Posts by Yoru

Windows 10 May 2019 Update inches toward the 50 per cent uptake as a new build drops

The bigger story is the fact that Microsoft Windows 10 will have only achieved around 50% uptake, at the point when Windows 7 reaches the end of life, including it's extended support, on 14th January 2020.

Added to which there are still a high number of Windows 7 machines, some say at least 20%, that still fail to install monthly security updates.

The truth is most versions of Linux are now far more reliable and stable than Windows, whilst now providing comparable functionality and utility.

The reason for this is the fundamental design philosophy of the Windows system of software updates, including applications. They are still applied ad-hoc and completely in an uncoordinated way, if updates are applied at all.

By comparison, all main Linux systems have a coordinated update mechanism, that includes not just the operating system, but all the applications. Which always ensuring full compatibility and interoperability, of the operating system and its applications.

As the years have gone by, this distinction, which was a fundamental design choice, has become evermore pronounced.

Consequently, as the systems become more sophisticated and complex, reliability is becoming evermore difficult to sustain on Windows compared to Linux systems.

Mozilla changes Firefox policy from ‘do not track’ to ‘will not track’

Re: It's about time

"But I have one question -- will the new system be better than NoScript or uBO at blocking tracking? If not, then I don't really see the point."

There is a very good point, bearing in mind that the widely used 'Self Destroying Cookies' has recently been disabled by Firefox, due to "security and stability issues. Had to replace it with 'Cookie AutoDelete'.

There are perhaps some functionality that is just too risky placing in the hands of third parties.

Meanwhile, like most others, its add-ons to the rescue, (hopefully), such as the Cookie AutoDelete, Adblock Plus, and Disconnect.

The thing that really bugs me is that Firefox still hasn't internally addressed the lose of the 'Add Bookmark Here 2' add-on, with native support. Which means you have to manually cut and paste the URL into the Location, when adding a New Bookmark via the Sidebar (right click). And since it can no longer be done with the Web based add-ons, it is effectively a dereliction of one of the most basic browser functionalities.

It walks, it talks, it falls over a bit. Windows 10 is three years old

The end game for Windows will occure during 2019

The end of support for Windows 7 in January 2020 will be a decisive and critical driver for the long heralded rise of Linux.

As more and more people realise just how easy it is now a days to have a dual boot machine, by simply selecting that option from from nearly all the main Linux distros from their live DVD (iso) download.

When people do that, they will realise that a) they have literally nothing to lose, and have resulting in literally losing nothing of the original Windows, and b) have become aware of just how advanced Linux has become, to the point of comparing favourably with the legacy of Windows.

It will finally be up to users whether they select the existing Windows or the Linux system, each time they switch the PC on, without ever having to lose the option.

Old Firefox add-ons get 'dead man walking' call

Mad man in charge of Firefox

A similar period of madness happened to the Opera browser over 10 years ago, resulting in mayhem for users, which led to an exodus, from which Opera has never really recovered.

Firefox has been built on the basis that add-ons turn the user interfaces and basic browser into a fully functional modern extendable browser. The extent of this even covers the ability to produce bookmarks easily and quickly via Add Bookmark Here 2, and the essential Duplicate This Tab, both of which are now inoperative. Which exposes just how primitive and unusable the basic bare Firefox browser is.

Even Speed Dial [FVD], Adblock Plus, Self-Destructing Cookies, Cache Status, YesScript, and possibly Connect, although only when 57 comes out will we know for certain if compatible updates have arrived by the 14th Oct deadline, when 57 will be issued.

Much of the above make the basic Firefox browser usable, and without them, I have no doubt that a new browser exodus will occur, just as it did with Opera, and people will waste no time looking out for alternatives, that include the required support, including facilities for transferring bookmarks, speed dials etc.

The future of Firefox is … Chrome

On the PC, I started on Netscape after a very brief spell of Mosaic, before Opera finally came along, which was good for a long time, due to it being so flexible and configurable, before it deteriorated, changed its engine and lost its way. But then I transitioned to Firefox, and with the help of the many plug-ins got most of the old Opera functionality back, but with increased reliability.

So what is the future of Firefox – will it be similar to the mistake that Opera made. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on possible options just in case, including Vivaldi, which is also multi-platform, but that one needs a lot of development yet.

As for Microsoft Internet Explorer – always avoided it like the plague.

Obama puts down his encrypted phone long enough to tell us: Knock it off with the encryption

Looks like the only way forward is to stop buying American based products, easy.

Waving Microsoft's Windows 10 stick won't help Intel's Gen 6 core

The real headline

Microsoft makes strong case for migrating to Linux.

Microsoft now awfully pushy with Windows 10 on Win 7, 8 PCs – Reg readers hit back

Time to Evaluate Alternatives

But seriously,

those on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, who are uncomfortable with the recent M$ upgrade attempts should be thinking about what they want to be using within the next year or two, and whether they welcome the prospect of being locked-in to one media vendor.

You already have a PC that can run a free virtual machine application such as VMware, within which you can install another freely available complete operating system, without affecting your present PC operation in any way.

It may be worth the small investment in time, just to see the alternative options that are available.

I'm still using Windows 7 for general use at the moment, but I'm also now using Linux Lite, one of the many free Linux alternatives. Having tried and evaluated it in VMware, I've installed it permanently on an old Notebook PC, and use it just for ALL financial related internet operations ie. bank, Ebay, Amazon etc.

Over the coming year (or two), as I look at equivalent Linux applications, within VMware, I'll decide on whether to do a full migration with my other PCs. But at least now I know there are nowadays highly viable alternatives to Microsoft Windows. Which incidentally probably goes a long way in explaining the aggressive stance being adopted by Microsoft.

Microsoft to Windows 10 consumers: You'll get updates LIKE IT or NOT

3 strikes and they're out.

If they screw up Windows 10, I reckon they can say goodbye to the consumer PC part of their business, such as it is, and it will seriously damage the confidence of the corporates.

The more user friendly versions of Linux, such as Linux Lite, are looking like a much more sensible and viable option every day. Been running mine both virtually under VMware for testing, and as an actual machine on an old netbook for some time. Upgrades and installing software are a breeze.

97% of UK gets 'basic' 2Mbps broadband. 'Typical households' need 10Mbps – Ofcom

97% of the problem is BT

BT should have been broken up years ago. As a dominant provider they have become masters at the art of incremental roll out. Which means they never introduce new technology, which may bring about higher capacity, until they have extracted as much return as possible from existing technology. To do so would simply undermine their ability to milk the market in as many stages as possible.

Which is why they continued selling dual POT lines, one for dial up and one for voice for so long, whilst much better solutions were available in the lab. Even when ASDL was finally introduced they still tried to restrict its use to a limited number of users and crippled its speed.

If they had their way they'd roll out minimum broadband incrementally as 2, 3, 4, and up Mb/s. Waiting at each stage until the market had flattened off, and each new stage would make the previous stage equipment obsolete.

BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming

The BBC is a Commercial Enterprise

Yet more evidence, as if we needed it, that the BBC is no longer acting as a Public Broadcast Service.

Nowadays it acts more like a Commercial Enterprise with Commercial Imperatives.

That is, whist maintaining financial security, it relentlessly seeks ways of undermining all forms of competition and maintain a dominant market position, by giving the Public what they Want rather that what they Need.

In the world of Commercial Imperatives there is little Added Value in Truth, but much to be gained in the art of the Spectacle.

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully: Fox 'in talks' to bring back The X-Files

No significant sense of unfinished business

The originals had a good run, including the spin off, and the films extended the reach, but I'm not sure there was a big enough sense of unfinished business. That is, big enough for at least another couple of series.

The big one I'm waiting for is a new Star Trek TV series. Obviously it won't be Carter that does it, but the sense of unfinished business and the welcoming market must be immense. Specifically, I'd like to see it move forward rather than backward, picking up the threads that have been cast in previous series regarding Twenty-ninth Century Star Trek.

Angelina Jolie 2.0 NOT an inspiration for Huawei phones, says exec

Angelina seems to be taking a bit of a subliminal media wake from some quarters, where the Guardian has portrayed her as an old hump back woman.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/13/angelina-jolie-dame-queens-birthday-honours-list

Sony bosses will return bonuses as firm preps for BILLIONS in losses

Time to offload Olympus

Maybe investing so much in Olympus wasn't such a good move.

Epson takes on Google Glass with wired 'augmented reality' glasses

Nornalish

Plus the Epson classes have the big bonus of being able to wear them and almost look normal, rather than a complete Google prat.

I guess it's something to do with the marketeering doctrine that all early adopters are odd balls.

Take the retro digital DAB radios as another example.

The... Windows... XPocalypse... is... NIGH

An excellent write up with very useful links, thanks.

"Buy yourself a PCI USB card, put it in a baggie and tape it to the inside of the sidepanel."

An alternative to the card would be a Motherboard header (4 pin MPC Female) to USB (USB A Female) 15cm cable. They're about 2 quid or less on Ebay. Unless the PC is very very old, the motherboard should have USB header somewhere. The advantage of course is that in addition to being internal, you can lift the lid and hot plug it. The other point to remember is that Windows Virtual PC, XP Mode can be enabled to supports USB. (which is actually the default)

What Microsoft means by mobile first, cloud first: Build Android, iOS apps with Azure cloud

MS Amazing Future

Support for your current machine will end at 12:00, precisely.

Your data storage allocation is approaching 85%, please either delete data or revise your data plan.

Your current plan does not allow a move operation to that environment.

Our automated systems have detected a possible copyright violation.

We assure all our users that recent breaches have not affected data security, but advise all passwords are changed immediately.

Press any key to Continue or any other to Exit

Microsoft in 1-year Windows XP survival deal with UK govt

What do you mean Standards Hub

“By combining demand, on behalf of Central Government departments and the wider public sector, Crown Commercial Service has demonstrated the benefits of government working as a single customer to achieve best value for the taxpayer, whilst continuing to build good working relationships with our technology suppliers.”

So it's a common agreement, involving a mandatory migration plan from XP to ??

The big question is, just what have they committed themselves to in the longer term on behalf of the taxpayer, in order to achieve this short term agreement.

What could possibly go wrong.

How Microsoft can keep Win XP alive – and WHY: A real-world example

Big Bang vs. Steady State

In one of my previous posts I had floated the possibility of Microsoft changing to a rental business model, rather than expecting people to pay periodic lump sums for a big bang update. Were the updates included arbitrary changes to interfaces, intended to address the perceived business requirements, rather than any perceived needs of the user.

I had made similar sums, but was less generous on salary, and assumed the price of the operating system would reduce to at least half. This resulting in the notional charge of 4 pounds ($6.64) a month. Not a million miles away from the figure in the article.

However, what I was suggesting was a change in business model from lump sum big band, to rental steady state, period. Not just for legacy operating systems. This would be a paradigm change, but a change that was coherent and consistent. Resulting in an operating system that evolved toward increasing stability, with most of the updates confined to under the hood improvements. Most important of all, in such a paradigm changes to the GUI and other interfaces, would be on a specifically justified basis, and only be considered in full recognition of the likely impact it would have on the user.

The problem for Microsoft in such a paradigm is that it would bring them into line with the Linux steady state approach, and into a head to head competition. Unfortunately, that head to head would boil down to some 200+ pairs of Microsoft eyes vs. several million pairs of Linux eyes. In the long term, this would be a competition that Microsoft could never win.

This probably means that Microsoft is destined to continue as a Disruptive Innovator, since it’s the only paradigm it can compete within, and where the target of disruption is its own displaced operating systems. Until such time that the market no longer tolerates such practices. I suspect Windows 9 will be pivotal to that outcome.

Meanwhile, I doubt that Microsoft aspire to become a maintenance organisation. Although I’d say its an even bet that they’ll follow in the tracks of IBM to include the operations of a later day systems integration specialist company.

The Reg's desert XP-ocalypse aversion plan revealed

A few to consider:

a) If you’re using Firfox, which I’d highly recommend, then add-ons are of course a normal part of its proper functionality. These would include:-

1) Adblock Plus (essential)

Annoyance eliminator.

2) Speed Dial [FVD] (essential)

Like Opera Speeddial, but better. Will focus the student on using preferred sites.

3) Self-Destructing Cookies (essential)

Has a white list for those you want it to remember, and ditch the rest.

4) Add Bookmark Here (optional)

5) Duplicate This Tab (optional)

Missing from the standard Firefox.

b) SUPERAntiSpyware (free addition)

Has a focus on spyware, but also scans for Trojans, Worms etc. Can be set up to have a resident part, but useful as a stand-alone scan application. Finds spyware that Avast and AVG misses. Also gives the pre-flight option to remove undesirable add-ons and changes to home page etc.

c) TDSSKiller (free)

Originally produced by Kaspersky to find the tdss rootkit virus. Now maintained to find some of the most difficult rootkits. A small stand-alone scan application that even Kaspersky keep semi-covert.

d) TuneUp Utilities (low cost) or similar

Essential resident programme that can be set up to automatically keep the system in good health. Yes you can do most of what it does manually, but given the application there may not be either the time or the expertise available.

e) LibreOffice (agree)

Win XP holdouts storm eBay and licence brokers, hiss: Give us all your Windows 7

The alternative way

If MS can rise above corporate stubbiness, they should have concluded without any shadow of a doubt by now, that their present business model for selling operating systems just isn’t going to work in the future.

For most MS users this means forking out a lump sum every few years. For this you likely get something looking completely different, which of course is in large part meant to justify the lump sum. After all, how many people would pay such a lump sum, for an operating system that looked exactly the same, even if it did have many improvements under the hood.

The obvious problem with this model is that it leads to disruptive innovation, which have substantial cost implications. Rather than progressively refining and improving on a baseline operation, with corresponding improvements in reliability, major changes to interfaces mean retraining users, redesigning system connections and data processing. Instead of maximising the reuse of knowledge and minimising the need for retraining, in order to actually get the job done in a cost effective way, business systems can easily be driven into a constant state of flux, as a new wave of upgrades commence.

The alternative would be for MS to rent the operating system on say a monthly basis, say 4 pound a month. The advantage to MS would be the steady income stream, without the big bang role outs of recent years, replaced by updates that are focused on reliability and mainly under the hood improvements. Changes to interfaces, including the GUI would no longer be made purely on an arbitrary basis, but in consideration of the degree of change and the consequential user impact.

This of course would bring MS more in line with the Linux alternative, which if you include professional support, rather than just free, would probably be comparable on cost

Microsoft may slash price of Windows 8.1 on cheap 'slabs

What to do with Windows 8.x, Slabs and the like

It seems Microsoft still haven’t got the message that most people don’t want a Tablet PC. They tried in 2001 and failed because it was the wrong solution to providing facilities and services of their day. Then it was basically a flat portable PC. Today they are still trying to push a later day Tablet PC, without fully realising that the market has moved on. Most of the facilities and services available to a Tablet or Mobile Phone today have very little in common with the PC. They are essentially operating and supported by their own specific ecosystem, complete with emails, apps and the rest. After all, how many people bother to use ActiveSync or its resurrected cousin Windows Mobile Device Centre.

Personally, I use my Tablet as an always on home based device, mainly for Gmail notifications, including Sky Never Miss, Goggling, dozens of apps, and of course the occasional game. Whereas, my Phone is used entirely differently, as an always with me device, with Shazam and scheduled power on/off.

So, what to do with Windows 8.1, and Slabs. Perhaps they should put an adapted version of Windows 8.x on the Xbox and call it Xbox Two. Then put handles buttons on the Slab and use it as a jumbo answer to the PS Vita. As it is I wouldn’t accept a slab as a giveaway, due to the cost of ownership.

This should leave the field clear for an all new Windows 9 resurgence. Except, by this time many of those abandoned XP users would have found a free upgrade alternative to the 100 Pound Windows 7 upgrade in the form of one of the Ubuntu distros. Not a difficult decision for someone with a Netbook that originally only cost 280 Pounds. This will of course open the eyes of those that are asked to hand over more cash for Windows 9++. Particularly as they find they also get a free Office Suite in the form of Libre Office already installed.

About this time Microsoft could well drop Windows Phone, since this is what they do with mobile devices. What to do with Windows Phone; form an alliance with Google and install Android.