tomhudson's Journal: Vista - Gates Reality Distortion Field

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934083/site/newsweek/from/RS.2/

NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, "Bill, why upgrade to Vista?" what would be your elevator pitch?

Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar, show them the way the search lets you go through lots of things, including lots of photos. Set up a parental control. And then I might edit a high-definition movie and make a little DVD that's got photos. As I went through, they'd think, "Wow, is that something I could use, would that make a difference for me?"

IOW - you can do the same thing as a Mac ... but in a less secure environment. Or with linux for free.

The more avid users download the upgrades in between, but of XP users how many downloaded a browser that was more advanced than the one they had? Maybe you and the people you know all did, but most people don't.

... so only those who wanted a "more advanced" browser downloaded Opera and Firefox. Sounds about right :-)

Q: So you feel in 2010-2011 Microsoft will be back with the next big one?

A: Absolutely. We'll tell you how Vista just wasn't good enough, and we'll know why, too.

... even though you can't tell people who use XP or NT2K or OSX or *nix why Vista is a "must-have" ...

Q: So can you give us an indication of what the next Windows will be like?

A:Well, it will be more user-centric.

Q:What does that mean?

A: That means that right now when you move from one PC to another, you've got to install apps on each one, do upgrades on each one. Moving information between them is very painful. We can use Live Services [a way to connect to Microsoft via the Internet] to know what you're interested in. So even if you drop by a [public] kiosk or somebody else's PC, we can bring down your home page, your files, your fonts, your favorites and those things. So that's kind of the user-centric thing that Live Services can enable

... which anyone can do today with linux and a bootable usb key ... http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Linux_bootable_USB_key_HOWTO http://flashlinux.org.uk/ http://home.eol.ca/~parkw/thinflash.html http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/USB_Based_FAQ

Poor Bill ... anyone got a pork chop handy to hang around his neck?

Live Services

[nizo]

Wow, thanks for giving me a reason to never ever use Vista. Basically it is like a roaming profile, stored on Microsoft's servers? Um....yeah......

Apple really needs to capitalize on the nightmare that Vista will be for the average user. Seriously. This could be their big chance to win many many new customers. I have always wondered why Apple doesn't give away office software with their OS (like, you know, OpenOffice)? There are so many ways they could dig into the Microsoftonopoly..... Speaking of which,

Re:

[tomhudson]

I figure once I've got a few spare hours on my hands (IOW, when I'm finished with jury duty) I'm going to load a few usb keys with linux distros. They boot much quicker than a live cd/dvd, so people won't whine about "how slow linux is" in comparison.

I'd like to see Apple keep Safari - I use firefox all the time, but I can see the advantage of multiple browsers, provided they don't break stuff.

Re:

[nizo]

Oh thats right, now I remember why you haven't been around as much lately :-) Without going into specifics, how is the jury duty going? Will it be done before you are old and gray?

As far as the browser goes, the only problem with yet another browser, is people will be even less inclined to make web pages that aren't explorer specific. You would think it would encourage people to make standard pages that don't break any decent browser, but sadly I doubt that would be case :-( Though in general I agree that

Re:

[tomhudson]

It's been two weeks so far, and I *really* look forward to the weekends, if only to sleep and get caught up with "the real world", family, friends, and a bit of work ...

As the saying goes, "it'll be over when its over ..."

Hopefully, with everyone trying to get more in line with standards, there'll be more pressure to better support the w3c and ecma standards. Microsoft has a reason not to - .NET was an attempt to defang the web browser as an application delivery platform, since moving apps to either ja

Re:

[TechnoLust]

Yeah, they've been doing that on a SunRay for how long now? 5 or 6 years?

Bootable USB.

[Talinom]

I think that either my USB drive (1GB Lexar JumpDrive) or my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2) hate me. I've tried booting off of every USB port I have (front AND back) and still no joy. Even tried to disable all bootable hardware except a USB-HDD or USB-ZIP and STILL nothing. (OK, not nothing. Windows STILL booted even when the fields were empty. Go figure.)

Either way, I'm avoiding Windows Vista like the black plague [slashdot.org] for a while.

Re:

[tomhudson]

It needs to be properly partitioned: http://www.marlow.dk/site.php/tech/usbkeys [marlow.dk]

USB Keys can be formatted in two ways:

* Superfloppy

* Harddisk (including MBR)

This is the reason, why some bootable USB keys not boot on every system. Some computers BIOS simply only understand one of the formats, not both, and if you use Windows and plug your key in, you won't notice the difference. Using Linux it get's pretty clear. Looking at the different formats shows, that the superfloppy formatted key is fo

Been Doing it For Years...

[eno2001]

I've been using a remote desktop system for years to access all my files/apps/data built around Linux. The experience has been more secure, seamless and reliable than anything I've ever seen coming from MS. The only downfall to the whole thing is that while even my wife can use it (an avowed technophobe), only I could have actually built it. Of course it's getting long in the tooth now in terms of the version of Gnome on it. I've been dying to upgrade the system and will get there soon.

What I see happen

Re:

[nizo]

Vmware is the best thing ever. I use it on my home linux box to run windows 2000, which I use to run Photoshop, Illustrator, and a whole pile of 3D applications (vue, poser, carrara for anyone who cares). They all...run....perfectly. Not a single hitch. And the added bonus: I can backup the "windows" machine in ten minutes, and restore it in the same amount of time, if it ever decides to crap out on me. Or I can move it in the time it takes to ftp the files over to another linux box, and be up and running f

Re:

[tomhudson]

The "backing up" is a good idea. I know some people who are reluctant to make the switch - being able to back up and restore quickly would be a good way to get them exposed to it.