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Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8
- duiker101 13y agoI like Windows 8 but there is like 10 people using it. Most of the people are still on 7. I really don't see the need for a Windows 9 that will just bring driver troubles, incompatibility and inconsistency.
- tiziano88 13y agonot if it's in fact just a rebranded windows 8
- Goronmon 13y agoYou mean like how Windows 7 was basically a rebranded Vista?
- WalterSear 13y agoIt was more than that. It was Vista with 2 years of bug fixes.
- apetrovic 13y agoI like Vista SP1, but there's like 10 people using it. Most of the people are still on XP. I really don't see the need for a Windows 7 that will just bring driver troubles, incompatibility and inconsistency.
- bergie 13y agoBlogspam, a lot more content in the original: http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/threshold-be-called-windows-9-ship-april-2015 http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/threshold-be-called-window...
- quenlinlom 13y agoYou'd thought somebody would've written an algorithm for detecting blogspam and have it implemented in news aggregator sites already.
- alexdowad 13y agoSigh. More new stuff to learn when I need to help people with their Windows boxes. How long can these guys go on releasing new operating systems? And how long will people keep buying them?
- sliverstorm 13y agoMajor new releases are hardly inappropriate. There's still a lot of change in computers. Recall XP had no wireless support until SP2, and it hasn't been until Win7 or so that SSD's have been handled optimally (TRIM and so forth)
- robert_tweed 13y agoThere really haven't been many major changes to the x86 architecture since the 386, with the notable exception of 64-bit recently. Pretty much everything else should be handled with driver updates or at worst a service pack. I wouldn't even object to paying for those kinds of upgrades, if I needed them, if I could take them without getting a bunch of unwanted tinkering with the UI and toolset. I eventually gave up on Windows as my primary OS because of many small, incremental breakages like changes to the batch language (without really fixing any of its serious shortcomings), it becoming impossible to do a simple file search from Explorer, then it becoming impossible to change file associations without a 3rd-party tool. But hey, if you want an animated dog for no reason, that's no problem! I still need Windows 7 for some things (3D software is still almost exclusively Windows-only) and I still find certain things about OS X a bit clunky, but overall I'm rather happy that I no longer have to care about what Microsoft might mess up in Windows 9.
- sliverstorm 13y agoThere really haven't been many major changes to the x86 architecture since the 386 CPU architecture is hardly all that matters to the core OS Pretty much everything else should be handled with driver updates or at worst a service pack. Driver updates work fine for adding support for a new model of graphics card, but when you introduce a whole new kind of device (e.g. WiFi, SSD) the implications reach into the OS itself. They managed WiFi in a service pack for XP, but it was both a pretty unprecedented level of change for a service pack, and always felt kind of tacked-on.
- shawabawa3 13y ago> "To distance itself from the Windows 8 debacle, Microsoft is currently planning to drop the Windows 8 name and brand this next release as Windows 9." I... I don't... As opposed to what? Windows 8 2? Or Windows 8 SP2 I suppose. Still, one of the most ridiculous sentences I've read in a while (edit: didn't realise they released 8.1, thought it was SP1. I guess I partially retract how stupid I think the sentence is)
- nodata 13y agoAs opposed to Windows 2015.
- m_st 13y agoWell they could have called it Windows 8.2, no?
- shawabawa3 13y agoTechnically they could have, but do they have any history of doing that? (edit: didn't realise they released 8.1, thought it was SP1. I guess I partially retract how stupid I think the sentence is) The sentence would have made a bit of sense if they had gone back to vista style naming, and called it windows <name> or something. But the last 2 releases have been called 7 and 8, is 9 really distancing itself from 8?
- chaz 13y agoYes, I would consider a full version increment to be a distancing. Most press that I've seen had been considering Windows "Threshold" (codename) as Windows 8.2. https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+8.2 https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+8.2 Windows Phone went from 7 to 7.5, and then to 8. It's possible that they could have gone with Windows 8.5, too.
- greenyoda 13y ago"Technically they could have, but do they have any history of doing that?" Before they started giving Windows releases cute names, Microsoft used to have version numbers like "Windows 3.1", "Windows NT 3.51", etc.
- jhardcastle 13y agoSo are we now seeing the confirmation of the anti-Star Trek Curse[1]? Windows 9 will be OK, 10 will be terrible, 11 will be OK, and so on... Microsoft's new leadership needs to start thinking about resigning itself to being the stable operating system choice. Nothing fancy, nothing sexy, no major "rebirth" to keep up with the Jonses ever other version. They are an enterprise operating system for 95% of businesses out there, and businesses don't want rapid change. They will continue to buy Windows in huge numbers as long as they can rely upon it. It's too expensive to switch to anything else. If MS wants to keep turning over the apple cart to try and stay in the consumer market, they're going to upset their true core audience (IMHO). [1] http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarTrekMovieCurse http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarTrekMovieCurs...
- Pxtl 13y agoIdunno, the idea of unifying a tablet/phone UI seems to be a good idea with the massive shift to mobile devices. MS stands the risk of being completely left behind. I think the Metro UI could've worked if they'd bolted a taskbar/start-menu onto it, as a concession to the fact that notebooks/desktops aren't tablets and have enough screen-real-estate for such things and aren't really a good fit for "hot corners".
- venomsnake 13y agoMetro would have worked if MS hadn't tried to pull a Jobs with the windows store. And left the old start menu of course.
- Pxtl 13y agoI don't think users give a crap about the Windows Store - the only people angry about that are developers, and maybe the 5 people who bought a Windows 8 RT device.
- venomsnake 13y agoYeah, when you prevent the developers from developing for your runtime it results in barren wasteland. When your new and celebrated platform is barren wasteland the conversation about your OS devolves into the barrens chat. Which is exactly what happened with win 8
- johnatwork 13y agoI hope with this release they resolve some edition confusions between nonsensical words, like Premium, Professional, Ultimate, etc.
- nobodyshere 13y agoI believe they should get rid of different versions and just make one. That'd also be great when ordering custom laptops where some features somehow depend on which version of windows you pick (i.e. 'Fresh start' on Sony).
- daigoba66 13y agoDespite some of the earlier marketing, describing how much simpler the editions became, it's still a cluster-mess. For example read about problems upgrading to 8.1 for various editions: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/why-can-t-find-update-store# http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/why-can-t-find-.... Upgrading to a "service pack" in previous versions of Windows never seemed this complicated.
- yuhong 13y agoWhat is also funny about the 8.1 "update" is also that the system requirements for the 64-bit versions actually increased.
- dman 13y agoIf they dont do that they should at least make a list of comprehensive differences between the editions. The page for comparing versions seems to be made by the marketing dept and is mostly fluff. I found out the hard way that professional versions dont support multi monitor RDP and NFS shares. You need to buy enterprise for that. Try finding this out ahead of time using the website.
- Xdes 13y agoThe only thing I want from Microsoft is for them to stop messing with the UI. Metro is fine and users will learn to like it.
- Karunamon 13y agoI agree in that they need to leave the UI the hell alone unless there is a concrete benefit, but metro? Fine for everything except getting real work done, that is. Mediocre tablet UI, godawful desktop UI.
- jackmaney 13y agoNo. Metro is garbage, and those of us who despise it will wait quite patiently for Windows 9.
- _pmf_ 13y agoYe olde two version tango.
- computerJanitor 13y agoWindows 9 Core. They didn't like our GUI, so we're sure end users will love learning Powershell.
- Pxtl 13y agoAm I the only .NET developer who doesn't get the point of powershell? "Look it's C#! But with uglier syntax. And terrible tools. But with a handful of tiny features that let it work like a command-line language!"
- mhurron 13y agoIt is a CLI. So what you're not getting is server management.
- Karunamon 13y agoHonestly i'd rather install Cygwin and manually manipulate the registry than deal with powershell.
- Pxtl 13y agoAs a CLI it's hideously baroque. It brings in all the mental overhead of OOP without the tooling needed to make OOP comfortable to work with. OOP is pleasant in .NET languages thanks to the relationship between Visual Studio and all information the .NET framework has about classes and assemblies - all the documentation around the object you're manipulating is right there. The lightweight-but-still-too-heavy Powershell ISE leaves the user completely in the dark about the .NET framework.
- tbrownaw 13y agoIt's an experiment, to see how hard it is to make "everything is an object" work as well as "everything is text" for scripting.
- deleted 13y ago
- programminggeek 13y agoMicrosoft is in an unlucky spot. They sell to businesses and are trying to transition to something closer to Apple's business model, which is kind of a tricky proposition. Consumer and business have totally different buying cycles and expectations. Also, Apple spent like a decade rebuilding their business to make it work before the iPhone happened. It started with the iMac, then iPod, then iPhone, then iPad, but with each one they learned something, killed some businesses, started new businesses, and in general worked to keep getting better at what they do. Microsoft is only a year or two maybe into trying to do the same and until recently they haven't had the same kind of singular focus on it because they are just so freeking big. Apple was big, but Microsoft is a company of 99,139 people. Think about moving that many different interests in the same direction. That takes time.
- WalterSear 13y agoIt's not unlucky if you put yourself there.
- raganwald 13y agoSo, this is a blog post, quoting a blog post, describing rumours of an operating system release that is over a year away, with no specific features quoted, just a name and a bunch of "it may ___s?" Hacker News, you can do better than upvoting this garbage to the front page.
- puppetmaster3 13y agoIn April ... of '15. Who cares. psa: ChromeOS(fast, stable) is based on Gentoo.
- pjmlp 13y agoNSA takes care of your data.
- currywurst 13y agoPeople skeptical about Windows 8.1 should try one of the new 8-inch tablets ( I tried a Dell Venue 8 Pro). The Modern UI just makes so much sense on it. Very satisfying experience once you spend 5mins getting used to it ..
- rthomas6 13y agoIf Microsoft follows their old pattern of consumer OSes, Windows 9 will be fantastic: * 95: Dud * 98: Great * Me: Dud * XP: Great * Vista: Dud * 7: Great * 8: Dud
- pmelendez 13y ago>"* Me: Dud, * XP: Great" Windows 2000 was great and it was between those too.
- rthomas6 13y agoThat was more of a professional/server release, not a consumer release, no? If 2000 is included, you can also include 2008, which was also good.
- pmelendez 13y ago2000 wasn't server only, it was an iteration of the NT brand that got merged with the Chicago (9X) line since XP. Windows 2008 was in fact a server only version. I wonder if MS would have less trouble if they were doing the integration of windows brands in the same way that they did with NT and 9X.
- jiggy2011 13y agoWas 95 a dud? That's not how I remember it, although it was a huge change from 3.x. You also miss Windows 2000 which was a very good OS though not really sold to consumers.
- WalterSear 13y agoDrivers were a nightmare for a while, IIRC.
- chris_wot 13y agoA bit like Star Trek films.
- pmelendez 13y ago>"To distance itself from the Windows 8 debacle" I must be a really weird person, since I like Windows 8 a lot and I actually liked Windows Vista (albeit I used the later in the SP1 iteration and with a decent machine)
- astral303 13y agoI hear no end of non-techie people cursing Windows 8 and its metro interface. As a latest example, one of my friends said he wanted to buy a new Windows laptop, but walked out of the store after being really confused using Windows 8 (quote was: "I don't know how I will be able to get work done in this."). Personally, just the sheer learning curve to help someone set up a new Windows 8 laptop was ridiculous. I had to search the web for answers on things like locating the control panel. Whereas Vista had quality and "annoyance" problems (new security UI), Windows 8 seems to have all the quality, but behind a blunderous user experience. This tells me that Microsoft has really screwed this up. We techies quickly learn the new UI and adapt to it, figuring out how it works. It seems like the new UI was developed with a techie mindset, and but people outside of tech don't get it. Or perhaps there's a simpler explanation. The Windows 8 UI really is an awkward meshing of "tablet-like" and desktop-like experience, with both experiences compromised. And it's filled with bad decisions, such as Metro-only Skype that requires you to convert your existing Skype account to a Windows login. Don't want to mess with your Skype account? Then you install "desktop" Skype. Two Skypes. Two different experiences. Seriously? You have gotta be kidding me. How could you ship that?
- mattmanser 13y agoHow was it for a techie mindset? Hit windows key, type in 'environment'. Where the hell is change environment variables? A lot of the really important techie menus items are missing from Windows 8, it's actually pretty useless as a techie interface without modding vanilla, which I'm not a fan of because I use so many different machines. Also try using server 2012 with a remote desktop connection. Nightmare. NB: This was true last time I was using a win 8 machine, may have changed now.
- astral303 13y agoYou're right, it sucks for a techie too. I'm just surprised at all the "Windows 8 ain't so bad" comments around here, so I assumed I might be missing something.
- sliverstorm 13y agoFWIW typing "environment" brings up two options; change user, and change system environment variables. This is Win8.1