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Great. This probably means another update of Parallels for my Mac so I can run it. On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I ran the copy of Windows I have on my Mac.
Given the very few (and occasionally confusing) leaks around Windows 8, an update as to how things are progressing is always welcome.
In early 2011, a source of mine passed on to me what he claimed was a snapshot of the internal Windows 8 roadmap. On that roadmap snippet are a lot of alleged internal dates for Windows 8 Milestone 2, the second of what are expected to be three major internal builds of Windows 8. I showed off this roadmap during a ZDNet Webcast I did recently on Windows 8 and slates (which is available for listening as a free, on-demand file).
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The Windows client team, as you might expect, isn’t commenting on any timetables, build numbers, roadmaps or anything else pertaining to Windows 8 or Windows Next. (I tried using the Microsoft-favored “Win Next” just to see if I could muster a comment. No go.)Microsoft execs also are not commenting on an alleged Dell roadmap leak from last week, which made it appear as if Dell will have a Windows 8 tablet ready in time for January 2012.
I’ve been running Vista for a couple of years and have had no problems with it.
I suspect the picture is over a year old and that all the dates shown have slipped by 8 to 14 months…
I’m still trying to get Win95 onto my TSR-80.
I see the haters are all juiced up on Hateraid. Frankly I’m glad Microsoft continues to move forward with development of their OS, just like Apple continues development of theirs.
You guys clinging to XP are starting to sound like my grandfather complaining how black and white tv was better than this new-fangled color.
I do agree with the, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule, but geeze! How long are you going to cling to that old hardware?
Remember the past, don’t live in it. It benefits you not!
In @36 ForwardNotBackward said: “I do agree with the, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule, but geeze! How long are you going to cling to that old hardware?
Until my old hardware suddenly stops being able to support cloud computing and/or the web and/or the internet, I don’t see anything to be gained from using a faster processor, more memory or more disk space on any of my boxes.
I am now running with one external 1TB drive (and a few backup drives,) per machine but that’s for my data.
The OS and programs fit on the drive on the machine with plenty of room to spare and is backed up and mirrored on more appropriately sized external drives.
At some point, (okay, three year ago,) the machines out-stripped the need for upgrading.
What is this Windows you speak of???
Yes, birddog, wither?
The problem is: I’m not seeing the dramatic speed increases in either the machine or the OS.
10 years ago (or more) a new PC with the latest OS would seem much, much faster than a PC just a few years older.
If I buy the fastest CPU today, load it up RAM, will it be noticeably faster than a 2-year-old PC? Not really. So why bother upgrading either the PC or the OS?
Are they going to improve the kernel and scheduler, or just dye the cuffs and collars again?
Lotsa you here forgettin’ that people will just simply refuse to use old software. I have seen excellent, stable software be ditched simply because “it hasn’t been updated in two years.” It doesn’t matter that the software does everything it is supposed to do, it does it well and it is rock stable, and has no bugs and has not become obsolete due to changed circumstances. People just frigging want new versions cranked out every so many months, or else it goes to the trash can. People who actually work and make money in the industry know that, so they keep coming up with new versions that will not wash your clothes any whiter, but whatever. What would YOU do in Microsoft’s shoes? Say “That’s All Folks” and never release a new version again?
I’m neither a Mac nor a Windows basher — I have several computers with those OSs.
But, increasingly, I find myself drifting to Ubuntu. It rarely crashes and it makes my computers seem faster.
There are still a couple of Windows or Mac programs that I can’t do without but that is changing as more software for Ubuntu/Linux is being written.
(There may be better version of Linux than Ubuntu but everyone I’ve test-driven was not as easy.)
… I drifted off my main point.
So, I really don’t care of Windows releases a new version or not.
This is a huge change from the days when a new version of DOS or Windows was a big deal for me. DOS 3.1 and 5, ; Windows 3.1, 97 and XP in particular really improved my life.
The Windows roadmap looks like a chart that shows the locations of genes on a chromosome.
In 1990, Bill Gates spoke at a user group meeting near me. A few years before Microsoft had acquired software and VAX programmers from Digital. Mr. Gates said that eventually there will be one version of “Windows” and not the MS-DOS overlay of Windows 3.x or Windows NT. That version was Windows XP which was released in 2001. Microsoft hasn’t been the same since. Bill Gates was the chief software architect for the next version of Windows codenamed Longhorn. In Spring 2004, a Microsoft representative told my ACM chapter Vista was to be released in Spring 2005. It came out in late winter 2007 with a very confusing launch and didn’t include a new file system and other ambitious features. Maybe Apple’s OS X caused a rush job in Microsoft’s timetable.
# 28 Animby – “14k acoustic coupled modem” … Were acoustic modems made that fast? In 1993, 14,400 bps (V.32bis) was the fastest modem standard and I don’t believe acoustic modems had been made for years.
#34 The Monster’s Lawyer – Somewhere I read of someone running Linux on an Atari 2600.
# 31 akallio9000 said, “I just bought a computer with Windows 7 on it, I played a game of Chuzzle…”
Way to go. You gave it a fair chance and a thorough workout. Good you had something “decent” to replace that miserable piece of crapola.
# 45 CrankyGeeksFan said, “Were acoustic modems made that fast?”
Ooops. You’re right. I think the fastest they got was 300 baud. I remember sitting there being able to read the data faster than the machine could transfer and display it. And we thought that was so fast!
I’ve had a few issues with my Vesta machine however after thinking about it I strongly suspect it wasn’t Vesta so much as AVG and maybe some other software.
I did a reinstall on my win 7 machine which included dumping AVG and going with windows security software. That seem to fix some problems.
I’ve found Anti-malware software rarely plays nice with the OS. Sooner or later it will mess something up and I’m hoping that MS will be a bit more careful about not messing up the OS.
For at least ten years I have thought that when an install occurred everything should go into a file folder connected to that program without being given any access to the OS files.
You remove that file and everything goes without anything having ever happening to mess up the OS files. When you start a program a sandbox would be opened and the program would run inside it.
My home PC is still running XP. The damn hardware is so good, it has lasted more than 5 years.
#43–Greg Allan==Win 2000 crashed all the time. Win XP almost never–more of a stall/hang behavior would set in every month or so requiring a reboot. Never did track down if it was a specific program or just lack of RAM. I’ve had Win 7 for nearly a year now without a single crash and no need to reboot. Did get “low resource” warnings while using only 2.5GB RAM. Now running 8 GB and haven’t had a hiccup or a sigh in 2 weeks.
Is Ubuntu really “good” in all aspects? What I’m noticing right now is I have some huge spreadsheets that take minutes to open and constantly have to be “recovered” in Open Office. Same file in Office 2010 snaps open instantly. I don’t “trust” Open Office to update/sort my spreadsheets if it can’t even open/save them.
But yes, people do forget that OS’s are “used” to run other applications. XP was fine for me but I moved to WIN 7 to give me time to find the replacements programs and what not. I missed a few programs but in this time I think they have all been updated, so I’m sitting pretty except for drivers for old video cards/printers/scanners/MOTHERBOARDS! ((Anybody know what typically makes a motherboard incompatible with Vista/or 7? I find linux often has much better legacy support while maintaining speed.
blah, blah, blah. I just bored myself. Ha. ha.
Jobs, not more technology.
#49 Bobbo
On a basic level its because the manufacturer hasn’t written new drivers for Vista/7. With Vista they changed the driver model, which is why a lot of old stuff stopped working. Most manufacturers took it as an “opportunity” for you to buy new stuff.
As for the motherboard its a combination of the above and the peculiarities about your hardware – chipset, onboard components, etc. Windows can often use basic drivers for common components – sometimes it works fine, sometimes it half works. Sometimes the hardware is so different than what Windows expects, it just wont work without manufacturer support.
Haven’t used an APPLE device in 46 years… and counting. Uncle Dave is snob.
Generally, when Apple updates its software, it runs faster or better, at least until recently, but it’s a bit too “walled garden” for me. When the new version of OS X broke my access to bash, or the Console or whatever they called it, I quit using my wife’s iMac.
But when Microsoft comes out with a new one, you have to get all new hardware and software. And speaking of bloatware, their software always seems written for NEXT YEAR’s machines…
Uncle Patso: Windows 7 improved performance over Vista. In several ways it outperforms XP.
While I have been working with Microsoft Windows 7 for quite some time now, I downloaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on May 5, 2009, just to experience the procedure. While I was an early bird downloader (I actually began my download at 11:45 p.m. on May 4 and let the download progress as I slept), the download went off without a hitch, and from what I’ve heard so far, there hasn’t been a repeat of the crash that took down the Windows 7 Beta download servers in January. The installation also went very smoothly, and this RC version of the operating system is amazingly responsive and very stable.