Posted on 01/08/2009 6:03:39 AM PST by Red Badger
Microsoft Corp.'s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time.
That's one message Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered on the eve of the official opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show.
The world's largest software maker also disclosed deals to make its Live Search programs the default search engines on more personal computers and mobile phones. And it announced a new version of its Ford Sync in-car technology that folds in the voice-operated directory service TellMe, which Microsoft bought in 2007.
For years, the opening keynote at CES belonged to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, whose status as industry pioneer justified the sweeping visions of the future he'd build into his speech. Gates passed the mantle on when he stepped down from day-to-day operations at Microsoft last summer, and Wednesday marked Ballmer's first time making the high-profile address.
"It feels like we've entered a period of reduced expectations, a time when we may be tempted to temper our optimism and scale back our ambitions," Ballmer said, in a nod to the recession. "But no matter what happens with the economy or how long this recession lasts, I believe our digital lives will only continue to get richer."
Ballmer said Microsoft would continue to invest more in research and development than its technology peers.
The CEO announced that a nearly final "beta" test version of Windows 7 will be available Friday for regular PC users to download and tinker with.
The new operating system - which could be available for purchase on PCs within a year - uses much of the same underlying technology as its predecessor, the much-maligned Vista. But Windows 7 aims to resolve many problems PC users had with Vista. For instance, Microsoft pledges to make it easier to install peripheral devices and to have the software pump out fewer annoying warnings and notifications.
Ballmer also pledged that Windows 7 will boot faster and drain laptop batteries more slowly.
"I believe Windows will remain at the center of people's technological solar system," Ballmer said. "We're putting in all the right ingredients: simplicity, reliability and speed, and we're working hard to get it right and to get it ready."
Ballmer is hoping to boost the number of people using Microsoft's Live Search engine, which ranks well behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in popularity, through a deal with PC maker Dell Inc. Dell will put a special Live Search browser toolbar and Windows Live programs, including Microsoft's e-mail and instant-messaging applications, on most of the consumer and small-business PCs that it sells worldwide. That deal replaces a relationship between Dell and Google.
The CEO also announced Microsoft has formed a five-year partnership with Verizon Wireless that calls for the Live Search tools to be added to all Verizon cell phones in the U.S. that can access the Internet.
Among the other highlights from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft: The company added Flash support - required for watching YouTube videos - to its cell phone version of Internet Explorer. And it created a link between Facebook and its own Windows Live social network, so when people update their status message or upload photos on Facebook, that information appears on the Microsoft site, too.
I've been avoiding Vista both at home and in my consulting. Primarily because of it's vidoe adapter requirements. Most on the computers I deal with have rather limited on board graphics, and I don't want to stress them. My son just bought a Dell quad core with Vista Ultimate. He thinks it's better than XP in a number of ways. I tend to agree somewhat with the comparison to ME. Too much new stuff squeezed onto inadequate hardware, and so forth. DOS 4.0 was a similar fiasco, although Microsoft handled it better than IBM.
But it’s a pain in the ass because of the manufacturers, not Linux. They arent’ privy to the code like Windows, and the poor linux guys have to dissect and reverse engineer. If they had the same access as Windows....
Cisco Aironet pcmcia cards are great with linux, btw.
Cisco Aironet pcmcia cards are great with linux, btw.
Thanks, I'll definitely check those out.
It's for any business. You pay up front for Windows or whatever other Microsoft software is covered (like Office) and you get upgrades for free for three years. Unfortunately for many, there were no upgrades.
When Microsoft catches a business using unlicensed software (intentionally or they just didn't keep their paperwork straight), Microsoft usually settles for them buying new licenses with software assurance for everything.
In general, Windows adds about $40 to the price of a home computer, and maybe twice that for a corporate computer.
They pay less in volume licenses, although they usually pay for better support than you get on top of that. For Tier 1 you may still get the an unintelligible Indian who uses a checklist, but you can escalate all the way up to the actual Microsoft developers depending on the support package.
Q: for all...
I just ordered a HP laptop for business purposes, but want to back-rev it to XP since some special/proprietary software won’t run on vista. I’ve heard that if I “contact Microsoft” , I can get a valid XP license to do this ‘back-rev’ thing. Is this accurate? and if so, how & where in MS-land?
HELP !!
Me not know, Kemosabe......
I’ve never worked with corporate licenses, but I have several times paid $250 for help with a specific server configuration problem. It was a bargain each time, and in the most recent incident they refunded the fee after solving the problem.
Most of the support has indeed come from India, but I have never had trouble understanding the tech. I once had an Indian supervisor. It took about a week to tune in to the accent.
How about this?
My fiancee uses Mac OS X, but she also runs Bootcamp and runs Vista seemlessly on her Mac.
She wanted to play Warhammer Online and they don’t have a Mac version, so she put Vista on it.
I’m installing Windows 7 as I type this on a Virtual PC.
Paul
MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR KIND REPLIES.
Anyone tried a dual boot 32 bit and 64 bit XP?
True, but the upgrade to 10.1 was free since 10.0 had the quality of a first Windows release.
NT was released in 1993 and it has not gotten any better
It did get some real improvements over the years. For example, better multiprocessing, works with wireless networking, larger file handling, improved system calls, better memory handling, volume shadow copy, and others. And don't forget Active Directory (based on Kerberos/LDAP) that's worlds better than the old NT domains. Oh, and NTFS has vastly improved over the years including the addition of encryption and disk quotas.
Anyone who argues that XP is not an improvement over NT is delusional.
I started using NT 4.0 in a programming environment as soon as it came out. Maybe before, since I was involved in project that had the direct attention of Bill Gates.
I moved all my family computers to NT rather than to 98 or ME. then moved them to Win2K. I resisted XP for a while, since I had corporate licenses for 2000, but eventually switched.
I’ve never experienced any of the problems the MS bashers describe. It’s true that hardware doesn’t always work immediately, but there’s a lot of hardware out there and sometimes it breaks. Most of my computer problems over the years have been caused by failed hardware.
If I remember correctly it will work if you install x64 to a different disk. It is possible that you have to reinstall xp 32 bit after though. I play with my system so often that I sometimes can’t remember the sequences. I have at one time had XP Pro, XP Pro x64, Vista Ultimate x64 and Windows 7 in multi-boot.
I've done Ubuntu, OS X and Windows this year. Of them all OS X was by far the easiest and entailed the least amount of anxiety. The only thing I didn't like was waiting forever for it to verify the install DVD, but then I've pulled my hair out over Windows installs where the install CD had an error on it, blowing my install right in the middle. So I happily accept the delay while it verifies.
Ubuntu was next best, far better than any Linux install I've ever done. Windows was a fairly close third, further away if you count the three rounds of Windows Updates with reboots you have to do after installation (If you've taken care to slipstream you may reduce that to only one or two). Even further away if you have driver problems.
The easiest dual-boot was putting Windows on the Mac.
GOODNESS! And I thought lil ol layman me was prone to pushing the limits! LOL.
Thanks for the input. Pondering . . .
Am getting an Acer Aspire Linux mini-notebook supposedly to arrive this Thurs.
Fighting Microslop for 20 years wears thin after a while.
Had Apple machines at the counseling center in Taipei. They were fine but not perfect . . . though a LOT more trouble free than the Microslop machines.
No excuse for such sloppy code, imho—given all the $$$$ and brains available at Microslop.
Yet, with the universities and colleges sold out to Redmond . . . little choice for us peons—and less so for us now part time peons.
Much appreciate your experience and input. Most welcome and helpful.
What’s the price of XP-P 64bit, BTW? Approx.
I've experienced tons of them in my professional life on everything from a cheap Dell desktop to a $50,000 server, from NT 3.5 to Server 2003. Some were caused by hardware, many by software. And with some of the hardware problems there was really no excuse for it to crash the OS.
I too resisted XP for a while (I always wait, even with OS X), but found it to be a worthwhile upgrade with the exception of wireless handling. That sucked to an inexcusable degree until SP2.
I didn’t buy XP for home use until SP2, so I bypassed most of the grief. I’ll do the same for Vista/7.
But quite frankly, XP has become so reliable for my home and office use, that it may be a while.
Just as my Server 2003 installation is rebooted only for hardware changes.
I don't believe we pay per incident, but then the company pays $$$$ for the support contract. My problem with Microsoft's Indian support is that they usually only know the checklist. You have to elevate it to get the same knowledgeable US technical support that you get by default with Apple, even if you only bought an iMac for your home.
The checklist is aggrivating, but for $250 up front you get a guaranteed resolution to your problem. I’ve spent eight hours with the same tech and always went away satisfied that the problem was really resolved, an number of additional side issues tweaked, and my understanding of things improved.
The biggest case was a hijacked Exchange server, in which the tech not only fixed all the configuration issues, but educated me about them.
I believe this was the one where the fee was refunded because the documentation was inadequate.
Vista rocks. Don't deny yourself the experience.
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