You have no rights, so buy Windows 7

Is this the best the inq has to offer these days?

Charlie the tool looks like a fool! Whatever he is paid is at least 10 fold more than his blathering jibberish is worth!

Charlie, don't go away mad, just go away!

ROTFLMAO!

Charlie, just STFU!!! Really, i can see why the Mageek left seing people like you taking over. Once you had insightful comments now it seems like it's that special time of the month every day for you.

Not to waste time and energy, check out the definition of licensed software. If you don't like it stick to linux, if GPL licenses and such don't help because you are still not satisfied, just return to the dark ages.

Man that fight you picked up with NV really killed the neurons that were responsible for critical thinking. Probably your neural paths for writting are connected to those of your arse.

One more article like this and I'm done with the Inq. IT'S A DAMN RC WITH AN EXPIRATION DATE, WHICH YOU GET TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE.

And please, you're a journalist, learn the damn difference between "it's" and "its".

Microsoft is giving the public a chance to play with and test Windows 7 for about ten months. That's a pretty smart move. They get their bugs worked out for them, the public gets a sneak preview of Win7, anyone who wants to try it out can do so without having to pay. Everyone wins.
At the end of the beta period, Microsoft will kill the RC. It won't even do that immediately. You get a fortnight's warning that it's going to start rebooting itself, and it can still be played with for three months after that, if you can put up with the shutdowns.
It's quite reasonable that Microsoft wants people to pay. Windows is, after all, paid-for software. Where's the problem?

Regarding the test updates, I've raised a question on their blog comments as to whether the "automatic" updates will still happen if the user's not got their update policy set to full-auto, or whether they'll ask instead. It's only fair to give MS a chance to clarify. If they do say that the updates will happen regardless of the update policy, _that's_ the time to get apoplectic, and ring the sysadmin fire alarms.

It's a very strange feeling indeed for me to be defending Microsoft to Charlie. I'm CEO of a company producing exclusively Linux-based products, and I've been making my dime full-time from OpenSource almost exclusively for the last ten years. And yet this time I think it's only fair.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1029371/amds-3ghz-k10-to-break-30000-3dmark06

Please don't say the public has forgotten this?

Have you guys honestly come to the point where there's nothing left to actually report, you just make it up? Jeez.

lawsuits because MS shutting down PCs with RC on it? are you serious? you were given a demo and as with any demos you turn it back to maker once the demo period is over. if you refuse it is taken from you by force. sorry, i fail to see anything illegal or morally wrong.
i remember all this moaning about WGA... guess what, if you paid for your OS it is non issue. and if you didn't how can you possibly expect and bitch about something you didn't pay for is not working?

am i an idiot for purchasing vista? we test our software across multiple OSes and to test on Vista you kinda have to have vista, dont you? oh well, i guess i will have to carry on with my life knowing somebody thinks i'm an idiot, lol.

i just don't understand why people say vista is broken and advise XP. BOTH have their quirks and both have workarounds for them. and I do believe win7 is not going to be without its quirks as well. software CANNOT be made without bugs and QA cannot find ALL the bugs.
and if you keep bitching about bugs how about you just sit down, and make yourself your own OS, surley it will be looooads better. oh and guess what, if you were about to say "Linux" trust me at has its own quirks. plenty of them.

I have to pay for my software??? whats the world coming to?

you're a joke

Yep! What a brilliant article Charlie is.
He's so bright,he's got a Degree in.... STUPIDITY!

that the 'scene' will no doubt hack the protection so you can all continue to use it long after it's 'deactivated'..allegedly.

You didn't hear it from me though if anyone asks.

Just get this twat kicked of the inq, he needs to grow up and get another 10 years experience. I'm annoyed he's made me so annoyed I've added to the comments.

Can´t u see that he is some retarded guy, that thinks that is a part of some elite or something and is nothing more than that, someone who think is better.
Leave charly alone, he not deserves your anger, neither your comments

What a dick, i'm tired of reading your shit, time to delete the inquirer from my favorites.

Does the word 'Rant' (rendered in red no less!) mean nothing to you people?

Poor Charlie...always getting shot down by Sylvie B. Look what it does to him, drives him stark raving mad.

Sylvie, at least show him your babylons.

ECEVNL

I like Charlie, but this article is the worst ever, from anybody.
Lets get rid of this garbage - use the "flame author" button instead of posting a comment, that will work.

I like it.
You allways have to sides to news.
Good and bad.
He expressed the dark one.
I like it, never thought of it in this way.

Keep em coming, this makes inq. - The inq.

Good job mate

I for one appreciate your articles. As I work in the IT industry (20+ years now) I recently downloaded and tested the win7 x64 RC. I felt I needed to test this new offering so I would know what I was talking about when questioned.

I do not recommend it for clients. The UI is a bad clone of Compiz, ugly and lacking polish. The UI has been dumb ed down, and buries all the important settings deeply in the control panels. The file system structure is another step backwards, as it is arranged with more of the same old "My Documents", "My Music" crap.

WAT still treats customers as thieves, while it sends data out the back door to its corporate masters. Protected Video Path and Protected Audio Path are still present, rendering any serious A/V work impossible on this platform.

windows 7 "25% less pig, 50% more lipstick." so to wrap this up for the corporate shills

XP Windows 2000 Windows 7 Windows 9x Vista Windows 3.0 BOB

Ubuntu/Debian/Mint are all more polished and usable then windows 7

Charlie, we want you to know that we still love you for fighting the good non-existent battle between you and Microsoft. Yes the company that is kind enough to let the end user download their newest operating system and use it for close to a full year free of charge. Its shutdowns are a reminder to either purchase the software or get rid of it. An analogy would be you writing articles, you view your comments to see whether or not people agreed with you. Unlike you, Microsoft does listen to the enduser and make changes. You constantly produce the same low grade quality articles and people know the INQ for that man "Charlie". Without Microsoft Charlie, ATI/Nvidia would suck because in all fairness their is no better gaming operating system. Meaning that the new cards they produce are usless without drivers. Meaning without Microsoft you would be out of a job. And since most people who game use a microsoft product will have to upgrade to a newer os.

Why not do some good non-bias journalism like you did on the bandwidth caps? That was good work,

It's funny how you use "it's" (as a conjunction of "it" and "is") correctly in a sentence, yet fail to see the difference between Charlie's usage of "its" (signifying possession)and the word "it's" (again, meaning "it is"). Perhaps we should have spent more time learning the English language, no?

... and Charlie gave us just that.

Now, call me crazy, but I *like* reading the opinions of others, even ones that I don't 100% agree with.

That said, here's my opinion : Charlie is pointing out that people are very, very quick to forget that Microsoft is a convicted monopolist. And, by definition, convicted monopolists aren't benevolently looking out for your best interest, they are looking out for their best interest - to make money and keep their monopoly. And if they can convince you it's in your best interest to stick with them, all the better.

you're lying.

I am by no means an MS fan boy, however, it's a free beta program. Just use Linux or an officially release version of windows if you're not happy. Win 7 RC will essentially expire on March 1st 2010. Is that not time enough. Maybe I'm missing the point

I know a lot of people come here just to bash Charlie's articles lately (which I am sure he loves, as more page views means more ad dollars) but really he makes some good points here.

Windows 7 does look pretty much like Vista, SP3. Now, it looks like they've done a LOT to improve the OS, so hopefully it will run much smoother, with more features, than Vista did.

But things like shutting down your computer every two hours, even on an RC release, is way over the top.

The IT news sites also seem to play no hardball w/Microsoft in regards to Win7. How are we the tech consuming people served if the media isn't doing a good job poking its nose into Microsoft's business?

So lay off Charlie, he is trying to get us to think and not just accept the whatever drivel is shoved down our throats by M$ and their marketing dept.

Remember folks, this IS Microsoft we're talking about.

Our network X-Ray system fails to work with Vista and also Win 7 due to the embedded DRM. This means we will be staying with XP until something better comes along.

ha ha good rant on MS. Unfortunately the other OS maintainers are not any better and just use a even worse schema as they are not being watched like MS (even if the media gets blindfolded).

Linux on the other hand is not able yet to deliver the comfort, that i wish from an OS.

Wow! I want my time back that I just wasted reading this crappy article.

As I tell the anti-MS folks I meet... Don't like it? Don;t F'ing use it.. or even better. Go invent a better operating system and get the world to use it. Oh? Can't do that eh? Linux hahahhaahaha. Mac? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Keep trying.

Tech journalists wonder why they are paid so little.. go back and read your article again bozo and you'll find a clue there.

JAS

The so called Windows Genuine Advantage is mostly a nuisance but it's there because people are dishonest. But it's cynical to pass it off as some sort of benefit to the end user as MS does.

MS would be reckless not to do their best to get good press coverage and if Charlie thinks MS is acting shabbily and getting away with it, he is free to say so. But it's a minor point on RC software and most people don't agree that MS is acting in bad faith here. The problem is Charlie has spent most of his credibility in so many previous rants. The sad fate of a linux fanboy.

Charlie, if you'll work hard at rebuilding your credibility, I'm more than willing to take you seriously again. You've written a lot of great stuff in the past. But I'm afraid that will mean ditching Linux and swallowing your pride. Are you ready to do that?

"Our network X-Ray system fails to work with Vista and also Win 7 due to the embedded DRM. This means we will be staying with XP until something better comes along."

your as much of a joke as this article.. bad programing or a totaly reliance on windows XP is the cause of your software problems with vista.... im running software from 1995 (Custom software) on windows 7

XP and Ubuntu both let me play high def audio and video using via VLC media player. All this crap about protected media path and no high def over unencrypted links such as DVI and S/PDIF means I won't be touching anything Vista and newer.

I need an operating system, not a half-assed operating system with built in content Nazi. Screw regression!

From my understanding Microsoft has the right to do whatever it wants to with its RC, Beta, etc...

It's free and you're complaining? The forced shutdown is going overboard, but that is just the price of having limited free software (that isn't pirated).

You can either reinstall Vista/XP, or go out and buy 7; or go the linux route.

WTF! This guy hasn't been cut off. At least he should be kept from complaining about MS software at length. It wouldn't be so bad if he ever posed any valid critique or tried the software ever. I can't believe this site has gone this far off the rails. I think they should do all of their reviews without actually trying any of the products. All the griping about licensing is a sure sign he's having problems with his lady parts.

If Microsoft said that the RC would be useable for 12 months, and then went and made it so that it would start rebooting every two hours after 10 months, then it's Charlie 1, Microsoft 0.

lame.

How can you take a supposed "journalist" serious, when he has no grasp of proper syntax, using chose instead of choose?

Regardless of Charlie's approach in the article, people are truely missing the point.

It is not about a release candidate update test, or if users should or shouldn't have to put up with testing.

The real point is that now MS will be forcefully installing software on your PC and they now have full access to do whatever they choose to do - even shut it down if they like.

Do people not see this as the real problem? That a US corporation can forcefully update your system and shut it down if they want to? What else can they do? Are they snooping at our files/data? Are they gathering information directly from our systems?

Talk about big brother - and people think China is stupid for making such accusations, when in fact MS are actually doing it in the open with this RC.

God forbid if they do this with the actual release, because if they force anything on users without permission, I suspect class action.

You said exactly what I've been thinking, but haven't been able to put on paper. Anybody who uses (or buys) Microsoft software is either stupid, or suffering from Battered User Syndrome. Since Microsoft's founding, the company has produced sub-standard software.

I have to admit as to wondering how much money has been lost by companies using Microsoft software, and how many of them went out of business because of it. I feel sorry for the poor bastards who lost their jobs because IT was incompetent, but Think of it as Evolution in Action.

I see the Windows Fanbois have come out in force. It's a good opportunity for them to show the world how dumb they are, and doing so in style.

I laughed at Charlie's last anti-MS rant revealing his complete lack of understanding/experience with virtualisation.

But this is getting too much. I enjoy reading differing views, but ignorant idiotic, childish and egocentric views? OK, you hate MS. OK, you hate nVidia. OK, you want others to share your views. I get it.

Nah, I'll get my tech fix elsewhere.

[deletes RSS-Feed]

I see you caught some fish.

...Charlie, you really should work for the New York Post. They could use a journalist of your calibre. This kind of writing doesn't bode well for the inq.

I got half way through the 3rd paragraph then stopped reading. The INQ is and always has been good for a laugh but Charlie's silly, baseless rants have gone past the point of entertainment and becaome just plain boring and pointless. I wish they would go back to at least having some substance like the good old days.

On the actual topic...Win7 RC is free. Nuff said.

Now Charlie, can you rant about something with some substance for a change?

Typical Charile Damnmicrosoft. In his new stand-up routine he once again vents all his real life frustration and creates his surreal comedy by selecting a totally unrelated target for his anger. But the lack of real new material tends to bore the audience this time and he get's heckled a lot. I'll be interesting to see if this club will continue to offer Charlie a slot for his now fast failing comedy. It's more likely his next career stop may be a psychiatrists sofa.

Making people dumb, stupid or anything in between for using an operating system crossed the line. If you are a person stuck with the Linux is better myth and it is the Linux year etc than stay that way but don't start calling people names. And bashing that way because of an RC.... so what if it will reboot?!

It clearly states to use it on another machine. Other than your primary. Testing purposes. I give it to you, you give feedback if you want. Find a bug or something. That's it. So if I will have to get it of my pc than...I will not have any damage. Period.

Bottom line. This was the last article on The Inquirer. I'm done.

Charlie writes the best articles!

Seriously guys no one cares about your hurt fan boy feelings... go read msn news and gtf out of here.

I find it hilarious when I read these posts where people say they're going to remove an entire site from their RSS feed or bookmarks because of a single author when they obviously added it because they found something of value. Simply, don't read Charlie's articles if you don't like his views as I choose not to read MS's marketing material. The dramatic tantrums are too much and tend to indicate a different bias.

As for me, I don't care what MS does with their RC but I do believe the naive public does need to see MS for the truth/fact manipulating marketing company that they are. Thus, I approve of exposing any effort that skews the facts, reduces my rights or endangers my privacy. With this article, I simply summarize it as a warning from Charlie that the pre-release marketing on Win 7 features is an indicator that MS like it's Win7 OS is neither new nor really improved.

It's simply a warning to naive people like one commenter here who thinks the RC is a MS public service which should be commended. Charlie is simply giving them some water so they won't be so easy to shoot at the bottom of the barrel.

Yet again Charlie sticks it to the man. As with most reporting nowadays the flashy graphics and the corporate press releases appeal to the non-investigative reporter who will without question simply churn out the same guff over and over again. Godd on ya Charlie. At least Nvidia didn't get a mention!!

I don't care for this Rant of Charlie's, but because it starts with "Rant" I'll let it go.
Only problem I see is the Anti MS People take this a just normal Journalism, where you can see their bias ignorance from their comments.

Running Win 7 on 3 computers, As it stands now (See how it goes with further testing) I'd be happy to toss XP out the window.

Charlie - when are you going to start working for free?

After all if you can knock Microsoft when they give us a free taste of Windows 7 I recon theinq has the right to demand your services for free for a year. Don't worry - after a year they can make your whining crap dissapear forcing us to upgrade for a fee if we want to subject ourselves to more useless opinion from a 'wannabee' journo.

Oh no hold on - forcing us to pay for something we use would effect our 'rights' - guess you will have to starve... sorry!

RANT in RED letters ,but you read it anyway knowing you will complain in the comments before you read it even . BUT YOU STILL READ IT . Nobody is forcing you to read rants are they ? Unless you work for Money$oft and your job is to bury and discredit any dissenters.

You know YOU like to RANT too or you would have not commented to complain. Feel better now ? Thank Charlie and the INQ for letting you get it off your chest. It reminds me of my Grandpa who would watch that fake wrestling on TV and complain how staged and fake it was all during the show, But yet he would still watch it every week! So keep reading the RANTS and complaining .Thats Free Press and freedom of speech.

Believe it or not Charlie is saying what I and others also think about monopolistic corporations. It's like monopolistic governments, Do as THEY want you to do or else! They are really out to SERVE THEMSELVES and their own bank accounts, that is the Corporations main goal.(free software does not fill bank accounts as it's main goal.)

hahaha Kelvin , yes Charlie exposed, oops I mean "Caught some fish"

Microsoft paid employees don't like it when you bash their mealticket cause if people did listen and dump it they would lose that mealticket,Oh I smell the fear.

Charlie is still King of Friction as amount of comments keep proving!

Charlie... have you read your article before publishing it?

This rant is really as low as I've ever seen Charlie go. This is like punching babies or something.

Whining about WGA, nVidia or Vista is one thing, but a full on diatribe about a *free* beta expiring with timely warnings? Sure, we all have opinions, but that just makes you sound like an idiot.

What has happened to this site? These rants are just boring and full of such biased uneducated twaddle it's just not funny anymore.

...but only you are angry about this. Everyone else thinks it's a bloody good thing people can use the RC for so long without paying for the full version. No-one else agrees with your logic, ven Microsoft bashers, because it's simply flawed.

Please Charlie, I hate to say this, but grow up now. Stop pissing on Nvidia, acting like an AMD/ATI fanboy and bashing Microsoft like a nubje.

Charlie the Polariser. Thats his new title. I see two distinct tribes here - the MS side (or logicians that see free software must be paid for at some point) versus the non MS OS users who make up the tiny minority. Until games are made multi OS from the off, the minor OS's will be little more than geek toys or programming baselines (and i mean that with respect). I'm a gamer, I need to use MS. It's like the ATI boys that join in with Charlie in the NV rants he does - your comments are often infantile. MS is a pop OS, the others have academic pedigree but are utterly useless to most PC owners.
All i'm saying is, we're slaves to the OS that delivers what the majority wants. If someone can change that then well jolly good, until then...meh.

Spot on, I could not agree more, it may have taken him 20 paragraphs to say something that could be said in one but Charlie's point is valid. MS are being clever here, they are infringing your rights and you allow it cos they are not charging you for it ? come on, wake up.

I never ever thought of commenting on one of these articles, but they've gone too far. I think we should demand them to take it off. They demand all kinds of sh1t from everyone else and call everyone else liars and stupid. If it was done in a fair fashion, fine, but this is getting out of hand. Just STFU. ;P

What an absolute moron. So a 10 months now counts as a few and there's going to be lawsuits because a test version does what it clearly states many times in the acquisition process that it'll do?

As for pushing out updates, CONFICKER WAS AS WIDESPREAD AS IT WAS BECAUSE PEOPLE DIDN'T APPLY THE UPDATE MICROSOFT RELEASE MONTHS BEFORE. The same applied to Sasser and pretty much every other major exploit - it was unpatched machines that got hit.

You, Charles, are an utter dick and it's crap like yours that make me wonder why I bother reading the Inq, Slashdot and Digg...

After seing the author's name, i skipped to the last part - comments.

All i just read the comments.
it was fun and made my day.

I can't agree with your comment that "MS is a pop OS, the others have academic pedigree but are utterly useless to most PC owners."

Ubuntu is more than adequate for most PC owners. Not everyone plays games.

A message to all the "I'll never read the Inquirer again" readers - the article is described as a "rant". Go and look up the definition of the word.

See you at the next gathering lol!

Yes, Windows 7 RC is out and available free for a year out of Microsoft's 'good will.' Yes, its an RC so people have as much a right to whine about it as about an alpha or a beta. Yes, Microsoft can do with it whatever it wants. Yes, some people are stupid enough to run it on their main system, ignore the two weeks of notice and later try legal action against Microsoft.
But the fact that Microsoft is able via built-in application or a simple update to control whether and on which conditions you can use your system constitutes a dangerous notion. Especially if you have no control concerning the updates and since we've already had similar past experience with MS.
Think about it: you pay for your precious software, install a P2P client, MS shuts your system down, tweak the registry to make The Product less annoying and cumbersome, MS shuts your system down, pass on an update.. and the system powers off again. And then there is the bad code..
We already have built-in content protection/degradation, hidden DRM and other 'Genuine Advantage' apps, do you really think that this is so far away?

Just some paranoid thoughts/rant. I apologise for any bad grammar since English is not my native language.

And I am running XP Pro and plan to get 7 and then tweak it, as I did with XP.

Guess what guys, "Charlie" is not human ... he's a very somwwhat sophisticated bot. You're wasting your breath and the programmers are laughing their asses off.

Listen to all you little Charlie haters... Isn’t it nice to read an article that completely juxtaposed the fanboiz and reality?

It’s like being back in the school playground again. People are saying nasty things because they can’t read an article that makes them think a little more cynically about the big bad wolf and what he’s doing to grandma and what he’s going to do to little red riding hood!

Never mind fanboiz, you go and spend a little bit more time removing your RSS feeds and bookmarks to the Inq. And perhaps we’ll see no more of those ‘crocodile’ tears anymore.

Lots of love and best wishes,

Dave xxx

Seriously, this guy needs to pull the stick out of his ass, so MS are forcing a couple of TEST updates on you on a TESTING operating system that you knew full well would be subject to TESTING by MS. So your torrents are going to go slow for 10 minutes, everyone get together and cry.

If this is the crap that is going to become part of The Inquirer then I'm gonna stop reading, this is just bullshit

Does this pass for journalism now?

This is really of a standard that I'd expect to see in the most rabid anti-Microsoft forums.

Seriously, Microsoft are cutting off your ability to use a test version of a piece of commercial software and you are of the opinion that this will lead to court cases and is a violation of users' rights?

Microsoft are forcing people to accept updates on their test software (let's not forget that the purpose of you having said software is to TEST it) and this is some massive conspiracy on their part?

Get a grip, really.

You're just scratching the surface in infractions by Microsoft against the public. Install the new OS, and lose rights to the old one. Anyone else found Microsoft installed hidden partitions embedded between the partitions you created? How about long installations and set directories that compromise security that Microsoft could have solved with a few variables during installation. The lack thereof has created a security industry, and how about ports that install around your firewall(s) to report to Microsoft?

Microsoft has been fined over $1bil in Europe. Still the press kiss the ass and not smell the brown stuff. They should scratch the surface and not just regurgitate.

As another commmenter wrote, this is the friction part of The Inq.

Windows 7, I would love it to be a great product at a fair price. But I doubt it will be. Vista wasn't, and the same people are making 7, with the same ethos.

And I think that anyone who provides useful feedback as a beta tester should get a discount on the launched product.

This guy really shouldn't be writing about an idustry he clearly doesn't understand. The RC is just a FREE demo that expires, take a look around the web and see how many other demos expire. A demo that deosn't expire is either freeware or business that will soon be going bust. Moreover the RC is provided for testing purposes, if you use it for anything more then that's your fault - MS don't hide that fact that it will stop working and the provision of these RC's is not just good for MS to get testing done but they're of great benefit to the industry as a whole.

Windows post XP is for losers. It is. Really. Just face it. I mean, I own an XP license for every computer I operate(8) but I don't install the XP that comes from MS because of the ET phone home. I install pirated versions that don't phone home. It is my right -I own 8 licenses, I run 8 computers.

And the *only* reason I run XP is because of my work, I *need* to run Adobe software. Sure I could run Macintosh computers but that is even worse, life without the right mouse button you know. So, please, Adobe, save us from these assholes -let them have windows for their games and osx to look pretty but let us who actually produce work on our computers have a *real* OS.

Charlie, you're a broken record. Seriously this stuff is getting really old. I just can't believe that somebody is paying you for this garbage,

Okay, it is (as it says) a rant.
But underneath, Charlie's pointing out some subtle problems with the attitude MS has towards the people helping it test a new (ish) OS.
Some parts of MS are great places to work; other parts of MS have you checking your own back for knife wounds every ten seconds.
The overall corporate line is this; shear away as much cash from as many sheeple as quickly as possible - and try to convince them it's a good thing.
Rock on Charlie. Keep exciting the MS fanboys and trolls - great sport.

Wow, Charlie, you sure do know how to generate comments!

Anybody who thinks the INQ is just a serious IT news site is not in touch with reality. Opinion has always been part of the INQ experience (INQsperience?). So not only do I not mind when Charlie or anyone else on the INQ staff expresses their opinions, I look forward, as their opinions are generally well-expressed (well, at least the spelling and grammar are correct, mostly, which is more than you can say for practically 100% of the drooling uneducated libtards on the Internet these days.)

It's well known that Charlie has a special place in his heart for corporations. I share that place, and agree with the basis for his outbursts of emotion against the likes of Microsoft and NVidia.

Fortunately, we do have choices. Although I have to use a Dell laptop with an NVidia chip and Microsoft OS at work, I don't use either at home, nor do I ever plan to unless both companies attitudes towards customers change dramatically. My decision, I'm comfortable with the consequences.

Continue writing as you see fit, Charlie, and hopefully the INQ will continue to give you a forum to wield your pen.

Hello there,

It seems to me that a point that may have been overlooked by some of the people also commenting here.

If what is said is ture and they start testing the facility to shut down PC's they deem running the OS illegally, and the tests succeed, what is to stop them from doing it in the final release version, after all thats what the test is for right? to make sure it works in the final product.

Now this is all well and good if microsoft doesn't make any mistakes and the who actually purchased this product legally don't get cut off. But its bound to happen.

I can imagine in about a year or 2 time; we'll be seeing reports on the bbc show 'Watchdog' about this.

bashing Charlie are the same morons who will be crying like babies when W7 starts doing stuff that you didn't EXACTLY expect it to do.

...people still buy it.
Is Microsoft abusing a monopoly position?* Doubtful. There's no reason that people should use Windows (or even OS X) anymore (except in circumstances where developers refuse to release their software for any other OS... but that's not Microsoft's fault.) Despite the unruly masses that insist otherwise, there are lots of Linux versions that work exactly like Windows (if that's important to you) and tons of other software (lots of it free or cheap) to do all the surfing and document/media handling that you could ever want.
The whole business with Win7 having (alleged) issues just tests how dense people are. If you don't like how a product works, BUY SOMETHING ELSE. Vote with your pocketbook, folks. It's Apple's fault that they refuse to let you put OS X on anything else than an Apple-brand machine (not Microsoft's fault) and there's no logic behind people being afraid of Linux (again, not Microsoft's fault).
I use Windows because I like to play games, and developers continue to make lots of games just for Windows. And that's the ONLY reason. All the rest of my (non-gaming) software I got for free or next to free... and none of it is Microsoft-made.
Now let's frank: Microsoft IS taking advantage of people that are too stupid/lazy to use anything else. Is that illegal? Despite what the EC says, it really isn't. Furthermore, Microsoft doesn't bar people from downloading and installing whatever else they please. You can set other programs as the defaults to open all your precious media and documents. You don't even have to use IE to download Windows updates anymore.
If someone is selling an inferior product when there are superior (and often cheaper) products available, who's fault is it when the customer buys the inferior, more expensive product? Microsoft is not suppressing anyone and is not responsible* for customer ignorance when the information is freely available.

*There are plenty of PAST issues with Microsoft, including but not limited to the "Vista Capable" debacle and various issues with MS-DOS back in the day, but that's not the issue here.

"The public are stupid"
Way to win over your audience!
Some fair points but the unkempt beard, wild eyes, battered soap box and general aroma of piss and supermarket cider didn't help your case.

Charlie! Free to try, enjoy, hate, whatever. RC doesn't start doing the reboot thing till well after the planned release date. MS pretty much doesn't give ANYTHING away and you know that. So, between now and March 1st 2010 (Date the 2hr reboot thing is sposed to start), we have plenty of time to dip our toes in the pool so to speak and give this OS a go.
With the public availability of the release candidate hardware manufacturers are getting a good look at what their customers are running for hardware and have time (While 7 is still in "testing") to get software updates and drivers out on the streets.
So, enjoy your "TRIAL PERIOD" of Win-7 you have till next year to decide if you like it enough to make the purchase or go back to the (Obviously) Vista you've been running.

LoCatus

Never surrender Charlie. Tell the uncomfortable truth to these blind consumers.

How sad that that such a well known & trusted news portal allows such biased unprofessional ramblings to be posted.

I’m not the greatest Microsoft fan & Vista did indeed "suck" but hopefully W7 will be what Vista should have been.

Please stop this sort of UNPROFESSIONAL DIATRIBE otherwise you will lose the respect you have gained over the years.

yea microsoft sucks, it won't let you use an ultimate version of its new operating system for free indefinitely.

lol was just linked here from bit-tech.net - very entertaining. I kind of feel bad for Charlie, writing this in a public forum and getting shit tonnes of abuse.

The problem is like Charlie identifies people are stupid, and so go with the bandwagon whether that's hating Microsoft Windows or loving Microsoft Windows.

Unfortunately, the problem Charlie failed to identify, was that he is also one of these people. Journalists in particular who feel like their opinion is important (or any more important than anyone elses) grate on me like nothing else. You find it over on the BBC these days as well, people writing non-stories because they had a bad day.

Save it for the blog - come to work, find some stories and stir some shit up.

Terrible article. The only thing worse is the fact that there are a jillion people out there who share Charlie's point of view. Idiots.

Come on Charlie! There's a hack for everything. There will be hacks to keep windows going and to disable auto updates. Why whine?

Basically, I use windows in my home and am always updated and patched. In my IT job, our department disables auto updates to make sure any patches are compatible with our existing software. M$ will always give us the ability to disable updates, ESPECIALLY in the corporate editions.

But anyway, count me as an "Idiot" that actually likes the new Win7. I'm not exacty sure why you're being a sour puss :|

To the fanboys here: I don't like Charlie's bias, but I don't like to see YOU BENDING OVER EITHER.

Why should I be passionated about an OS? Why should be a fan of COMMERCIAL software? It's not done by enthusiasts, it's not done to improve a community, and it's not freeware!

I use a PC to run applications, not an OS. The OS should not be the center of computing, it should just get out of the f'ing way.

Who can make _unbiased_ and _unpassionate_ articles about Windows? Because I can only find ass kissing or pure hate...

not 1 of you here in the whole comment section actually gets this.

if this works on the RC edition this is going to also work on the RTM version

they are testing the water you stupid people to see if people will put up with them controlling your whole pc.

When RTM comes out you watch it will incl this feature you all put up with it from the RC release so whats the difference.

how can you all call the author for having no sense when not a single one of you read between the lines and seen this as whats to come?

lot's of comments it's a win!!!!

Sorry Charlie that a bunch of your readers are assholes. Fortunately, it appears that a number of them won't be back. I for one am damned sick of Microsoft and their shenanigans and it's good to see them called on it. Personally, I switched to Macs about a year ago and run XP SP II when I have to as a virtual machine. Your article certainly elicited a bunch of comments, and that's good -- even if a number of them were moronic. Good work and see you next time.

Charlie:

A bit late to the game I guess, but:

Keep up the writing and don't mind the sheep. They will find the barn door locked someday when they find out the sky is falling and want to go home...

FINISH THEM ----- FATALITY!

Epic article.
F*ck sheep.
F*ck monopolies.

All those whom disagree with Charlie - DIE SLOW!

Charlie:
YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL ARTICLES! =D

After reading the majority of the articles, I would have to say “what a bunch of winging cretins you all are”,
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but you clowns, would have to be the most negative, morons to place a finger on a keyboard.

Good on ya Charlie for speaking your mind, it really brought the lice out of the woodwork.

I can honestly see a huge amount of astroturfing here. Pretty sad.

This was listed as a rant. He indicated on the front page it was a rant. He didn't say he was writing an indepth article regarding the analysis of this. He said he was ranting.

Now, with that in mind, you can't deny much of the premises in his rant, unless you are just an astroturfer bent on ensuring Microsoft gets as much positive press as possible.

He's right about much of this but Microsoft has the majority trained as dogs now so that they actually think that giving up your rights to control your home is a good thing. I personally don't want Walmart coming to my home some sunday morning asking to go through my belongings to ensure that all I have has been paid for. I wouldn't let the police do that either. So, why are you guys supporting Microsoft in this type of endeavor.

Charlie isn't really talking about specific here. He's talking about patterns. He's indicating that these are ongoing and that you dogs have been trained to stand up when Microsoft whistles.

Honestly, I have taken up Linux a few years back. About version 7.04 of Ubuntu it just picked up balance. I did everything I needed and just about everything anyone else would want. Sure there will be others that don't believe it does for them what they want. Well good for you. Windows it is. Your history with them will be marred by a lack of personal rights to the property in your home.

With Ubuntu 9.04 and also with KDE 4.2.3 it turns your desktop into a rather incredible and attractive environment to do all those things you want. The software in linux, overall, is gaining balance and is becoming feature complete and well designed.

As one of the PC World writers pointed out that Vista was an important release for Microsoft as it showed the general public that there were alternative OSes to Windows (OSX and Linux).

All you astroturfers--don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Great article Charly. I loved it. I tested this Vista7 RC and can confirm that all this "it runs faster than Vista" is nothing but Marketing Hype. It's simply BS! Ditched it after 12 frustrating hours. Now look how the Astrotufing M$ bumboyz start their personal attacks again. What a pitiful lot :-p

Keep up the good work Charly!

Cheers

It's articles like this that make we read and like the Inq less and less, and The Reg more. Calling users stupid just for using a certain OS is going too far. Charlie really needs to take a chill pill.

I'm primarily a Linux user (Ubuntu) and certainly not a big fan of Windows but jesus christ there are some stupid people in here complaining about how their trial of Win-7 is going to restart their computer every 2 hours after the retail version is released. And all this auto update testing...IT'S A TEST VERSION YOU IDIOTS!...it says in the bottom right corner of the screen EVALUATION COPY if you want your windoze to work properly then let microsoft test it, if you want it to be around in 20 years then let them work out their anti-piracy stuff so people stop flogging off their software. If you want a free OS to work exactly how you want it to then make it yourself.

I run Win-7 RC on my 3 and a half year old XP laptop (hardly more powerful than some of the newer netbooks a basic GPU) and it runs fine (I upgraded the RAM in it ages ago though)it's clean, stable and quick and by the looks of it will wipe the netbook market clean of Linux. :(

And if you guys think MS is tryna go all big brother on you then you're all idiots because what they're trying to do is nothing compared to what Apple do

So yet again Charlie is a biased retard who cant read text in the corner of a screen

Oh boy! You guys don't have to update your windows! Why do you use Windows anything? Give it up if you don't like evil corporations and use linux of some other free OS, there's plenty out there!

Let me just say, I get my money's worth from M$. I've learned a lot on M$ software and I put that knowlege to good use and it is because of this I'm not being outsourced or layed off.

So M$ came up with another update? So what? I'll pay the upgrade fee to stay current and PROFIT from that knowlege!

Not sure what the problem is, you have the choice not to choose M$. Charlie's rant makes no sense. Especially to those of us who have benefitted greatly from using M$ products. If you're using computers just to do artwork or play games, then I'd say you're not really taking advatage of technology in general and yeah, money is being made off of you. Stick to freeware ..

Some of the IT press are stupid, just like the author of this article!

1. The Win7 RC is already extremely polished. What if 90% of PC users worldwide were to install it and run it forever?

2. Right now the RC was downloaded only by a few million people. If MS were to not put an expiry date on the RC, that percentage could shoot up to an insanely large share of the market (so very serious loss of revenue will result).

3. Even if just 10% of PC users were to download it and use it forever, those PC users will no longer get security updates etc. (because that would involve sustained engineering and testing on an additional branch/build). That can hurt MS's brand (i.e. these machines being vulnerable and getting pwned regularly).

4. These vulnerable machines will contribute to botnets and cause spam headaches and DOS attack headaches for all of us.

5. Finally -- MS has committed to the Win7 RTMing this year sometime. So you have an easy 3+ months between then and RC expiry *at a minimum*! Even prior to that you would have been using some OS (be it XP or linux or whatever). You always have the option of going back to that. By no means are you left out to dry.

6. If you have a mission critical app or some such thing that prevents you from changing OSes at a later date or causes your life to come to a standstill on March 1st - why would you install the RC on that machine??

7. None of this is news. No startling revelation in your article. Nobody on the 'net was appalled. It's just information, straight up. These are the terms, you decide if it's worth it or not, if not - don't use the RC.

8. In my short 300-word comment, I've included more facts/logic/insight than you did in your entire article. That says something significant.

Go CHARLIE!!!!

Good article charlie. I do agree with the thought that since it's a rc/demo one should expect it to have it flaws, not have it's full features, and eventually expire. See guys, that's all you need to say.

But for charlie that isn't the big issue. Most people forget this quote, which is, maybe aside from being pertinent to this article, is 100 percent correct across boundaries. This is just another way he can show you an example of certain unhealthy practices that harm me, you, and in the end, everyone.

The funny thing is he's trying to do this for the betterment of people. For YOU! Yet time after time I read an article of charlie's and see such lame comments attacking him back.

The 'right wing' position has been, well if it's so bad, why haven't they gone out of business. (yeah and they started to last fall, huh) Well the funny thing with this is, it shows the person has no knowledge on the issue if they believe all companies with bad practices immediately fail. 1st off, we're in a 40 year philosophy shift, the rules have changed, and with credit, you can act like a fool and not come to grips with reality (a REAL market distortion) as long as the credit is around. So we have many companies around, that should have failed a long time ago, but kept afloat by credit.

The funny things I read, 'I won't read INQ anymore.' Or I read 'off the deep end again charlie'. Well don't read INQ. It'll be your loss. You'll stop reading a free site, because of one guy who might overreach sometimes in investigating things? So I guess that means everyone here thinks nothing should ever be investigated? That the world is as it appears on the surface?

Thus we were attack by Iraq who supported Al-Qeada who was secretly working with Saddam in his WMD's. Yeah. - The funny thing is, this ONLY happened because of a weak media and the fact our culture has allowed corporations to rip us off for so long, we expect it as par for the course. Well when we expect to be lied to, guess what, we will be lied to.

Anyways here's the quote from the article
"Microsoft has crossed the line twice this week, but no one is calling it on any of this. The legacy press is too tame and too afraid to be cut off from the Vole's stream of advertising revenue. People are too stupid to think about the consequences of their actions, and Microsoft is abusing the public with its monopoly power. But, sigh, it was ever thus. To quote Egan Orion, "The slaves love their chains."

What he says is 100 percent true. Instead of doing what's right, we do what gives us more money. After 40 years we have an America that reflects that. Our problems are our own creation, for which we allowed even after having the gift of a great start via our heritage. But we pissed it away.

That above quote from charlie (above my paragraph) is 100 percent true. If you take out the microsoft and enter in many businesses it would be 100 percent correct. The press? Do we have one anymore in the U.S.?? Do we? Not really. A few good talk radio stations and one cable news channel. Other than that, unless you subscribe to a select few magazines, you'll never hear the truth. At this point, it's gotten so bad, people tend to roll their eyes at anything investigative. Guess what, that's a suicidal viewpoint. Roman times.

You might wonder why Charlie keeps railing on. I'll take a stab at it. It's because slowly but surely the true cost of not having a media is hitting us. Don't believe me, two words, Iraq War. Don't believe me, Two more words. Economic crisis. Neither happen with a strong media. If you can't see that, you're blind. Now don't be afraid of being blind, don't get defensive, learn how not to be and grow.

Thexe are two large examples on a macro scale of what charlie speaks of. But you see it takes many years, and hundreds of things like Microsoft

He's trying to protect you. Give you the knowledge to not be screwed. He can be wrong, surely he can. But, in the defense of what we might lose, screw ups will happen. If we don't accept these as necessary, as par for the course, and just try to shut him up, well then, don't cry over more wars, or more rights taken away from you, or your house being foreclosed, or your job shipped overseas, or them asking you for a pay cut. Because you will have earned it, by being part of the problem that led to it. So take a stand, and demand fair treatment. Not help the other side by railing against your own interests by taking pot shots at charlie.

If you think charlie is overreacting, he isn't. Look at how many rights have been taken away this past decade. Look at how much we've been LIED to. LIED into a war. LIED into a depression. LIED about everything. Sure we've built such a good system it can withstand many lies. But they are catching up to us. The sad thing is, people seem not to care. I hope you continue saying that when some of these lies start affecting you. Maybe you'll wake up, maybe you won't. But you'll still yell at charlie, which is INSANE.

All charlie did was suggest you speak with your wallet, don't buy MS until they put out a finished product. Don't buy MS or Nvidia until they stop lying to its customers. I guess we like it when they lie to us, and oh do companies lie to us. I guess that's too much to ask, that when you purchase a product with money you worked far too hard to earn, that it actually is what is stated, and that it actually works.

I've been reading the inq for at least 5 years. This is my first post. Glad I chose this issue.

I read these comments and all I can think of these people is this. They are like the republicans who make minimum wage, and living in an apartment, with a used car, no health insurance, their kids go to community college - through working their own walmart job, yet they think by voting with the rich people they'll improve and they'll receive a bone from them rather than a firmer boot to the throat they've always gotten for their vote. Then they yell and scream and hold teabag parties. When in reality, most need only to thank themselves for being in such a bad position. Truly sad.

If anyone wants to flame my post, go ahead and show your ignorance, plus know I won't give a rats behind, and it won't change the facts. (again another example of how things have trended...if you say it....it's true phenomenon).

So quit harping on charlie, or lest you lose the rest of the people as the 4th branch of gov't. Don't whine about anything, because you know what, you'll be on your own, like you've said you prefer it, and you'll deserve it.

Hopefully it doesn't cost your kid's life, or your house, or your job, or your freedom, or some combination of the above. Don't believe me, because of the lack of charlie's running around over the last decade, or perhaps people a little better, millions already have had those things happen. I'll take charlie's mistakes, because the other option, (no one fact checking and holding people to account) is unthinkable. Let journalists be journalists. Let them make mistakes. The bigger mistake would be getting rid of him or others like him. Don't believe me, well then, somewhere in life that ignorant, self-serving viewpoint will bite you in your behind.

You get what you put in, and people get what they deserve. At least in america, sure looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. Too bad my objections this whole time will affect me too, even if for the most part I wasn't the problem. Maybe that's why Charlie does what he does. It surely isn't to antagonize you.

Don't worry Charlie, I'm man enough to read some mistakes, I'm man enough to make up my own mind when I read something, and I'm man enough to not jump onto the dogpile of ignorance. So just keep up the good work, and ignore these fools. You can't please everyone, no one can, don't believe me? Even Jesus couldn't.

This is waaaaayyy to early to be saying things like this. Even if something does happen, MOST of the people that have downloaded Windows 7 are PC savy and they will just revert back to Vista or XP. No big deal. I encourage Microsoft to make a good OS that is user friendly and fast and I think they have done that. Nobody wants to revert to Linux. We need to evolve not devolve. I just hope Windows 7 maintains the speed though the service packs.

...Slashdot-style rating of comments. I mean, who can get a word in edgeways with all that jabbering and furious mouthing-off going on?

Wow, fella. Just wow. Charlie writes an article, then you feel the need to construct and deliver an essay to the public? You must have a lot of time on your hands!

P.S. There is a world beyond the American border... Do not try to sum everyone up like low-class citizens. And stop being so damn smug about it.

the majority of y'all are just making me sick. the fact of the matter is that a. windows is default platform these days still and b. m$ doesn't give a damn about its user base since they have seen them ALL as pirates from the BEGINNING. few of their employees pay for their own products. and when it comes down to it, enterprise level support IS concerned about security. and if your not able to stop a machine from doing what you don't want it to, it becomes unusable for your purpose.

and yes once publicly announcing that the rc would work till a date, then forcing changes on users, that essentially emulate a DDOS? yeah expect to see lawsuits. a verbal public contract was gone into, and quite frankly the only reason i can think of them using such a desperate measure is if they think its the only way for people not to realize that the software is a POS before they are psychologically locked into it. Psychologically because linux is FREE

i think its funny that micro$uck fans wanna bash charlie, these must be the same people who trust their money(not the man or the product he offers) and are willing to pay to FEEL SAFE, and trust someone else with their digital life. funny how those same micro$uck fanboys are also willing to pay a linux guy to fix their pc also, when no one else is available. i don't want to pay to be kept stupid and be quietly reassured i am safe with the "crowd", maybe if micro$oft forced the conficker patch instead of WGA, we wouldn't have people with zombie pcs.

Bill gates must be like the profit for making an os named 7! That said seven may be realeased before the end of the WWW.De facto seven will be the end of windows that will cause the death kill of the internet.

"shut down Windows 7 RC machines every two hours"

Is just backwards compatibility...

RE:"MICROSOFT IS DOING its level best to make Windows 7 seem more palatable than the Broken OS, but it is all just show. As usual, once you look beyond the hype and spin, you will see it is once again a cynical scam."

99.99% of all corporations conduct business in this manner. This is not news; you must be hurting for stuff to write about.

I like hummingbirds Charlie, maybe if you wrote about them people would respect you. They don't you know....they really don't. Well, some do some of the time. But they show it only by wagging their tails.

Are you all so idiotic that you cannot see that breaking Windows 7 few months before release is the best way to get everybody to revert to XP?

Does it not make infinitely more sense to let the RC program go all the way to release date, and offer those with the RC installed the chance to pay for and pre load the updates to the final release version in advance?

No one forced me to download win7 RC,
I did it voluntarily with the full knowledge that it would start shutting down Mar 2010.... I happy MS provided me with this opportunity to test its software before buying.. Actually I love it, running on my Dell dimension E520, 2gig Ram.. its fast and easy to use... Lay off the Kool Aid dude.

Brilliant, as always with Charlie.

Post something emotive, something that gets the irrational passions of those who polarise on their OS's all fired up ... gets lots of attention.

Those who have ad's placed with the Inq must love it.

As a Brit comedian states about his act "its a puppet!" as the audience ae taken in ... who really cares whether its NT, XP, Vista or 7 ... or Suse or Ubuntu to Gnome or KDE or whatever ...

Put it all on VirtualBox on whatever host and you can have it all!

How about a VM host and let the user run a VM guest of their choice ... we could have it all.

You're an idiot to criticize MS for having an expiration date on an RC. What do you expect, for MS to give the RC for FREE to everyone and never have it expire? This article is a waste of time.

I would gladly pay for a MS OS over using Linux. Linux is nowhere ready for primetime.

I may not be impartial to the odd moan about MS....they deserve their fair share of criticism for the rubbish they put out sometimes and their occasional dubious tactics.

However, this article cannot be taken seriously and quite frankly it sounds like it was written by some spotty kid with a temper.

The complaint about MS charging for an OS is simply ridiculous. You cannot reasonably believe that you would get it for free!

It's good enough that we're able to try before we buy even if we're being used as guinea pigs for a short time.

What an unbelievable article.

S

c'mon man, is a BETA... u don't have to try it, this win7 RC is not for u or ur kids to play with, is for TESTING purposes... my god... oh, forget it!

Well... after all there are thousands of poor guys working on an OS, whether you like it or not.
The real scandal is that you get paid for such a crap of an article.

you really do sound like my ex wife. nag nag nag bullshit bullshit bullshit. Law suits? what law suits you moron? it's a beta and then an RC os. Where da hell does it say FREE????? it tells us it will end and wen. I WILL BUY (HAVE ALREADY BOOKED MY COPY OF W7 PROFESSIONAL on Amazon at 50% off.) like all smart people i've been trying da beta and RC since their release and am more than happy with them both.a few niggles here n there but dat's normal.
wot are you? a LINUX activist who'll say any crap 2 get pple away frm Windows? i use linux too but find it limited so also use windows. go find a hole and crawl under it dickhead.

Wow, complaining that a tech demo will stop working. You do realise most beta programs shut down immediately when the final release is out, right?

Wow, it's funny, don't Microsoft employees have better things to do than troll on theinquirer?

Everytime there's an article that points Microsoft in anything other than a favorable light immediately a flood of dubious favorable articles written by supposed readers appear. It seems to be the same cadre of human dig "bury-bots" that try to mitigate any M$ damage on the social networking sites.

These days the only website immune to the article rating systems seems to be inq and slashdot.

Report on.

The thing is; Microsoft are full of shit, they always have been and their Operating Systems are very unfriendly to P.C Engineers as they have no tools that are any use to repair problems that may occour at boot up. This is 300 times worse with VISTA, and what a nightmare that is!

I have tried the demo version of Windows 7 and so far it looks ok, but remember windows 7 is basically the 7th version of Windows as is VISTA, so in theory Windows 77 is actually a modification to VISTA with the crap taken out and modified to an extent that it actually works better than the previous version of VISTA. They have to rename it to hide the shame and flop of VISTA.

I would personally wait for a Black or Serentity edition of Windows to be made from the geeks online, and download that through P2P. File sharing is not illegal in my book and these versions are modified and tweeked, taking all the crap out of windows that is designed to screw the user over and invade their privacy.

P.S I buy software once, and once I buy Windows 7. It is mine for life, if I choose to download a beter version online, such as a black edition, in theory I have the right to do that, as once I payid for a copy of Windows 7, and it does not matter what you do with it afterwards, Microsoft are just greedy and corrupt!

I agree with about everyone here. It's like the author is stuck in 1999. Or was it 1997? I was expecting him to bring up Netscape, Napster or Netware 3.12 or extol the virtues of WordPerft over Word 5.0.

Get over it, already. OSs are sooooooo 2001. If you tuely don't like Windoze and want freebies stick with Linux and OpenOffice and then keep quiet.

This entire rant was one long strawman. Grow up, and stop worrying about The Man, man.

Someone needs to give the moron that wrote this a job doing ANYTHING but writing because he's obviously too mentally deficient to be writing about anything at all... Lawsuits over a TEST OS expiring after its test period? Good gracious, did you people run out of topics to write about? Forced to buy Windows 7??? No one is forcing you to buy anything. I can keep using windows XP till the day I die if I want, MS will just not be providing me with updates anymore for an outdated OS.. Hell, Ford Motor Company no longer makes product replacement parts for their Model A's either but there are still people who own and drive those suckers and that's their choice...

What a complete douchebag. Do yourself a favor, Charlie, and get yourself a lobotomy. You have major issues. Reasoning is not one of your fortes, is it? Do you have any idea of how entirely INSANE you are? Better yet, just throw yourself off the nearest building - perhaps it will end your pain. What a clueless lemming.

...but delivered in a childlike manner. What is this....The daily Star?

I would imagine that Charles will revel in his negative feedback anyway....

You have several times insulted the general public by comments like :'People are too stupid to think about the consequences of their actions, and Microsoft is abusing the public with its monopoly power' !!
No my friend you are WRONG! If people were stupid they would all be running open source Linux OS on their PCs so that open source Hackers (like you??) could 'sudo gainroot' into their pcs and do whatever they want!. For many years now people (like you?) who have learnt a bit about Linux and cobbled together a bit of an operating system have been ranting about how clever they are for using and contributing to open source and how stupid people who use windows are! It has become a a bit of a fashion statement, sign of 'precieved' intellect to beat the drum about opensource and brand microsoft and windows evil, bloodsucking, broken os, etc...etc.
GROW UP!!! There is no such thing as a 'free lunch'! There is nothing wrong with Windows 7 rc being turned off after the trial is over!

To Stupid People!!!
You're stupid. I don't think you can use linux. I think it would be too hard for you. Cause I used all the software. I have to say vista really does suck unless you'r a typical home user that doesnt require speed and multitasking. It's great for my grandma. I use XP Pro and Fedora Linux why? Well linux is badass bitch and its only real major downfall is that microsoft has the market in what companies make software for. But linux is getting more and more of those products being made for linux. WHY? cause people are sick of viruses and sick of an operating system thats not improving to benefit the needed use of businesses and home users in general. They are making FAT and BULKY when they should be making SLEEK and SLIM and SLICK. I seen programs that are fat and bulky and not very handy or good looking and I seen software that slick and slim that looks sexy and moves like lighning. Microoft is making chevy 1957's not starships like they should be.

This is a reply to WTF Shallow (above).
First of all mind your language! It is the author of the original article that calls the general public (i.e. by definition includes you and me) stupid! I stumbled on his article by accident and noticed that he is calling us all stupid and bitching and moaning about Microsoft for turning off a trail OS next June!
Interseting that you use XP and Linux at the same time, so you can not really be a microsoft basher!. Now if you want to see a bad implementation of Linux get your hands on a Nokia internet tablet! See, for possibly the first time, a Linux OS that crashes and freezes frequenttly! If Linux was as popular as windows you can be sure there would be loads of viruses out there for it. There are hardly any because not many people use it! Especially big corporations.
Yes Vista is not the best OS Microsoft have done but we all use (have used) XP. And their latest 7 (actually a much improved Vista) may tick some of your 'slik' and 'slim' check boxes!!(7 rc is running happily on my Acer aspire one netbook!).
Oh, one last thing, a Chevy is REAL engineering, Starships are fantasy!! Captain Kirk and all that...LOL...LOL)

I live in the UK and never knew the inquirer is written by ignorant 10 year olds, very poor article.

Hey Man Grow up.... you like ATI? Hate the new windows? i hope your typing on ubuntu or that penguin os... AND NEXT TIME post your article in a non INTERNET EXPLORER browser... post it in mars mate... seems like more of feelings rather than factuality... a force shutdown is WHEN YOUR DOING SOMETHIN and YOU GET SHUTDOWN... The updates happen when YOU shutdown the pc mate.... theres lotsa windows 7 for dummies around anyway... might buy one...

You are way past the point of being over-dramatic.

Anyway, in a nut shell, your rant is idiotic, and makes you appear the same. Also, just because you stick "rant" in front of a malicious post does not give you 'that' right... to be malicious. You want to appear as a childish, hairless, little runt, so be it. However, you have no right to viciously attack the public. You know that had you been talking to people like that to their face, you would be risking that face. Sooo, do not use the Internet and your position as a means to 'act out' in such a manner. That behavior displays a great lack of simple, basic, decent character.

Now, specifically, about your... words... (BTW, I am not, for the most part, going to quote you, I will just summarize),

-1- You are discussing MS marketing. OK, seriously, what company will not do their best to 'enhance' their product on a purely visual or mental level? For instance, where I live, no matter what truck is being advertised on TV, it is the strongest, has the best fuel economy, and is the number 1 seller. Of course, we know all the truck ads cannot be telling the 'whole' truth. If you feel so strongly about MS, write the Federal Trade Commission.

-2- "Microsoft has every right to do whatever the heck it wants with the RC". (Your words.) Correct! So, no, it is not insane. MS could have set the RC as a one, two or three month RC, and then just had a set, definite cut-off date.

-3- "customer abuse", and "IT press"? Since when in the history of our world has it not been known, by pretty much everyone, that certain alliances mean certain 'outcomes'.

-4- Here is probably one of the dumbest comments I have ever seen in regards to something like a BETA... "Isn't our new world order wonderful." Wow, are you really so psychotic?

Well, to sum it up with a few points... I, for one, read more than one article about Win7, and also participated in different forum threads at multiple places. Everyone I know did the same thing. But, you just think you are so much smarter than everyone else, and you are so arrogant, as to just tell everyone how they did not do that, and how they are stupid. It is very clear to most people that read your words who is stupid.

Bottom line, your 'so-called' rant is completely useless and irrelevant. It would be difficult for you to find even one person reading The (once useful) Inquirer that did not already know what you wrote. Also, as can be seen by the comments, most do not share your 'rant'.

ASIDE: I stopped reading here a long time ago because of trash like this. I came across this by accident, and finally decided to post an opinion. To myself, I said good riddance to the inq a long time ago, Now, though, I will say it to you. Good riddance!

No really, it's hard to write something like this and think it's not a joke.
Next he will write about all the evil demo software that only will work 15 days and then asks money? Or if he wants to buy car and gets test drive... he expects to drive forever or he will assume it's a scam? I mean it cant be that ANYONE is as stupid ... i think it must be just a bad joke

All I can say after my experience with Windows 7 I found it MORE ANNOYING than Windows 7. Anyone that says otherwise are total liars.. wonder how much M$ is paying them to tout Windows 7 after my experience with it I don't trust anything they say anymore as being non-biased.

1. quicklaunch removed
2. pin apps to taskbar.. this means that will only open up a single instance of say windows explorer from taskbar.
3. no classic start menu
4. all programs is the louvered small shitty menu list that is treed folders making it difficult to navigate to start menu programs if you categorize your start menu like I do.
5. clicking on .exe file with right mouse button many times would stop windows from responding
6. HDD activity windows would stop responding (and could not even atl+task+del) had to to use reset button and restart.
7. I had to turn UA all the way to off pretty much to even launch Firefox without it asking me for permission every single time because it wanted to make a modification to a file in it's own directory located on the HDD!

I could not even run Firefox without giving permission unless I turned UAC to never notify! The ONLY WAY! And total lockup of windows because a program stopped responding? HORRIBLE!

"All I can say after my experience with Windows 7 I found it MORE ANNOYING than Windows 7. Anyone that says otherwise are total liars.. wonder how much M$ is paying them to tout Windows 7 after my experience with it I don't trust anything they say anymore as being non-biased.

1. quicklaunch removed
2. pin apps to taskbar.. this means that will only open up a single instance of say windows explorer from taskbar.
3. no classic start menu
4. all programs is the louvered small shitty menu list that is treed folders making it difficult to navigate to start menu programs if you categorize your start menu like I do.
5. clicking on .exe file with right mouse button many times would stop windows from responding
6. HDD activity windows would stop responding (and could not even atl+task+del) had to to use reset button and restart.
7. I had to turn UA all the way to off pretty much to even launch Firefox without it asking me for permission every single time because it wanted to make a modification to a file in it's own directory located on the HDD!

I could not even run Firefox without giving permission unless I turned UAC to never notify! The ONLY WAY! And total lockup of windows because a program stopped responding? HORRIBLE!"

-

Windows 7 is more annoying than Windows 7? Huh? I guess you meant to write some other OS name?

Funny, author rants calling everyone stupid... and Marvin comes in calling everyone a liar (that may have a different opinion or experience).

"non-biased"? Of course a company will be 'biased' to wards its own product or service. Sheeesh! You won't see a Mac commercial telling you to buy a PC. Heh.

OK...
1. Quick Launch is still available. (Figure it out.)
2. Just right click on the pinned icon.
3. I might be like Marvin on this one, except now, I am actually glad it was not included. I managed to set Win7 up pretty much like the classic, and I am happy with it.
4. Again, you can set it up like the classic, albeit, yes, it takes a little effort.
5. 'I' am not sure why you would continuously right click on an exec, but, hey whatever turns you on. Just for fun, I right clicked on multiple exec files, many, many times, and had no prob at all.
6. 'I'. for one, have never experienced that prob, either. I have had Win7 installed since the first day it was available, and use my comp many hours a day. (Are you over-heating? Sure it was not your vid card? Are you OC'ing? Etc?
7. The permissions have not bothered me, so I have not played around with them. But, you can set each program independently. (Do some (more) research on that?)

Also, programs not responding are not usually the fault of the OS. Obviously, a person can install a program that 'should' not function, but that would not be the fault of the OS. (For many 'old' applications, though, there are work-arounds.)

Anyway, Marvin, from what you write, it appears as though you need to acquire more experience with computers (hardware and software).

So far, Windows 7 is my favorite of all the MS operating systems for the desktop... and NO, I am not a 'total liar'. I will probably buy it.

ASIDE: Speaking of Mac AND MS... if it was not for their innovations, we would not even be able to afford the computer/s we are using. Sure, everything has not been perfect all these years, but I sure am glad they 'came about'.

I guess I will throw in something about the article, since I returned and posted again... less drama, man, less drama!

BTW, 'you' can call me stupid for coming back here. Heh.

Lool - Before i start exposing my stupidity, i better stfu, hmm.. but for some reason i agree with him,.. well , some of his points.

I like Microsoft so far, and I have to recognize that I'm a fan. I know that Windows is not the best thing in the world, but at least is cheaper that Apple... We should me taking crap about them... their prices in MacBooks and all of that are pretty high. You can get outthere a 4GB laptop with a bad ass Video Card and everything included for just $800 or less... try that with Apple huh?? their price will probably be over $1999.99. People no matter what can afford Microsoft's Products.... not everybody outthere can get an iPC or whatever you want to call it.

I live from Microsoft. I'm a certified system eng. I work for them full time at a Military Installation designing sofware for the DOD (Department of Defense).

Have a great day!

Charlie has some valid points, such as MS is trying to shove things down our throat e.g IE8, i would never replace firefox of safari with IE8, but Charlie, smart owners don't erase their existing OS to install 7 but instead use a separate HD and they can always switch back to the previous OS. I would love to use Linux as an alternative but sadly i can't because i'm a gamer and can't run my games on Linux without Wine and Wine has compatibility issues as well. So i guess we're stuck with Windows.

Regards,

Got my free Windows 7 signature Edition with the party pack. I knew persisting with it, there was going to be free copies on offer but you had to have your finger on the pulse. It will do until google brings out there FREE Operating System.

Let's see, install NO UPDATES for Win7 during RC period, and no open ports through my firewall for anyone (much less microsoft) to connect to any of my machines, good luck sending some "remote signal" to shut it down. Won't happen. Maybe on "idiots" that connect 1 single PC to a unprotected cable/dsl modem, but they deserve it anyway.

are others at The Inq aware that Charlie is insulting your readership?

If you think it is about the RC, you are clearly too dumb to understand
why you are being screwed.

craigallison2010@o2.co.uk wrote:

Dear Charlie,

The following user craigallison2010@o2.co.uk has sent you a
comment/question for the article.

Title: You have no rights, so buy Windows 7

Comment/Question :

this article is written by someone with clearly huge issues who can
not write an unbiased account. Nvidia and MS are your major bug bears-
it's getting very boring reading thi tosh each day. MS shutting down
machines that run demo software and possible law suits from people
running RC software? are you really serious? grow up or get out of the
game cos you clearly don't enjoy it any more!

Message generated by the Inquirer CMS service.

Last time I go on this site. pathetically biased!

Having just found this article via Google, I am absolutely gob smacked at what a load of tosh it actually is.

And he gets paid to write this crap?

I work in a computer shop selling and repairing pc's. I would like to think that after 15 years of doing this I would have a bit of a clue about computers.
This stupid author has insulted me with his unfounded comments and lack of knowledge. I did not realise that I was an idiot just because I actually like win 7 and have been using it for the last 6mths, thanks to the free copy from Microsoft, without a problem.
Someone should sack this author and find someone that knows what they are talking about

That was probably the worst IT article I've ever read. Your whinging about restrictions on a peice of shareware. Grow up and get a job at Maccas so we don't have to read rubbish from a twit like you.

Do you have ANY idea what you are saying? How could you base your claims about windows 7 on a demo?? WIndows 7 just came out today and you are already talking about it like you've been using the retail version for a month. All you are doing is making up lies about Windows 7 just because maybe you bought something like a piece of crap Dell and obviously had a bad experience with it. Typical journalist.

I can't remember the search term but google brought this article on the first page.
Wasted some time reading this stupid article.

The best way I can describe this article: Counting your rotten eggs before they hatch. And the irony is that rotten eggs don't hatch.
But to elaborate, you're basically citing no more than 2 reasons to not buy Windows 7, never ever EVER. The first reason is because Microsoft is apparently shutting down the computers of people who obtained the free RC, and doing so earlier than they said they would. This isn't a problem for people who BOUGHT Windows 7 with MONEY when it came out in October. The second reason is because Windows 7 updates itself, and updates require a reboot. I guess if Microsoft wants to improve your OS, they're evil, right? I mean, if they wanted to, they could include an update that steals your credit card numbers, searches your hard drive for questionable porn, and then e-mails said porn to all of your contacts. And if they CAN do it, they will, right? And I guess if Windows 7 is going update itself, you're going to be restarting every 2 hours, right?
Give me a break, this is the equivalent of boycotting your local grocery store because the cashier looked at you wrong.

this is a blabbery article. I've been using a full MSDN release of windows 7 for months, it works like a treat, is a million times what vista was, and well worth buying.
any journalist that writes this article, is an idiot. not a windows 7 consumer.

This article just shows the ignorance of the Author. If YOU feel this way about windows seven then you must feel this way about EVERY product. Food or electronics. "OMG, Pepsi came out with a new flavor its a scam!!...don't buy it, it will only taste good for a short time, then you're bored with it, they'll get you to buy another flavor in the future"

Author of this Article, get over your self and don't be jealous of Microsoft cause they make money and you have this...Article? lol (I'm guessing you're a Mac freak?) I love windows and mac for different things. k thx bye.

-done...

Too much Whining.
Too little Constructive comments.

How about all the detractors start writing articles for TheInquirer?

Think you could do better??

Lets see it happen.

Dont bother with the excuses.

So much easier to criticize.

Written with all the intelligence of a petulant child robbed of candy. It makes me laugh because we're smarter than you.

Angry much?

I got as far as "Maybe someday you will get a clue" before dismissing this article in disgust.

Every paragraph is riddled with abuse, inaccuracies, grammatical errors and downright lies - it's difficult to know where to start.

Note the author is running an out of date "Release Candidate" version of Windows - which is essentially a beta.

He, like everyone else running RC, acquired this for free, and has been using it for 6 months or more without paying a penny to Microsoft.

"In a few months, all those people who thought they were getting a 'free' copy of Windows 7 will have their PCs shut down"

Who - apart from you, Charlie - thought that?

The RC trial is over early because Microsoft is confident it's ready to roll out... thankyou for testing our software for free, i hope you liked it enough to buy the final version. What's the problem?

I think the problem is that Charlie installed Win7 RC on a 500GB drive and now has the job of backing up all his pr0n so he can do a clean install.

That's how it works, Charlie - now you understand the importance of *purchasing* an OS for your mission critial machines.

I am saddened that I stumbled upon this and started reading it. At no point in this mangled piece of "writing" did the author even accidentally approach a rational thought. May god have mercy on his soul.

Well... actually... this writer DOES have a point here. The fact is, that they can do what they want to you and your system - and the best thing is... you PAID for it!

I have been around the MS driven thing since 1984 and this writer is actually completely correct.

Most of you guys have gone hook, line AND sinker nuts following the 'great' reviews by the proess etc about win 7.

The FACT ramains that if you bought Vista (like I did and Ultimate at that) then win 7 should have been a completely FREE upgrade. Vista was rubbish - the 'Ultimate' promise from MS was at best awful. That company should have been taken to court for misrepresentation - its really that simple.

And as for all the back door code you are about to receive from MS - he is absolutely right - read your agreement. Paid for backdoor code... absolutely awful and shameful from the biggest name (monopolised) in the industry.