Monad Shell Removed From Vista 330
hggs writes "According to Stephen Toulouse at Microsoft, because of the possible virus threat that targets Monad the shell will not be included in Windows Vista. CNet is reporting that, even though Monad is not to be included on Vista, it will be included on a major server operating system for servers from Microsoft. Codenamed Longhorn server, that edition is due out by 2007." Update: 08/06 04:45 GMT by Z : As Mr. Toulouse states here, the submission here adds one and one and gets three. Monad hasn't been in Vista for about two months. The CNet article is clarifying a previous report stating that Monad could potentially be the first source of viruses in an OS which incorporated it. The interesting news about Monad in the server edition was obscured by the factually incorrect submission, which at first blush seemed to make sense. Mea Culpa.
Re:Slide more and more... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So what they are saying is... (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess they've really castrated it now... (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this really the best response that Microsoft can come up with at a time when there is so much increased dissatisfaction with their endless upgrade cycle? If it is, then the F/OSS communities should probably increase their efforts to target the corporate desktop, because Microsoft doesn't appear to have anything of substance for several years! I'll bet Steve Jobs is laughing too; he's certainly picked the right time to go through the traumas of switching architecture.
Re:If only it was VMS... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been away from VMS too long to call myself a real geek, but what I miss most when I'm using other OSs is the consistency.
Commands mean what you think and work the way you expect. The Procedure Calling Standard makes coding in different languages a breeze. The versioning file system saved my arse more than once too...
And of course, there was always EDT..
Trouble is, most of that sort of stuff is the result of solid design, and can't just be ported over. Adding a clever command shell to Windows is a good step, and from what I've seen, Monad has potential to be a very clever CLI, but it's resting on a system which was never designed to be as solid as VMS.
I've heard Longhorn/Vista described as the result of a collision between VMS and OSX Tiger, and while there's an element of truth there, I'd say the bits that survived the impact aren't the ones which make VMS so rock solid.
Re:MOD PARENT UP (Score:3, Interesting)
Mmm. Interesting philosophy. I wonder if I can apply to other things... Let me try.
Jeffrey Dahmer isn't 100% bad. He does have some good qualities and does good things sometimes. Don't complain about him point blank to imrove yoru ego, you'll be the kid that called wolf too many times.
Hey that works pretty good.
Re:FP (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, the people who end up spending the most are the windows users: $899 for the machine, then spending hours trying to get someone to get them a pirated version of office, then spending hours trying to install it without calling ms, typing 16-25 char strings, then spending hours installing their software fireall and antivirus combo, including getting the 29.99 yearly subscription from the vendor's site, then spending days dealing with popups of all kinds such as "would you like to create a passport account", "this application is trying to connect to the internet", and "get vlagr@ Cheap!". Then, later, they spend countless hours cursing their bad luck at going to one, just one porn site, accidentally mind you, and now their machine is slow as molasses, will crash when trying to open a PDF, and will give them more softcore than a subscription to penthouse mag. Eventually they wil spend countless hours trying to get a geek to come over and remove the spyware, only to be berated for not running linux/osX for countless hours, then getting the news: "your box is hosed, gimme the recovery CD, I'm reformatting".
As an aside, it is, to be honest, quite a pleasure to see the glaze over their eyes as the realization dawns on then that they are about to have to do everything all over, from scratch.
Finally, unable to take it any longer, they throw in the towel, and head to best buy, where they are going to spend another $1500 on a P4 that is about 800 times faster than what they need, get the Free* (with mail-in rebate) printer, and get the extended warranty for $220, because, as the salesman says: "you can return it anytime in three years."
So, who's spending the most time and money on computers now?
I ask you now, my Fellow Slashdotters, Roots, and Grokkers everywhere: don't let your friends run windows!
So wth is left now? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If only it was VMS... (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd say the ex-VMS people did their jobs just fine. IMO, there's nothing wrong with the NT kernel or its API (other than CamelCase and the combination of too many function parameters and C's lack of default parameter values, which are minor problems).
It's just that everything else that went into NT was pretty much crap: the GUI API dragged almost unchanged from the 16-bit DOS days, default security settings from the same era, failed ideas like the registry, countless buggy "services" that leaked memory like sieves and were open doors to Internet worms, etc.
It reminds me of the AMC Gremlin I briefly owned when I was in high school. This one had the old Nash Rambler inline-6 engine. My dad and a few of my friends' dads told me basically: "Now that's a damned fine engine you've got there; they don't build 'em like that anymore. I'm sorry about your car, though." When so much of the car had finally fallen off that even I, a teenaged punk, thought it was a menace to public safety, I dropped it off at the junkyard. I left the poor engine there purring like a kitten, as good as new.