If they can't release an OS that is better than the one before the previous version, they should not release it at all. Win 7 needs to be good enough to *replace* XP for at the very least 95% of all the users. There will always be someone screaming for a previous version, but not like this, not like what happened with Vista.

And the ironic thing is, Microsoft has the money, the personnel, the knowhow, and the means to do this. What they lack is vision, guts, and leadership.

This just sounds like a translation from "CEO" to "normal human being English" to me... Now everyone can know how bailout money and CEOs function!

The rich get rich and the poor get iPhones?

Has the EEF requested a meeting with Obama and Biden to discuss this with them? They really should do so. Whining on the web will not change a thing about this.

As usual you can screw things up in C++, but the point is that if you code using references and don't adhere to unneeded & and * trickery you can more easily spot problems in your code.

This is the very reason I do not like C++, because you always get people writing a lot of trickery that ends up as a lot of defects and problems. It requires a whole lot more out of the developers if you are going to use C++. A whole lot more.

I also want to add that in all fairness the above poster might very well understand the true reason for references and just wanted to point out that noone using C++ will ever be safe.

*cringe*

Null references makes me sad sad sad. People creating them on purpose (not that you did, as that was an example) makes me unhappy.

To add to the above poster, null references are not just the worst kind, but would render you a stern lecture from someone like me if you ever tried it in a real product.

I would assume that "Real US Citizen" means born in the US since what you become when you get a citizenship is a naturalized citizen.

The Humane Society and ASPCA are two great examples of organizations, in the united states of America, that do not even remotely make money and only work for the benefit of those weaker than us. Reward doesn't have to be wads of cash. Wanting a reward is not evil after all. And socialism doesn't stop CEOs from being greedy bastards. Look at the board of directors for Volvo. Worse value for money can't be found on this earth.

The big question with open source is how to fund it and how to deal with the total cost of ownership and responsibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich

Read it.

Look at all the predictions when it comes to Apples products, and then see how many of them are actually true. Remove the people who actually just happen to guess right (they usually have other, incorrect, guesses as well), and you'll end up with precious few. And we can't be sure even they knew, but rather guessed one way or another.

So, why, should I give a damn about what the same people are guessing regarding Steve Jobs? The man owes me nothing and I will leave him alone regarding all personal issues.

All the lying "journalists" on the other hand...

I do. I'm a software engineer and know that stuff pretty well. I also know that Microsoft employes a lot of people. I think around 90k or so, the number slips my mind. They do have the resources to go through let's say IE, IIS, and MSN messenger. Those three alone should stop a lot of holes and buy them quite a lot of good will from people like us, who knows their way around computers. Let's face it, we influence the people around us and what they buy. And I don't help any family running windows any more.

So what if Microsoft don't want to do something about the real problems of Vista? Or rather windows in general. Then they will ensure that slowly but surely they will loose ground until they are faced with having to write a new operating system, something they don't seem to have the guts to do. (For those screaming legacy, I am sure MS could easily emulate all the old stuff).

That being said, Microsoft can easily afford a 100 man team (far greater than OpenBSD could ever hope for) and start auditing their code, as well as improve their processes. They might have a lot more code, but they have a lot more resources, and if they don't even start, they will never finish. And that is just one of Windows problems, there are many more.

So until then, people will find the alternatives. I know I have. And so will my family. Heck, I am close to donating this very macbook to my sister just so I don't ever have hear about her very crappy Acer not remotely working as it should.

Most people choose the simplest and easiest alternative. I have an excellent internet connection by most standards, access to whatever I want because I have enough connections to get the access needed, but I still buy games off Steam. Why? Because it is both faster and more convenient than pirating. I don't have to go to a store, I don't have to have stupid CD/DVD installations, I don't have to get some halfwit bunch of rar files that goes into freaking daemon tools and crap and more crap.

With steam I simply choose a game, fill in some shit, and it is downloading directly to where I can play it. No irritating installation, no CDs, etc. The only game on my PC I've gotten in some other manner is Warhammer: Online. I haven't even freaking pirated a game.

So Valve has got the right idea for sure. The only thing that could come in the way is DRM, get that shit away from me. So here's a tip for all the game developers out there:

1. Don't make a game that sucks
2. Do not, ever, spend time on DRM, put that money and effort on 1 instead
3. Put it on steam
4. Profit

Now I just want Valve to get a Linux (not that I actually care) and a Mac version (which I do care about), because that would be awesome:)

Oh, and Valve, keep having those great special prices on bundles. That way I can get old games that I never had the time to check out and enjoy them too. Just do force the developers to update all games to a baseline (my 1680x1050 res wasn't liked by a certain game...).

Ever typed on a French keyboard? Or mayhap a Swedish one? Keyboard layouts aren't that darn perfect for all languages as it is right now, I'd love to see a completely new layout (incl number of keys) that are more compatible with the major languages that uses roughly the same characters. Take a generic sample of each of the target languages, run a nice little sexy algorithm over it, and then see how close they get, and then run a new algorithm over that to smooth out edges. Voila, it is not that complicated.

Dvork in all it's glory, but what material was it based on? I have an idea but am not 100%. but I am quite sure it's not that 2008 :)

If Microsoft audited their code and used the same kind of measures that OpenBSD does, they would be miles ahead of were they are now. Security models and sandboxes in all their glory, but a *lot* of the problems are down to faulty code, code that Microsoft owns and can audit and freaking fix. Only after they have done that can we talk security models and such things. With all the bugs and holes it is so easy to attack windows that nobody really will care about trying to do anything on a grander scale.