What's going on at Microsoft?

inserting "bad vibes" into windows was a mistake - and they came with sp2, ie7 and vista

"Bad vibes" is subjective. Given by a later statement you made along the lines of you not using Windows Vista (quote: not sure about vista as i never downloaded much for it - but on XP it asks you over and over.), you should perhaps look into actually getting the software before reviewing it.

not sure about vista as i never downloaded much for it - but on XP it asks you over and over. if youve validated once - it should know
Genuine disadvantage

Even on Windows XP you are required to click through one page every time you download a Genuine Advantage protected program from the Microsoft website. This is no more or less intrusive than clicking through the PayPal (TM) screen or confirming your order through Amazon.com... unless you are illegally using Windows of course.

people are mad about missing ult add-ons, apple makes fun of the versioning, devs are mad at virtualization being only in ult.. i have seen many articles arguing that it is more confusing. but you dont seem to think so

The Internet Explorer team decided for a variety of reasons that IE7 would not support theming, and use of addons is restricted. This is primarilly a security concern.
The versioning system for Windows Vista is not complicated, and the link you provided showed only that Windows Vista works in a reduced capacity on low-spec hardware. This is one of the consequences of Windows working on multiple platforms, which cannot be said of Apple.

i disagree, i found vista to introduce a very mac and google like way of organizing files - which is to search for them.  longtime customers should not be forced into new ways of doing things if they prefer the old way.  basically if you have the XP ui for windows - for over 5 years - it should still be in vista as an option (*many wont agree on this one )  

Users are not "forced" to search for files. Manual search remains an option, and by your own admission (see above) you are not a Vista user and therefore are unqualified to comment on ease of access on this operating system.

In your first link "5 sins of Vista" you will notice that the screenshots provide false information. Under Windows Vista automatic filename completion exists within the file browsing dialog, and webaddresses are never specified unless the application specifically enables them. It is simply the case that the screenshot has been altered.

The second link points out things such as the user having to wait for folders to "fade in", and the "wasted time" that you incur.
Microsoft benchmarks show this time to be in the region of 0.12s.

there are many articles that suggest the live branding strategy is in deep dis-array -

There are also many articles that show that the US never landed on the moon and that Elvis is still alive.

sorry but in the era of OSS - the ms controled model of yearly releases is becoming very old fashioned.  more transparency can only be a good thing. more alphas and betas could ensure more customer feedback is recognized.  ms also has an army of developers that would most likely help it - free - should it be more open

Microsoft releases alpha and beta versions as part of its quality control before final launch. Microsoft is committed to Quality Assurance and we believe that alpha and beta testing too early is detrimental to the Microsoft brand and provides little or no tangible benefit to the end product.

the above refered to user generated content: ie; putting a U2 song in your family photostory.  this should be fair use - but ms is mum on the issue , apple at least has come out in favor of no-drm, of specifying what constitutes "fair play"  (share it 10 times etc)

DRM in this example would be a commercial decision by the U2 music group. In the example you gave, the song could be played on Microsoft Windows Vista 10 times before the DRM licence ran out, but would not be able to be played at all on an Apple until a DRM codec was installed, at which point you would be able to play the file 10 times before the DRM licence ran out.

by including it - ms is supporting the faultering business models of old media.  why is my operating system deciding to load secret stuff on my computer.  at least make it an option. (more bad vibes - see above)

Microsoft is not there to make user's decisions for them, and Microsoft is committed to helping developers and licensors from preventing the huge amounts of plagurism in online music and software. Despite your efforts to argue against anti-plagurism technology, the old approach of trusting users as you suggest simply hasn't worked and is costing the music and software industry hundreds of billions of dollars a year, which could otherwise be spent on researching new innovation.

again - perception.. = bad vibes.  looks like sneakiness to many

Taking any other stance on the Microsoft/LINUX patent case would prejudice any decision that would be made by a legal governing body on the matter.

Laugh as you might, I know many people who use Windows Fax and Scan in a professional context (mainly the scan rather than the fax).

It seems you are under the misimpression that all of the Microsoft development teams are all micromanaged from above, wheras actually pretty much the reverse is true.

From what I heard, Live Messenger has only just managed to migrate itself from it's C++ core onto a managed framework (still C++ tho) to make it more reliable, and plans to change to WPF will certainly be shelved until the next major release, at which point it will perhaps be considered by the Messenger Development team.

WPF as I've said before is not something that should be stuck into UI just "for the hell of it", and while a working non-vectorbased UI exists, there is really very little reason to migrate to WPF.

Because of the nature of the structure of Microsoft, it remains more likely that new products (with a user rather than a developer/server intention) will be WPF based, but for older products such as Office, Live Messenger, IE and the Operating System itself, we shouldn't expect a mass migration in the next few years at least.

That being said, Live Messenger will be the first to change to WPF - they like fiddling with their UI.

PS. I said "No plans that I know of". I'm not part of Microsoft or the Messenger team, and perhaps I'm just ignorant of a huge Live Messenger WPF consipracy. Who knows?

jamie wrote:

in a way this isnt even about products.. it is about a ..new ..microsoft that emerged with Sp2.

some may not agree ... but it is almost that as of that ..heavy handed.. "its good for you" "update"  that ms started feeling less like a brother in arms - and more like a big brother

it would be great if ray ozzie could address that somehow

- aknowledge a mistake was made

- announce new repaired version of validation tool - that you only do once at install.  so you activate then validate ... and you never see it again on any ms site

- announce that you are going back to home and business version of windows only

- announce that customization will be beefed up - and that your sorry for limiting new versions of IE and themes

- announce that luna (common tasks, up, ) with be available for vista and an add on to office will provide the option of returning to the menu based UI - and apologize for being too forceful in giving longtime users no say in deciding what works best for them

- announce that the Live brand is no more - and that those features/functionality will now just be branded as the core product (windows messenger, windows mail, office maps, office conector..)

- announce a new site where betas and even alphas of new ms products are constanlty being updated- and are downloadable  (like mozilla has...

- make a public staement on what ms views accepatable IP use in the youtube era.  be pro-consumer on this. 

- announce the removal of all drm from the windows platform.  if content providers wish to use drm - they can force their customers to load it.

- clarify whatever it is you are really doing with the patents/linux deals


so right there ... if that happened.. to me ms would seem like its "back"

back on our side..  showing some humilty - admit somethings maybe wernt the right way to go

user choice (the old is still there + the new) , user customization (its back), user rights , user simplicity (versions, live naming)

that might be a start anyway 

This will happen just after Exxon Mobil declares that its fuel is free of charge because their employees are making the fuel for fun anyway, and the American Government decides to abolish taxes because they "don't need it".

jamie wrote:

- aknowledge a mistake was made

Which mistake? One can't acknowledge a mistake that you haven't shown was indeed mistaken.

jamie wrote:

- announce new repaired version of validation tool - that you only do once at install.  so you activate then validate ... and you never see it again on any ms site

Try Windows Vista. If you install Firefox you'll need to install WGA for firefox and in both cases you'll never see it again. (Firefox isn't made by Microsoft *gasp*, so we can't incorporate WGA into Firefox like we did in IE). This is therefore only an issue for people who illegally use Microsoft products.

jamie wrote:

- announce that you are going back to home and business version of windows only

Why? There is no evidence that the current selection of products is confusing - Starter is only available in emerging economies, Home Basic is for people with a very tight budget or very underpowered machine, and Enterprise is only available for corporations and so the choice is Home Premium, Business or Both (Ultimate)

jamie wrote:

- announce that customization will be beefed up - and that your sorry for limiting new versions of IE and themes

Customization of IE and themes tended to be advertised on the internet and wrapped in viruses and rootkits which compromised a large number of systems in earlier editions of Windows. A corporate decision will have been made that the benefits of not having these things outweighed the benefit of having them.

jamie wrote:

- announce that luna (common tasks, up, ) with be available for vista and an add on to office will provide the option of returning to the menu based UI - and apologize for being too forceful in giving longtime users no say in deciding what works best for them

One of the most common things I've heard from people switching to Vista is that its interface is so much nicer. There would be very little reason for switching backwards, except for if your computer was unable to run the more GPU intensive operations - in which case Aero can be turned off, and the DEI can be turned off. (This makes it look like Win2000)

jamie wrote:

- announce that the Live brand is no more - and that those features/functionality will now just be branded as the core product (windows messenger, windows mail, office maps, office conector..)

Why? The Live brand is for Microsoft applications that require the internet to operate. There is no good reason for changing or abolishing the brand.

jamie wrote:

- announce a new site where betas and even alphas of new ms products are constanlty being updated- and are downloadable  (like mozilla has...

Sign up to one of the Microsoft technet newsletters and you'll get prior warning of such betas. People don't (in general) want to run betas of any-old software, but rather ones developed in areas that they are interested in.

jamie wrote:

- make a public staement on what ms views accepatable IP use in the youtube era.  be pro-consumer on this. 

Microsoft's official policy agrees with United States law on the issue of IP, i.e. that unlicenced use of Microsoft IP by another company is unlawful.

jamie wrote:

- announce the removal of all drm from the windows platform.  if content providers wish to use drm - they can force their customers to load it.

If a user choses not to use DRM, this is his/her choice. Microsoft only includes the codecs for decoding DRM music and video in its new version of Windows Vista, and this does not affect in anyway non-DRM encoded music or video.