Live from PDC 2008: Day 3

Been enjoying the coverage so far. Although do leave out the WW(Laporte) induced complex about comparing everything w.r.t the emaciating scion in Cupertino.

If you want the live blogger chat, it's at http://www.winsupersite.com/pdc along with them streaming the audio and (sort of) video.

Paul is quoted in The Windows Blog ------------- “Well, let me ruin the surprise up front. Windows 7 is Windows Vista done right. If you're already a fan of Windows Vista, you'll love Windows 7 because it's a better rendition of that earlier OS. If you're a Vista hater, take heart: The makers of Windows 7 have reevaluated virtually everything about Vista and made changes small and large across the board. The result is a better Windows, no matter how you slice it.” ------------- From http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/default.aspx Oh, and Happy Birthday, Paul.

From Robert McLaw's Windows-Now blog: http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/windows-7-first-impressions.aspx ------------- What are you most excited about? I’m really excited about Windows 7 as a whole, but I’ll run through the features that I’ll be covering more in-depth in my review that will be posted soon: •New Taskbar: You’ll hate it at first glance, but you’ll love it in 5 minutes. •HomeGroup: Simplified home networking. Allows you to easily discover documents and media on other Windows 7 computers on the network. •HomeGroup in Windows Media Center: SoftSled on crack. •Windows Media Center: Cleaner UI, DVD Library on by default, UI for adding Recorded TV folders. •Play To: Queue media on your library to play on any DLN A-compliant device in your home. •New Codec Support: h.264, DivX, XviD, non-FairPlay AAC. •Touch: The new touch features are simply amazing. Take that, Apple! •DirectConnect: VPN without the VPN •Wireless: Simplified WiFi connections, built-in mobile broadband stack, better Bluetooth pairing. There is a LOT more to be excited about as well. I hope you keep it here as we begin this Windows 7 journey together. Enjoy the keynote!

@mike: No word on the official stance on those Hyper-V things I asked about eh?

@mike: dang I'm hoping they finish all the documentation on the TechNet Library before the 12th of Nov. launch. Part of it is going to be about deployment of client workstations on SBS, which I'm curious about. I know many SMB's will just buy plain systems from an OEM and join them up to the domain as-is, but I'm hoping they address software package and possibly SMB OS deployment in an SBS environment. One of the major changes in SBS is that they removed the app package deployment wizards. You can use a GPO, but it's just not as user-friendly. I almost wish they had a "System Center for SMB's". System Center Essentials doesn't cut it either, because it doesn't cover full software deployment. It also requires a full version of SQL Server, which isn't part of the standard version of SBS. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit seems a bit bloated/too modular for the SMB market. SMB's usually like simple, more integrated solutions, hence the reliance on barebones OS/app installs from OEM's. I still hope they offer their own solution to the problem of OEM's that overload systems with crap software loadouts. At least my SMB clients that buy computers from me don't have to worry about it, as my systems ship very clean - drivers, updates, "Office Ready PC" trial/full version, Adobe Reader if necessary, Java if necessary, and Flash and Silverlight only on request for security reasons.

Has anyone read Randall Kennedy's article on his first impressions of Windows 7? He really has got something against it. http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisedesktop/archives/2008/10/windows_7...

I've been quietly going through the information coming out of PDC and the coverage from other outlets. While visually Windows 7 looks impressive, I will not be in a rush to judgement until I have a working beta version. All this stuff looks good on paper, but we need to see if Microsoft delivers in terms of actual OS performance on machines. My advice to all here is that this is just Milestone 3 and Seven has a long way to go before becoming RTM. Lets not make hasty judgements till we can actually work with it. What I'm looking for is do we blow away benchmark performances versus a XP system? Do we get that Microsoft 2000 feeling from Seven? Is the business version maleable enough so IT's can strip down enough to make businesses want to mass adopt the OS? Can the user take out featured programs such as Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and other applications without jumping through hoops. I also want to see if Microsoft adds features that cannot be replicated on OS-X? Does it catch up in downloadable options to equal certain applications in OS-X? Thats more of the metric Windows Seven has to cross to be a major must buy in the final version. Microsoft has more than its work cut out. I mean we still haven't even seen an attempt to challenge iLife. So I'm going to be a heavy skeptic and raise the bar for Microsoft before declairing Seven a success or failure.

"A Mac guy reviewing a PC will rarely be unbiased." Completely agree! That is exactly why this blog is very biased. It's a PC guy reviewing (and I use the word reviewing extremely loosely, since it's mostly just biased anti-Apple posts with some smart ass comments as bookends) Mac.

"•New Taskbar: You’ll hate it at first glance, but you’ll love it in 5 minutes." More like the OS X dock with every release. Copy. "•HomeGroup: Simplified home networking. Allows you to easily discover documents and media on other Windows 7 computers on the network." Bonjour, iPhoto, iTunes and others already do this. Copy. "•New Codec Support: h.264, DivX, XviD, non-FairPlay AAC." Good to see some better support to the better formats, h.264 in particular. "•Touch: The new touch features are simply amazing. Take that, Apple!" Haha, take that? They copied. Wow, how innovative. Not. The thing is that it's quite pathetically sad that Microsoft follow othes' lead. As always. They, of course, have no taste. "•DirectConnect: VPN without the VPN" Hmmm where have I seen this before? Oh yes! OS X. I agree though. Vista II is looking like a catch-up to OS X. Again.

@robertsjoe If you are trying to play the role of the typical Apple fanatic jack@55, then you win first prize. Seriously, no ones gives a flip over you little "Ooooooh Apple invented everything" BS show. Not only is it trite, it makes Apple as a whole look like they seem to only attract the most immature users in the tech world. Apple didnt invent any of these ideas, and have no claim to them whatsoever, just like they didnt invent the HD, LCD displays, Wi-Fi, Laptops, Icons, Desktop Wallpaper, the Dock, Event Sounds, Virtural desktops, Gadgets, Dual Booting, USB, Firewire, CD-Rom...or any of the other tech they use in their machines, and OSs. But somehow I doubt that stops you from using it like the good little ihypocrite that we all know you are.

Example: NY Times' Bits blog: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/ The only mention of MS is this: "Apple’s cheerfully nasty commercials get it right: Microsoft can either buy ads to tell us Vista is not so bad or it can actually make an operating system people like." " Early rumors include some of what Microsoft is known for: changes in the user interface and a new standard for hooking up other devices that nothing in the market yet uses." This was written on October 27th. An OS that hundreds of millions of people might use and no mention of it?

@master3: Firewire, initiated by, and major contributions by Apple. Dock was invented by Next. The idea is now owned and patented by Apple.

"Because it's hard to get enthused about something so mediocre." bonchy, :-) So, reporters are there to get excited about products? I guess NY Times or WSJ are not read by any business people.

"Firewire, initiated by, and major contributions by Apple." Oh...ok. Well try using it without all of the other parts of the computer Apple didnt invent. "Dock was invented by Next. The idea is now owned and patented by Apple." Really? Then have Apple sue all of the software that uses one then. Wanna bet they never bring that lawsuit. "Because it's hard to get enthused about something so mediocre....blah,blah,blah." Dude, just shut up.

A pre-beta has some bugs? Oh my, who would have thought. Apple didn't patent multi-touch.

Wasn't Surface demoed first? "A pre-beta has some bugs? Oh my, who would have thought. " :-)

""Dock was invented by Next. The idea is now owned and patented by Apple." Really? Then have Apple sue all of the software that uses one then. Wanna bet they never bring that lawsuit." Makes no difference if they bring a lawsuit or not. Fact is fact, they invented it.

"I suppose he's going to lie to us and say that Apple invented Multi-touch too?" No, I won't. Because they didn't Lying and false advertising is Microsoft's domain.

"As if Microsoft is somehow forbidden from using multi-touch because Apple put it in a phone. Great job there BBC." Of course they are not forbidden. They are just following. Like always.

@DRWAM "My buddy just got an Acer netbook with XP [Atom CPU with 1GB RAM]. It looks like it may be able to run 7. Sure you just need to do the following, turn of indexing, turn off search, turn off automatic defrag, turn off Aero, go all the way down to classic mode, turn off the sidebar, turn off system restore and turn off UAC. At that point you have XP and it will run like a champ on that netbook. You do know that XP has been specifically extendid for netbooks for the very reason that Vista will kill them. From the horses mouth..... http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03ComputexPR.mspx Oh and wait...... http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/08/windows-xp-downgrade-deadline-extende... As a business owner you never even have to use Vista. If Paul is right you can get XP from Dell and the likes for 30 days past the June launch of Windows 7. I have a buddy that just bought two Dells today for his office, a Vostro 220 and a new Latitude E something and on both he paid the XP tax, $99 to have XP preloaded.

Makes no difference if they bring a lawsuit or not. Fact is fact, they invented it." Fact is fact, you have no idea what you are talking about. "..But let's say you're a true die-hard Steve Jobs zealot and want to argue that NeXT "invented" the dock. You'd still be wrong as docks were part of Acorn computers from the early 80s. The point, of course, isn't who invented the dock, the argument of course is whether companies like Stardock (who wrote the Dell Dock) were somehow ripping off or stealing or what have you from the MacOS dock and I think you can see why this is such an obnoxious and offensive argument - we've been making docks since before Apple had figured out how to do preemptive multitasking." http://draginol.impulsedriven.net/article/318845/No_Mac_zealots_Apple_di... "No, they just implemented it perfectly and brought it to the market. Not still showing it in some "still in development" demo. Then, the others follow. And in a highly useful device too. Not in some big-ass coffee table." And the video of the IPhone's multi-touch before they showed it to the press for the first time? Yeah, I didnt think you saw it either, but we can assume that you will lie to us again and tell us it was perfect from the first day? And it didnt work perfectly even after it was released. Here is an article from iPhonebuzz.com, entitled: More iPhone MultiTouch Issues: handset goes haywire. http://www.iphonebuzz.com/more-iphone-multitouch-issues-handset-goes-hay... Oh and "big ass coffee table" is not even an original line. At least if you want to be a good Apple troll, and be consistent, maybe you need to come up with original lines, and not rip them off. "No, I won't. Because they didn't Lying and false advertising is Microsoft's domain." Yeah,ok... "Lazy journalism? The dude tried to use it and it failed." So you cant follow conversations either: Try reading it again and get what I was talking about. "Of course they are not forbidden. They are just following. Like always." You mean like putting GPS in a phone? No following there, right? But let me guess, Apple invented that too, just like of the other stuff they "invented": The HD, LCD displays, Wi-Fi, Laptops, Icons, Desktop Wallpaper, the Dock, Event Sounds, Virtural desktops, Gadgets, Dual Booting, USB, web browsers, DVD, email, CD-Rom...or any of the other tech they use in their machines, and OSs.

"..But let's say you're a true die-hard Steve Jobs zealot and want to argue that NeXT "invented" the dock. You'd still be wrong as docks were part of Acorn computers from the early 80s. The point, of course, isn't who invented the dock, the argument of course is whether companies like Stardock (who wrote the Dell Dock) were somehow ripping off or stealing or what have you from the MacOS dock and I think you can see why this is such an obnoxious and offensive argument - we've been making docks since before Apple had figured out how to do preemptive multitasking." Preemtive multi-tasking, is that something Windows is proud of for having been out with it before Apple? Amiga did it in 1985. Even before the joke (Windows) was truly born. "No, they just implemented it perfectly and brought it to the market. Not still showing it in some "still in development" demo. Then, the others follow. And in a highly useful device too. Not in some big-ass coffee table." "And the video of the IPhone's multi-touch before they showed it to the press for the first time?" Apple does not demo like Microsoft does. Who said there was a video? They just bring out devices, ready for market that work. Unlike the coffee table which was demoed, then took a long time to come out as a finished product. "Yeah, I didnt think you saw it either, but we can assume that you will lie to us again and tell us it was perfect from the first day?" Never said I saw it. Don't you read? Do you think that Apple saw Microsoft's video of the coffee table then said, oh quick! let's get multi-touch on the iPhone? They were working on it long before the video of the coffee table. "And it didnt work perfectly even after it was released. Here is an article from iPhonebuzz.com, entitled" You're dreaming, right? "Oh and "big ass coffee table" is not even an original line. At least if you want to be a good Apple troll, and be consistent, maybe you need to come up with original lines, and not rip them off." You mean become like Microsoft and their fanboys and just copy? Want me to not have taste too? Like Microsoft? "You mean like putting GPS in a phone? No following there, right?" And what phones does Microsoft make? Oh yeah, none. "But let me guess, Apple invented that too, just like of the other stuff they "invented"" Nope, never said that. Nor would I. You're making stuff up. Not me.

I think Master needs a FAT juicy hamburger!!

"Apple didnt invent any of these ideas, and have no claim to them whatsoever, just like they didnt invent the HD, LCD displays, Wi-Fi, Laptops, Icons, Desktop Wallpaper, the Dock, Event Sounds, Virtural desktops, Gadgets, Dual Booting, USB, Firewire, CD-Rom...or any of the other tech they use in their machines, and OSs." You're saying Apple didn't invent *any* of the tech they use in their machines and their OS's?