Windows 8 review to be delayed

I decided that instead of reviewing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I'm going to wait for the Windows 8 Release Preview which is supposed to come along in the first week of June. In the meantime, here's some screenshots of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Windows 8 Start Screen

A Look At Today's Operating Systems: Part 0 - Introduction

The way we use computers these days is changing quite a bit as tablet computing increases in popularity, and as such, desktop operating systems are radically changing to keep up with it. Personally, I find myself more productive with a mouse and keyboard, but for those who generally just need to check their emails and stocks and stuff like that, tablet devices would be a good fit for them. In this series, I'm going to show off the latest Windows and Mac desktop operating systems, as well as some others.

Now, in this introductory part, let's just take a quick look at some traditional desktops, whether it's the latest release of the respective operating system, or one that's not too far behind.

Protecting your computer and yourself, with common sense.

In my last post, I explained how to update Windows and Mac OS X, and other programs, to install security updates. I also mentioned some free antivirus and antispyware software that do the job quite well. But even after that, there's still one thing that software can't necessarily protect you from...

Keeping your system patched up and protected

Computers aren't perfect. In fact, they're really stupid and will do exactly what you tell them. If you tell them to make a pizza, they'd do it if they had arms and legs. But, if you tell them to wipe a hard drive, they'll do it. If you tell it to turn off, it'll do it. If you give it some really complicated instructions where you confuse the computer so bad that you've made it through its security checks and can now run whatever code you want, that's an exploit. That's why you need to update your system with the latest security updates and keep it protected against viruses when necessary.

Does the "You get what you pay for" saying always hold true? Also, some FUD.

Microsoft recently started a campaign as Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org . It's filled with propaganda and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). Since OO.o is free and is increasingly gaining market-share, Microsoft is obviously getting scared that now less people are using their overpriced office suite.

With that out of the way, on to the video.

What is 17 years old and from the year 1993?

Windows 7 Starter has some ass-backward features

Yikes! I was looking around on Wikipedia looking at the Windows 7 page to see what features the starter edition has (or doesn't have). Someone wrote that you can't change the background, although I thought someone made it up, since anyone can edit wikipedia. So I looked on WinSuperSite and found a gallery with screenshots from Windows 7 Starter. Paul took a screenshot of where he'd click personalize on the desktop's context sensitive right-click menu and... there's no personalize option. So you can't change the desktop, and I guess you can't change the screensaver as well. Who at Microsoft thought that this is a good idea?

Now, can someone explain to me why netbooks are available with Windows XP Home, as well as Windows 7 Starter which costs about $20 more for less features? I'm having trouble understanding the concept. It seems to go against reasonable business logic.

At least it doesn't have that artificial 3 application limit anymore.

Win SuperSite gallery for Windows 7 Starter

It's Windows 7 day!

Today, Microsoft launched their newest version of Windows called "Windows 7". I have no idea where the name came from since the internal version number is "NT 6.1" and it's not the 7th version of Windows.

EDIT: I was told by someone who works/worked for Microsoft that the version number is 6.1 because some (probably many) applications run a compatibility check on the OS version. Windows Vista is NT 6.0 which 6.1 is close enough to. The number 7 came from the 7th release of Windows NT (assuming you ignore Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x64 being Windows NT 5.2).

An interesting take on rejecting a EULA

I was reading the official Linux Mint blog where I noticed an interesting post. A Linux Mint user recently bought a Dell Studio laptop computer, but he didn't want to use Windows. As a side note, very few laptops can be bought without Windows, and even when you can buy one without it, the price comes out to almost the same price or more expensive than the same computer with Windows pre-installed.

This specific Linux Mint blog post describes in detail how to get a refund from the computer manufacturer by rejecting the Microsoft/Computer Manufacturer's (in this case it was Dell) End User License Agreement (EULA).

In short, he chose the new computer he wanted, but didn't turn on the computer when he got it. When you turn on a brand name computer for the first time, you must accept both the Microsoft and the manufacturer's EULA which are both shown to you. He then downloaded Linux Mint from his old computer and burned it onto a CD. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which means that there is lots of community support, and Ubuntu has very good out of the box compatibility. Linux Mint also includes support for Adobe Flash, DVD playback, and MP3 playback by default, which makes it a very good Live CD distribution. He ran the Live CD on his new computer to make sure that it runs well and that there aren't any compatibility problems. It turned out that there were a few problems, but a simple google search helped him solve the issue.

He sent off an email to Dell mentioning that he does not agree with the Dell and Microsoft Agreements. After an exchange of about 12 emails, he managed to get a refund of about $110 USD (£70). After receiving the money from Dell, he donated it to the Linux Mint project.

Windows 7 beats yet another OS!!!

Turns out there's more about Windows 7 that I'm not aware of. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 is also better than Mac OS X. I didn't know that. Well, it's a good thing I'm not using a Mac... wait a minute... I AM! I apparently need to give Windows 7 another try and never use Mac OS X or Linux again... or not.

Watch out Best Buy employees, I might soon be coming to your store to test you.

Windows is better than Linux, no questions asked

Microsoft is sending out training materials to Best Buy employees in preparation for Windows 7. One course in particular is titled "Comparing Windows 7 to Linux-based PCs".

The objectives are for employees to understand "how Windows 7 can provide a richer and more engaging experience than Linux", and to understand "the specific benefits of running Windows 7 on a netbook" bullshit.

One slide mentions that Ubuntu Linux takes a lot of time to maintain and has hundreds of updates each month. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 updates in a month. Many, if not most of Ubuntu's updates are easily less than 500KB and these updates are release ASAP. Windows updates are usually sent out on "Patch Tuesday" (Second Tuesday of the month [... wait, that's today. Time to run Microsoft Update.]) Additionally, updates in Linux are done within the Package Manager and can update all installed applications and libraries. Windows on the other hand, can only update Windows itself and Microsoft applications, which makes its updates smaller than those for most Linux distributions.

On the same slide, it says "It can be unclear to users whether or not software updates need to be applied immediately or are optional". I guess that means the priority categories in Ubuntu's update manager are completely useless.

I could go on, but it's pretty useless since nearly every slide, if not all, is full of BS.

Microsoft internal slideshow for retailers targets Linux

It has begun!

I am now lame as I now have a blog. It'll mostly be about Linux, Mac, and Windows, but I'll also probably post about how much I hate the Canadian oligopolies/monopolies/conglomerates.