Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works 985
bonch writes "Fortune has a story about Microsoft's new philosophy--'It just works.' Jim Allchin details various planned Longhorn features to meet this goal, such as auto-defragmenting in the background, the ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously, and the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows. Mentions are also made of the competition from Linux, OS X Tiger, and Google."
Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
There are absolutely some capable folks there, so what is the problem? Why must you (almost) always use Apple as a source for inspiration? There is a reason that I moved my investments in Microsoft stock to Apple stock three years ago, and you are doing nothing to make me want to reinvest in Microsoft. Is marketing that out of control up there? Jim, come on now, I've met you and you are one smart guy. Finding the above link to Apple took me all of two seconds in Google and this statement from the article: "Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, looked at my Apple PowerBook and smugly pointed out that the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide." really worries me. It shows an arrogance that is not going to serve you or Microsoft well.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft: proudly stealing from Apple since 1983.
Typo (Score:5, Funny)
Remember? MS Works? Nothing new, here. Move along...
Re:Typo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
Another reading of "It just works" is the take that it is barely adequate, just about to fail. Which is considerable truth in advertising from MS.
The software analogue of this is, "It compiles, ship it!"
Believable (Score:5, Funny)
Apple: proudly failing to capitalize on good ideas since 1976
Re:Believable (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, MS just made that up and it happened to be just like their slogan. This is comparing Apples and oranges.
(Bitter, evil, digusting, thieving oranges)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Insightful)
Because, as we know "It Just Works" was invented by Apple.
It's not like the phrase returns 150,000 hits on Google or anything. And Linux distros like Ubuntu certainly haven't used that phrase to describe their OS.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Because, as we know "It Just Works" was invented by Apple.
You have to admit, it's better than the old one:
wrong one (Score:5, Funny)
It just works. Sometimes.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft: It's not a bug...it's a feature!
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft [msn.com] did copy [people.warp.es] the Ubuntu logo [ubuntulinux.com] as well, unless Ubuntu did copy ther logo from someone else before...
Well... I guess everyone does copy from someone else somewhere in time.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry for replying to myself, but I forgot the link [scripps.org].
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Funny)
Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They copied the features, why not copy the slog (Score:4, Informative)
When a file is opened on an HFS+ volume, the following conditions are tested:
If all of the above conditions are satisfied, the file is relocated -- it is defragmented on-the-fly.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Every marketing dept knows that innovation means risk. Risk could mean loss, and at a time that Linux and Mac OS X are on the rise, it's a risk they can't afford to take. So they're going with what's tried and tested.
They have a strangle-hold on the desktop market. They just need to make sure people don't switch to other OSes by offering them just enough.
Interestingly, their motto might as well have been "It's just enough". At least it's original.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
But the attitude in Slashdot is that if it's Open Source, we accept it in the name of attracting more users. On the contrary, when Microsoft does it, we always have 600-comment discussions of people whining!
Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely no Microsoft zealot. But I am getting fed up with the same story repeated here. Additionally, the Gates-Borg image reminds me that Simpsons episode with the Fox News spoof and the devil horns on the democrat candidate.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
They tend to hire the very best and brightest, right out of the top IT programs in the country, and train them from the beginning of their careers into "the Microsoft Way."
I've seen some of the questions they ask new hires in the interview. They love to throw MENSA-type logic puzzles at candidates to really separate the wheat from the chaff and get top-notch problem solvers on board.
Apple, on the other hand, has a reputation for a long hippie-dippy history (at least during the times it has been under Jobs's watch) of recruiting programmers with education and experience background completely outside the computer sciences, especially people with artistic backgrounds.
I strongly suspect this is the key difference as to why Apple, with a much smaller staff and having much less money, keeps cranking out fantastic ideas (with a few duds in the mix), and spotting the truly great garage innovations worth buying (for example, the decision to hire the SoundJam programmer to build iTunes for them)... while Microsoft seems to be completely incabable of ever bringing anything new to the table, or even recognizing something as worth buying/stealing before it's already a success.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Interesting)
People's fluid definitions of 'innovation' (which change depending on which company they're talking about) annoy me at the best of times, but are you really saying that a me-too mp3 player is really a 'truly great innovation'?
At the time, genuine media management (Score:5, Informative)
Real had some media management, so did Musicmatch, but they were both messy, confusing, cramped, and slow to search.
Right from the beginning, iTunes changed music from a wild collection of files on the hard-drive that had to be periodically coralled to a single library entity, searchable, playable, with built-in tag editing that put everything else to shame.
It took the effort out of having a music library. A lot of geeks are still frustrated with it because they got all their file directory skills for MP3s down pat and the new way doesn't fit them, but can you honestly see twelve year old girls organizing thousands of songs the old way?
It brought MP3 truly to the masses, not just the college crowd.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
I've seen some of the questions they ask new hires in the interview. They love to throw MENSA-type logic puzzles at candidates to really separate the wheat from the chaff and get top-notch problem solvers on board.
This is somewhat of a myth. I went through the MSFT interview process a number of years ago. (I ended turning the position down because when it came right down to it, I didn't want to move to Redmond
In any case, the only person who through a logic puzzle at me was this really junior guy who was obviously just learning to interview. The morning interviews were all cake, but after lunch they switched me to the serious interview track.
No mensa logic puzzles there. Just: Here's a pen, there's the whiteboard, Here's a problem, start pseudocoding. OK, now, I feed your pseudocode this kind of bad input, what does it do?
It was the most gloves-off, code-or-die interview I've ever had.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Interesting)
Its sad too, because no other PC manufacturer designs better looking, more ergonomic hardware or has a better operating system. All of which is destine
Macs used by "lone wolves"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft loves to tout "the numbers" because that's really all they have going for them. Quantity does not equate to quality, however. There's something to be said for any company that strives to produce a top-tier product, even when that means not being capable of producing large numbers of it to "dominate the marketplace".
Many of the best musical instruments aren't cranked out by the millions by a manufacturer. Rather, they're painstakingly assembled by hand, in small numbers. If they weren't "niche" products, they wouldn't be worthwhile products at all.
The gaming market, right now, is all about quantity too - so it goes without saying that they're all over the Windows platform. Still, one can argue that many of the best/most entertaining games are only available for game consoles - not for Mac *or* PC. And it's beginning to look like this trend is only going to gain more momentum. (Again, when you're shooting for maximum sales numbers above all else, you start thinking in terms of "Why not write this for one specific hardware configuration we KNOW is in a given console, rather than trying to support all these potential PC software conflicts and gaming peripherals, etc.?")
Meanwhile, game consoles seem to be headed towards using the same processor that's in the Mac, not the PC
I use my PC pretty much only for gaming these days, and my Mac for everything else. If I invest a couple hundred bucks or so in a new generation console (XBox 2 or something), I could probably ditch the Windows PC completely and not really miss it.
wow. progress. (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft Plug And Play (Score:5, Insightful)
With Windows 95, Microsoft created a "standard" called Plug And Play. Of course, the Microsoft version involved the Add Hardware Wizard, which, in the opinion of many Macintosh users then and now, is entirely contrary to the idea of plug and play. (To be fair, the classic Mac OS wasn't always literally plug and play, either, but OS X almost always is.)
I can only wonder what the It Just Works philosophy will give us.
Re: stocks (Score:3, Insightful)
If they decided to release dividends periodically, it would still be a decent buy, because they make so much damn money.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Funny)
So Microsoft's innovation was inventing a time machine?
Unbelievable indeed...
It just won't work (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It just won't work (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, is it THAT hard to get people to understand symlinks?
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
I feel insulted by "microsoft has symlinks already, they are just called shortcuts".
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
This is closely related to an XP bug that drives me nuts. I'm generating video files tens of gigabytes large, and when I open a directory containing such a file with the Windows Explorer, it crashes after a few moments, I believe because it's generating an iconic image of the first frame. At some point I managed to turn the preview off and all was well, but now it has reappeared.
Re:hard links (Score:3, Informative)
Cross-linked directory == same shit, dude, except that it was (1) unintentional, and (2) it meant that you probably lost a file (two files, A and B, with 2 directory entries, but both entries point to A. B is lost).
Evidently, you weren't around in the old DOS days.
Just works.... they way they tell you it should. (Score:5, Insightful)
How long will I have to struggle with it to figure out how to turn that off?
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, kinda like iTunes does.
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:3, Insightful)
If that's not the most ignorant thing I've ever heard. Modal dialogs and windows are an important tool.
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Apple makes it easy for the user to do complicated things.
2. Microsoft tries to automatically do complicated things for the user.
Approach #1 might be somewhat restrictive but gives the user some credit.
Approach #2 is rife with problems, notably ActiveX, email attachments that run themselves, autoscanning HDDs, and myriad other annoyances/outright hazards.
I'll take approach #1. It just works.
Not even that (Score:5, Insightful)
Mac OS X:
To turn on sharing, open up System Preferences > Sharing > Turn On File Sharing. Done. If anyone connects to the shared computer, they have to either login with the user name and pass, or access it as a Guest. Guest's only have access to each user's Public folder (which also has a dropbox inside).
Windows:
Right-click a folder > Sharing Tab > Share this folder. Now by default anyone can access this folder. To moderate access you have to open up Windows Explorer > Tools Menu > Folder Options > *View* (wtf??) > scroll down and check a box that says something along the lines of: Then you've got to go back and right click the shared folder, go the sharing tab, and configure the new confusing options. The options make you manually type in the name of the users (or groups) that are allowed to have access to the folder. Finally, you're done setting up sharing on Windows.
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Funny)
<zoom in on fine print...>
The "It just works" slogan is representative that Microsoft products will work for something. Microsoft guarantees that all hardware running Microsoft software will always "Just work" as:
Boat anchors
Target practice
Paper weights
Furniture, including bookends, footstools, and coffee tables
"It just works" may or may not apply to:
File storage
Application development
Application platform
Gaming
Multimedia
Use of the Internet
depending on the availability of service packs, updates, and copious bandwidth, as well as other factors (not exclusively including) ambient temperature, the phase of the moon, the average body mass index of Microsoft programmers, and the parity of your score when you reach the flagpole.
This is why Microsoft will fail in this strategy.. (Score:5, Insightful)
To make up for this lack of understanding (I doubt MS even realizes it doesn't understand how systems should behave) the company builds scripted interactions (unlovingly known to all of us as those irritating "wizards" that keep you from successfully creating the graph you want in Excel, etc...). In short, MS papers over bad behavior with bad interfaces that obstruct, obfuscate, and harass the poor souls who have to suffer through them. Microsoft has even named this philosophy: recall "Task Based Interfaces."
And may the Lord have mercy if you don't want to perform a task Microsoft hasn't already thought up.
Apple, on the other hand, approaches the problem differently. Rather than asking "how can we make it easy for someone to do XYZ," Apple asks "what should the tool XYZ do," and then if necessary builds an interface that allows people to modify that behavior through understandable, easy-to-find, commands/menus/buttons, etc.**
Apple's strategy, starkly 180 degrees from Microsoft's "task based" strategy, is a human based system. Apple doesn't guess what you're trying to do, but instead makes tools that do what you expect. Thus people, not magical condescending wizards, can apply the tools to whatever variety of tasks may be at hand. So things "just work" because the tools do what we expect from them. Then the computer becomes transparent to the task, rather than the focus of the task itself.
You probably won't encounter a single "wizard" included by Apple in OS X, aside from the intial setup assistant that isn't so much a "wizard" -- there's nothing "guiding" you through the setup screens -- as just a few screens full of fields of information the computer collects to get OS X configured appropriately.
As long as Microsoft doesn't understand that for something to "just work," a tool needs to do what people expect, and that people should be able to directly interact with the tool's interface in a manner that allows even a relatively uninformed person to make the tool do what they want, then Microsoft won't succeed in building highly usable human interfaces.
Since I'm confident that Microsoft hasn't turned a new leaf in this respect, I'm also confident the "it just works" campaign will amount to nothing more than saturation marketing and a lot of grumbling*** about cute animated puppy dogs pissing on our files.
--
* You could probably make a pretty good case for this problem being a fundamental problem in other aspects of Microsoft's design philosophy: bloat, poor security, inconsistency, and generally quirky, hard to predict behavior, could all spring from the same fertile root.
** This is a recursive strategy. It's not enough to make aprogram that does what a person expects, but every sub-piece of that program also needs to also do what a functionally experienced, but non-expert, user interacting with the tool for the first time might think it should do. Each button should be intuitively named. Menu items should be logically organized. The interface should be sufficiently uncluttered that interface elements are readily seen. It's OK for a system to have an unfamiliar way of interacting with the user (for example, drag-and-drop) if that method of interaction is widely applicable across the entire system so that once someone is familiar with the technique they can use it elsewhere. And so on.
*** Here's an amusing, and very telling, anecdote about MS human interfaces: I was once talking to a Microsoft programmer about user interface issues, and brought up Clippy as one of the most glaring examples of Microsoft's human interface failures...but the programmer refused to believe me that most people actual
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:3, Insightful)
The point is that Microsoft has a long history of adding features to their operating system, and putting all the effort into the feature instead of putting some into the configuration of the feature.
I don't care if the feature is there, or what the default state is, as long as I don't have to go somewhere arcane that I'd never think of without hours of exploring to turn it off... Just like I hated having to figure out that the power settings for my hard drive w
sorta (Score:5, Funny)
or
"Eventually, when Longhorn ships, it may actually work."
So yeah, don't buy anything else until then, cuz that wouldn't make sense!
or... (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing new really (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows XP auto-defragment as well (if enabled).
Well I gotta say (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well I gotta say (Score:3, Insightful)
The reason why I am able to work in the computer field that I do is because of that mentality. The hours, days, and weeks that I spent reading HOWTO's and man pages were all well spent. I didn't have to pay to learn how to configure, maintain and program a computer.
While there are allegorical sources of knowledge for Apple and Microsoft products, I have not been able to learn new technologies from these companies as I have with Open Source.
What I love so much about Linux
Typos (Score:4, Funny)
Advertising (Score:3, Informative)
wtf?? (Score:4, Funny)
Finally, a windows eq to ln -sf!
Re:wtf?? (Score:5, Informative)
The Internet Explorer, Recycle Bin, "My Network places" icons are links, not shortcuts, right?
With a shortcut, you can modify the shortcut metadata without affecting the metadata of the target. But with these dudes, you modify one set of meta data and it affects all of the icons.
Re:wtf?? (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/misc.sht m l#junction [sysinternals.com]
For example, I used this to share Sims neighborhoods between user accounts so my girlfriend's characters can interact with mine. works great, but be careful with it.
Anm
Alternative slogans... (Score:3, Funny)
It Just Works (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, It Already Works For Someone Else So We'll Pinch It:
auto-defragmenting in the background HFS+
ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously symlinks, Smart Folders
the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows Maybe that does indeed Just Work. No-one ever got fired for choosing a Microsoft (although there are places where that's beginning to change).
It just works... (Score:3, Funny)
--LWM
I laughed, I cried... (Score:4, Insightful)
Funny, my Powerbook G4 has been doing this for years. I guess Microsoft will be downplaying that a bit further down...
Much has been made in the computer press recently of the surprising similarities between Longhorn and Apple's upcoming new Macintosh operating system, Tiger. (See Peter Lewis's recent column, Apple's 'Tiger' to Stalk Rivals April 29.) The bottom line is that both will make finding items in our ever-increasing digital stores of information and entertainment much easier. Longhorn doesn't just show you an icon for a document, for example, but rather an itsy-bitsy picture of the first page. If you have a really good monitor--and eyesight--you could even read the numbers in that spreadsheet. You also will be able to put files simultaneously in different folders, and find the one you want with much more ease than you can today. Microsoft's research shows that the average corporate employee spends about 20% of her time on the PC simply looking for items. "We're trying to go beyond search into what we call 'visualization and organization,'" said Allchin
Right. I got Panther to do this with a little tweaking, and from what I read, Tiger may be doing something similar. Talk about innovation...
For all the advances that Microsoft and other computer companies have made in recent years, and despite the fact that PCs are central to many of our lives, it's still hard to use them. So it was reassuring to hear the main guy responsible for making their software predict that the situation will improve soon. I hope that he's right when he says that future systems will "just work."
Great. Fantastic. *Applause* But I don't trust it. I've heard this before. Until I see some increased security before they attempt to make their UI as beautiful as Mac OS X, I'm not even going to bother giving them the time of day.
It Just Barely Works. (Score:4, Funny)
I Just Works.
Barely.
Re:It Just Barely Works. (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to Microsoft, where nothing can possiblaye go wrong.
It Just Reboots (Score:3, Informative)
I've got too much experience with Windows to consider it for an enterprise environment.
time to update my list (Score:5, Funny)
Free as in costs money
Advantage as in same later
and open as in closed
We have a new entry
It just works as in windows.
Quite inkeeping with the rest of the publicity statments i belive
Rephrasing (Score:4, Insightful)
konqueror has done this for a while... I'm not terribly versed in GUI file managers for X, but I'd presume that other programs do it as well... I guess their new mantra is just a reincarnation of their old mantra "Steal other people's ideas and then charge for it!"
Rather than running just on computers that process 32 bits of data at a time, the new version will run on chips that process 64 bits.
To rephrase: "Windows will finally catch up to the rest of the world and be compatible with emerging technology, a practice that Microsoft is loathe to indulge in (see Internet Explorer)."
"If it's got arithmetic logic on it, then I think our software should be targeting it"
Another rephrasing: "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." - Jim Allchin, addressing my TI-86.
Re:Rephrasing (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it just me or does anyone else see a whole new can of worms (heh) open up here? So by default all files are processed by some code even if you just want to see what files are there? Great.
Re:Rephrasing (Score:3, Insightful)
This dumbing down gets annoying. "Oh, we will make the user's experience so much better by assuming what he wants and doing tons of stuff in the background." If I download a file from who knows where, I surely don't want any code processing its contents without my knowledge.
Look what they did with SP2's IE. AFAIK there is a "feature" that tags downloaded fil
Re:Rephrasing (Score:5, Informative)
I must have dreamed then when this [us-cert.gov] came up.
Thanks for clearing that up Mr. Troll Coward, Sir.
File in more than one folder at once? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:File in more than one folder at once? (Score:4, Informative)
$ ln -s /foo/bar/say_it_aint_so ~/say_it_aint_so
an astute comment from reader of TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
For those who don't read beyond the end of TFA... a great quote (with attribution): First, from TFA a quote from Allchin re the current state of affairs in XP vs. what Longhorn "will" deliver: Allchin: Microsoft's research shows that the average corporate employee spends about 20% of her time on the PC simply looking for items. Then, the comment from a reader: Rod Shuffler 04/22 10:55 An interesting article. Does that 20% non-productivity figure that Allchin quotes get factored into TCO arguments?
Re:an astute comment from reader of TFA (Score:3, Insightful)
Dim-witted: I just don't remember where I put that file. I guess I'll have to look in every folder for it.
Computer Illiterate: When I click File>Save I just click OK when the dialog pops up. I don't bother renaming it or putting it somewhere that is accessible. Now it's really hard to determine where I save that Really Important Document, and if it is Untitled-1.doc or Untitled-72.doc.
Poor Org
Re:an astute comment from reader of TFA (Score:3, Insightful)
Not every file being looked for was created by the person looking for it. I've found myself frustrated by this many times, and have been left with no option BUT to search every folder.
I do this.... I've gotten so used to having applications configured myself sometimes I use an application that I either for
New feature? (Score:5, Funny)
Is it just me.. or do all OSes do this? I have thousands of files, all in different places, all at the same time... right now.
-m
spyware (Score:4, Funny)
Gates: "Yes. You there with your hand up."
Me: "Mr. Ballmer? Mr. Gates? What about spyware and virii on the Longhorn platform?"
Bill: "As our slogan says, 'It just works!'"
Me: "Oh."
Re:spyware (Score:3, Insightful)
defragging in the background??? (Score:5, Interesting)
It just works, if... (Score:3, Funny)
But noo....
But sometime you need to scroll down a list, no... the other list. Yeah, that one. Select 'properties'-- what? No, right click on the icon, and select 'properties'. And then... no wait it's not here. Click 'cancel'. Ok, now click 'cancel' again. Now, hit the 'x' in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Now go to "start: settings: Control Panel", click on "Users Accounts", click on "change account", click on your username. What? No, I don't know why they have a
Sometimes it just works.
hey, wait a minnit! (Score:3, Insightful)
better slogan (Score:4, Funny)
Great Job Advertising (Score:5, Interesting)
They have done more to market for Apple in the last few weeks than they realize (or maybe they do realized).
Every comparison of features is with something already released under the current OS X, or is a feature that will be in the next release of OS X (slated soon?).
I guess I don't get what Microsoft's strategy is for this campaign. Is this the Microsoft "Me Too" campaign?
I would love to see the sales numbers for the next OS X release. We could see some increase in sales due to Microsoft owners realizing that there is another OS in the market that works at least as well, if not better, than XP.
Maybe Gates owns a bunch of Apple stock and is hedging his bets.
This is a 'Good Thing' (Score:5, Interesting)
In reality, as cute as it may be to point out the 'imitation' going on here, it might be better to look at the renewed (finally!) competition taking place. For years, Microsoft has been relatively reluctant to do any serious innovation in OS development, instead focusing on the issues that were generating the most complaints. Think about it, from Windows 95 through Windows XP, what major innovations have been introduced?
Now, however, that Mac OS has been making big strides and an ever increasing number of people have started to look at it as a viable alternative (even in my small-business workplace!), Microsoft has seemingly started to take the competition seriously. This is a Good Thing!
Competition always benefits the consumer, and prior to the last couple years, there *was no competition* in the desktop OS category.
Note to MS: No more slogans ending in -ks. (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Catchy slogans ending in -ks strangely tend to already be in use by other people. And no, I'm not talking about Apple here. How about Autodesk [theregister.co.uk]?
2. Words ending in -ks can easily be altered on billboards [meepzorp.com]. "It just sucks" is going to be just as easy as this one was...
Apparently Microsoft is suppressing its memory of these past events.
A short haiku on the matter (Score:4, Funny)
I sit with skepticism.
Microsoft go home.
You mean like Windows ME? (Score:4, Funny)
I remember this because at the time, one of my colleagues kept mocking Ballmer by deliberately misquoting it as "It just broke." To which I usually responded, "...again."
Re:You mean like Windows ME? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/14/winhec.
Back in 1999, Microsoft and Intel were using the "It Just Works" slogan to promote something they called the "Easy PC" initiative. And of course, it was more appropriate then, as it is now, to simply say "It just broke. Again."
In MS's defense. (Score:4, Insightful)
This looks like it is being taken out of context. Notice they split his sentence into two parts. I don't see MS using this term anywhere else in the article or stumping on the "It just works" slogan.
I am a Linux and Mac fan. I also think LongHorn is playing catch up to apple as far as UI goes. However, this article is a little unfair. Definitely anti-MS propoganda. Which is good
Re:In MS's defense. (Score:4, Interesting)
You obviously don't have a mac.
I have one, and OSX/Aqua is no end of illogical ui frustrations. Apple completely abandoned most of their original macos UI design guidelines in favor of eye candy.
Revised EULA section (Score:5, Funny)
16. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. The Limited Warranty that appears above is the only express warranty made to you and is provided in lieu of any other express warranties or similar obligations (if any) created by any advertising, documentation, packaging, or other communications. Specifically, marketing materials containing the phrase "It Just Works" specifically define "works" as the standard operation of the software, information and related content AS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and does not warrant that the behavior of the software will meet expectations of function or operation. Except for the Limited Warranty and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of reliability or availability, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence, all with regard to the Software, and the provision of or failure to provide support or other services, information, software, and related content through the Software or otherwise arising out of the use of the Software. ALSO, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION OR NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH REGARD TO THE SOFTWARE.
What's next? (Score:5, Funny)
It just works ... to controll you (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sure it won't work like linux, eg you can copy it, maniuplate it, move it arround from pc to pc, store it on your local servers for quick downloads and access, without a license, with out a phonecall to microsoft.
Linux will work wether I have a CD, DVD, USB, network access, or even bootstrap floppy without much effort.
Linux will work as a terminal or a server right out of the box.
Linux will work on 32mb ram with a 400 mb disk and
a tty text console.
Linux will work on a 2048 node supercomputer parallel cluster.
Linux will work on x86, x86-64, dec, sparc, mips, power-pc, and even ARM.
GNU/Linux will work for editing, spread sheets, graphics, office productivity, mail servers, database servers, web servers, dns servers, smb servers, and development in over 10 different languages right out if the box.
So how is microsift claming "it just works" again?
Allchin is always such an entertaining read. (Score:5, Funny)
Our British cousins are fond of saying "all mouth and no trousers."
Of Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, I'm fond of saying "Allchin and no dick."
Smug, annoying and delusional - he's the archetypal marketmonkey.
Re:Too much to hope for (Score:3, Funny)
-David
Re:Defragmenting "just works"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny you should mention ReiserFS. Version 3 implemented efficient block allocation, much like E2fs and others have. It didn't need to be defragmented, either manually or automatically. As long as the filesystem didn't get too full then it worked fairly well. But the new Reiser4 however uses a periodic "repacker", which sounds very much like auto-defragmentation.
From the long document of the Namesys website: