mkjones

The Inquirer reported yesterday that Intel have decided that they will ‘never’ deploy Vista on any of their corporate network.

What will hurt Microsoft the most is the answer Intel gave when asked what they will use instead of Vista:

The official answer is ‘nothing yet’, the one where they try not to offend is ‘likely Windows 7′,

Its a case of Windows 7 strikes again. And Microsoft are to blame. THEY are the ones who have seeded the Windows 7 idea into the tech market and any users out there who are put off by Vista are bound to anchor down and wait for the next version.

It seems that every day Vista becomes more and more like Windows ME.

I really wanted to download Firefox 3 yesterday. I waited all day for the update to appear on the website but nothing came so I logged off for the day, went to the pool and then relaxed with Euro 2008 for the evening.

Today I noticed that I had this email:

Check the time, go on, it says 6:35 PM last night. Now, I wasn’t online at this time. I was neck deep in chlorine infested water trying to work out why the pool was so busy for a Tuesday night.

Anyway, my point is they failed. I wanted to be part of the Firefox 3 download day thing but they messed up by sending the notification email at a truly stupid time when clearly between 9-5 would have been the sensible choice.

What they should have done is mailed me 2 days ago with a link to the site of a UK based (fast) download and the time at which they were planning to allow downloads to start. THEN I could have scheduled my time to at least check my email before I let the day end.

Hell, they could have even opened up a torrent file on the site so I could set it going and left it to download the file when they started seeding.

Unfortunately I won’t be upgrading to FF3 today. Or tomorrow actually. Not because of this scheduling mishap but because it seems that a few key add-ons which I use daily are not yet compatible.

Not that I won’t download it. In fact, if I download it from work AND then from home, does that count as 2?

Since my post yesterday I have turned into a ‘Windows 7 PI’. Hunting down decent articles online to try and decipher the intelligence within.

In another article over at ars Peter Bright details what he saw from the W7 demo:

What was shown at D6 was rather less than hoped. The big feature—in fact, the sole feature—demonstrated was multitouch, the same technology as found in Microsoft’s multi-thousand-dollar Surface table and Apple’s iPhone. The demonstrated software was more or less the same demos we saw with Surface—photo scaling, finger painting, splashing about in water—along with a Virtual Earth/Google Earth-style mapping program. And that’s the extent of it.

So why did Microsoft bother? Its clear they want to let the world know that W7 is coming. A move which TOTALLY undermines Vista.

Sorry….

Its as if that inside Microsoft they know they messed up with Vista and they want to make it right before they loose everyone to other platforms. So by dangling the W7 worm out in the tech community they probably believe they are doing the right thing.

But they aren’t right. If the 2 Steve’s just came out and said “OK, Vista wasn’t what we hoped.” and apologized to all the techies and developers and then proceeded to open the floor to feedback and comments as to how to move forward then THAT would be the right thing to do.

Hello Seattle, I’m Listening

Given time I think this is what will happen. I still have an optimistic view that the next version of Windows will be what Vista should have been and that Microsoft will hear the backlash loud and clear.

There is one thing I like about the whole Windows 7 thing and that’s the name.

I was never a huge fan of ‘Vista’ as a name. Or of giving a real name to a Windows OS at all. I was always happy with numbers or years such as ‘3.11′ or ‘95′ and ‘2000′.

XP wasn’t so bad (Windows 2001 would have been really lame) but Vista should have been labelled ‘Windows 2007′ or something.

‘Windows 7′ is a cool name. Its short and sweet. Its simple and elegant. It doesn’t try and say anything about the OS like ‘Vista’ does and its not a weird acronym/pseudonym like NT or XP (New Technology and eXPerience).

I just hope that Windows 7 IS the final name of their next OS and it doesn’t end up getting a ridiculous monitor 6 months before release.

I’m sick of hearing about Windows 7.

I have only been using Vista for a year and already Microsoft have given up on it. This is evident though the lack of any serious marketing.

Is Steve Ballmer really ready to turn a $10 billion investment into a replay of Windows ME? I can’t believe he is but all the evidence points to this. I just hope he can fix the Vista mess before Microsoft start building a new OS.

Year One

After a year using Vista I can say that it IS a better OS than XP. But, only very marginally.

So small is the difference in fact I have quite happily left Windows XP on my work PC and have absolutely no need to upgrade. I require NONE of the new features in my work environment and if Vista was taken away from me tomorrow I would happily go back to using XP.

Vista isn’t any more stable or any leaner than XP. 2 things I hoped it would be. Its just as bloated and controlling as XP ever was.

In fact Vista, in terms of usability, is probably LESS usable than XP for new computer users. I managed to get to grips with the new annoyances (mostly security hand-holding) early on and customise Vista to work just how I wanted it to but I have over 10 years computer experience. I guarantee new computer users would be perplexed and even scared by some of the crap Vista churns out.

Not that I’m having a terrible time or anything. Quite the opposite. My new Vista-Ultimate-powered (self built) PC works great. It has only crashed out on me maybe 4-6 times over the year and runs smoothly during any task I have thrown at it.

So I’m, not bitching. I like Vista. I just don’t think Microsoft do.

7 Stone

The idea Windows 7 has been floating around ever since Vista was launched. Everyone sort of knew that Vista wouldn’t be the BIG upgrade Microsoft had promised so hoped the next version would be such a beast.

But, it turns out Windows 7 will be more of the same. Its code base is still in the same old Microsoft style. It doesn’t look like they are being revolutionary, it just looks like they want to get a new version out ASAP.

Take this quote from Mr Ballmer as evidence of this:

About the five-year gap between XP and Vista, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a group of Microsoft MVP’s (Most Valuable Professionals), “We can’t ever let that happen again.” But whether the Incredible Hulk can successfully morph into the Silver Surfer is an open question.

I can see why they are looking at it this way. 5 years is a long time. And Microsoft didn’t evolve their new OS, they just made it work.

Right now, if it took another 5 years for Windows 7 to materialise Microsoft would suffer.

What NeXT

So my advise to Microsoft is this. Learn a lesson from Vista but don’t forget about it. Give it some support, some advertising. Quit PUSHING it onto OEM providers and businesses, let them see the benefits and decide for themselves.

This will probably buy Vista another 2-3 years as the main Microsoft OS, slowly replacing XP as it goes.

And, while this is happening, start over.

Do it! Drop the NT/XP/Vista/Longcrap/Whatever code base and start again.

Take a CHUNK of advice from Apple. Develop a new, spanky, light, modern and sexy OS from the ground up.

Erase the mistakes of the past. Bundle Virtual application support into the OS so old XP/Vista software can run in the new environment and slowly convert the Windows development world to a new, modern and clean standard.

Then, make it cheap. Like £50 ($100) and only have a SINGLE version! No Ultimate, Business, Premium, or Neanderthal version! Just plain old ‘Windows 7′.

I think this is the only way Windows 7 can succeeded. SURE have the touch screen, net-mesh and mobile features thrown in as well but don’t overload it. Give the OS back to the users.

As for me. Any more Vista bashing from Microsoft top-flight and I will seriously consider moving over to Mac. And I never thought I would say THAT 5 years ago when XP was released.

It took me about 2 months of research to reach the conclusion that the new Creative ZEN 32gb was the Mp3 player for me.

I’ve needed a small but high capacity player for a while now. For years I have used the media functions on my phone which coupled with a 4gb SD card did the job just fine. Recently however I have craved more space and a longer battery life.

Why I chose the ZEN

First of all I want to say it wasn’t easy. Initially I wanted the new Microsoft Zune 80gb.

The main problem with the Zune however is the lack of an official UK release.

Sure they are easy enough to find on eBay and other online stores but the fact that I would be missing out on all of the extra functionality which the Zune would give me because of my geographical location simply wouldn’t do.

Also, Zunes are cheaper and have more capacity. For £20 LESS than what I have paid for the 32gb ZEN I could have had a massive 80gb to play with.

And the Zune brand has MUCH better accessory support. Gym armbands, headphones, cases, docks, speaker sets are ALL better quality and in more abundance for the Zune.

As you can see it was such a close race with only one key feature steeling it…..

Windows Media Player 11

The Zune, although a Microsoft product, don’t work with WMP11. Shocking isn’t it.

One of the main reasons I refuse to buy an Apple product is there reliance on the unusable mess that is iTunes and the Zune software looks very smiler.

I am a WMP 11 junkie. I recently spent hours re-organising all of my artists and albums so that album art, release dates and genre all matched up.

My media library is perfectly organised within WMP 11 and all I really want is a player which can plug into this library and suck it over without changing anything.

I know the ZEN can do this and for this reason alone I purchased one. It was a steal at just £175 from Play.com and should arrive within the next few days.

There are other reasons I went for the ZEN. Its is smaller, has solid state memory so will load faster, it supports DivX/Xvid video and it has a handy SD card slot so upgrading the memory is simple.

It’s an excellent player which gets excellent reviews and has a good community and support base. But if the Zune supported WMP I can guarantee I would have ordered differently.

Its a real shame Microsoft messed this one up.

I really, really want one. But at almost $100k, I can’t see that ever happening. Even if I had the money the waiting list is years long.

I just hope Tesla Motors sell enough so they can move into standard car production and maybe release a more affordable model.

using its portfolio of community sites, like Yahoo! Groups, Flickr, the photo-sharing website, and Digg, the social-bookmarking site.

I read this in todays Telegraph business section. The same article is available on their website and has the same quote.

Now of course. This is a simple mistake. Yahoo! owns del.icio.us which offers a very similar service to Digg but with a very different culture and style.

So is this bad reporting or a future prediction? I can’t tell.

Its been a few days and it seems the fog of Macbook Air hype has started to clear:

The biggest problem with the MacBook Air is that once you scratch away the sex appeal of an aluminum clad ultra-mobile, you start to see the compromises that Apple had to make to bring this product to market.

Full story.

The sheer lack of key features from the new Apple device is a worry when you look at the quite unreasonable price.

In short, the Macbook is a strange device. More a fashion accessory than a real, usable device.

Its too large and overpriced to be classed as a modern ’subnotebook’ and its too featureless to compete with other laptops in the range. A standard Macbook would be a more usable and sensible buy.

Subing

In contrast the new range of linux-fed subnotebook PCs are a real revolution. For £200 you can get a seriously small device which would fill the requirements of most on-the-move users.

The EEE PC and Cloud. A revolution in notbook design.

I look to the EEE PC, Cloud and even the OLPC Project as the frist step in a new line of small, affordable and utterly cool devices.

In contrast, the Air is simply a downgrade of the current Macbook range which although thin is neither light nor small.

Downfall is a great movie. A movie which has been hacked and slashed into comedic form many times.

Not many are better than this parody which depicts the recent HD-DVD/Blu-ray format news:

Enjoy!

PS3 users should be very happy this week as it will almost definitely be remembered as the week when Blu-ray beat HD-DVD into a bloody, half-dead pulp.

With all the decent movie studios now jumping ship (see Engadget) the only thing HD-DVD has in its favour is the cheaper hardware and Xbox 360 ad-on.

I’m surprised its come to this as HD-DVD had everything going for it. It had the DVD name, it had some top backing from Toshiba, Microsoft and Samsung, it was cheaper and it currently has the largest catalogue of titles available.

The Movie Race

So why did Blu-ray win?

I suppose as a ‘pure’ movie format Blu-ray does indeed make sense. You can fit more data onto a Blu-ray than a HD-DVD disk meaning that future HD formats could quite easily be adapted to use this extra space.

For example. Recent HD movies which I have seen can be compressed to between 7 and 12 gigabytes (Although I recently saw Spiderman III in 1080p which weighed in at 13gb). At this size the movies still retain a level of quality which no-one would complain about.

Blu-ray can hold 50gb meaning studios could have higher resolutions, even more special features and longer movies on a single disk.

Blu-ray seems, from an industry point of view, not only ‘futureproof’ but also a more valuable final product which could entice users to replace there current DVD collection with the promise of even more gimmicks.

I don’t agree with these reasons and believe that the war could have gone either way. In fact, I have a particular disdain for Blu-ray as it has been forced onto the market by Sony via the PS3. A medium where it is neither required nor wanted.

Sony could have quite easily used standard dual-layer DVD technology for their new nex-gen games console and saved games a lot of money and hassle along the way.

Optical Death

So the HD format war is almost over. A clear winner will surface but what of the future?

Will downloads and on-demand services replace our current addition to optical media?

I hope so. I currently own around 20 DVDs and its already too many. I never watch them and they spend their life cluttering up a drawer next to my TV. (Keep reading)