Microsoft Windows Forum

I saw a netbook at a discount chain store the other day that I want. It's an [URL="http://us.acer.com/acer/product.do?link=oln24g.redirect&changedAlts=&kcond5e.c2att92=843&CRC=2745306029"]Acer Aspire One[/URL]. It has 1GB RAM and a 160GB Hard Drive for $296. Awesome deal. The problem, at least for me, is that it comes standard with some whittled down version of …

It's with more than idle curiosity that I've watched the recent [URL="http://news.cnet.com/microsofts-lauren-ad-follow-up-disses-mac-power/?tag=rtcol;pop"]Microsoft ads[/URL] that attack Apple, subtly suggesting that it's too expensive and that it's all glitz with no real computing power. There is so much wrong with these assertions that it's hard to know where to begin. There is …

I read a [URL="http://tech.yahoo.com/news/infoworld/20090403/tc_infoworld/131038"]news story[/URL] by Paul Krill about how Linux OS Server shipments have and will continue to slip by double-digit margins in 2009. Windows Server shipments are hit hard as well but almost 5% less so than those of Linux. The original report came from IDC. The IDC …

Remember the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3821.html"]teenagers[/URL] getting charged with child pornography for taking revealing pictures of themselves with cell phones? They're fighting back. According to an [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26sextext.html?_r=1"]article[/URL] in the New York [I]Times[/I] by Sean Hamill, 17 students -- 13 girls and 4 boys -- accepted a plea bargain requiring them to attend 10-hour …

Microsoft has been active lately, showing some signs of spunk. I reported last week that Steve Ballmer was going straight after Apple at the McGraw Hill Summit (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4155.html"]Ballmer Wastes No Words Going After Apple[/URL]). This week we see the release of an [URL="http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2009/03/new-microsoft-ad-goes-after-high-price-of-apple.html"]ad campaign comparing Apple …

Although there has been much speculation that the Windows 7 Release Candidate will finally arrive in April for testing, it would appear that actually it won't be until a month after that. Who says so? Microsoft, that's who. According to a page published at TechNet, albeit briefly, Microsoft will be …

It's not the users for whom I feel sorry. Yes, they'll have to learn a bit more about how they're going to interact with - sorry, use - their computers when multitouch comes into significant amounts of hardware with Windows 7.0, but if it's as easy and intuitive as some …

As much as Microsoft loves to grinch about Linux, they've made significant changes over the years to compete with it--and will abandon it altogether to maintain their competitive edge. Windows 7 will be the last Windows product. What changes has Microsoft made to compete with Linux? They've prettied it up …

I guess that it will be of little comfort to the developers who lost jobs when Ensemble Studios was closed down earlier this year, but the final game to come out of the Microsoft owned outfit has just become the biggest selling Real Time Strategy title ever to grace any …

Microsoft is tweaking the number of features that can be turned off in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3766.html"]Windows 7[/URL], with the latest beta build adding [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2606.html"]Internet Explorer 8[/URL] to the killswitch list according Microsoft Product Manager, Jack Mayo. In the official Microsoft Windows Engineering Blog, Mayo [URL="http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/03/06/beta-to-rc-changes-turning-windows-features-on-or-off.aspx"]says[/URL] "If a feature is deselected, it is …

[I]And I know I'm not the only one To ever spend my life sitting playing future games ~Fleetwood Mac, Future Games.[/I] When Microsoft released [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/SURFACE/Default.aspx"]Microsoft Surface[/URL] in 2007, it was easy to dismiss it, a PC the size of a table that cost $10,000. While everyone else was designing smaller …

If you believe the results of the first annual [URL="http://www.fiascoawards.com/index.php"]Fiasco Awards[/URL] then the answer would appear to be an unequivocal yes considering that Vista got a rather staggering 86 percent of the vote for the worst performing IT product of the year. But then appearances can often be deceiving, and …

Steven Sinofsky, the Senior Vice President for the Microsoft Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, in an attempt to quell a beta tester rebellion over a perceived lack of feedback concerning bug reporting has made an astonishing confession: Windows 7 has at least 2000 bugs. Sinofsky [URL="http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/02/25/feedback-and-engineering-windows-7.aspx"]states[/URL] that more than …

As part of my [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4037.html"]ongoing quest[/URL] to [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4007.html"]bring you information[/URL] on getting -- or keeping -- a job in the tech sector, I want to point you to a [URL="http://www.palamida.com/blogs/eight-open-source-projects-for-highly-effective-job-hunting"]great blog post[/URL] by the folks at the application security company [URL="http://www.palamida.com/"]Palamida[/URL]. They've assembled a list of eight open source tools …

Alex Kochis is the Director of Product Marketing and Management in the 'Genuine Windows' bit of Microsoft. Which means he knows a thing or two about the 'product activation experience' when it comes to Windows 7. Specifically, he knows a thing or two about product activation for the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3766.html"]Windows 7 …

Remember last month when DaniWeb [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3847.html"]reported[/URL] how some 1400 jobs were to be lost at Microsoft? These losses forming the first part of a plan to trim costs which would see a total of 5000 Microsofties facing the axe. Well now, in the most bizarre of twists, it seems that …

When the Resident Evil 5 demo was released on Xbox Live and managed to get itself downloaded a staggering 1.8 million times in the first week, well everyone pretty much thought that was one Xbox record that was not going to be broken any time soon. But that was before …

Linux may never gain widespread success, that we, the Linux fans want it to, because it's just too complex for the average computer user. Sure, we now have [URL="http://www.kde.org"]KDE[/URL], [URL="http://www.gnome.org"]GNOME[/URL], [URL="http://www.xfce.org"]XFCE[/URL], and other fancy graphical user interfaces that attempt to mimic [URL="http://www.microsoft.com"]Windows[/URL] and the [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Mac OS[/URL] but underneath the shimmering …

I came up with an idea this week: What if Microsoft made Windows open source? Before you accuse of me of link baiting, I believe this idea has merit for several reasons. It will reduce the cost of development, put the power of the community behind supporting what's become an …

It’s a big bag, if a mixed one, for the financial markets and for technology companies today. Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 42 points, buoyed somewhat by (finally) some good economic news. Check out Monday’s housing sales numbers, which unexpectedly rose off of record lows. Also, a …

Ah yes, another significant victory for Linux as the Russian government [URL="http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/22094"]decides[/URL] that there will be a national operating system based on Linux. This new operating system will be deployed in Russian schools sometime this year. The Russians plan to rid themselves of the capitalist opression of Microsoft--or something like …

What do you do when you poo? It is the kind of question you might expect your ten year old son to ask his ten year old mates in the school playground. However, it seems that Microsoft has been asking pretty much the same thing in order to generate some …

Here we go again. The European Union (hello from Europe, everyone!) is once again complaining that Microsoft is abusing its market leadership position by continuing to put Internet Explorer into Windows. I can halfway see the point, but I don't think they're right. The way I explained it to my …

Barmy Steve Ballmer, [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20745/53/"]sometime monkey dancer[/URL] and full time Microsoft top dog now that Bill Gates has gone, has surprised us all by informing the world that January 13th will not be [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3614.html"]Windows 7 day[/URL] as predicted. The good news is that Windows 7 day will be on the 9th …

There are over 1 million Linux system deployments worldwide. No, make that 2 million. Wait, it's really closer to 3 million. Ok, I really have it this time--there are over 3.5 million Linux deployments worldwide as of January 7, 2009. But according to the [URL="http://counter.li.org"]Linux Counter[/URL], there's fewer than 150,000. …

According to numerous [URL="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article5429969.ece"]reports[/URL] that is exactly what is being suggested. If the axe does fall, then it will be the first time that the company has had to make any really major cuts in the workforce during it's 32 year history. Of course, there has been no official confirmation …

According to the [URL="http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8"]latest figures[/URL] just published by Net Applications, a specialist Internet measurement company, Apple has seen Mac OS X grab a record gain taking it dangerously close to a 10 percent market share for the first time since the company started tracking OS usage. In stark contrast, however, …

[I]Instant karma's gonna get you Gonna knock you right on the head ~John Lennon. [/I] It's 2009 and I'm sure the powers that be at Microsoft are hoping it's going to be a good one without any tears, but even as the old year closed, the news kept getting worse …

Apparently the stinging failure of Windows Vista is a distant memory for Microsoft because they've cooked up yet another hair-brained idea to draw in customers: pay-as-you-go computing. [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10129438-92.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0"]Cnet has the details[/URL] today of a patent application filed by the company and I'm having trouble believing it's not Bill Gates' attempt …

Even though we still have the playoffs and Super Bowl to look forward to, fans of American football are ([I]really, really[/I]) disappointed that the regular season ended yesterday. Since there's not much else to do but kill time until the 2009 season starts nine long months from now, let's have …

The Street.com is out with its 2009 tech guide and it’s a good read. You can check out the whole thing at [url]http://www.thestreet.com/story/10454493/4/the-tech-investors-guide-to-2009.html;[/url] but here are a few highlights on what tech insiders predict will happen in 2009. Cloud clearing – 2009 will be the year of the cloud – …

Although most people do not pass their Microsoft Certified Professional exams until their twenties, maybe late teens if they are really good, some make the geek grade a little earlier. Indeed, one girl from Pakistan managed to do just that at the tender age of ten. However, now M. Lavinashree …

Cnet [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10122751-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"]reported[/URL] the other day that Microsoft has placed an app, Seadragon, in the Apple AppStore, even before releasing it on the Windows Mobile platform because, get this, the iPhone is the only phone platform with the graphics chops to handle the application. There is such delicious irony in all …

It's an odd thing, being a journalist. Your job is to report what other people have said and only occasionally should your own view creep in, if at all. It's the same in America; the serious newspapers were exemplary in being fair to both sides in the recent election, at …

You cannot have missed the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3629.html"]story[/URL] this week about how a picture of a naked girl on an album cover led to Wikipedia being blacklisted by the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK. That blacklisting, which in turn prevented people from being able to edit Wikipedia posts depending upon their …

An alpha version of [URL="http://www.opera.com/browser/next/"]Opera 10[/URL], the latest in a long line of web browser clients from the Norwegian-based developers, has been made available to download. Anyone remember Opera? It used to be the next big thing, until the next big thing came along in the shape of Firefox that …

Yesterday Adobe announced it would be laying off 600 employees worldwide, which represents, according to published accounts, 8 percent of the workforce. Reports suggested that Adobe was a victim of the overall economic slow down and the lower than expected earnings were due to selling fewer copies of the new …

We already know quite a lot about Windows 7: it has a distinct [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2008/09/21/windows-7-leaking-like-crazy/"]Office 2007 feel to the UI[/URL], it is likely to feature some kind of [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21193/53/"]instant on fast booting process[/URL], and the OS itself should [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2008/11/15/windows-7-scales-to-256-processors/"]scale to some 256 processors[/URL]. The launch of an official '[URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2998.html"]Engineering Windows 7[/URL]' …

It was the fourth-worst trading day in Wall Street history, with the Dow off 679 points (about 8% of the index's total value) and the Nasdaq falling almost 9%, to 1,398 for the session. There's a lot to point at here, but the main culprit seems to be the fact …

An update on the report from the UK’s Financial Times and The Telegraph that Microsoft is all set to buy Yahoo’s search engine division for $20 billion: more media outlets are carrying the story on Sunday night, including Drudge and CNET. But CNBC found an inside source who claims the …

Steve Ballmer called Linux a "[URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/"]Cancer[/URL]" in the past, ranted about [URL="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/111706-ballmer-linux-users-owe.html"]patent infringement[/URL], [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005171&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1"]accused[/URL] Linux programmers of ripping-off intellectual property, and [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/steve/2006/11-02NovellInterop.mspx"]penned[/URL] a deal between rival Novell to sell Linux. Wait, that last one doesn't fit with the others. Did you ever notice how someone is often mean or harsh …

If you've been thinking of ditching your old BlackBerry and getting a new Bold or Storm, but hate the idea of an upgrade or early termination fee, I have some great news for you. The best part of the new devices has been all its new browser has to offer. …

Henry Ford, father of the mass production assembly line, would have hated Linux although embracing it today might help pull his company out of its current financial nosedive (Current stock price under $1.50 per share). Ford held 161 patents and if he were alive today, some of those might well …

"Jerry, how can we miss you if you won't go away?" Such was the refrain from Yahoo investors for months on end, who could only watch helplessly as the company lost $20 billion in value under the reign of Jerry Yang. Sure, it's not all Yang's fault. The economy cratered …

[I]Way down deep it's the same old you Way down deep you ain't hiding the truth Just for a minute you had me confused Baby way down deep it's the same old you ~Tom Petty, Same Old You.[/I] My colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in his aptly titled [URL="http://blogs.computerworld.com/the_big_windows_7_lie"]Cyber Cynic[/URL] column …

Microsoft Corp. has today announced a new version of Windows Live. Think of it as Windows Live: The Next Generation if you will. Not that Microsoft is calling it that, or anything else for that matter. The press release just refers to "an integrated set of online services that make …

Two weeks ago I was asked a question to which, given my occupation, I should have known the answer. The question was: “How many software testers are there?” Being editor of a magazine about software testing, that's a number I should have know cold. At the time, I offered an …

A Firefox developer has [URL="http://ehsanakhgari.org/blog/2008-11-04/dont-leave-trace-private-browsing-firefox"]revealed[/URL] that pre-release versions of Firefox 3.1 have been updated with a new feature. Officially called 'Private Browsing' it will be more familiar to many as the much talked about Porn Mode that [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20303/53/"]caused such controversy[/URL] when Microsoft announced it was being included within the forthcoming …

Who couldn't use some extra cash these days? Thousands of dollars in prize money is up for grabs as testers face off in [url=http://www.utest.com/bug_battle/]Battle of the Browsers[/url], a seven-day contest that starts today. Applications in the contest's arena are Google's Chrome, Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 and IE 8. To qualify, …

All last week, Microsoft was trying desperately to shift the spotlight from Vista, the OS that has become a major liability for the software giant. To that end, Microsoft made a flurry of announcements including Azure, the newly announced cloud platform, the Windows 7 Alpha and a preliminary view of …