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Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

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51–60 of 219 posts

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#53

Seriously though, is all of this fixed in Windows 7, or are people just hyping that up because it sucks alot less than any previous Windows iterations? I don't think I've _ever_ seen a process that convoluted, and I've been using Linux OSes since _before_ the advent of dependency-resolvers like yum and apt (i.e, the bad old days of "RPM hell").

I'm a Windows person, but I've got Ubuntu on a netbook. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to get the repository for XBMC set up so that it would let me install the program. Now I'd like to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.4, but I don't have quite enough space in the SSD to do it. I'd like to cut out some software that I don't really use on the netbook. But I can't figure out how to make it actually get rid of thing…

Ubuntu isn't perfect. Of course not. But it changes and is improved with releases every six months. It keeps improving at a rate that I think MS will have a very hard time keeping up with.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#54
post #48

Although amusing, this is an example of poor management IMO. It comes across as the sort of email you would write while criticizing/mocking a competitors product that you were powerless to change. There's no demand for improvement, or accountability for making that happen. No wondering if this small experience is indicative of other problems. He's just "disappointed".

For me it's more an example of poor management from the fact that he allowed development to become so fragmented that the end result was a convoluted mess.

I know if the the richest man in the world said he was disappointed with something I had, the implications of not fixing the problem would be very clear. :)

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#55

Seriously though, is all of this fixed in Windows 7, or are people just hyping that up because it sucks alot less than any previous Windows iterations? I don't think I've _ever_ seen a process that convoluted, and I've been using Linux OSes since _before_ the advent of dependency-resolvers like yum and apt (i.e, the bad old days of "RPM hell").

Amusingly, the obnoxiously long paths he calls out in passing (Documents and Settings etc.) were changed in Vista (to something shorter and more vaguely reminiscent of the Unix structure) ... which caused a lot of grumbling, since people didn't know where to find things. One man's long-overdue fix is another's gratuitous arbitrary change.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#56
post #8

If Gates had maintained a dictatorial death grip on his company like Steve Jobs has, MS probably could have made some decent products. It's one thing to yell at the people who made this system via email. It's quite another to never allow them to ship it in the first place .

Correction... Microsoft /has made/ some excellent products. Here are some more for the list:

Xbox

SharePoint

Sql Server

DirectX

Visual Studio

Expression Studio

Team Foundation

Team Viewer

Windows Server

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only time I ever used IE was to download Firefox when I first installed windows 7. So, I have no idea what you are talking about. My experiences haS been great.

Try using Outlook web access, or windows genuine advantage or MSDN download in firefox

OWA degrades to what I deem a much cleaner client than the version you get if you use IE. The OWA you get in IE7+ uses ActiveX or some sort of Windows-specific JavaScript trickery which is why they restrict it's access to a browser they know will be used on Windows.

I don't really know what WGA is but have seen logos for it in the computer info dialog. I regularly download things from MSDNAA in Chrome, haven't tried the full MSDN portal.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#58
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he did send out stuff like this often and nobody gave a damn then that's really discouraging. There go my "if I ran Microsoft" fantasies. /sigh I've always imagined one of the reasons Apple products are so polished is because Steve rides people like this all day long until they stop sucking.

riding people isn't the solution, the problem is usually structural. Take any product and there are 5 to 10 teams involved in it's development and they all push their own little pet ideas. Rarely is there ever a single leader with a single vision that is also involved in the day to day development and decision making. Instead the person that should do this does what you suggest, they swing in every once in a while, c…

That's true, not a lot of that is Movie Maker's fault, the website team (bad search, slow loads) and the windows update team (maybe, or maybe the teams submitting the updates) were 95% of the fault.

That and none of this involved 'big ticket' teams, movie maker makes $0, so they get squeezed out at meetings.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only time I ever used IE was to download Firefox when I first installed windows 7. So, I have no idea what you are talking about. My experiences haS been great.

Try using Outlook web access, or windows genuine advantage or MSDN download in firefox

FWIW I downloaded an ISO from MSDN yesterday in Firefox and checked my Exchange email in Firefox with the IEtab add-on.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Windows person, but I've got Ubuntu on a netbook. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to get the repository for XBMC set up so that it would let me install the program. Now I'd like to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.4, but I don't have quite enough space in the SSD to do it. I'd like to cut out some software that I don't really use on the netbook. But I can't figure out how to make it actually get rid of thing…

Personally I don't like synaptic, but if you open up the ubuntu software centre and then click on 'installed software', you will see a list of every application that is installed on your system. Dependencies are automatically installed for all applications and are automatically removed when there are no packages left that need them, so don't worry about those! If you're more a command line guy, you can do the same us…

Also opening a console and using "popcon-largest-unused" should give you a list of the largest packages that you have not yet used the binaries from. Mine doesn't seem to update properly but this might be because I'm using Kubuntu.

On my slimmed down system I use "sudo aptitude" type "/appname[Enter]", where appname is from the list popcon gives, then "n" to find the package and then try "_" (Shift+-) which purges the packages. If something will break you get a warning "e" shows what the suggested action is "," and "." scroll through options and "!" applies. When you're happy "g" will list the actions to be taken and "g" again will confirm. "q" at any time quits or moves to the previous menu or list. HTH.

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