On 01/26/2015 03:27 PM, wrote:
The reason they are calling
the next version Windows 10, is "to put some distance between Windows
8". THe reason is because the original release of Windows 8 was a flop
too, but their 8.1 sort of fixed some of that.

Me thinks that Windows Nein sounded too much like "Windows NO"
in German.

M$ has the best marketing weasels the world has ever known.
They would never let such a thing pass :-)

writes:

On Mon, 26 Jan 2015 16:40:17 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote:

Win9x was known as platform 1. NT is platform 2.
So Win98 was v. 4.1, platform 1. WinME was v.
4.9, platform 1. NT 4 was v. 4, platform 2. Win2000
was v. 5.0, platform 2.

WinME was a flop, which was actually convenient
when MS tried to push people to XP. WinME was
almost new when XP came out, so it didn't make
much sense to say it was obsolete. What MS did
instead was to pretend ME never existed (as they've
done with Vista) and then talked about upgrading
the "obsolete" Win98 to XP.


Seems MS is good at trying to trick people, just by using different
names. I found an article written by MS. The reason they are calling
the next version Windows 10, is "to put some distance between Windows
8". THe reason is because the original release of Windows 8 was a flop
too, but their 8.1 sort of fixed some of that.

But so what????? So we skipped a number...... Who cares, it's still the
same product (the next release after Windows 8.x).

That makes about as much sense as calling "John Doe" who is the homeless
town drunk. But if you call him "Mr. Doe", he suddenly becomes the
town's wealthy Police Chief.

Sense never comes into it.
Product naming is always done by sales.
Names are chosen for many reasons, including emotional impact.

In the computer business, this is especially true.
I've seen the exact same piece of software go though so
many names that I'd need a chart to keep track.

I'm sure the technical people would just like ascending
consecutive version numbers. Probably fortunately,
the sales people control picking names.


--
Dan Espen

On Monday, January 26, 2015 at 5:46:00 PM UTC-6, Todd wrote:

Me thinks that Windows Nein sounded too much like "Windows NO"
in German.

Sorry if you didn't understand..."no" is a negative. I was attempting a "funny"...

On 01/26/2015 04:50 PM, bob_villa wrote:
On Monday, January 26, 2015 at 5:46:00 PM UTC-6, Todd wrote:

Me thinks that Windows Nein sounded too much like "Windows NO"
in German.

Sorry if you didn't understand..."no" is a negative. I was attempting a "funny"...



We were both trying to be funny. Not all jokes always work
so well. I had to get use to having to explain my jokes years
ago

On 01/26/2015 12:24 PM, Nil wrote:
On 26 Jan 2015, Sam E wrote in
alt.home.repair:

What number would Windows ME be?

BTW, it seems like another 9x, even though it's supposedly later
than 2000.

Windows ME was the last in the line of OSs that began with DOS and
included Windows 95 and 98.

Thanks for getting that right. I didn't want to hear any more claims
about Win ME not using DOS.

Parallel to the DOS-based Windows was the "NT" product line. It was
descended from Microsoft-IBM's joint OS/2 product. The first released
version was NT 3.1, then Windows 2000, then Windows XP, and so on.

The end of the DOS-based OSs overlapped the beginning of the NT-based
OSs. The naming conventions are pretty arbitrary and have little to do
with the order they were released.


There is an internal version number, which starting with 95 seems to
have nothing to do with what that version is called. 95 98 and ME are
version 4. 2000 and XP are version 5. Later Windows (even Windows 10
preview) are version 6.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

On 01/26/2015 02:57 PM, wrote:

[snip]

Just my opinion, but it would seem that MS released both of them in
2000, just to make more sales, because WinME was a poor attempt at
upgrading Win98SE,

It was a poor attempt, IIRC the only improvement I remember is that is
included the USB storage driver. The help system was worse.

and Win2000 was based on NT and was their "new
direction".

IIRC, I changed to 2000 because it worked better on faster computers.

But WinME contained both the code from Win98se and some NT
as well. MS could (and should) have spent a little more time developing
their new OS and just released one STABLE version. Because WinME was
unstable, while Win2000 was fairly stable, but lacked the tie to Win98.

ME was unstable, like the previous versions. It required a lot of
rebooting. 2000 was better that way.

As it says in that webline (above), WinME was Microsofts biggest failure
(at that time), but later Vista was even worse.

I never used Vista much. I do remember it was more annoying when I tried.

It almost seems like
every other version of Windows has been dud ever since after Windows
98.....
I guess they're too fast on the trigger to make another release and thus
more sales....


I dislike the way that on 8 and later they try to make you use a
"Microsoft account", hiding the fact that you don't have to.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while
we remain poor and they such the marrow from our bones. [Martin
Luther,"On the Jews and Their Lies",1543]

| I dislike the way that on 8 and later they try to make you use a
| "Microsoft account", hiding the fact that you don't have to.
|

Yes. Very sleazy. But there's been a similar
discussion going on in the Win7 group and one
of the MS MVPs says that Win10 will actually
require an MS account, being redefined as a
service rather than software.

On 01/27/2015 12:20 PM, Mayayana wrote:
| I dislike the way that on 8 and later they try to make you use a
| "Microsoft account", hiding the fact that you don't have to.
|

Yes. Very sleazy. But there's been a similar
discussion going on in the Win7 group and one
of the MS MVPs says that Win10 will actually
require an MS account, being redefined as a
service rather than software.



Hi Mayayana,

1++++++++++ on the sleazy!

I have the Build 9926 preview release in a virtual machine.
It is "Alpha" state at best.

When you get to the part where they ask you for your
online account, you pick create a new account. On
the screen with the new account stuff on it, you scroll down
to the bottom and there is a small text link for creating
a local account.

-T

On 1/27/2015 12:44 PM, Mark Lloyd wrote:
On 01/26/2015 02:57 PM, wrote:

[snip]

Just my opinion, but it would seem that MS released both of them in
2000, just to make more sales, because WinME was a poor attempt at
upgrading Win98SE,

It was a poor attempt, IIRC the only improvement I remember is that is
included the USB storage driver. The help system was worse.

and Win2000 was based on NT and was their "new
direction".

IIRC, I changed to 2000 because it worked better on faster computers.

But WinME contained both the code from Win98se and some NT
as well. MS could (and should) have spent a little more time developing
their new OS and just released one STABLE version. Because WinME was
unstable, while Win2000 was fairly stable, but lacked the tie to Win98.

ME was unstable, like the previous versions. It required a lot of
rebooting. 2000 was better that way.

As it says in that webline (above), WinME was Microsofts biggest failure
(at that time), but later Vista was even worse.

I never used Vista much. I do remember it was more annoying when I tried.

It almost seems like
every other version of Windows has been dud ever since after Windows
98.....
I guess they're too fast on the trigger to make another release and thus
more sales....


I dislike the way that on 8 and later they try to make you use a
"Microsoft account", hiding the fact that you don't have to.


They are pests on Win 8.

You have to go back to their ap store to get back games like solitaire
and while free they have pop-ups and then send messages that for maybe
$1 you can rid yourself for them.

MS Office when you prepare a new doc and want to save it the first
option is their cloud where they try to hook you into paying.

Wish they would take note and not bring this crap into 10 but I bet they
will.

| I have the Build 9926 preview release in a virtual machine.
| It is "Alpha" state at best.
|
| When you get to the part where they ask you for your
| online account, you pick create a new account. On
| the screen with the new account stuff on it, you scroll down
| to the bottom and there is a small text link for creating
| a local account.
|
You mean that you can avoid the online account
if you want to? I'm curious whether it will be
obligatory, as reported, in the final product. That
would be a radical change.

On 27 Jan 2015, "Mayayana" wrote in
alt.home.repair:

You mean that you can avoid the online account
if you want to? I'm curious whether it will be
obligatory, as reported, in the final product. That
would be a radical change.

I have the Win 10 preview installed, and UI have no MS account. You
need it if you want to buy apps, but so far I haven't found it to be
required for anything else yet.

On 01/27/2015 01:28 PM, Mayayana wrote:
| I have the Build 9926 preview release in a virtual machine.
| It is "Alpha" state at best.
|
| When you get to the part where they ask you for your
| online account, you pick create a new account. On
| the screen with the new account stuff on it, you scroll down
| to the bottom and there is a small text link for creating
| a local account.
|
You mean that you can avoid the online account
if you want to?

Hi Mayayana,

Yes, same procedure for both Frankenstein (w8) and
Son-of-Frankenstein (w10 preview)

I'm curious whether it will be
obligatory, as reported, in the final product. That
would be a radical change.

I would think it would be, but I don't think weasel, so ...

-T

Mayayana wrote:

Yes. Very sleazy. But there's been a similar
discussion going on in the Win7 group and one
of the MS MVPs says that Win10 will actually
require an MS account, being redefined as a
service rather than software.

We're playing around with the latest preview. If you want to activate
Cortana it wants you to log into your M$ account. I'm sure there will be
many more annoyances like that.

Nil wrote:

I have the Win 10 preview installed, and UI have no MS account. You
need it if you want to buy apps, but so far I haven't found it to be
required for anything else yet.

Try Cortana.

On 27 Jan 2015, rbowman wrote in alt.home.repair:

Nil wrote:

I have the Win 10 preview installed, and UI have no MS account. You
need it if you want to buy apps, but so far I haven't found it to be
required for anything else yet.

Try Cortana.

Thanks for the warning - I want nothing to do with Cortana, and you
reinforce that. Can I completely disable or remove it?

On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 19:02:26 -0700, rbowman wrote:

Mayayana wrote:

Yes. Very sleazy. But there's been a similar
discussion going on in the Win7 group and one
of the MS MVPs says that Win10 will actually
require an MS account, being redefined as a
service rather than software.

We're playing around with the latest preview. If you want to activate
Cortana it wants you to log into your M$ account. I'm sure there will be
many more annoyances like that.


This is the 3rd post on this thread mentioning "Cortona".
WHAT IS THAT?

I'll say this much, if Windows 10 requires a MS account, I wont be using
it. Just the activation in XP is closer than I want to get to MS. As
long as I paid for my software, it's not Microsoft's business who I am
or what I do.

Then again, I've never used any MS operating system higher than XP, and
dont have any intention to upgrade. I have no desire to use any of
their bloated crap. I'm old enough I doubt I'll ever have to upgrade!
I did briefly have a Vista computer. After a week of fighting with that
piece of ****, I wiped the drive and installed XP.

On 01/27/2015 03:36 PM, Nil wrote:
On 27 Jan 2015, "Mayayana" wrote in
alt.home.repair:

You mean that you can avoid the online account
if you want to? I'm curious whether it will be
obligatory, as reported, in the final product. That
would be a radical change.

I have the Win 10 preview installed, and UI have no MS account. You
need it if you want to buy apps, but so far I haven't found it to be
required for anything else yet.


When you first install Windows (8, 8.1, 10 TP), they make it look like
you have to have a MS account. Many people will believe that.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"At Sussen, the Devil carried off, last Good Friday, three grooms who
had devoted themselves to him." [Martin Luther]

wrote:

This is the 3rd post on this thread mentioning "Cortona".
WHAT IS THAT?

Microsoft developed Siri envy so now they have a nice lady you can talk to.
Her name is Cortana.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...na-windows-10/

She's been on Windows Phone for a while and got very, very lonely since only
about 194 people use Windows Phones.

Nil wrote:

Thanks for the warning - I want nothing to do with Cortana, and you
reinforce that. Can I completely disable or remove it?

You can disable Cortana

If you cant warm up to artificial intelligence, you can disable Cortana.
Under Settings, turn her off. To remove all the data she collected about
you, click Manage Cortana data underneath the on/off switch. This will open
Settings Privacy Speech, inking & typing where you can Stop Cortana from
getting to know you and Clear all the information she has stored about you
so far.


http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...na-windows-10/

| Her name is Cortana.
| She's been on Windows Phone

I thought it might take a generation to
anthropomorphize talking gizmos. It's bad
enough that so-called AI is considered
"intelligence". People who know computers,
of all people, should know there's zero
intelligence in AI, or in computers, for
that matter. There's merely a very complex
abacus that's been cleverly applied to various
tasks.

I know there are some pitiable souls like
Ray Kurzweil who hope to download their
consciousness onto an Intel product before
they die. To me that's just an indication
of how we haven't yet got over the wow
factor of computerization. (Just as people
once thought electricity, and later radioactivity,
might have to magical power to cure all diseases.)

I'm wondering how long it will be before
married men have to go into therapy due
to preferring their inflatable doll to their wife,
because the former says, "It's so big!" in a
silky voice, with a choice of 4 different
European accents, while the latter is prone
to spoiling the moment with talk of taking
out the rubbish.

On 01/28/2015 07:13 AM, Mayayana wrote:
I'm wondering how long it will be before
married men have to go into therapy due
to preferring their inflatable doll to their wife,
because the former says, "It's so big!" in a
silky voice, with a choice of 4 different
European accents, while the latter is prone
to spoiling the moment with talk of taking
out the rubbish.

Hi Mayayana,

No talking toy will ever be able to duplicate me
trophy wife's eyes that sparkle. They should
be registered as lethal weapons. (And when
she gets in a really silly mood, she can do
really good accents.)

Is it just me? I want just a desktop. And I want it
to get the heck (maybe not my exact word) out of the way
so I can do my work. (I adore Xfce for this reason.)
I despise the concept of an operating system as a
playground.

I don't want talking computers, I don't want the picture of
the day popping up, and if I wanted the weather in
Wabash, I ask for it!

To me all those things have some place, but only when
I want them. And, I will start VLC or You Tube and
see/hear all the multimedia I want until I am tired of
it. Then OFF they go.

I can only imagine all the spying that will be going
on with M$'s Siri. I just use DuckDuckGo.com.

-T

On 01/28/2015 06:43 AM, rbowman wrote:
wrote:

This is the 3rd post on this thread mentioning "Cortona".
WHAT IS THAT?

Microsoft developed Siri envy so now they have a nice lady you can talk to.
Her name is Cortana.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computi...na-windows-10/

She's been on Windows Phone for a while and got very, very lonely since only
about 194 people use Windows Phones.




Great article. Thank you!

(I will turn mine off !!!!!!)

On Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:05:47 -0800, T wrote:

On 01/28/2015 07:13 AM, Mayayana wrote:
I'm wondering how long it will be before
married men have to go into therapy due
to preferring their inflatable doll to their wife,
because the former says, "It's so big!" in a
silky voice, with a choice of 4 different
European accents, while the latter is prone
to spoiling the moment with talk of taking
out the rubbish.

Hi Mayayana,

No talking toy will ever be able to duplicate me
trophy wife's eyes that sparkle. They should
be registered as lethal weapons. (And when
she gets in a really silly mood, she can do
really good accents.)

Is it just me? I want just a desktop. And I want it
to get the heck (maybe not my exact word) out of the way
so I can do my work. (I adore Xfce for this reason.)
I despise the concept of an operating system as a
playground.

I don't want talking computers, I don't want the picture of
the day popping up, and if I wanted the weather in
Wabash, I ask for it!

To me all those things have some place, but only when
I want them. And, I will start VLC or You Tube and
see/hear all the multimedia I want until I am tired of
it. Then OFF they go.

I can only imagine all the spying that will be going
on with M$'s Siri. I just use DuckDuckGo.com.

-T

When the internet first started, I guess I kind of had the "wow factor".
Heck, I remember if I heard a tv commercial that included a web URL, I'd
have to go to that URL, just because they were so rare at that time.
Abd "surfing" the web became an obcession for awhile. Heck, they evne
had sites that would bring up a random website back then..... I had to
try all of that stuff, and I'm sure everyone else did that too.

Also back then, I had to try every piece of software I could get my
hands on.....

These days, I use the web as a "library" to look up information. I have
bookmarked my local weather and a few other things I use regularly.
Aside from that, and a little online shopping, I actually try to avoid
going on the web when I have no real reason, or it just becomes a big
time waster. Yea, it's fun picking thru some of the youtube videos at
times, but thats about it. Social media sites have no appeal to me at
all, and I dont use any of them.

My cellphone is a dumb phone but it has very minimal web access. That's
all I need. I do like the ability to go to a weather website and view
the report and see a radar map. That's about all I use the web for on
my phone. (Damn screen is too small anyhow)...

Aside from private email to people I want to contact, I consider myself
just an anonymous entity on the internet. I dont want to reveal any
personal info, unless I choose to do so by private email to someone.
Facebook and all that crap will come back and haunt people. Yet I
regularly see young people in bars and public places sitting across the
table from each other, and texting each other while posting pictures to
facebook, and the more drunk they are, the more pictures they post....
NO THANKS!!! I really think some of them need both a psychiatrist, and
A LIFE!

I also find most websites these days are so filled with ads and garbage
they are not even worth reading anymore.

I could do just fine using my old PC with XP, or for that matter, even
my older one with Win98. But MS and other companies have made it harder
and harder to keep up with the web using older OSs. While I swore I'd
never get a smartphone, I think my next "computer" will be an Android
smartphone connected to a real monitor and keyboard..... I just dont
want what MS has to offer anymore, and the only alternative seems to be
linux, which is something I'll never grasp. (Yea, I know Android IS
linux, but it dont need any installation or tinkering, or particularly
using the "command line" crap.

| While I swore I'd
| never get a smartphone, I think my next "computer" will be an Android
| smartphone connected to a real monitor and keyboard..... I just dont
| want what MS has to offer anymore, and the only alternative seems to be
| linux, which is something I'll never grasp. (Yea, I know Android IS
| linux, but it dont need any installation or tinkering, or particularly
| using the "command line" crap.
|

Just one *big* issue there if you care about
privacy: Android is locked down Google spyware
and iOS is locked down Apple spyware. With a
PC it's hard not to be tracked online. With a
cellphone you're essentially fitted with a tracking
collar and there's very little limitation to being
tracked by "apps".

There was news recently about Google getting into
auto insurance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/te...ents.html?_r=0

(NYT spy link requires cookies enabled)

Someone was quoted pointing out that Google
has lots of information about peoples' driving
habits and destinations (via Android GPS) so it
might be be smart plan on their part.

On 2015-01-28, wrote:
When the internet first started, I guess I kind of had the "wow factor".
Heck, I remember if I heard a tv commercial that included a web URL, I'd
have to go to that URL, just because they were so rare at that time.

When the internet first started there *was* no web.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 29 Jan 2015 02:37:16 +0000 (UTC), Roger Blake
wrote:

On 2015-01-28, wrote:
When the internet first started, I guess I kind of had the "wow factor".
Heck, I remember if I heard a tv commercial that included a web URL, I'd
have to go to that URL, just because they were so rare at that time.

When the internet first started there *was* no web.

OK, that is true, but when I started using the internet, the web was
just beginning. Prior to that, I was using local BBSs (bulletin
boards).

Usenet was part of the founding of the internet as well as stuff like
"Gopher" which I never used. But USENET was actually my first think I
did on the internet. I do recall those first web browsers, which ran
on Windows 3.x and one that even ran on Dos. They were horrible!!!!

On 01/28/2015 09:37 PM, Roger Blake wrote:
When the internet first started there*was* no web.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

wrote:

I do recall those first web browsers, which ran
on Windows 3.x and one that even ran on Dos. They were horrible!!!!

Real men use lynx... No waiting for those endless useless graphics and pop
to load.

On 1/22/2015 1:52 PM, Roy wrote:


If Windows 10 is to be given out FREE, then we should be able to go
to a computer outlet such as Staples or The Source and get a FREE
disk with the software and no questions asked.

When it's being given away for free, the recipients can take it or
leave it.

There has to be a
catch somewhere.

Google doesn't charge for Android, and it's the main OS in the mobile
market. Apple doesn't charge for updates to their OS, and it's the
second-biggest OS in the mobile market. Windows still dominates in the
office environment - for now. Thing is, the younger folk use their
mobile devices and thus are more prone to choose an OS that they're
familiar with. Once they get into positions of power, they will very
likely not choose Windows. Thus, Microsoft has to expand their user
base to include mobile users. Their first incredibly clumsy misstep in
that direction was Windows 8. They alienated their long term
desktop/laptop users and corporate clients stayed away in droves. They
learned their lesson, and Windows 10 is supposedly going to be a more
nuanced second attempt to familiarize the users of both mobile and
desktop/laptop devices with one OS that will be usable (with minor
changes) on both types of hardware. So they think they have a better
product, well, now the second challenge is getting the critical mass
of adopters to it. Since they're playing the long game, the smarter
approach is to give it away (at first) in hopes of reaching that
critical user mass. Microsoft's future may be at stake.

On 2015-01-29, wrote:
OK, that is true, but when I started using the internet, the web was
just beginning. Prior to that, I was using local BBSs (bulletin
boards).

When I started using the internet we were lucky to even have ftp and telnet,
and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Usenet started out in 1979 as its own entity using dialup modems for
distribution, though it had links to arpanet/internet from pretty
early on. (Remember Usenet mail, where you had to manually route your
messages?) Integration with the internet via nntp came later.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 01/29/2015 08:49 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
On 1/22/2015 1:52 PM, Roy wrote:


If Windows 10 is to be given out FREE, then we should be able to go
to a computer outlet such as Staples or The Source and get a FREE
disk with the software and no questions asked.

When it's being given away for free, the recipients can take it or leave
it.

There has to be a
catch somewhere.

Google doesn't charge for Android, and it's the main OS in the mobile
market. Apple doesn't charge for updates to their OS, and it's the
second-biggest OS in the mobile market. Windows still dominates in the
office environment - for now. Thing is, the younger folk use their
mobile devices and thus are more prone to choose an OS that they're
familiar with. Once they get into positions of power, they will very
likely not choose Windows. Thus, Microsoft has to expand their user base
to include mobile users. Their first incredibly clumsy misstep in that
direction was Windows 8. They alienated their long term desktop/laptop
users and corporate clients stayed away in droves. They learned their
lesson, and Windows 10 is supposedly going to be a more nuanced second
attempt to familiarize the users of both mobile and desktop/laptop
devices with one OS that will be usable (with minor changes) on both
types of hardware. So they think they have a better product, well, now
the second challenge is getting the critical mass of adopters to it.
Since they're playing the long game, the smarter approach is to give it
away (at first) in hopes of reaching that critical user mass.
Microsoft's future may be at stake.




Well stated

Mayayana wrote:

On the other hand, I've noticed that the
graphics on most news sites, like most pictures
in newspapers, actually add nothing. Some young,
unpaid intern apparently gets paid to just insert
any old [free] pictures to jazz up the look of the
site.

bloomberg.com just did yet another site redesign this week. More artwork,
with anything resembling news skillfully hidden. I like to start my day off
with a chuckle and their explanations on why yet another metric
'unexpectedly' went the wrong way are amusing. They should fire their 59
economists and hire a gypsy with a crystal ball.