Posts Tagged ‘Windows’

Caveat: I’ve been sitting on the information contained in this post for quite a while now, but it has finally perturbed me enough to put it out there for all of you (and myself, for that matter). If you would be so kind as to help spread the word, that would be great as the lie has spread like wildfire and taken on various forms, such as sites now reporting that Windows 8 will be 128-bit (ridiculous). Not only that, but the perpetrator that started this mess needs to be called out with fair warning given to all. What you choose to believe by the end of this post will be up to you, but my intentions here are to help sift out the garbage in a community full of journalists who – like me – truly bust their butts to bring you solid, unique, and honest content.

Most of you may recall the “exclusive” I posted on this almost 2 months ago now. As most of you may also recall, I’m no stranger to the LinkedIn profile browsing. Well, when I found Mr. Robert Morgan’s profile, I got WAY too excited for my own good. I whipped up that post as soon as I could, then took a step back to see if anyone else had found it. Well, as it had turned out, sometime like a week earlier, it had been, “found” by eightforums (I’ve linked the Google cached page for that link just in case they try to delete it and play none-the-wiser, as you can already compare it to the post on their page today to see that they deleted my comments calling them out on the issue). I say “found” because – as it turns out – it wasn’t really found at all. It was fabricated. Everything on that profile was garbage, and when you read back at what his job description said, it does indeed look like something a “journalist” would write so as to create one hell of a scoop. Check it out again:

Experience
Senior Research & Development Microsoft
Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry

 

January 2002 – Present (7 years 10 months)

 

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.

Let’s critique this, shall we? First off, “working in a high-security department for research and development” is something that no employee working in those conditions would -in their right mind – write in their profile. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things pop up in people’s job profiles, but nothing so blatant. Second, Research and Development isn’t the Windows team. Each is its own department with its own funding and its own projects. At BEST, Windows 9 MIGHT be accurate here (as in, Research and Development is working on technologies that may make it into Windows much later), but it’s not. If anyone is going to be working on a 128-bit kernel for Windows, it’s going to be the architecture side of the Windows core team (David Cutler’s crew, etc.); not MSR.

I don’t think 128-bit is in the scope of anyone for the next 7-10 years. After all, 64-bit is rarely properly utilized these days – nevermind dropping 128-bit into the laps of devs and consumers! And that brings up another point… at best, 128-bit would exist only for very select industries that could truly use it right now. AMD’s Bulldozer project is real, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 8 or, I would imagine, Windows 9, either.

Alright, so… let’s assume that profile was indeed real. eightforums was certainly enjoying the traffic off of their initial “find.” As a matter of fact, they somehow managed to land an exclusive interview with the guy afterwards! Once again, I’ve linked to the Google cached page for the same reason I did a few paragraphs ago. So… whatever happened with that interview, anyway? What happened with it is that it was one great big old pile of BS, that’s what happened with it! It was a big, fat lie (along with the cake, of course).

Yes, your supposedly down-right and honest Windows 8 market-cornering buddies over at eightforums managed to pull the wool over the eyes of almost every major news site out there. Unfortunately, enough minor details lined up enough for those like me to jump the gun and post what we did, when we did and without ever verifying if this guy was even an employee in the first place. This stuff happens sometimes and, well, I don’t take too kindly to it. Especially considering how much time and effort I know I put into bringing you all the content that I do – nevermind how much time and effort the countless other real journalists around the community put in! Not only that, but stuff like this makes a mockery of the credibility of the sites you know and trust. We’re as human as you are, though, so I’m one who is fully willing to say, “hey, this guy fooled me and I’m sorry he ended up fooling you, too, vicariously through my post.”

Now, a couple of days or so after all of this stuff went global, I noticed a couple of my respected peers make some comments on this story that started to make me take a second look at it all. First, Paul Thurrott said the following:

Windows 8 To Be 128-bit Only? LOL

 

Wow. I have to admit, the most amazing thing about this rumor is that anyone believed it. I won’t single anyone out, but spare me. It’s completely and utterly bogus. Obviously.

The fact that this all got around to him in the form that Windows 8 was going to be *ONLY* was baffling enough for me, never mind seeing the next hit being doled out by one Steven Bink of bink.nu:

Bink says: Sorry but this is BS so to say. We are still in the transition to 64bit, That Morgan guy does not exits at MS

By that time, I immediately thought back to the crap I had already called out the eightforums people on and then… it all just made too much sense that they would be the ones to fabricate garbage like this. At this point, I have now also verified (thanks to two kind Microsoft folks for checking for me) that Robert Morgan is/was nowhere to be found in the employee database. It was all just a load of crap created by a site desperate for traffic and attention. They throw up frivolous posts just to somehow meander Windows 8 into the text to boost their rank in search engines for the keyword. Not only that, but their forum is littered with garbage posts that – once again – only exist so as to skyrocket their keyword density.

So, now we’re at this juncture ONCE AGAIN with eightforums. First, it was stealing content from my site (which, I hope I’ve made clear will not be tolerated any longer) and now, one big lie heard ’round the net. And to top it off, dishonest means obviously get you somewhere since this guy was apparently at PDC 2009 as press! How he got in, I have no idea but at this point, I wouldn’t doubt it if he really wasn’t there and his PDC coverage was also a big, fat lie. Everything he wrote could have been discerned from watching the keynotes streaming online. Not to mention, out of all his blabber about, “I wonder if we will hear about Windows 8,” he produced a whole lot of NOTHING! My favorite line of his from PDC comes from his PDC Day 1 blog entry:

What can we dig up about Windows 8? I see tons of wannabe journalists and some actually talented bloggers, how will we be different then all the others? We’ll bring you the dirt!!, we’ll interview the top minds at the conference in the next few days to get all the best information. Like always, members of the Windows 8 forums will get the stuff we just can’t post here, all that leaked information, we try to get all our members to say things off record and sneak them into the underground circles of Windows 8 Forums, only members can see!

“Wannabe journalists,” huh? LOL! Oh, the irony. Lot of top minds he interviewed there, huh? Lot of Windows 8 information they were able to dig up, huh? And leave it to this guy to not only pull the wool over everyone’s eyes a couple of times, but his loyal followers by creating a paid membership for his website as well! He’s actually going to charge people for his lies. Man, if you’re a glutton for being ripped off, by all means, whip out that Paypal account… but if you’re AT ALL wise – even if you’re a member on that forum and see me as the bad guy because I’m taking shots at your “leader” – you’ll take a good look at the big picture here and see that this guy has provided absolutely NOTHING of substance for his readers or for this community. Nothing. Just a bunch of empty promises and cliffhangers. Where’s the PDC 2009 Windows 8 info you were going to dig up? Where are the interviews with the “top minds” about Windows 8? Where’s that Robert Morgan interview exclusive you supposedly had? I mean, to see just how bad it is, take a look at his latest ENLIGHTENING post:

Seriously? You’re *that* desperate to throw Windows 8 (and italicize it, none-the-less) into a story? lol. Oh, the humanity…

So, at this point, I can’t spell it out much clearer for everyone. For some reason, though, I can’t help but wonder who you’re going to believe: Some nobody site trying to corner the Windows 8 market by littering their site with pointless references to Windows 8, or tried-and-true individuals who have been in this community for countless years reporting the good with the bad and truly busting their butts to bring you content with REAL substance? I certainly hope the latter, as people like me calling out sites like eightforums serves me no purpose other than wasting my time and creating drama that I would rather not have to deal with. In cases like this, though, it’s totally worth it.

Update: Be sure to go to his site to catch him poking fun at the frequency of road maps I post. Even I laughed at it; nothing like a good bit of roasting every once in a while.

Update 2: I’ve decided to remove the antagonizing comment about awaiting negative comments from eightforums and disable comments for this post. End of discussion. If you have something to say, feel free to email me. Thanks to those of you who left supportive comments initially. I really do appreciate it.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Another day, ano……. oh, wait. I keep saying that every time I find one of these things. lol. Basically, I’ve run across YET ANOTHER road map (the second one in Korean) that further solidifies the ~2012 release of Windows 8 Server. Let me clarify, all of these road maps I’ve found – ALL of them – resided in Windows Server 2008 R2 slide decks. None of these are in relation to client, but since Microsoft has made the decision to align Server and Client release dates, it may be fairly safe to assume that these cadences apply to Windows 8 client as well. Either way, here’s the latest of the onslaught:

Since I’ve found so many of these things now, I’m going to go ahead and recap the others below. Click each of the following road maps to be taken to their respective posts, if you’re interested:

 

 

 

 

And that’s it! Stay tuned for more road maps. Even though it’s pretty damn obvious that Microsoft is shooting for a 2012 release date, I’m going to post every single one of these I find. =)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I took the time to write up a little review of Windows 7 on Amazon.com a couple of days ago. I tried to make it approachable for users of all operating systems since I have nothing against anyone for what they choose to use (I honestly hate the OS wars, but I don’t mind getting down into the trenches if I have to, mwah ha ha). Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the beginning of my review:

Let me preface this review with my qualifications so that you may understand the extent I’ve gone to with operating systems to end up proudly claiming, “I’m a PC.”

 

I use Linux (RedHat) at work, I’ve tried Ubuntu and Lycoris long before it, I’ve tried Debian and Slackware and however many other flavors of *nix in the past just to say I tried them. I’ve messed with BeOS (Zeta development was an exciting time), I’ve played with Mac OS X on numerous occasions (beautiful OS), and I’ve tried countless obscure operating systems that I doubt even 1% of those reading this would know about (and trust me; there’s a reason for you not knowing about them, lol). Why have I messed with them all? Because I enjoy operating systems and I find them to be amazing achievements. There’s no denying that Mac OS X is a beautiful OS that performs quite well within the structured hardware environment Apple has created. Linux is hella useful on an enterprise level (though Windows Server is easily comparable these days) and even home flavors of Linux have become quite nice (Ubuntu)! The fact of the matter is that I’m partial to Windows through my experiences with having tried just about every flavor of every OS out there over the past 10 years or so. I used to collect beta versions of operating systems (not just Windows, but others as well), so I’ve not only tried the final products, but I’ve also gained appreciation for them by seeing them and playing with them through their development cycles. Where Windows is concerned, at one point or another, I’ve instally just about every build of every version currently out there (and trust me, there are TONS of builds – alpha and beta bits from every version of Windows, including obscure bits like Windows Neptune). I’ve ridden the roller coaster through the highs (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and now 7) and lows (Windows ME, Windows Vista’s initial release) and I couldn’t be happier that I’ve stuck it out.

 

Enter Windows 7.

Check it out and rate it however you feel it should be if you’re a member of Amazon! It’s nice to see that Windows 7 actually has so many positive reviews, I think. There was a 1-star, “review” (I say, “review” because too many people think that Amazon is simply a forum for them to get up on their soapbox) there that I guess the, “reviewer” decided to nix once I left a comment questioning the integrity of his opinion. He basically felt like Windows should be cheaper than it is for people like him who want to run Windows on a second partition just to, “use occasionally.” Somehow he felt that in all his marketing genius, that would help Windows’ market share… you know, if Microsoft brought down the price of their OS simply so people who wanted to use it, “occasionally” could do so. Since when did an OPERATING SYSTEM (sit there for a second and think about just what an operating system is and does) become something to be purchased and used occasionally!? There is software out there that provides very specific functionality (albeit, very well) that costs WAAAAY more than the operating systems that run them! Windows 7, too expensive? Hardly. But I digress…

Link: Windows 7 Review on Amazon

UPDATE: 7 of 7 people approve my review of Windows 7! (Dorky, I know… lol)

-Stephen
Microsoft Kitchen

As noted previously here on Microsoft Kitchen, Windows 8’s user interface seems to be a fairly major focus. Though I have seen some odds-and-ends mentions on the web of folks who are working on the Windows 8 UI, the following profile I just stumbled across is a bit more telling than just someone working on the UI:

Manager of Windows 8 User Interface Designers at Microsoft

Managing and Improving software usability for over 10 years, designing, researching, and developing multi-tier distributed applications for Windows 8 focusing on customers using ecommerce, general consumers, and banking companies.

Again, while it is no surprised whatsoever that Microsoft is updating their UI in Windows 8, focusing on the UI in relation to such a broad userbase all in one release (and with the mention of multi-tier distributed applications), I stand firm in my belief that Windows 8 is shaping up to be one heck of a release. What do you think?

UPDATE:Google has an interesting cache of the LinkedIn profile I linked to above which adds details not previously listed when I originally stumbled upon it. It reflects what seems to be a close link between Windows 8 and Windows 9, based on how often I’m seeing the two mentioned together. To quote:

I work with other User Experience Directors and User Experience Designers deciding on successful feature possibilities by analyzing competing operating systems (Mac and Linux). Research customer reactions to these features in Windows 8 themes and planning for long-term products such as Windows 9 User Interfacing.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

UPDATE 12/2/2009: It has been discovered that the information once contained in this article is false! It was a lie based off of a convincing fake profile created by eightforums.com. You can read all about it here: 128-Bit Kernel Support in Windows 8 and Windows 9: A Big, Fat Lie

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Having some fun making these videos and all, I decided to cook up another one. This time, I’ve included a full-screen version of the log in animation that wasn’t fully in the original. There has been a screenshot or two out there, but that’s it. Along with posting the video here, I’ve included a high-resolution download of the video. Likewise, I’ve updated my previous post here to include a high-resolution download of it. Enjoy!

HD Download (45 MB): Longhorn Days Video 02

-Stephen Chapman
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Here’s a little demo video I cooked up for all those Windows Longhorn fans that are still floating around out there. Commonly referred to as the, “Longhorn Days” demo, I decided to make a video using components from the actual demo and spice it up with a little bit of Incubus. =) This one’s for the old Longhorn fans – you know who you are!

HD Download (30 MB): Longhorn Days Video 01

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

I tweeted… twittered… twitted… whatever the heck you call it; anyway, I basically posted on Twitter the other day my loathing of the stupid, “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. That day (about 3 or 4 days ago, actually) I saw TWO of those commercials that I had never seen before and I couldn’t help but shake my head and think to myself one thing:

Just how the hell would Apple market their OS if it weren’t for Windows!?

Yeah, now THERE’S a novel concept! I mean, just how big of a niche is Apple appealing to with the whole, “ohhh, every PC has bad viruses and they’re going to eat all your datas?” It can’t possibly be THAT many! Oops… maybe I’ve just stumbled onto something there.

It seems that for all of their, “Mac users are, “up here” and everyone else is just, “down there”,” they don’t really give a good reason to use their product. Not once does one (or do I, at least) get the impression from those commercials to get a Mac other than for the purpose of, “not getting millions of viruses.” You know, if I’m going to buy something, I don’t want FUD marketing techniques to sell it to me. Granted, if someone wanted to, they could go pull up Apple’s website to see what a Mac is really supposed to be about but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? How is someone going to look it up if they don’t have a computer to begin with? Oh, that’s right… chances are, everyone already has a computer with Windows on it. Once again, just where would Steve Jobs’ OS be without good ol’ Bill G’s already dominating the market?

Okay, so let’s say I don’t have a computer at home, so all I have to go by are Apple’s commercials. Okay, I want to go check out a Mac. Is there an Apple store close by? Let’s have a look in the phone book to call and see. Oh, well looky there! There’s only ONE in my state and it’s 3 frickin’ hours away! That’s alright, let me see if any other retailers near by sell Macs. (Once again, back to the phone book) Okay, there are. Let’s go to the store and check them out!

*Microsoft’s commercials kick in here* and I do indeed find something more powerful and just as good-looking and usable in a PC… and for considerably less, to boot! It’s really simple in my head: You walk into a store where you can compare the two and a PC sells itself! If it works great in the store, it’s going to work great at home unless you’re like Rafael Rivera and visit naughty sites all the time (he’s exemplary of what, “InPrivate” mode was built into IE8 for, har har!).

Anyway, maybe Apple’s OS is great and beats the pants off of Windows… but I’m not going to go and actively seek it out when I have absolutely no reason to due to the problems I DO NOT have with, “millions of viruses” and the gazillion random crashes I DO NOT have! No, Apple’s going to have to sell their product to me directly… or at least give me SOME reason to look into it! Until then, I’m pretty sure that most users like me will remain quite content with their status of being a PC. Yes, all of us low-life PC users will sit down here and look up the nostrils of the snooty Mac users (not all of them, because I know some good people who use a Mac because they like it and not just to be cool) and laugh at them because we can’t figure out just why the heck they think they’re all so cool.

Oh, and I’m not ditching Apple’s OS by any means. I’m a huge fan of people using what they like and what works for them, but as a content Windows user, it baffles me that I’ve been watching these stupid Apple commercials attempt to beat the same message over and over and over and over into peoples’ heads for, what… 2 years now? Something like that? *Pssst!* Hey, Apple! Try appealing to those willing to give your product a try, should they find it to be discernible enough from what they currently use to do as such! Oh, what’s that? There’s really nothing that’s that much greater about your OS? Shame. I guess one of these days, I’ll get even so much as ONE of those, “millions of viruses” that plague Windows and I’ll go running to adopt your invincible OS!

And just to drive the point home, Apple did a FINE job selling their iPod Touch to me via their commercials. I couldn’t keep watching that Crash Bandikoot racing game much longer without having it for myself… along with all the MP3’s I frequently listen to and all the other awesome apps! So, Apple knows how to do it… they just can’t if the product doesn’t sell itself via its own means. To me, this is even more proof that Apple’s OS just couldn’t stand on its own two feet if it weren’t relying on bashing Windows at every turn.

But who am I kidding? I’m just preaching to the choir here. Oh well. Thanks for reading my rant anyway (if you made it this far). =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

It’s no secret that I love Windows 7. As I’ve been thinking about exactly why I love it so much more than Windows Vista, I’ve come to the conclusion that Windows Vista needed to happen for Windows 7 to be what it is and what it will be: The perfect step up from Windows XP.

I’ve been able to sell Windows 7 to many of my friends and followers by painting it in a light which seems befitting enough to grab their attention and pique their interests: Windows 7 is the encompassment of the performance of Windows XP combined with the aesthetics of Windows Vista. After all, at this point, Windows Vista has – for the most part – ended up being a solid OS. Not that it wasn’t before, but it’s in this where I find that Windows Vista just had to happen.

Between the version checking issues, the driver issues, the new user experience (not just the user interface, but how one goes about using the OS) learning curve, the continuation of ironing out the kinks of migrating to 64-bit client, UAC, and the overall headaches and hatred for Vista that ensued – yes, the OS to follow XP was destined for damnation. It makes me think that even IF Microsoft had completed Windows Longhorn as it was pre-reset, many of the issues that plagued Vista would have plagued Longhorn just the same. After all, most of what Microsoft was aiming to achieve in Longhorn did find its way into Vista in some form or fashion (those of us on the forefront of hacking those builds to death know just about more than anyone else all the things that didn’t, though), so even IF the Longhorn vision had been carried through to completion, it would have more than likely met the same fate as that which it gave birth to in Windows Vista.

Even being a Microsoft enthusiast, it still took me until early this year to switch to Vista because I just didn’t like the new user experience. I didn’t feel like it flowed, many of the little ways I used XP that I, personally, found the most productive had been removed, and I honestly read more into the anti-Vista hype than I should have. Once I finally received a copy to review for another website, I took the leap and was pleasantly surprised! Sure, there were some small issues I needed to figure out and get past, but those didn’t last long. Regardless, I entered the Vista game at a point well-past the majority of the issues Windows haters and Windows enthusiasts alike were experiencing with drivers, etc., so my shift to Windows 7 wasn’t too bad where usability was concerned.

I don’t know about you, but there’s been a driver for damn-near everything I’ve thrown at Windows 7 so far and whatever I *have* had to install driver-wise, it has either just worked or using compatibility mode just works. It just works. That’s one thing I did have an issue with in Vista – compatibility mode. Oh, and UAC? Brilliant now. It never gets in the way (most importantly, when I’ve told it not to… and it didn’t take an act of congress to make it happen). Although there are some minor gripes that I do have with Windows 7, I think it’s exactly what *should* have followed XP, but would have never been due to the lessons that still would have needed to be learned.

Now, this isn’t to say that Windows Vista was just an all-out horrible OS, because it wasn’t! There was plenty of innovation that went under the hood into Windows Vista and it all went into Windows 7. Of course, Windows 7 got the best of it and improved upon it, but there is PLENTY of Windows Vista in Windows 7… and that’s a good thing. Leave it to Apple, though, and they’ll tell you that Windows 7, “is just another Windows Vista” simply because it utilizes much of the same code… annnnd because Apple apparently doesn’t have enough going for its OS to market it properly, so instead, they take cheap shots at Windows to sell their product (hehe).

Taking all of the aforementioned into consideration, I posit that Windows Vista HAD to happen to ensure what will be the success of Windows 7 and everything that actually makes Vista a good OS. Yes, I’m going to step out on that limb and be so brave as to call Windows 7 a success a little over a month prior to its official launch date. For all of the businesses who decided they would wait until Windows 7 to upgrade from XP, well… Windows 7 is here and it’s exactly what you wanted Vista to be (and so much more). While XP users will still have a bit of a learning curve with Windows 7’s usability, it’s filled with the performance from XP and the looks of Vista to make it an enjoyable experience; not an arduous one.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Yes, another roadmap for you. This one comes from a recent Italian Windows Server presentation. If nothing else, this just verifies the obvious: The codename for the next revision of Windows is indeed, “Windows 8,” and there’s a 3-year gap between the current server release (minor) and the upcoming server release (major). The kicker here, though, is the ever-so-slight, non-committal tilda you see before the 2012, thus leaving them breathing room to maybe spill into 2013 if necessary. That tilda keeps things nice ‘n loose for Microsoft’s public deadline, but if Windows 7’s development is exemplary of how future versions of Windows are to be developed, (2nd half of) 2012 could be considered a worst-case scenario for the delivery of Windows 8 Server.

Also, another observation I’ve made is a comparison with a Windows Server roadmap from November 2007 that I posted last year (5th image down). It shows, “Windows Server ‘8′” with a release year of 2013. We’re all familiar with Microsoft extending deadlines, but with the timely delivery of Windows 7 and this latest roadmap implying a 2012 release, it looks like they may have very well learned from the Longhorn/Vista development SNAFU.

UPDATE: MJ Foley made a much more obvious observation regarding the older roadmap: “I read your map differently. I think it said 2013 originally cause they still were pretending WS2008R2 was 2010 a year ago…”

Touche, MJ… Touche.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com