Slashdot loves to get inaccurate and inflammatory.

Is that if you do renounce your citizenship, the US gets all spiteful and will blacklist you from coming back.

Obviously you have to evaluate your situation, but just make sure you factor that in. You wouldn't want to say "Ya, don't really need that citizenship anymore," only to find you can't come back and visit family because the government got pissey about it.

The issue with Metro is that the "Only full screen mode," is a deal breaker on desktops. I do not have a 30" screen to run one program at a time, thanks (barring a few exceptions). However they become perfectly usable when they are in a window. Modern Mix for Stardock does that, and apparently Windows 9 will do it natively. Ok well at that point, Metro is just another API you can use alongside Win32 and .NET and maybe there's some interest. If a Metro program works just like any other then perhaps more people will be interested in writing them.

Of course that remains to be seen, but a new API that is cross desktop/tablet/phone isn't a horrible idea, forced fullscreen on a desktop is.

Visual people seem to like it often. Mom loves the new start screen because of that (she's an artist/ex-art teacher). However it does have some issues for normal desktop use. Not the OMGWTFBBQ whine fest geeks make it out to be (which is largely MS bashing) but still.

The big issue is that it is clunky to use in a professional setting. Like on my desktop I have a whole lot of applications, and I often run and use many of them. The start menu is good because it doesn't occlude much of the screen. Also everything is nice and hierarchical, making it easy to find things. The start screen becomes a pretty big mess. It goes on for ever, even on my 30" monitor, because I have so much installed and it shows all icons. Yes, I can set up tiles with the most used stuff, but that really doesn't solve the issue since I already have task bar shortcuts for that, I go to the start menu/screen when it is a less used program.

Hence I run a start menu replacer (Start 8 in my case). It isn't that I can't use the start screen, I just find it inferior to what it replaced. It's perfectly usable, the 2012R2 servers at work all use it and that's fine, however a start menu is better/faster for what I do.

On a tablet, it works nicely. You need bigger icons to do finger navigation. However my desktop isn't a tablet, my screen is not and will never be touch (no finger prints please and thanks). So it is sub optimal.

Hence MS really is right to bring back the menu for desktops, and have the screen for tablets. However you are also right that the whiners need to STFU because it is not the dire disaster they like to pretend.

Yawn.

That's an unfortunate side effect to those banks going business in the US jurisdiction.

Just like Google can be (and have been) forced by European courts to remove data that may be held on American servers.

Google can always say No, just like Microsoft can. But then they can't do business in this jurisdiction, and better get all the execs the hell out of dodge before someone comes to put them in jail for contempt.

Please. Educate yourself.

I'm going to start linking to this comment. I've been struggling to say exactly this all over this goddamn commentary, but have failed to put it so clearly. You're 100% spot-on.

s/fine/crime/;

No, this is a reminder to people who have no idea how judicial law works that any company you do business with is subject to the laws of the jurisdictions under which they're incorporated, or do business in.

Any jurisdiction in the world can force the local incorporation of an entity to produce data it has access to outside of its borders.
It may not be able to go seize that data for itself, but it can certainly levy sanction against the entity subject to its jurisdiction.

Moving incriminating evidence offshore is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It never has been. They may not be able to nail you for the fine, but they'll hit you with the full power of a contempt order until you produce the evidence.

The dude you're responding to is a class A troll. Give up, you can't open eyes that are sewn shut.

They are able to.

All you can hope, is that said company is wise enough not to have data you consider sensitive on their server in China.

Google is an incorporated entity in the United States of America.
The IRS most certainly *can* bring suit against them in a US court, and demand that they turn over records for their tax-haven bank accounts.
The jurisdiction applies between the plaintiff and the defendant, borders matter not.

Where jurisdiction comes in, is we can't fly a team of cops over to the Bahamas and raid the offices of the bank to produce the data, the worst we can do is levy sanctions against the defendant.

This is *completely normal*, all over the goddamn world.

This is why the data should never have been in Microsoft's possession to begin with, and why it matters what companies you do business with, and what countries they operate in/what laws they are subject to in the various jurisdictions they're incorporated in.

I'm afraid you're simply an idiot.

US Law applies to a US entity, plain and simple, just like Swiss law applies to a Swiss entity.
If the Swiss pass a law requiring a Swiss bank to turn over all data for their American citizens, all conveniently stored in their US offices/subsidiary, then that Swiss presence absolutely must produce said data.

Come on, use your damn head.

It does if US law says it must under court order, and it wants to maintain a US presence.

This is the same *anywhere*.

The court may not be able to enforce said subpoena upon actual individuals in Dublin, but it can damn well enforce it upon the US Microsoft presence.
"Sorry your honor, we already shipped the stolen goods to China. We're off the hook, see ya."

Parent said desktop not dumb terminal.