Yes and no. Even between Office 2007 and 2010, documents don't always look the same... we have run into this for pretty simple documents. I have no idea why it's so ridiculously complicated that even the software provider can't get it right, but I'm guessing it has more to do with trying to intentionally hurt interoperability than anything else.

Call me a cynic, but I've been around for a very very long time and I've seen a lot of poor sportsmanship in the Microsoft camp.

The funny thing is now we're intentionally using older versions of MS Office simply because everyone hasn't learned the 2007 version yet, so what's the use of overloading everyone by going to the newest version every 2-3 years? The couple of users who will benefit can have the upgrade. The rest can have an upgrade every x versions.

4.2 not 2.4... are you messing with us intentionally, just to see who is awake?

In this case, you can buy a cable that overcomes the loss of functionality. In the case of the OtherOS removal, some games would update the firmware, and there was no way to get back what you had lost.

They waited a very long time to do it, and (coincidentally?) the bad press about the electrocution has just occurred recently. I can imagine someone at Apple having a cow over that one. It's not entirely unreasonable for them to think this way. They're pretty controlling about all aspects of design and manufacture and for this one thing to occur must have been a "KHAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!" moment.

If I had to work in a cube, someone would die.

Now that's just me, but taking a break and stepping back makes a huge boost to my productivity. I also code best late at night because I'm not distracted or disturbed and can get into something without worrying about a schedule. I can do several days of 10-12 hours if needed but not more than that before work quality suffers.

Sorry for the other thread... this one says an OEM builder can install OEM Windows on a VM.

(from http://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/Pages/support-faq.aspx ) So you can't use the same OEM license for both the host and the guest (which makes sense), but it appears that you can use the OEM license on the guest only. I have no idea whether once installed on physical hardware if you can transfer that license to a VM. Why do they make this so confusing?

Shoot. I missed the "on the licensed device". Guess not.

I hear you... and I haven't found anything to indicate that XP OEM licenses can be virtualized, but strangely enough this is explicitly allowed in Windows 8.

(from page 1 of the document http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/D/98D6A56C-4D79-40F4-8462-DA3ECBA2DC2C/Licensing_Windows_Desktop_OS_for_Virtual_Machines.pdf ).

Agreed. A large install base will only help the Ubuntu ecosystem. Yes some initial difficulties may arise but I think this will work out. It will at the very least open some eyes to the concept that there are other OSs and they can be useful also.

I know it's been mentioned elsewhere... make a VM out of the XP box. This works surprisingly well. Whatever host OS you decide to use shouldn't matter a great deal so long as you have the disk space and memory to accomplish it. For business use, my XP VM has only 1.5GB allocated and will run acceptably in 1GB.

Please mod up... I wish it weren't true but it's the reality we have.

The good news is a small computer shop or consultant can make a lot of money doing this for people. They're bound to hear about it and some will be curious. For those a little more tech savvy they can do it on their own. I think it's a wonderful idea.

Partner the watch with a Google-Glass-type augmented accessory and it becomes much more usable.

At some future point I can see human-embeddable devices becoming commonplace, and this is a beta proving ground for the concept. The phone is an accessory people carry everywhere... shrink it and figure out a way for batteries to be charged through motion or vibration and have much improved recharged cycles. I can see someone getting an ear implant to go along with it.

May not happen in our lifetime, but it's not so far out there as to be impossible either. Think of the Human+ movement.