Posts by azaks

Win 10 Anniversary: 'We're beginning to check in final code' says Microsoft

Re: Their last hurrah

This isn't news - its posturing. Companies do it every day to get more favorable terms.

Get back to us when you have followed through and moved all of those workloads away from MS.

I think there are several possibilities here:

a) hardware issues

b) you've fucked something up

c) you are prone to exaggeration

d) W10 is totally unusable

We have a large W10 fleet and don't have those issues. I think that rules out d)

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware goes FULL SCREEN in final push

Re: A final throw of the dice before

"A file named "UpgradeSubscription.exe" is found buried in the System32 folder of Windows 10 build 14376, alongside 590 other .exe files."

A HA! A smoking gun if ever there was one! Almost as obvious as the NSA key!

The bigger question: if in a years time you don't have to pay a subscription or lose access to your data, will you be big enough to admit to being a shameless, whiny, OSS fanboy?

Kill Flash now. Or patch these 36 vulnerabilities. Your choice

>> giving the update the "Priority 1" ranking

I gave avoiding Flash a priority 0 ranking a couple of years ago. Nothing to see here. moving on...

Microsoft has created its own FreeBSD image. Repeat. Microsoft has created its own FreeBSD image

Re: Microsost Azure cloud services now more UNIX/Linux (*NIX) than Windows.

FFS - try and understand that you can run native Linux/FreeBSD in Azure. Its a Linux VM - you can install whatever the fuck you want on it. You can install any FS you want, you can use Docker, you can install any management tools you want. There are web and CLI interfaces to manage your Linux VMs - you don't need to use any Windows tools at all if you don't want to. Why do you have so much trouble understanding this - its all on the web if you bother to educate yourself?

Re: Microsost Azure cloud services now more UNIX/Linux (*NIX) than Windows.

That's quite funny - you accuse me of ignorance and yet all you do is hand-wave without providing a single specific that shows you know what you are talking about. At least you had the decency to put quotes around some of your hand-waving, but I think "generally work poorly" and "many other" deserve quotes too.

Not sure what you mean by "advanced file management" (more hand-waving?) but whatever file systems and tools are available to your distro can be used (and Azure has had Docker for the last 2 years)

and host it where?

Re: No, it's not

Alas, there isn't much room for facts or reason around here. Still, have an up vote anyway.

Re: Microsost Azure cloud services now more UNIX/Linux (*NIX) than Windows.

W.Anderson

You seem horribly confused, so let me help you out.

Microsoft's interest in offering FreeBSD is to allow companies that use it to migrate to Azure. They pay money for hosting their servers, which makes the company and its shareholders happy.

If you are going to host an unfamiliar OS, you need to make some changes to make sure it runs well on your platform, integrates with the various management and monitoring pieces, can consume other Azure services etc. Yes, we know... "EEE" and all that fucktardary, but the FreeBSD folk are free to take or leave any code that Microsoft contribute.

As for why anyone would want to move their FreeBSD workloads into Azure? I imagine capital cost savings, rapid provisioning and scaling, pay for only what you use, access to big fucking network pipes etc would all make the list - but probably the most compelling reason for most businesses is that they wouldn't have to suffer snotty little oiks like you anymore ;-)

Re: MS Linux?

oh dear!

you don't have a very good understanding of this whole IT thing do you?

>> More than 60% (and growing) of Azure is currently Linux

Wrong - its actually around 20%.

You were presumably so overcome with joy at reading this https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/more-open-source-innovation-azure/ that you missed the subtle but oh so important nuance that the 60% refers to the number of preconfigured Linux VM images available for copying from the image gallery - not the actual number of instances of VMs actually being run (and paid for) by customers.

Still, why let mere details get in the way of a good yarn...

Latest Windows 10 build loves up cloud, banishes 'strange grey bar'

Re: Penguinistas

>> We've given up, anyone still using Windows after the nagging we've done deserves the pain they get

You have not given up.

The only thing worse than a recently reformed smoker or someone that just "got religion" is the recent OSS convert. Suddenly everything else is painfully inferior, morally challenged and anyone that uses it is an idiot (and/or a shill).

I use windows 10 for 10-12 hours a day across 3 different machines. If it caused me "pain", I would use something else. And I'm certainly not going to change just because some anonymous muppet tells me about all of the pain that I am supposed to be experiencing.

Re: Penguinistas

>> I'm just amazed I've not seen anyone mention the penguin yet, followed by a personal anecdote listing full system specs, plus brand/flavour/colour/number of their preferred version and about how it's revolutionised their life, and the lives of all those around them. finished off with an implication that any other choice is for idiots.

You forgot nan. You cant leave out poor old nan.

Supposedly, posting that old people get their interweb fix on *buntu gives it cred in the usability stakes (i.e. "if my nan can do it, so can you"). Personally I find this incredibly ageist and sexist, and I intend to write a telegram to my local MP about it...

Microsoft's Windows Phone folly costs it another billion dollars

Re: The very high price of loyalty

>> Count me among the people that think Microsoft could hardly have done worse than it did with its Nokia acquisition.

Everything is obvious in hindsight. It actually made a lot of sense at the time. Nokia make great hardware (my Lumia 920 is nearly 5 years old and hasn't missed a beat) and needed a lifeline as they had totally missed the OS boat. MS needed a hardware platform that would commit to the Windows Mobile OS instead of only token support. Both companies needed it, and it could have worked. The few Lumias they brought out were great products, but by changing strategy every 5 minutes they missed the opportunity.

'Tis a pity. I don't really like Apple or Android offerings, so I am going to have to pick the one I dislike the least. Not a great position to be in.

Linus Torvalds releases Linux 4.6

linux has no noise

no bugs - big, medium or small. It is simply perfect in every way.

My nan recompiles her kernel every day whilst eating pudding and rocking bingo - just to show how l33t she is. She's a pretty big deal around the nursing home you know. Good 'ol nan...

Windows 10 build 14342: No more friendly Wi-Fi sharing

Re: WiFi Sense

Easy tiger.

Its courtesy to learn at least the most fundamental basics about a Microsoft feature before kicking it to death. Unless of course you are a rabid MS-hater, in which case knowledge only gets in the way ;-)

Microsoft half-bricks Asus Windows 7 PCs with UEFI boot glitch

half-bricked?

Is that like being partially pregnant? Or just being a bit over-zealous in the sensational headline department?

Go into UEFI setup, disable secure boot, reboot. Unbricked...

Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends on July 29th

Re: Uninstall count

>> Anecdotal, it's very high...

True, but in reality, probably very low. Still, don't let that stop you...

on the plus side...

at least people wont need to spend time deflecting upgrade offers.

A side benefit for those that did upgrade and are happy with win10 is not having to listen to the endless moaning from some of the above-mentioned people.

Yeah, yeah, I know - assuming the position. Down-vote away...

Microsoft: Why we tore handy Store block out of Windows 10 Pro PCs

it would be interesting...

to see how many people this actually affects.

We are used to the inflammatory click-bait articles to feed the MS-haters, and the predictable piling on about how this is stooping to a new low, how nan has moved on to OSS nirvana, slurping blah blah blah...

I would love to know how many people with that particular SKU were ACTUALLY disabling the store via GPO, and are upset by this change. My guess is somewhere between zero and sweet-fuck-all.

US data suggests Windows 10 adoption in business is slowing

Re: I will NEVER upgrade to Win10

>> It also doesn't say how many reverted back to 7 or 8.

Nor did it capture those that upgraded afterwards. Whats your point?

>> 5.5% for Linux ? That was higher than I expected ?

Now, now. Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Do you think a developers web site is representative of the computing habits of the great unwashed?

No chance of any over representation from university computers (primarily Linux)?

Even getting creative with your sampling doesn't do you any favors.

In other news, win10 is active on 270m devices (as per last weeks earnings report). Interpret that as you will, and let the down voting commence...

'Feature-complete' Windows Server 2016 preview 5 lands

>> With Windows PowerShell, as far as I know, everything is an object. You can pass the result of a command to another as an object. This can be really powerful, but it does not have the simple concept of Unix.

Greping, awking and seding your way through text output to pipe into the next command is the kind of "simple concept" that most IT people can do without. No doubt this was highly innovative in the 70's, but now it is just lame (except maybe to earn cred in a greybeard pissing contest).

>> Windows simply does not have the objects that are the equivalents to the files in Linux.

Wrong. You should have just stopped writing at "as far as I know"

Ding-dong, reality calling: iPhone slump is not Apple's doom

Re: Can we have some innovation please Apple

>> Apple innovate a massive amount in ways most customers are only peripherally aware of.

Er.... no. We can expect displays to keep improving as technology allows. This "amazing innovation" is just Apple marketing its next display tech. The competition will counter with their "amazing innovation" in display tech. It wont create a new category, or blow away all of the competition in an existing one. All it really serves to demonstrate is that innovation at Apple today is a shadow of what it used to be, and wont be enough to sustain the success they have enjoyed in the past. Only time will tell...

Re: Revenues

"Doom" is just an attention-grabbing headline - "right-sizing" and "refocussing of strategic direction" (a.k.a. gradual decline) is far more likely.

>> Apple currently gets most of its revenue from iPhones, but in the past that was from the sale of iPods, and before that from the sale of Macs.

True, but Apple was a tiny company when all it made was Macs. It blossomed with the iPod, and as that market tapered, followed up with the iPhone (and to a lesser extent the iPad). Having virtually invented these categories, they had the market to themselves and became amazingly profitable.

The reality for Apple is that there is no new springboard to continue their momentum - smart phones are a commodity item and there is stiff competition. Profitability has nowhere to go but down. iPad never got enough of a lead to truly dominate, and Android offerings dominate that segment.

>> the revenue from services has grown 20%

Very commendable, but that is off a pretty small base. If this is the start of a trend of similar quarters for the iPhone business, services will do nothing to restore profitability (except presumably follow that trend down).

Certainly no sign of imminent doom, but without a "next thing", the golden years of Apple are starting to look to be in the past.

Windows 10 Mobile races to summer with useful facelift

Re: emoji

who cares? they've got emoji!!!!

How to not get pwned on Windows: Don't run any virtual machines, open any web pages, Office docs, hyperlinks ...

Re: How not to get pwned on Windows...

>> But OSX has pretty much the same userbase attractiveness wrt malware as Windows.

How do you figure that? How many companies create products that are relevant to < 10% of their potential customer base? Custom malware for a targeted attack yes, generic malware to maximise returns = no.

Re: How not to get pwned on Windows...

Very valid points about volume not being the only metric - clearly it isn't.

Security bugs are a fact of life in all software - the bigger the code base, the more you can expect. Saying "my OS is less likely to get pwned than your OS" is just stupid.

Another factor that affects bugs found is the number of people motivated to look for them. We all know that the "many eyes" theory spouted by the OSS hardliners is complete bullshit. Finding usable exploits costs time and money, and if maximising your return on said exploit is your goal, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict where most of the investment is going to go.

Re: How not to get pwned on Windows...

How dare you bring facts to this forum - shame on you!

If you don't have anything negative to say about M$, don't say it at all!

Microsoft: We have a bullet ready for 12 competencies

Re: Not surprising

>> The cloud is mostly marketing hype

Seriously?

Back in the day when people kept their money under the mattress, I am sure there were many predicting that something as stupid as giving it to a bank to mind for you would never catch on.

If you think companies like paying good money for geeks to implement on-prem that which can be purchased as a subscription, you are deluded. Of course there are risks (just as there is in putting money in the bank), but the rate at which big companies with big IT budgets are getting popped, putting your money under the mattress isn't looking like the safest thing to do either.

The move to cloud wont be linear or without hiccups, but it is inevitable. Sticking with an on-prem focus would be a slow road to obsolescence...

Windows 10 with Ubuntu now in public preview

its a trap!

the Linux mob have realized that the only way to get onto people's desktop is to piggyback on windows. They have infiltrated the Redmond goliath, and via means so devious that they cannot be shared with the public, have coerced them into this unholy alliance. Via telemetry sent directly to Linus's nan, they will soon release irrefutable proof to show that the year of Linux on the desktop has finally arrived!

Sounds crazy huh? Now you know what you tin-foil hat wearers sound like to us ;-)

Bash on Windows. Repeat, Microsoft demos Bash on Windows

Re: Embrace....

You may not have noticed (or be to zealous to allow yourself to notice) that the Nadella-era MS is very different from the Ballmer-era MS. Of course the zealots will say its just a ploy and the real motive is EEE. The days of making a ton of money selling operating systems and on-prem software are declining, and the next cash cow is online services. Allowing people to run whatever they want (rather than trying to dictate what they should run) will encourage them to choose their services over someone else's services. Its pretty obvious to anyone that looks at the industry with an open mind.

We wrap our claws around latest pre-Build Windows 10 preview

Re: stupid windows 10

>> The correct solution, it seems, is to roll back to Windows 7, and do the upgrade again but without the ethernet cable attached

Not sure you've diagnosed that one correctly. My guess is that doing that will leave you with no network connection at all.

Re: I will never again get those GWX nag messages!

>> well, if you go by the comments here

Just ignore them like their employers and everybody else does. They're used to it

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Re: Lots of hate for a small loud group group

Have an up vote (the only your likely to get I'm afraid for daring to voice your opinion with this merry little band of diehards). Here's a little peek into their world:

a) they hate ms with a passion that borders on the hilarious, and dedicate time and effort into bringing down "the evil empire"

b) many are diehard OSX/OSS users and don't actually use win 10. They recycle and amplify stories they hear from their comrades in arms, and tell us over and over again about their "recent" conversion to some other OS of them, their nan, immediately family, cat's therapist etc. etc.... and what a liberating experience that was

c) they think that sharing their "experiences" will influence others to abandon windows, and hasten the glorious rise of their OS of choice

d) they believe that everyone will ultimately share their point of view, and just need to be shown the light

e) despite every tangible indicator available, they refuse to believe that they are in the minority, and that all the whining and teeth-gnashing does nothing to alter reality

f) they predict that every new version of a ms product will be a failure, claim every past release was a failure and that the end for ms is nigh. Sadly they never reconcile their predictions with the market realities and realize them for what they were

They are however, very entertaining, so please keep pissing into the wind chaps as you are providing a valuable community service :-)

predictably stupid Friday afternoon revenue raiser...

>> Windows 10 isn't the saviour of the PC industry after all

In other news, my car performs really badly when I try to use it as a boat.

Nothing is going to bring back the PC growth days of old. Unless you are a gamer or actually need computing power, the PC/laptop you bought 5 years ago will still meet your needs. Shelling out money so that your PC can sit at 90% idle instead of 80% idle isn't something that excites most people. And for the majority that just do email and web apps, a tablet or phone is cheaper and more convenient.

Making unrealistic claims and when they don't happen saying "I told you so - its windows fault" is just fucking stupid. The PC era is over - just get used to it and stop drawing stupid conclusions from it.

>> A range of companies including HP Ink and Northamber blame Windows 10 for flagging sales.

No they don't - do you read your own articles? They said the "anticipated growth" hadn't happened, but that wouldn't sell as many ads now would it?

Comparison to Vista - WTF? Vista sucked because they changed the driver model without working enough with the hardware vendors and chaos ensued, and because of stupid things like overly keen UAC prompting. Not sure I can see the comparison.

>> As late as three weeks before launch it was unusable.

I used it on my primary desktop and laptop for at least 6 months prior to release, and don't remember it ever being "unusable". And citing your own similarly-biased article hardly adds anything to contradict the fact that this is just your opinion.

I wish you would stop writing these stupid, fanboi-fodder pieces and just report facts. Outside of the rabid Linux hardliners and the tinfoil hat wearers, does win10 really have the dire reputation you are claiming?

Eight in ten IBM Global Tech Services roles will be offshore by 2017

you need the Donald...

... to come over and "make the UK great again".

He'd force those companies to rethink their off-shoring strategies, while simultaneously filming a rivoting reality TV series covering the transformation.

And in the final episode, he would unveil plans for a big, fuck-off wall around the English coast to stop those pesky jobs leaking out. Marvellous!

Windows 10 claimed another point of desktop share in February

Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

>> There is also a user variable in that how they dismiss the Windows "limited time free upgrade" prompts that also plays a role.

So its not a forced upgrade then? I wish you folks would make up your minds.

>> The growth rate can be put down to MS finessing stuff at their end - I certainly will not be surprised if this summer MS announces that Win10 is the supported update to Win7/8 (ie. equivalent to a Service Pack), just as they did with the Win8->8.1 update

Why are you mixing current growth rate with what may or may not happen in the future? Whether they do this or not (which is pure speculation on your part), they are committed to providing updates for the published support lifecycle of those products. A service pack is just a rollup of individual updates - its hardly a gun to the head to upgrade the OS (and btw - XPs last SP was in 2008 and that hardly triggered a mass exodus)

>> As someone else has observed, what will be critical in assessing the success of Win10 will be the change in installed base this coming year

Your assuming that non-technical people give a shit what version of OS they are running. I think the vast majority of those update their OS when they get new hardware.

Bill Gates denies iPhone crack demand would set precedent

free PR for apple

Seems like all of silicon valley is trying to out do each other in being the "peoples privacy champion".

Asking apple to unlock a very specific phone owned by a murderer on their own premises and giving away no capability for the FBI to unlock others seems reasonable to me. The court has approved this request, and the data may be useful in preventing future crimes. Holding out is just another PR stunt from the king of marketing...

Microsoft in 2015: Mobile disasters, Windows 10 and heads in the clouds

Re: The game is up Microsoft - your code is crap!

I didn't believe you at first but the caps WON ME OVER.

I'm just a little disappointed that you didn't write:

"coz Linux is SO MUCH BETTERER..."

Re: The game is up Microsoft - your code is crap!

>> kryptylomese

I have seen you post this same nonsense at least half a dozen times before (the truly bizarre ones tend to stick out). Every time, you have been met with ridicule, and I don't recall anyone ever supporting your suggestion. Please go and find someone who works in IT, and ask them why this is a really, really stupid idea.

Reading your other posts, the desperation for your hobby OS to reign supreme on the desktop is obvious. There are many ways that this could happen (but most likely won't), but the most imaginative sci-fi author could not come up with a more far fetched scenario than this one.

Microsoft beats Apple's tablet sales, apologises for Surface 4 flaws

Re: Figures lie, liars figure

I'm guessing that if the figures were reversed, they would provide irrefutable proof of the superiority of apple products over their inferior competitors?

Think you're all done patching? Not if you have any Apple gear

its the users fault...

apple products don't have security flaws. Its just the dumb users that are using them wrong.

Is ATM security threatened by Windows XP support cutoff? Well, yes, but …

Yawn...

Just another crisis invented by a company with the silver bullet that will fix it.

Would it really be cheaper to license this software, test it so that it doesn't do more harm than good, and then deploy it to every ATM or just move to a supported OS?

And as many have pointed out, ATMs are extremely limited in their ability to interact with any untrusted code, so the usual rules don't apply.

Windows Phone won't ever succeed, says IDC

Re: Why do people pay these people

To be fair...

Yep, lots of analysts get it wrong, as do stock and weather forecasters (to name a few). They build a bunch of models that they think have a chance of playing out, and call the result based on the data they have available. Its better than saying "we have no fucking idea what the market will look like in a few years, and we cant be arsed trying to figure it out". If anyone is a muppet, it is people that believe the analysts have some kind of crystal ball. There is no news story here, but it does generate a lot of clicks...

Re: Why do people pay these people

"rape and murder of Nokia"

Seriously? Nokia was running full tilt down the slope that was about to become a cliff. Probably better for the few that kept their jobs than the lot that would have been axed when the company folded.

Windows 10 market share growth rate flattens again

Isn't the problem you are trying to solve avoiding expensive bandwidth charges when you are travelling? I'm not sure that running virtualized graphics-intensive apps over those expensive connections is what you want to do. And forget volume licensing - it is for people that are buying licenses in, you know, volume. The cheapest tier would cost you more than the bandwidth. I would test metered connections before you travel to make sure it functions as expected...

Microsoft Windows: The Next 30 Years

Re: It isn't last 30/next 30. It's 15/15/15.

busycoder99

Help me out with this because I'm a bit confused. He based his stellar assessment on the stock price, but got it a tad wrong - looking at that indicator the company is growing strongly - not in decline. So you're kind of agreeing with him, but then your not? Show us your stats that show that the analysts have it all wrong and the company is in decline

Re: It isn't last 30/next 30. It's 15/15/15.

a_yank_lurker

A fine prediction. Backed up by what? - your declaration that win10 is shit and therefore viewed by everyone else as shit? And then ignoring the fact that they have multiple billion dollar businesses and that the demise of windows would finish them off? And your continued droning of copied terms like "slurp" do far more damage to your own credibility than they do to microsofts

Re: @azaks -- It isn't last 30/next 30. It's 15/15/15.

>> I'd be very cautious about listening to analysts. The last time I checked and admittedly it's been about 3 or 4 years, ENRON was listed as "buy".

You cant hold the analysts responsible for the fact that Enron lied through its teeth about its financial position and there were no checks in place to catch them out. I'm not entirely sure how this is related to the fact that MS are perceived to be in a strong position, despite all of the nonsense and wishful thinking spouted by the MS-haters on this forum...