You need to drop the premise that M$ is about *technology*. M$ has skimmed obscene profits by stopping advance and delivering as little as possible. Sometime in the early 90's, M$ made a conscious decision to revert to DOS / Win31 instead of continuing collaboration with IBM on OS/2, which even then was XP-equivalent. By using every leverage -- short of getting convicted -- including that IBM made a profit selling Win31, M$ was able to dodge the *major* threat: that its profits would dry up because there really isn't much more *function* needed than OS/2 provides. So, M$ sold 6 or 8 more versions of single-tasking DOS with a cooperative multi-tasking shell despite the availability of a far better OS.

Some call that clever marketing and approve of it -- *far* from thinking there's something wrong with M$, because their sole interest is in *money*. But it betrays the geek ethic and has come at the expense of uncountable man-hours struggling to maintain M$'s lousy systems. If all that *unnecessary* effort were added up, M$ products would be seen as the biggest disaster ever to afflict humanity.

Might I venture a suggestion ?
Instead of moving your bookmark to a different folder, why don't you just put it in the same place you put your sense of humor ?
In the trash.

Way to go Microsoft! It goes to show how clueless they are over there in Redrum. Does it really take that long to develop? No. Does it show they're going at this half halfheartedly? Yes. Companies that are serious are pushing for aggressive schedules. This is an attempt to keep visible in an IT industry that is buzzing about Google, Android, Apple, etc. No one is buying Microsoft's Kin or Zune products, and the Windows Phone 7 is looking lackluster like the ugly girl at the party that no one wants to get with. What the hell is wrong with this company? They've been slow and behind the times struggling to stay relevant for years now. Can they even see that?

Exactly why should I moan at (an) Iphone? And how exactly would doing so make either the product, or the action relevant to the above article?

But then again, I'm wondering how to make the above atricle relevant to itself. It reads as nothing more than an 8 paragraph anti Microsoft screed with scant analysis of the "leaked" slides.

I guess the fault is mine in mistaking this site with a professional journalistic one. I shall move the bookmark to a more fitting group from "Tech", to "Fail".

Apologies all around for the confusion.

"I usually expect the trolls to appear in the comments section, not in the article itself.
posted by : atouk, 29 June 2010"

then you sir, are an idiot, or on the wrong website, the same as every idiot who moans at Iphone :)

"DEVELOPER OF BLOATED SOFTWARE Microsoft"

It's nice that the author took only 5 words at the head of the article to show his ability to report in a fair and unbiased manner.

And using preliminary presentation material issued two years before a scheduled release date to base an early product review on both lazy and disngenious.

I usually expect the trolls to appear in the comments section, not in the article itself.

Microsoft now seems to be “monetizing” what used to be offered free as service packs. Now they just spray on a slightly-new coat of eye-candy, announce upcoming EOL for the previous version, and charge hundreds of millions of users full price for a new OS. Ca-ching!

There are several problems with this approach:

1) Other alternatives – such as Linux in its many mainstream forms (Ubuntu, Android, ChromeOS, WebOS, etc.) -- are now free or nearly so, and offer better security and generally better performance than Windows. These have the advantage of saving both the thin profits computer manufacturers struggle with, and allowing prices to the consumer buying a system with pre-installed OS and software to be more reasonable. Home users reinstalling a crashed preinstalled Windows OS (or wanting to upgrade to a new OS) are also saved from having to purchase a new version of Windows.

2) With the announcement that Windows 7 will be obsolete in a year or two – and after many corporate and home users having been “bitten” by paying top dollars for Vista and then almost immediately being told they had to pay if they wanted to “upgrade” to the “new Windows 7” -- many people and companies will just keep running XP while mulling the feasibility of jumping on the Microsoft Upgrade Treadmill in 2012 and staying “locked in” to Microsoft's constant demands for money, or transitioning to Linux and saving huge amounts of money in the long-term.

3) Fat-client systems like Windows cost a lot to buy, maintain, and upgrade, and have constant security issues to deal with. One corporate-wide virus attack (or McAffe-like anti-virus glitch) can cost a company millions of dollars in lost profits. Linux thin-client/server systems on the other hand, are cheap, secure, easily administered and maintained, and can save millions of dollars on a corporate IT budget. This fact will probably not be lost on companies looking to stay competitive in the marketplace.

So Microsoft's apparent greed and price-gouging may wind up as its own undoing.

For Windows users, 7 was THE OS. As much as Apple is concerned, I think let the apple lovers keep on loving it... it's they sheet. They love they seet, I love my sheet. Oh and Linux. I love linux too. It makes the world better. It makes the world IT.

It's supposed to be about pushing media to other "net enabled devices," with DHCP marks all around.

"Who cares it beats the hell out of Apple so bad that even Apple has to agree and ran out of commercials trying to mock Windows."

Right... That's why Apple's market share is increasing year after year, while Microsoft's is declining. Sorry, but Windows is garbage layered on top of more garbage, and consumers are finally coming to that realization.

Quote
Given that "Windows 7" is version 6.1, what version will "Windows 8" be?

Who cares it beats the hell out of Apple so bad that even Apple has to agree and ran out of commercials trying to mock Windows.

a deal of change for the sake of change, some engineered incompatibilities, more spyware (probably using webcam by the one hint), and of course more bloated. -- They *might* try to force a switch to all "64-bit", but it's a pretty thin excuse for the simple things that most people actually do with a computer and are doing just fine right now. But there won't be any increase of function.

M$ has extracted every possible cent by holding back progress and dribbling out minor improvements for at least 17 years now, but the end of that tactic is in sight. Best they have left -- not much -- is to switch everyone over to "cloud computing", which is merely doing same things on a remote server.

Given that "Windows 7" is version 6.1, what version will "Windows 8" be?

I disagree, we CAN pencil in that date, as pencils are erasable!