

Windows 8.1 quietly gets released to manufacturers - mboses
http://guru8.net/2013/08/windows-8-1-quietly-gets-released-to-manufacturers/

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pcunite
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.

~~~
wluu
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.

~~~
pcunite
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.

~~~
creatio
What GUI changes are jarring? I've been using it for 6 months and I would not
go back to 7 because of the GUI changes alone. I'm starting to think I'm the
only one that actually likes 8.

~~~
Radix_
You aren't. I really like it but the disconnect between old style apps and the
new style is jarring. The new apps and interface would be great on a tablet
but feels clunky on my old laptop with a bad track pad. Also searching has
been compartmentalized so to do some searches you need to type Win+w and know
why you search is blank. Of course Win+r is still there so in practice its
pretty easy to avoid.

~~~
alimbada
FYI, Win 8.1 fixes the search thing.

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dave1010uk
I believe Windows 8.1 ships with IE11, which means now all current desktop
browsers support WebGL!

[http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl](http://caniuse.com/#search=webgl)

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

~~~
glhaynes
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?

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

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

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

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300bps
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](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/dn140266.aspx)

~~~
harrytuttle
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.

~~~
MichaelGG
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?

~~~
harrytuttle
It's not just this. Developer relations have gone to shit and visual studio on
large projects like ours (2mloc c#) is a liability. Oh and add the
schizophrenic nature of devdiv and it's just not worth it anymore. Need we say
more: SQL licensing, Silverlight, windows workflow rewrite, EF is a piece of
shit, MS11-100 (demon hotfix from hell). I could go on for days. We have blown
over 24 days in the last 2 years on just phone calls to Microsoft.

We threw out partnership agreement in last year (we were gold).

Not going near Mono. It's another ghetto.

To be honest, our front end is going to python and the back end to postgres.
Any critical sections go to C++.

~~~
MichaelGG
So long it's not a the grass-is-greener effect. While I'm not pleased with a
lot of Microsoft's recent developments, and C# seems to be an evolutionary
dead-end, it's not like other platforms are beautiful. I'm sure there are lots
of shit frameworks like EF on other platforms; it's not like EF is some
critical piece of .NET. Personally, F# is the number one reason I'm still on
.NET, with VS being a very strong second place.

I've had critical telecom services running on Mono for many years; not sure
what "ghetto" means there. Xamarin also seems to be doing quite well with
their cross-platform initiatives.

I've moved SQL Server apps to Postgres (due to licensing) and back (due to
maintenance/replication). On another we're moving to PG again due to
licensing. Postgres is great, but holy shit MSSQL provides a huge feature
surface that's very accessible (licensing aside). SSMS is a dream compared to
the ghetto of PG frontends (in my limited experience).

But if you can easily dump and rewrite, I'll admit, that is fun.

------
sbarre
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.

~~~
inthewind
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.

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

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

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tux
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

~~~
nivla
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.

~~~
inthewind
Yes, worrying.

[http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/allegations-openbsd-
back...](http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/allegations-openbsd-backdoors-
may-be-true)

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.

~~~
jodrellblank
There's no chance at all that you completely could.

[http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html](http://cm.bell-
labs.com/who/ken/trust.html)

Ken Thompson, 1984, explains how to get a system with perfectly clean source
code to compile a hacked 'login' binary every time.

"In demonstrating the possibility of this kind of attack, I picked on the C
compiler. I could have picked on any program-handling program such as an
assembler, a loader, or even hardware microcode. As the level of program gets
lower, these bugs will be harder and harder to detect. A well installed
microcode bug will be almost impossible to detect."

