Windows 8.1 quietly gets released to manufacturers

http://guru8.net/2013/08/windows-8-1-quietly-gets-released-to-manufacturers/

by mboses • 13 years ago

54 51 13 years ago

voidz• 13 years ago

Smart. You don't want to be laughed out of the shops again. :-D

tux• 13 years ago

With all this revelations about spying and hacking and people still use windows. Priceless! I bet Bill Gates laughing his ass off, and at same time uses Mac/Linux him self O_o

kumarharsh• 13 years ago

which medication are you on?

nivla• 13 years ago

You are right.. Let me switch over to SELinux... but wait that was made by NSA themselves...

Playing around the paranoia, don't you think the NSA would have taken a minute to think, Gee we forced Microsoft and Apple to include backdoors in their OSes, maybe we should now tackle the OS that powers 90% of the web? You know maybe we could slip a backdoor in the one of the utility apps such as "htop".

Let's get serious, OpenSource is not always = Secure and Closed Source does not always = InSecure. Truecrypt is the perfect example: Open sourced but too complex to Audit, maintainers identities are unknown and offered binaries differ from manual compilation.

A good rule of thumb: Assume anything you din't write or can't audit as insecure.

inthewind4• 13 years ago

Yes, worrying.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/allegations-openbsd-back...

Not sure what was confirmed on that story, but I remember reading it and thinking there wasn't much chance that I'd ever be able to audit my own system.

mattl• 13 years ago

truecrypt isn't open source, its proprietary with published source.

dave1010uk• 13 years ago

I believe Windows 8.1 ships with IE11, which means now all current desktop browsers support WebGL!

http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl

abrowne• 13 years ago

Safari still requires turning WebGL on in the (also off by default) developer menu.

glhaynes• 13 years ago

Any idea why this is? I think I remember seeing some WebGL security concerns back when it was first getting going, but I assume those have been mitigated by now. I guess it's just Safari being behind on implementation?

300bps3• 13 years ago

Just checked my MSDN subscription - RTM is still not available there. Latest version available is still Windows 8.1 Preview. For anyone curious here's a good list of changes from 8.0 -> 8.1 right from Microsoft:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn140266.aspx

harrytuttle4• 13 years ago

They're not throwing RTM out to MSDN subscribers from what I hear. Not good.

My sub expires in 3 months and I will not be renewing it. We're freezing dev and moving off .Net and Windows due to shit like this, rising costs, audits and MS support being beyond fucking useless unless you're a multi million pound customer.

wluu2• 13 years ago

It'll be free to all existing Windows 8 users at some stage in October (17th I think?).

And as I've read elsewhere, will be on MSDN around the same time.

I'm curious as to what you mean by "shit like this", as that seems to be quite a broad statement without specifics.

I work for a small'ish ISV, and find the MSDN offering to be quite decent.

Also, make use of your Azure benefits while you still have those 3 months left! http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn...

300bps3• 13 years ago

They're not throwing RTM out to MSDN subscribers from what I hear

Historically, Microsoft has released RTM versions to MSDN and TechNet subscribers within a couple weeks after the RTM is official.

With Windows 8.1, you can't get a U.S. based spokesperson to say whether they are continuing this policy. They all say "no comment". Just like when you ask them if Windows 8.1 was RTM'd - "No comment". You gave no citations for anything you said, but I'm guessing you're basing it on the single Microsoft employee from the Netherlands that put out a message that said MSDN/Technet would be released at general availability. That's hardly official.

We're freezing dev and moving off .Net and Windows due to shit like this

A rumor that Windows 8.1 RTM would not be available to MSDN subscribers before GA is "shit like this" that makes you move off of .NET and Windows?

audits

Need an explanation of this one. The only time I've ever heard of an MSDN subscriber getting audited was taking MSDN .iso files and keys and posting them to torrent sites for something like 5 years before they said a word to him.

MS support being beyond fucking useless unless you're a multi million pound customer.

MS development support is useless and always has been no matter how big of a customer you are. The typical chain is: find a problem, report it to MS, solve it yourself, they email you asking for additional information. Been like that for at least the last 15 years. Vendor support is useless anyway when there're much better resources like Google to find quality sites like Stackoverflow.

wslh• 13 years ago

Same experience here. Our company is experiencing a serious MSDN service degradation, far from the "Developers, Developers, Developers" mantra. They are giving us less licenses and we can't get new ones automatically. We even tried to upgrade to a more expensive plan but they refused to give us the discount we have every year for renewals.

MichaelGG2• 13 years ago

Moving off .Net due to this? I must question if that's more of a knee-jerk reaction. VS still provides a fantastic experience, and Mono is very healthy. Certainly, moving off .Net will have a higher cost to you than migrating to Mono runtimes?

pcunite2• 13 years ago

I want Windows to do well, I wish them no harm. But I feel that sadly, "8" has become another "Vista" (perception). I'm bored with any news about it and barring some really big changes there is not going to be anything left to woo me to it.

I hope the next CEO of Microsoft has some empathy for people who use their products. A little bit more care should be considered before forcing broad sweeping changes. As big and as profitable as they are, would it have killed them to have different GUI options available (classic 7 mode)?

I skipped Vista initially because there was no "UP" button for folder navigation. I had to install FileSearchEX for Windows 7. Maybe I'm in the 5% eccentric crowd.

wluu2• 13 years ago

Another Vista? Hardly.

As someone who has used Windows 8, and recently moved back to a PC with Windows 7. I think 8 is actually an improvement. Lots of little UI things that I really like (the copy dialog is much improved).

Sure, there are things that need improving. I sincerely hope I can turn off the start button in Win 8.1 rtm.

pcunite2• 13 years ago

I want the underlying improvements too. I just wish the GUI changes weren't so jarring. When I say "Vista", I mean the perception, not the quality.

rbanffy4• 13 years ago

I agree. Windows 8 feels much better than Windows 7. You have to keep in mind I am a Ubuntu user who loves Unity. Many people resist changes like this. The same kind of resistance is to be expected from users who actually like Windows 7.

I must add, however, I switched back to Ubuntu on the first opportunity.

alimbada5• 13 years ago

I've gotten used to 8 despite the jarring issues I had with it at first. 8.1 addresses most, if not all of those issues.

Also, Alt+Up Arrow is your friend for navigating up a directory. ;-) (I find it much easier to use the keyboard shortcut than hunt for the toolbar button anyway)

Semaphor• 13 years ago

Only most for me as I think there are still some metro-mode "features" that I'll encounter during use. But overall Windows 8 was awesome and only got f*cked over by the forced GUI changes that made everyone (including me) get really defensive even though you could work around them.

webreac• 13 years ago

I have used W8 slightly less than 2 weeks on the laptof of my wife (she asked me to install linux instead). Like many, I have not liked the general UX, but what surprised me a lot is that to work around the bad UX, I have naturally started to learn the keyboard shortcuts. Many are identical in W7, but I did not need them before.

I think that W8 could be usable if we first learn all the important keyboard shortcuts.

hackinthebochs• 13 years ago

Just for edification, the "up" functionality was to click on the folder in the navigation breadcrumb.

alimbada5• 13 years ago

The breadcrumb's a lot more useful as it not only allows navigating up, but also further upwards as well as to siblings via the dropdown arrows.

sergiotapia• 13 years ago

So Microsoft, I live in Bolivia; it's been quite a while now since Windows 8 has been released. Surely nearing 2014 I can _now_ purchase Windows 8 using my Paypal or Credit Card?

Edit: Nope, your updater still says my country is unsopported. :( Get with the times MS.

johansch• 13 years ago

I think you are supposed to pirate windows 8 if you live in Bolivia.

By the way, do you know if Apple "supports" Bolivia?

rbanffy4• 13 years ago

Dunno, but you can download and install Ubuntu 12.04 or Fedora 19 rather easily.

holms• 13 years ago

Just for the rumors. Barclays using windows8 with start button for a long time. At least 6 month from now :)

sbarre• 13 years ago

Does anyone know: Will Windows 8.1 be a free upgrade for existing Windows 8 customers?

Edit: Did some googling, it will be a free upgrade (for anyone else wondering) through the Microsoft Store.

inthewind4• 13 years ago

I've been reluctant to sign up to the store. As I don't want any syncing to the cloud, it's unclear to me what's stored at MSs end, and what the repurcussions are from doing so.

This seems a tactical way to get us to sign up for a store account.

Windows 8.1 quietly gets released to manufacturers

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