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Smokey Bear
veritas odium parit
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Smokey Bear

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Windows 8, and So It Begins - Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

Excerpt Softpedia article - 31st of October 2009
Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, and hit the shelves on October 22, generating obvious questions about what’s next for Microsoft’s proprietary operating system. And the answer is rather simple: Windows 8. This time around, the Redmond-based company made little efforts to hide the moniker associated with the next generation of the Windows client. Not that it could, given that the codename aspect of Windows development efforts is the only transparent aspect of the otherwise translucent communication strategy set in place by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division.

It is interesting to understand just how early Microsoft actually started building the successor of Windows Vista. According to Larry Osterman, Microsoft Principal SDE, the Windows team was hard at work coding for Windows 7 within 4-5 months after the general availability of Vista. “In June of 2007, we started working on actual feature planning – the planning team had come up with a set of tentative features for Win7 and we started the actual design for the features – figuring out the user experience for the features, the internal implementation details, etc.,” Osterman noted.

With Windows 7 wrapped up, Sinofsky was upgraded to the President position from senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live engineering group, but just as it was the case for Windows 7, Windows 8 will be developed in accordance with his vision. With Sinofsky at the helm of the Windows 8 project, Osterman could even expect the same development experience as for Windows 7.

“The remarkable thing about Win7 development was that it was almost friction free. During the Vista development process (and in every other product I’ve worked on) development was marked by a constant stream of new issues which were a constant drain on time an energy. It felt like we moved from one crisis to another crisis,” Osterman recalled. “For Win7 it was different. I think it was some time during the second milestone that I realized that Win7 was ‘special’. The newer development process that was deployed for Win7 was clearly paying off and my life was far less stressed. In fact I don’t think I worked late or came in on weekends once during the entire 3 years that Win7 was under development – this was a HUGE change. Every other product I’ve ever worked on has required late nights and weekends (sometime it required all-nighters). But for Win7 it just didn’t happen. Instead we set a set of goals that were reasonable with achievable schedules and we executed on those goals and delivered the features we promised.”

When it moved forward from Windows Vista (version 6.0) and Longhorn (Windows Server 2008) to Windows 7 (v6.1) and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft chose the path of evolution rather than build a revolutionary OS. Another legitimate question about Windows 8 is whether the platform will continue to evolve, or whether Microsoft is ready for a revolution in Windows, even though the memory of what revolutionary meant for Vista is still fresh for customers. While only time will tell whichever way Microsoft will take Windows 8, one thing is clear, the Redmond-based company started planning for the next generation of Windows long before Windows 7 was finalized.

In addition, the software giant is also hiring people to start coding for Windows 8. If the development process described by Osterman still applies, Microsoft will begin building Windows 8 early in 2010, if not even earlier. However, just as is the case with all Windows platforms, the successor of Windows 7 will too have to go through a planning phase, where coding is left in the background, and the priority is putting together the actual feature set for the operating system. Still, don’t expect Microsoft to start talking Windows 8 until well into 2010, if not even 2011. After all, it took over a year since the Windows 7 coding had started for Sinofsky to share the first details on the engineering process of the project.

Just in October, Microsoft mentioned Windows 8 in a number of job posts:

- “IIS team is looking for an experienced PM to join our core platform team. Your role will span across driving key features into Windows 8 as well as owning several out-of-band modules, including web analytics that will bring business intelligence for the customers that host applications and contents on IIS. Your work will help differentiate IIS and Smooth Streaming from Apache and Flash.

- “The Windows Live Mail team is looking for a seasoned Lead Program Manager to drive our next generation Mail client, and manage five stellar PMs. Our current release is centered on hot new consumer features & better synergies with Hotmail & Windows 7, and our future releases will likely be tightly designed to work best with new Windows 8 platform technologies. We will also work closely with the Outlook team on ways to bring Windows Live to Outlook.

- “The TAG team provides the foundation services and infrastructure to support a unified test and dev workflow. This team’s charter includes - developing and running a unified test submission and execution system for Windows 8, Automating Test pass scheduling & execution, results analysis & automated triage, Windows code coverage services, Developing and running the eBVT quality gate, supporting WinSE’s Windows 7 sustained engineering test needs,” for the position of Test Lead 2.

- “The Application Experience Bug Investigation Team, AEBit, is looking for passionate SDETs that want to make an impact on Windows 8. You will have the opportunity to engage with software vendors, OEMs, as well as internal component teams. You will also be applying and enhancing your knowledge of system internals.

What would you prefer Windows 8 to be? Revolutionary or evolutionary?
Source/full article: »news.softpedia.com/news/ ··· 79.shtml
OZO
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join:2003-01-17

3 recommendations

OZO

Premium Member

It's a "feature" trading time

I'm sorry but I do not expect anything new from any "new" product developed by this company.

Since Bill Gates has left the company it is in a new epoch. It doesn't offer any innovation anymore, but rather it sells feature sets. When B.G. leaded company - I was excited with real new software development. But not now... Steve Balmer clearly has a different strategy. While he was shouting "developers" he really meant "marketers"...

What do I mean? Here is example. While Windows XP was innovative product and m$ actually offered the best technology available at that time to its customers, Windows Vista starts to add some "features", while at the same time removing others. It's offered to be more secure, but at the same time it's become harder to get to its configuration. It looks prettier, but it wastes a lot of computer recourses and therefore requires considerably more powerful hardware. Windows Explorer is inferior to WE in XP, etc. You can see this tendency even more in W7. See examples here List of features removed in Windows Vista - and here - List of features removed in Windows 7.

Look at IE7 (as one of the examples) and compare it to IE6. It finally had introduced a tab support, but at the same time convenient GUI customization was completely removed and replaced with a new GUI design containing a lot of bugs and obvious deviations from a common UI design. Office 2007 is yet another good example. They completely removed common interface and replaced it with the new inferior ribbon design (permanently taking more screen space by simply showing menu all the time, instead of dropping it down just for a time user needs to call it). To make this statement even bolder they do not offer you the common UI option and users have to buy a third party software to return convenient menu back. What will be next? I suspect in next version (or next to next one) they will return you convenient menu freeing useful space, but will remove another functionality to compensate it...

Bottom line, I don't expect a revolution, and I can't call it evolution either. It's just a "feature" trading time...

Smokey Bear
veritas odium parit
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join:2008-03-15
Annie's Pub

Smokey Bear

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said by OZO:

It's just a "feature" trading time...
Isn't that exactly what the customer demand? Windows 7 e.g. show now already the tendency to become the best sold Windows forever...
OZO
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OZO

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Yep. It's more about money now then innovations...

Its a Secret
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Its a Secret

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said by OZO:

Yep. It's more about money now then innovations...
The devil does tend to short himself though, eventually.

CylonRed
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With B.G they bought more innovations - all of the way back to early Win 95. Heck - they had to buy the OS to get Windows working at all.

The company has ALWAYS been about marketing - very little true innovation came from them. I do not consider buying functionality and wrapping it in Windows to be any type of innovation - that is marketing.

Not to mention - it has always been about making money...

ironwalker
World Renowned
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Re: Windows 8, and So It Begins - Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

So wait, will windows 8 be what windows 7 sp1 should be?

Link Logger
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join:2001-03-29
Calgary, AB

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Re: It's a "feature" trading time

I remember them buying lots of companies, its what large companies do, especially large companies who have cash on hand. Years ago I had a company that had lots of cash on hand and our shareholders certainly didn't want that money sitting around in the bank making interest (interest isn't need enough to keep shareholders happy, as they can do that on their own), so we went out and bought some companies (companies that we could increase their market share through our marketing, companies that we could use to expand our client base, companies that expanded our product feature set, companies that prevent our competitors from expanding their product feature set, etc). Now Microsoft often buys companies just because they want the staff and not the product(s) as I mentioned before its the fastest way to acquire great employees.

I've been acquired a couple of times as well and each time it was a good deal as the company that acquired us had better marketing as we were tech startups so we had a great product and all the technical skills to create it, but we needed their marketing to get the product out there and be successful.

Sometimes when you start a company you have an exit strategy in place and often that involves being bought out by a bigger company like Microsoft. I like starting companies and creating products, but I don't and can't run them forever as that takes a different mindset then what I have (I'm good for designing and building the ship, loading it up and getting it out of port and running the narrows etc, but once she is underway on the open seas, better get a different captain as I'm likely to keep playing with it till the point that I end up trying to sail the ship capsized as I'm an agent of change).

Blake
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said by CylonRed:

With B.G they bought more innovations - all of the way back to early Win 95. Heck - they had to buy the OS to get Windows working at all.

The company has ALWAYS been about marketing - very little true innovation came from them. I do not consider buying functionality and wrapping it in Windows to be any type of innovation - that is marketing.

Not to mention - it has always been about making money...
I'm always interested in what people consider innovation in the world of computers/software perhaps some folks here could post some examples of innovation (by Microsoft or otherwise).

Certainly the GUI from Xerox, networking from ARPA, IC from Texas Instruments/Fairchild Semiconductor would qualify but what else?

Blake

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
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join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

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I remember them buying things like Defrag, Disk Compression, Backup, etc etc

KeepOnRockin
Music Lover Forever
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Re: Windows 8, and So It Begins - Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

It seems to be getting harder and harder to see true innovation these days. Lots of idea/design copying. Especially with so many technology patents already purchased/in place.

If someone tries to think of something truly unique, puts it to market and it becomes successful; you may see a patent lawsuit around the corner from some small, no-name company who claimed to have the idea first.

Instead of the old adage, "build a better mousetrap", now it's improve the existing mousetrap.

cork1958
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I don't think Windows 8 will be out as quickly as Windows 7 was after the release of Vista.

MS KNEW how bad Vista was, and found out from the people first hand after releasing it, is the only reason Windows 7 is out already, other than obvious cash flow.

Windows 7 is decent enough that MS shouldn't have any need to crank out Windows 8 ASAP!

Smokey Bear
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Smokey Bear

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said by cork1958:

Windows 7 is decent enough that MS shouldn't have any need to crank out Windows 8 ASAP!
According to a former Microsoft Research employee, MS would be better off if the company ditched Windows and instead built its own version of the Linux operating system: Microsoft Linux
said by Networkworld :

A lot of open source advocates like to rage against the machine at Microsoft, but when a former Microsoft Research employee says that Windows 7 won't stop Linux from market domination, that's an opinion to note. Keith Curtis, author of the book After the Software Wars, says just that. But he goes further. He thinks Microsoft and its customers would be better off if the company ditched Windows and instead built its own version of the Linux operating system.

These topics came up yesterday during my interview with Curtis for Network World's Panorama Podcast series. It was an interesting conversation with someone who has crossed over worlds, from Microsoft employee to free software advocate. But it raised as many questions in my mind as it answered. For instance (at 13:10 in the interview), I asked Curtis how he thinks Microsoft can meet its obligations to employees, shareholders and customers while also morphing itself from a proprietary software maker to an open source company. His answer was surprising: Microsoft Linux. He noted that Ubuntu was started with about $10 million -- an amount that Microsoft could lose unnoticed in the cushions of a couch.

"I think we could all be running Microsoft Linux. I sent an e-mail to Steve Ballmer about this and he said he wasn't interested," he quips, but is only partially joking. "Microsoft could very easily dominate the Linux market if they wanted to. I don't think they should release all their source code ... nobody would use it."

Given the likelihood of Microsoft Linux (zippo), I asked him if he thought the IT industry, with its giant Microsoft ecosystem, would somehow be better off if Microsoft vanished rather than having the folks in Redmond figure out how to become more open.

"There is an ecosystem around Microsoft but if you look at the ISV ecosystem, that's mostly disappeared. When I joined Microsoft in '93, there would be boxes of software that people would install. But that's almost gone. Microsoft's partners are service providers and hardware vendors. ... whether Microsoft should whither away is a difficult question. I just look at their code bases and the world doesn't need any of their code bases. From the day I started using Linux, I no longer used one line of Microsoft code -- it's been four years now."
Source: Networkworld | 10/28/09
»www.networkworld.com/com ··· de/46840


Matt3
All noise, no signal.
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Jamestown, NC

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I can't wait to see what Microsoft brings to the table with Windows 8. I think Vista was trying to overreach and when they realized they couldn't re-architect Windows from the ground up and had to start over, they still didn't understand the need to move Windows forward slowly.

With Windows 7, they built upon the fundamentals of Vista, kept the driver models intact but fixed a ton of bugs and annoyances, while introducing lots of new features and functionality that shored up the GUI. It was exactly what they needed to do and so far it's paying off. Windows 7 sales have accounted for $3 billion at last count and 25% of Microsoft's revenue for the quarter. 90% of users surveyed said Windows 7 was "good" or "great" and they'd recommend it, including 80% of the Mac subsection.

So what would I like to see in Windows 8? Better integration for media sharing. Homegroups are great, but they're more meant to do away with manual sharing, which is a good first step. I'd like to see something where I can stream my media to any internet connected device (like Webguide: »www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/) and something that allows me to access my Windows Media Center remotely.

I'd like to see Windows move more toward a unified, single package installation/uninstallation system like the Mac has. Installing apps on Windows is brain-dead easy, but uninstallation can be a nightmare.

I'd like to see support for more than just a GPU accelerated GUI. I'd like to see Windows have the ability to utilize the GPU and possibly even GPU RAM when it's available. If video cards are moving toward 1GB or more of RAM, let's utilize that.

I'd also like to see several bugs shored up around non-AD connected client machines accessing the network remotely, but those are likely Office/Windows Server bugs rather than Windows bugs.

I'm sure there are more, but those are just off the top of my head. Other than that, I'm glad the same guy will be around for Windows 8. He nailed it with Windows 7 and it seems like he gets it.
Matt3

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to Smokey Bear
said by Smokey Bear:

said by cork1958:

Windows 7 is decent enough that MS shouldn't have any need to crank out Windows 8 ASAP!
According to a former Microsoft Research employee, MS would be better off if the company ditched Windows and instead built its own version of the Linux operating system: Microsoft Linux
said by Networkworld :

A lot of open source advocates like to rage against the machine at Microsoft, but when a former Microsoft Research employee says that Windows 7 won't stop Linux from market domination, that's an opinion to note. Keith Curtis, author of the book After the Software Wars, says just that. But he goes further. He thinks Microsoft and its customers would be better off if the company ditched Windows and instead built its own version of the Linux operating system.

These topics came up yesterday during my interview with Curtis for Network World's Panorama Podcast series. It was an interesting conversation with someone who has crossed over worlds, from Microsoft employee to free software advocate. But it raised as many questions in my mind as it answered. For instance (at 13:10 in the interview), I asked Curtis how he thinks Microsoft can meet its obligations to employees, shareholders and customers while also morphing itself from a proprietary software maker to an open source company. His answer was surprising: Microsoft Linux. He noted that Ubuntu was started with about $10 million -- an amount that Microsoft could lose unnoticed in the cushions of a couch.

"I think we could all be running Microsoft Linux. I sent an e-mail to Steve Ballmer about this and he said he wasn't interested," he quips, but is only partially joking. "Microsoft could very easily dominate the Linux market if they wanted to. I don't think they should release all their source code ... nobody would use it."

Given the likelihood of Microsoft Linux (zippo), I asked him if he thought the IT industry, with its giant Microsoft ecosystem, would somehow be better off if Microsoft vanished rather than having the folks in Redmond figure out how to become more open.

"There is an ecosystem around Microsoft but if you look at the ISV ecosystem, that's mostly disappeared. When I joined Microsoft in '93, there would be boxes of software that people would install. But that's almost gone. Microsoft's partners are service providers and hardware vendors. ... whether Microsoft should whither away is a difficult question. I just look at their code bases and the world doesn't need any of their code bases. From the day I started using Linux, I no longer used one line of Microsoft code -- it's been four years now."
Source: Networkworld | 10/28/09
»www.networkworld.com/com ··· de/46840


I am a NetworkWorld subscriber and they will print ANYTHING to fill up space. I think I started tossing their magazine directly into the trash when they printed the opinion of an astrotruf group representative who said that Net Neutrality would mean the Tier-1 providers would be forced to "decouple" and if a developer wanted to reach you, they would have to pay a fee directly to your ISP. They give this lady her own article every issue to spew her ignorant nonsense.

I had questioned some of their authors before, but that nailed it for me.

Smokey Bear
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Annie's Pub

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Smokey Bear

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said by Matt :

I am a NetworkWorld subscriber and they will print ANYTHING to fill up space. I think I started tossing their magazine directly into the trash when they printed the opinion of an astrotruf group representative who said that Net Neutrality would mean the Tier-1 providers would be forced to "decouple" and if a developer wanted to reach you, they would have to pay a fee directly to your ISP. They give this lady her own article every issue to spew her ignorant nonsense.

I had questioned some of their authors before, but that nailed it for me.
I posted that article with a big smile, knowing that comment will follow..

quetwo
That VoIP Guy
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For me, it's all about providing more options.

Two of the biggest annoyances for me that were in Windows Vista are still in 7, and are unlikely to be addressed.
- The networking stack is still unreliable. When I plug into a 'new' network, why does it still reset my firewall settings to the most stringent? As a network tech, I'm constantly resetting my firewall settings to allow basic things like TFTP through. Along the same lines, if I previously statically set an IP address/DNS/etc., it still sends out DHCP requests, and wait about 30 seconds to see if it can connec to the internet, just to show me that "you are connected" icon. I know I won't be connected, and locking up my networking for an extended period of time is useless to me.
- Search. They insist on indexing everything over and over and over again. And now, they've integrated the full search into the start menu. Now, when I'm looking for the Exchange Manager, I now get help-files, emails, web links, and buried somewhere in the results is my start-menu entry. Not only that, if I'm searching for a particular file, it again comes up with lots of unrelated results from the web, email, etc. making life more difficult. I'm not a fan of a search-engine on my computer -- but a simple file-system FIND would be great. Heck, a very simple Start Menu find would be great, but to slam all results together makes no sence to me what-so-ever.

Those are just the most annoying -- almost deal-breakers, and I'm sure things that won't change for 8 (I expect them to get worse).

Z80
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Microsoft needs to return to this long standing every 2 years model. It stops them from biting off more they can chew. Of course it didn't prevent WinMe and DOS 4 but nothing is fool proof.

If Windows isn't broken, don't fix it. Customers don't want change for change's sake. They want reliability. The reason Windows 7 was "friction free" was this exact reason. There was nothing really new, just small tweaks and fixes to Vista.

IOW, revolution breaks everything.

kw0
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said by quetwo:

Those are just the most annoying -- almost deal-breakers, and I'm sure things that won't change for 8 (I expect them to get worse).
I'm glad I'm not that picky.

Smokey Bear
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Smokey Bear

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Microsoft mulling 128-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 9
Ars Technica | October 7, 2009
According to a supposed Microsoft Research employee's LinkedIn profile, Microsoft is working on 128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 and Windows 9 kernels. Consequently, the company is also forming relationships with major partners, including Intel, AMD, HP, and IBM.
»arstechnica.com/microsof ··· ws-9.ars

Note: till yet, this info isn't confirmed by a reliable source

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
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You can disable indexing of certain file types. I would investigate that if search isn't working for you. I find it very accurate and very helpful.

I do agree about the network stack, but I'm not so sure this doesn't have to do with drivers also. My laptop (the one I constantly putz with network settings on) behaves completely different based on the driver version that I use. Each time I update it, a new issue is introduced and the old issue seems to be resolved. As far as the firewall, I think that's a better safe than sorry approach. If it didn't reset to the most stringent, the howls from the regulars in this forum would be loud indeed.

skuv
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said by Z80:

Microsoft needs to return to this long standing every 2 years model. It stops them from biting off more they can chew.
What do you mean, "return to it?"

Vista was released in January 2007, XP was released in October 2001. That seems like plenty of time between releases.

Unless you literally mean, 2 years between releases, which means you want Microsoft to take less time between major OS releases.

I'm not sure how that would help matters.
Kiwi88
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I'm about to click the 'Buy' button on WIN 7 Pro, when all is said and done the primary reason is 64bit and loads runs far leaner than expected (Beta). What still amazes me is the sheer size of this OS! It's almost a MAC based OS in terms of very little user interaction for hardware loads; just does it.

With the new footprint update for hardware from Intel, the WIN 7 OS from Microsoft, we are @ a point that is conducive to 2/3rds up the bell curve for innovations and function.

MS is considering a Linux approach in the near future, however hardly anybody noticed the MAC conversion with the latest OS.

Hardcore software and hardware obsessive compulsive people, now have a new arena to work with. Not such a bad thing, I am wondering how MSDN will work out, not having run that on anything other than XP Pro.

Just in case the point was missed, I like WIN 7, unlike my failure to buy into WINME and VISTA, both should have been shot before they hit the gate.
dave
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Re: It's a "feature" trading time

I did make a list of what I thought was innovative in OS design, but it depressed me since it all happened in the 1960s and 1970s.

KeepOnRockin
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Re: Windows 8, and So It Begins - Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

said by skuv :

said by Z80:

Microsoft needs to return to this long standing every 2 years model. It stops them from biting off more they can chew.
What do you mean, "return to it?"

Vista was released in January 2007, XP was released in October 2001. That seems like plenty of time between releases.

Unless you literally mean, 2 years between releases, which means you want Microsoft to take less time between major OS releases.

I'm not sure how that would help matters.
XP lasted much longer than it really should have, IMO. 2 years is a good release cycle. There sure weren't 8 years in between 3.1 to 95; 95 to 98; or even 98 to XP. In terms of software and technology, 8 years for any program puts it into an obsoleted status. One reason people didn't want to switch from XP was simply the fact they were used to it.

8 years is a long time to get used to a piece of software.

If Vista had been released (and completed fully) even 3-4 years earlier (such as 2004 or 2005); it may have been adopted more warmly.

quetwo
That VoIP Guy
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said by Matt3:

You can disable indexing of certain file types. I would investigate that if search isn't working for you. I find it very accurate and very helpful.
The problem with disabling certain file types (or for example, email), is they are disabled globally. Search for email won't work in Outlook (where it should work). If I disable the "help" filetype, then it will never show up anywhere, which is not what i'm looking for -- I simply want to disable it from showing up in the start menu search.

Z80
1 point 77
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Amerika

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said by skuv :

said by Z80:

Microsoft needs to return to this long standing every 2 years model. It stops them from biting off more they can chew.
What do you mean, "return to it?"

Vista was released in January 2007, XP was released in October 2001. That seems like plenty of time between releases.

Unless you literally mean, 2 years between releases, which means you want Microsoft to take less time between major OS releases.

I'm not sure how that would help matters.
Exactly. I mean, prior to Vista, MS was releasing an OS about every 2 years going back deep into the 1980s. MS would be best served returning to this pattern that served them so well for more than 2 decades. 2 years isn't enough time to over hype and under deliver. DOS 4 and WinMe are the only real exceptions I can think of in how many releases? A dozen counting the NTs?

Link Logger
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Re: It's a "feature" trading time

said by dave:

I did make a list of what I thought was innovative in OS design, but it depressed me since it all happened in the 1960s and 1970s.
Ya its depressing, but its how things work. Innovation is a beautiful thing and races along building on the work already done (Albert Einstein and Issac Newton both said 'If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants'), making great strides until someone invites Joe Public to get involved and then innovation slows down as the strides become shorter. Success can be a curse and for as far as computers are concerned success has been a curse for innovation as the user base has so much inherent inertia that change can't happen as fast as it used to. Now innovation is still happening but it really appears at 'build a better mouse trap' speed which is how most innovation occurs in any 'post consumer' technology, but most people can't see it and hence claim it no longer exists, but it does, you just have to look at the small steps as they still as innovation, just not the bombshells that were possible when things were just starting.

Blake
OZO
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OZO

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What I've found depressing is - since S.B. took the leading role I start missing useful functions that were simply removed from the new versions of products. Just one example - toolbar customization in IE6 that was removed from IE7 - was already mentioned in my first post.

I don't remember examples of removed obviously useful functionality from products when B.G. was leading the company though. That's why I think now it's a different time - with new versions they simply start shuffle functions around and offering just a different subset of them (removing at the same time others) as a new version of product. As Z80 See Profile has said - it's a change in a sake of a change and almost nothing more than that...

BillRoland
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Ocala, FL

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said by OZO:

I'm sorry but I do not expect anything new from any "new" product developed by this company.

Since Bill Gates has left the company it is in a new epoch. It doesn't offer any innovation anymore, but rather it sells feature sets. When B.G. leaded company - I was excited with real new software development. But not now... Steve Balmer clearly has a different strategy. While he was shouting "developers" he really meant "marketers"...
I would have to absolutely agree with this. Gates was a driving force inside Microsoft, whether or not you agreed with what they were doing. I'm not at all convinced Ballmer will be able to set a successful course for Microsoft.