support it their customers were be forced to go somewhere else. And they know, if forced to go away from Microsoft for just a little bit, light bulbs go on and soon those customers are going outside of Windows and Microsoft for lots more. I wouldn't doubt they'll be doing everything they can to track, monitor and instruct customers how how they use Linux on Azure.

Funny though, how the Windows OS failure to be reliable forced companies to have so many hardware boxes that virtualization was a savior and then the cloud spun from that.

They have hired top Linux people before

Microsoft has hired top Linux people before and they have always ended up with jobs tuning marketing and/or in customers faces pushing them away from Linux and toward Windows.

Since Windows is their cash cow and without it they vaporize, does anyone really think they are moving away from Windows because they hired Oracle's top Linux guy?

SCO didn't work, calling it a cancer didn't work, Get the Facts didn't work either so maybe, just maybe they want new blood to try and come up with another way to stop the flow of customers to Linux and away from Windows. Just like they've done a number of times before.

Windows 10 with Ubuntu now in public preview

First there was Wine, now there is Line

Line (originally an acronym for "Line Is Not an Emulator"). But a huge difference between the two is Microsoft doesn't want it to run as good as it can, and surely not better than Windows. Crippled in strategic ways is what you'll probably get so why bother.

I can imagine they are doing this to try to get a count of who is using Linux on Windows and what they are doing. Remember, in a virtual machine, no one can hear your scream. ie the host OS doesn't know what you are doing in the virtual machine. Can you imagine what the push back would be like if Microsoft throttled virtual machines which ran Linux? They'd never throw a bunch of NOP's in there just for Linux, never.

I still remember how Microsoft insisted they get $1 for each copy of SCO Linux for some Xenix code which wasn't even included any more. When the lawyers were starting to form groups Microsoft finally gave up that fight. It wasn't about the money, it was about knowing how many copies of the software was selling. Something to think about.

Microsoft to make Xamarin tools and code free and open source

MS hopes to get Windows apps by getting Windows devs to do iOS/Android apps

This is one way to get some apps for Windows devices. Nobody is doing it but if they can get their own Windows developers writing apps for iOS and Android then they'll also be providing apps for Windows too.

Let's see how they get their Windows developers to write iOS and Android apps.

Microsoft scraps Android Windows 10 bridge, but says yes to Objective-C compiler

This is what you do when you can't get developers to target your platform. We've seen it before and it generally doesn't work no matter how good the migration, or porting, mechanisms are.

Do you think the iOS developers really want the head aches and support issues they are going to get stung by if they take the chance and try to run on Windows? Not worth the hassle no doubt but you can be sure that Microsoft will pay as many developers as it can find to port to Windows. Unfortunately, it'll probably harm those developers and their apps more than help Microsoft. Then again, fewer iOS app developers is probably one of their targets also.

Why Microsoft's .NET Core is the future of its development platform

Re: .NET .. the lame clone of Java

right but wasn't it designed to be incompatible with anything other than Windows? I mean they didn't like Java because it ran on everything, they tried to make an incompatible Java which only ran on Windows, "Does anyone remember Windows?" was a famous quote of Bill Gates when MS developers were planning Java applications. At that meeting Microsoft become incompatible with Java on other platforms.

So, why in the world would anyone who is not happy being tied to Microsoft Windows care or want to touch the MS .Net stuff? Their horse is still tied to Windows so no stripes changed there.

Microsoft gobbles Chipzilla's Havok 3D physics unit in cloud gaming play

sure, we'll continue licensing...but

but because of added expenses and loss of revenue from Windows, your new licensing fees will have a few more zero's on the end. Have a nice day.

Ballmer's billion-dollar blunders: When he gambled Microsoft's money and lost

Re: Sigh

You must be confusing the destruction of other companies because they created better products with Microsoft creating the products for its customers.

Are there any products Microsoft created out of thin air(ie before anyone else in the industry) and was successful? Everything I can think of was either purchased companies or products or copies of products others created and became popular.

Re: Truespace was purchased and shut down, that never sense to me

Maybe it was for patents Truespace had given their tenure in the field dates back to the Amiga.

I'm not sure what was going on in the 3D space in 2008 when they bought Truespace but in a few cases Microsoft has purchased companies just to shut them down and keep the technology away from other companies.

Re: Hmmm

because they thought they could purchase the customers( sales channels ) and switch the product those channels were selling at the same time and it would still work. But unknowing to Microsoft's upper management, their software really isn't that good. Switching the Nokia sales channels to Windows Phone didn't work and Nokia already did damage to its channels when they signed the deal with Microsoft to be exclusively Windows Phone OS. Seems like Microsoft turns to stone anything they touch.

All these examples of Microsoft's failures shows that Microsoft can not succeed when they can not directly leverage the desktop position of the Windows OS.

A good effort, if a bit odd: Windows 10 IoT Core on Raspberry Pi 2

the question is why is Microsoft putting Windows on Pi.

Microsoft is a marketing company first and foremost. They NEED Microsoft Windows on as many devices as possible and they need the vast majority of the population to _think_ they need Microsoft Windows. Apple and then Google put a huge dent in that population's group think and the Raspberry Pi is spreading to the younger side of the population just getting to know technology. They, Microsoft, must enable the marketing facet of their business strategies to continue and they must let that market know they can use something called Microsoft Windows on these little devices getting so much PR via all the IoT press/news.

If anything 'not Windows' gets press, and Linux is getting lots of IoT press, they lose mindshare, they lose market share, they lose access to your wallet.

Tesla Powerwall: Not much cheaper and also a bit wimpier than existing batteries

Re: Inverter?

that is one thing I keep seeing skipped or completely left out of the conversation when comparing this to lead acid batteries. It's like they are comparing a bunch of raw parts to the complete system.

And this wall box is designed to charge off the grid at night when rates are cheap and then augment the power during the day when electric rates are high. Remember, Musk is the CEO of Solar City and in that capacity, he knows what it means to sell people on cheaper electric rates. With Solar City, they will pay for the solar panels and installation and give you a guaranteed fixed rate on electricity for X years and the rate is cheaper than from the grid. So this battery thing is mostly about filling it up with cheap electricity at night and using it at peak rate times. So it has to have a charger and inverter in there an the electronics to sense and control based on time or maybe even internet control besides load control. A pile of batteries does none of that.

Tastier Lollipops for chosen few as Google releases Android 5.1

will revert to 4.xx on Nexus 7 (2013) if 5.1 is also N7 failure

as others have stated, my N7 (2013) is just about useless with 5.x on it. One more shot Google and then I revert back to the previous release which rocked on this device.

Microsoft: Even cheapo Lumias to get slimmed down Windows 10

or it is about developers, developers, developers and getting them to code to Microsoft's API. Getting those API's in their hands and on their dev workstations means they can also code to the desktop. It's about protecting and saving desktop Windows.

What's that, Microsoft? Yep, a Lumia and Surface SALES BOOM

NFL kick in alone

I wonder how much just the NFL MS Surface buy-in added to their numbers? Remembering that no only does the NFL get lots and lots of hardware devices there is also lots of Microsoft software bundled and then the advertising. That's 32 NFL teams and for rounding purposes at least 50 devices per team. There were hundreds of devices in this deal and millions of dollars but in the end, Microsoft essentially paid to have the devices used.

As was mentioned, they also are still playing the game advertising units shipped and lets not forget about profits. IIRC, the XBox was great for them to talk about revenue and units shipped but the product line lost billions annually for half a decade or so and that was with really just one competitor(Sony).

With their cash cows declining can and will they keep paying customers to use the products long enough for others to start thinking they are in it for the long haul?

Windows Phone will snatch biz No 2 spot from Android – analyst

paying for clients

in 2 years time it is possible for Microsoft to pay enough corporations to use its phone and tablet products so we start seeing them in the wild but enough to get the #2 spot? In 2 years time it's more likely that the #2 spot will be held by the iPhone so this analysts crystal ball must be coming from Microsoft Research.

Let it go, Steve: Ballmer bans iPads from his LA Clippers b-ball team

an iPad for each MS Surface in bags on the floor

How long before someone puts VNC, or the like, on the MS Surface devices which bring up the UI of an iPad in a bag on the floor next to them?

'Windows 9' LEAK: Microsoft's playing catchup with Linux

back in the 80s with multiple work spaces

Ctl-Alt-F1, Ctl-Alt-F2, etc

ok so they were not GUI but having multiple work areas were so common on UNIX back then that I would not doubt it to be why it was standard when X displays started showing up. And that was in the late 80s and early 90s.

So pretty late Microsoft and just how old is the author to even think it's something from this century?

Huawei ditches new Windows Phone mobe plans, blames poor sales

low sales are low sales to what's the discussion

there's not enough money to be made for the effort to abide by Microsoft's strict design/build control for their platform and the time/effort would be better spent on larger volume products based on Android.

Now if Microsoft were to start paying them to build and ship as they've done in the past I'm sure they would reconsider.

If you think 3D printing is just firing blanks, just you wait

And most could not understand what anyone could possibly do with a personal computer in their home. How about we let the market decide what uses these oozing plastic machines are good for and leave the naive judgement out of it for a wee bit longer?

Ballmer leaves Microsoft board to spend more time with his b-balls

Re: @Mr T (was: 2 billion US dollars?) Basketballs

Basketballs! Basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs! I love THIS team! Woooooooow! Wooooooohooooo! Basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs, basketballs!

I might watch a game just to see him do that. LOL

Time to move away from Windows 7 ... whoa, whoa, who said anything about Windows 8?

migration to another Windows platform

I'm surprise Gartner didn't suggest migration to Windows Phone too since that too needs LOTS of help too. I wonder what kind of payola found its way into Gartners pockets for this kind of report.

Microsoft blasts sueball at Samsung over Android patent royalties

Re: And here they are!

I find it interesting that only the companies which didn't have any Microsoft Windows licenses fought back and then only signed any kind of deal once something else was put on the table. So it would seem that those NDA's kept Microsoft's Windows licensing partners quiet while they combined or made threats(offers they could not refuse) and making it look publicly like it was just Android patents.

X marks the chop: Microsoft takes axe to Nokia's Android venture

What a long strange trip it has been.

"Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, executive VP of the Microsoft Devices group....."

Shouldn't that be Former Microsoft executive who became Nokia CEO who sold Nokia to Microsoft to become the former Nokia CEO and now current Microsoft executive again? It really didn't take that long for Mr Elop to destroy Nokia and sell it to Microsoft so maybe the title should be 'What a short strange trip it has been.

Microsoft not good enough for you, eh? 'Next Steve Ballmer' drives to Google

he's not a crash dummy

what he's done with and at Ford over the years shows he's no dummy so why would he want to go to a company with a shrinking brand and a shrinking market when there is Google and all the interesting things they have been doing and succeeding at? Not a crash dummy.

Get ready for LAYOFFS: Nadella's coma-inducing memo, with subtitles

new devs doing mobile, MS has no mobile presence sooooo

because they have no mobile presence and after billions spent attempting it Gates and the new guy figured out their strength/hammer is with MS Office. Nothing unseen here but will they do as they have always done and that is implement sub-par capabilities and delayed releases and updates on non-Windows platforms? We already see that even though the market share is Android, Microsoft targets Apple first with mobile MS Office support.

Also, they manipulated and controlled developers doing Windows apps such that it was very difficult to produce cross platform software thereby eliminating the competition by starving them of apps. Without the Windows OS and API/developer control, can they really keep growing by attempting to make MS Office a platform people can not do without while making it run on all platforms/OS's? Have they ever done this before and can they really be successful at it? Or is this the new Danger only much much bigger. I see Danger written all over the Nokia deal and wonder if it won't be the first domino to fall.