SuperSite Blog : Personal

A Bit of Backpedaling and an Apology from Microsoft

pthurrott — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:05:50 GMT

In a very long-winded post, Microsoft's Eric Ligman (he of the "you are probably a pirate" post) does some furious backpedalling from his previous position on doing clean installs with Windows 7 Upgrade media. That is, where he previously came off very strong about how people doing this could be pirates ("technically possible" does not always mean legal), he's apparently woken up to the fact that many of Microsoft's customers agree with me. ("technically possible" does not always mean illegal. In fact, in this case, it almost always means legal.) The issue here isn't just semantic. This is very much about how Microsoft communicates with his customers, and while Ligman tries to make the case that Microsoft cares very much about it's customers, this little episode is telling them otherwise. Sorry, Eric. There's a lot of ill will for you to get over now.

Anyway. To the relevant portions of his latest post.

"Conspiracy-theorism" (yes, I know theorism is not in the dictionary) is very present.

i.e. it's your fault, those Microsoft customers who misunderstood his first post, which was in fact innocent and not an attempt to scare anyone.

There appears to be a lot of reading through "pre-determined conclusion" lenses

Sorry, you're 0 for 2. I read through "customer" lenses. I look at what Microsoft did, and what you wrote, and, in this case, deemed it to be anti-customer, because Microsoft is punishing the many (almost 1 billion legit Windows users who qualify for Windows 7 Upgrade pricing) for the sins of the few (actual software pirates). This is, of course, the primary complaint about all anti-piracy controls, when you think about it.

Anyway.

Where in there did I state that the solutions proposed by either of these gentlemen cannot be used, are illegal to use, and/or should not be used? I flat out stated that if you own the right licenses, you can do the clean install, without calling out any procedure that can/cannot be used. Where did I state that either of them is not trying to help customers in their posted solutions?

If only you had said it like that. If only you had said, hey, in most cases, this is perfectly legal, but I would like to remind a tiny minority of our customers that the Upgrade versions of Windows 7--which we as a company pre-sold to you at bargain pricing without any warnings whatsoever--might not actually work and/or possibly (but not usually) violate our licensing rules, you know maybe you'd have a point. But you didn't. You said, "technically possible" does not always mean legal. That's a very strong statement, and you keep repeating it in this new post. It's a warning. It has intent.

Welcome to my life, Eric. I do this all the time. I can commiserate. Really, I can. But when you screw up--and you did--I've found it's best to just apologize. Sure, explain why you did what you did, but just leave it with the apology.

Also, I don't appreciate the way he mischaracterizes what I wrote by only referencing a quickie, heat-of-the-moment, throw-away blog post and not the full-fledged Upgrade with Clean Media article(s) I've written, where I've always clearly stated the rules. I don't like that. The losing side of an argument always takes things out of context. And changes the subject. (Witness the lengthy exploration of the word "hack".)

But he does apologize. Eventually.

It's too bad I never heard from him directly, as the volume of my email suggests others have figured out how to do so pretty easily. And it's too bad that I and others had to wade through a bunch of self-serving text to get to this apology I'd never have known about if a friend hadn't forwarded the link. But this isn't about me. The real shame here is that Microsoft is still not effectively communicating how this process works, explaining why it sometimes doesn't work, or apologizing to the many, many people it fooled into buying Upgrade versions with very special pricing--especially XP users--expecting it just to work. Based on my email, it's not working for a great many people. And that's why I do what I do, to help people. Not to help people pirate. Just to help people.

Again, I sort of assumed this was obvious.

Apology accepted. I'm sure you're a good guy and this was all well-intentioned.

See You in New York!

pthurrott — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:13:43 GMT

I'm heading to New York City today for the Windows 7 launch. If you're going to be in town, and are 21 or over, please do stop by the Windows 7 launch party I'm co-hosting with Ed Bott, Mary Jo Foley, and Tom Warren. Others you may know from the Windows community will be there as well, including my Windows 7 Secrets co-author Rafael Rivera. Raf and I will be signing copies of the book to give away, and we'll all be giving away copies of Windows 7 and some other Windows-related goodies as well, of course.

Come to the party!

Where: Antarctica
When: October 22 at 5:30 pm
Who: Ed, Mary Jo, Paul & Tom
Who's invited: Everyone

See you in New York!

This week: Microsoft launch event in The Netherlands

pthurrott — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:36:29 GMT

I'm traveling to The Netherlands this week to participate in the "Join the New Efficiency" launch event that's happening Thursday in The Hague, The Netherlands. Here's the info about my session from Microsoft The Netherlands:

Windows 7 Secrets and beyond (Engelstalig)

Spreker: Paul Thurrott en Danny Burlage
Level: 100
Tijdstip: 16.00 - 17.00

In deze sessie leidt Paul Thurrott, schrijver van het boek met dezelfde naam als deze sessie, u door de geheimen van Windows 7. Hij wordt geïnterviewd door Danny Burlage, Chief Technology Officer bij Wortell. Thurrott schrijft over technologie, is een veelgelezen auteur, podcaster en nieuwsredacteur voor het Windows IT Pro Magazine. Thurrott schrijft regelmatig artikelen over bèta-producten en nieuwe releases van Microsoft zoals Windows 7 en Windows Vista, waarover hij dagelijks publiceert op zijn website Winsupersite. Hij is de presentator van Windows Weekly op TWiT.TV, samen met Leo Laporte, een podcast waarvan elke aflevering meer dan 80.000 keer wordt gedownload.

I assume most of you don't speak Dutch. :) I certainly don't. Here's a Babelfish translation with a (very) few manual fixes (though the mistakes are of course interesting):

In this session Paul Thurrott, writer of the book with the same name lead as this session, you by the mysteries of Windows 7. He is interviewed Danny Burlage, Chief Technology officer at Wortell. Thurrott write concerning technology, are much-read author, podcaster and nieuwsredacteur for the Windows IT Pro Magazine. Thurrott write regularly Article concerning beta products and new releases of Microsoft such as Windows 7 and Windows Vista, about which he daily publishes on its Internet site Winsupersite. He is the announcer of Windows Weekly on TWiT.TV, with Leo Laporte, podcast of which each delivery becomes more than 80,000 time download.

Well, you get the idea. :)

It's essentially going to be a back-and-forth interview with Danny, who is the CTO at a big Microsoft partner near Amsterdam. He has a lot of real-world experience with migrating customers to Windows 7, and it should be an interesting conversation. I'm looking forward to it, and of course to spending some more time in The Netherlands. (We vacationed there this past summer, and I'll be staying with Bink.nu's Steven Bink before the event, which will be nice.)

In any event, I'm flying to Amsterdam this evening.

Not So Fast

pthurrott — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:14:59 GMT

Like most of you, I'm sure, I understand the hamster-wheel nature of the business we're in and how the relentless march of technology brings with it both good and bad. I wrestle with this on a regular basis, and while I at least can claim not to be a gadget-of-the-moment-shilling-fool like some others, I can certainly be part of the problem when it comes to the technology-is-everything mentality. I try, but sometimes it's easy to forget that technology is a tool, or a means to an end, and not the end itself. Anyone who has been consumed by the need to always have the latest and greatest, indeed anyone who spends time on sites like this, owes it to themselves to read this Wall Street Journal commentary, which is excerpted from an upcoming book, The Tyranny of E-Mail, I'm quite interested in reading. All we can do is try...

Not So Fast by John Freeman

Sending and receiving at breakneck speed can make life queasy; a manifesto for slow communication

The boundlessness of the Internet always runs into the hard fact of our animal nature, our physical limits, the dimensions of our cognitive present, the overheated capacity of our minds. "My friend has just had his PC wired for broadband," writes the poet Don Paterson. "I meet him in the café; he looks terrible—his face puffy and pale, his eyes bloodshot. . . . He tells me he is now detained, night and day, in downloading every album he ever owned, lost, desired, or was casually intrigued by; he has now stopped even listening to them, and spends his time sleeplessly monitoring a progress bar. . . . He says it's like all my birthdays have come at once, by which I can see he means, precisely, that he feels he is going to die."

We will die, that much is certain; and everyone we have ever loved and cared about will die, too, sometimes—heartbreakingly—before us. Being someone else, traveling the world, making new friends gives us a temporary reprieve from this knowledge, which is spared most of the animal kingdom. Busyness—or the simulated busyness of email addiction—numbs the pain of this awareness, but it can never totally submerge it. Given that our days are limited, our hours precious, we have to decide what we want to do, what we want to say, what and who we care about, and how we want to allocate our time to these things within the limits that do not and cannot change. In short, we need to slow down.

Our society does not often tell us this. Progress, since the dawn of the Industrial Age, is supposed to be a linear upward progression; graphs with upward slopes are a good sign. Processing speeds are always getting faster; broadband now makes dial- up seem like traveling by horse and buggy. Growth is eternal. But only two things grow indefinitely or have indefinite growth firmly ensconced at the heart of their being: cancer and the corporation. For everything else, especially in nature, the consuming fires eventually come and force a starting over.

The ultimate form of progress, however, is learning to decide what is working and what is not; and working at this pace, emailing at this frantic rate, is pleasing very few of us. It is encroaching on parts of our lives that should be separate or sacred, altering our minds and our ability to know our world, encouraging a further distancing from our bodies and our natures and our communities. We can change this; we have to change it. Of course email is good for many things; that has never been in dispute. But we need to learn to use it far more sparingly, with far less dependency, if we are to gain control of our lives ...

Please be sure to read the full commentary.

I Amsterdam

pthurrott — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:18:24 GMT

My family and I are flying to Amsterdam this evening. We'll be in Europe for about three weeks and should be doing some side trips around Belgium and The Netherlands, as well as five days in Paris visiting friends. I don't believe this will impact the site or blog here too much, but if things slow down a bit, well, that's why. :)

Also of note: Steven Bink (of bink.nu fame) and his family are swapping homes with us, so they will be in our house for the duration. (And we'll be in theirs.) They've had a horrific time getting here because of plane issues, sadly, but they're on the way now and will be arriving soon. We'll be meeting at the airport instead of having time to show them around, which is too bad, but at least that's behind them.

I'll be speaking in Amsterdam on July 31, by the way. (Topic: Are we entering a post-Microsoft world?) So if you're in the area, let me know. :)

BTW, Leo and I didn't record the podcast this week because Leo is in China. But we should have a new episode available next week.

See you on the other side (of the ocean, that is)...

Joe Wilcox is leaving eWeek's Microsoft Watch

pthurrott — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:15:39 GMT

It looks like Joe Wilcox is leaving eWeek:

Today is my last day as an eWEEK editor. In a few hours I will join the swelling ranks of journalists smitten by the economic crisis and by changes the Internet is forcing on my profession.

My ending comes on a day of new beginning for Microsoft. Windows 7 promises to be a big release for Microsoft. Today's Windows 7 Release Candidate is start of something really new.

I've been reporting about Microsoft since 1997 and specifically blogging about the company since May 2003. I took over Microsoft Watch in November 2006. It has been a joy to write this blog.

If you would like to contact me personally I am joewilcox on Twitter and joewilcox at gmail.com, live.com or mac.com.

With that, there is nothing left to say but goodbye—and thank you.

Thank you Joe. You're a class act. I look forward to seeing and working with you again in the future.

Speaking of class acts, those who have been around awhile will remember that Mary Jo Foley started Microsoft Watch back in 2001. She left in 2006, Microsoft Watch was pulled into eWeek, and Mary Jo started blogging at ZDNet.

A Plea to Paul and Leo of Windows Weekly

pthurrott — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:08:50 GMT

This is funny, though I feel bad that I basically caused this. Long story short, on the Windows Weekly podcast last week, we played a couple of clips from ex-Windows Chief Jim Allchin's new CD, Enigma, and I mentioned that, hey, I do know this guy, and maybe we could use on of the more rocking tracks as the theme song for the podcast. It sounds like a good idea on the surface.

The thing is, we already have a good theme song. And the guy that made it, Derek K. Miller, wasn't too happy when he heard Leo and I discussing replacing it. So he came up with this video...

And ... wow. So I feel like a jerk. And obviously, we're sticking with Derek. For the world to see, Sorry Derek. Seriously.

I think I can address the Windows 7 'minor or major' update question now

pthurrott — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:25:52 GMT

Over the past year or so, I've written a lot about whether Windows 7 is a major or minor OS release. Microsoft, of course, has claimed that it is a major release, if only for the many user experience enhancements it's made. I've argued that it is, in many ways, a minor release, since the hardware and software compatibility models aren't changing and because Windows 7 is quite clearly Windows Vista 1.5 from a technical standpoint.

So it's cute to have opinions about stuff, but real world experience always beats out pontification. I got my first taste of the extent of the changes in Windows 7 when I started my Windows 7 Feature Focus series last November, and identified almost 60 major feature changes in the OS. Since then, I've documented over 10 of them, and I hope to document the rest before Microsoft ships Windows 7. But this is a big list, and if Apple were marketing it, they could easily turn it into over 300 features.

My bigger comeuppance, so to speak, came with the revision to my Windows Secrets book. The new one, imaginatively titled Windows 7 Secrets, and coauthored by Rafael Rivera, will hopefully ship around the same time as the OS and should be as long (or longer) than its predecessor, Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition (about 1,000 pages). I've been writing books for over 15 years, and while I've never been great about keeping to a schedule, this one is already a mess.

The reasons are two-fold. First, there are far more changes in this release than I imagined, which is silly when you consider that I write about Windows 7 virtually every day and have, as noted above, already listed and described about 60 major functional changes. Second, after months of barely-changing builds, Windows 7, suddenly, and unexpectedly, is visibly changing from build-to-build. No, Microsoft isn't making any earth-shattering changes. But they're moving UI elements around. Changing icons and wallpapers. Silently removing and then re-adding features (like Device Stage). All of a sudden, this thing is actually acting like a real Windows beta. It's like the slumbering giant has woken up.

This isn't a big deal for most people, of course. But when you're trying to document the OS, and sign off on finished chapters months before Windows 7 is finalized, it makes for a difficult life. But this difficultly has brought with it a moment of clarity.

Windows 7 is a major release of Windows.

I know this because I am feeling the pain of documenting the changes, both between it and Windows Vista, and between it and Windows XP. I know this because things are suddenly changing again from build-to-build. And because I am now dreading the next 3-4 months, during which time I need to somehow deliver a book about an OS that I'm suddenly not so sure I understand fully enough.

There's a side issue here, of course. And that is the elephant in the room, for me at least: My insistence that Microsoft has eschewed feedback from the earliest days of Windows 7 development and created this thing inside of a cone of Apple-like secrecy. There is no doubt--and Microsoft admits to this, even promotes it--that Windows 7 is being developed in a completely different way than its predecessors. But whether by design or happenstance, it does appear that Microsoft is opening the kimono, a little bit at a time, to feedback, finally. And even though it's coming at a pretty late stage in the game, I do think that the changes I've seen over several post-Beta builds do suggest a subtle warming to external feedback. I should return the favor and admit that I'm seeing it, I think.

So I'm excited and a bit scared by Windows 7. Yeah, I get it, its Windows Vista done right. But it's amazing how much had to change for that to be the case.

Amazon ships Kindle 2 a day early ... But is it a dollar short? (Or $150 short?)

pthurrott — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:57:46 GMT

I got my "your order has shipped" confirmation yesterday, and here's the PR from Amazon:

Kindle 2 to arrive on customers' doorsteps one day early

Amazon.com today announced it is shipping Amazon Kindle 2. Already the No. 1 seller in Electronics on the Amazon.com Web site in just 15 days since it was introduced on Feb. 9, Kindle 2 offers revolutionary wireless delivery of content in a new slim design with longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, sharper images and a new read-to-me feature. Kindle 2 began shipping today to customers who were in line for the original Kindle and customers who pre-ordered beginning Feb. 9. New orders placed today will be released for immediate shipping.

"The response from customers to Kindle 2 has been tremendous. In order to ensure we ship Kindle 2 by the original ship day of Feb. 24, we started shipping one day early," said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. "We're excited about the new design and features of Kindle 2, and we think our customers will be too."

Kindle 2 builds on everything customers love about the original Kindle and extends the experience to a slimmer and sleeker design.

OK, so that's nice. I was curious this morning to see a few high profile reviews (USA Today, New York Times), the former of which highlighted what might be some deal breakers in this version (The NYT review was pointless):

- No removable battery

- No physical wireless switch

- No SD expansion (though it does come with a lot more built-in storage)

- No included protective cover (an additional $30 option now)

And then there is that price. $359 is simply too much money in this economy. It's giving me a crisis of conscience, and it's going to affect my eventual review, no doubt about it. In fact... I may not even trade up. We shall see. My Kindle 2 should arrive tomorrow, which is pretty good timing: I'm in New York for an all-day Microsoft event today.

Silly 'Release Windows 7 now' campaign

pthurrott — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:56:10 GMT

I’m not a big fan of bald-faced attention grabs like this silliness, but I am at least amused to discover that I’m “jones'n” for Windows 7 to be released … now. I guess it’s possible I said that. Maybe. But what I’m really “jones'n” for is a chance to actually provide feedback on a product that wasn’t cast in stone before testers got to it. Maybe Windows 8 will be that product. Windows 7, good as it is, is most certainly not.

Poe said that based on positive reviews of Windows 7 by Leo LaPorte, another Windows enthusiast who has advocated an early release of Windows 7 on his podcasts, and Paul Thurrott, who writes and maintains the popular SuperSite for Windows blog, he's "jones'n" for the software's release.

"Let's join together and get Microsoft to release Windows 7...enough with this Beta stuff," Poe wrote.

Or. Let’s not. Let’s campaign for more transparency at Microsoft and less Apple-like secrecy instead.

Amazon preps new Kindle for February 9 launch

pthurrott — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:51:07 GMT

Yay! According to the New York Times Bits blog, Amazon will launch its next-gen Kindle ebook reader on February 9. It looks awesome, and as a Kindle user and fan from Day One, I can’t wait. I still read the Kindle every single day and highly recommend the device, despite it’s still too-high price and tough availability.

Amazon.com will introduce the next generation of its popular Kindle reader in New York City on Feb. 9.

Amazon.com confirmed that its founder and chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, would host the event at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

The new device corrects some of the design flaws of the first model, adding round buttons instead of those strange angular ones, and smaller side buttons to avoid accidental page turns.

But the biggest changes may be inside the device. The new Kindle likely uses the new Broadsheet microchip from Epson and E-Ink, which makes the display technology for the Kindle. E-Ink’s chief executive, Russell J. Wilcox, described the technology to me a few weeks ago, saying that it breaks the screen into 16 pixel sets and can update them in parallel, allowing for faster screen refreshes and a generally more responsive screen. He added that the technology was somewhat analogous to putting a better graphics card in a computer and would help e-readers become better full-featured devices.

“It’s the same brightness, it looks the same reading a page, but it’s night and day for user activity for anything than other than reading,” Mr. Wilcox said. “If you are reading a book, you are just going to read page by page and it might not make that much of a difference. But if you want to do anything else with your device, zooming in, look up words, whatever, you really appreciate the speed. It’s a major change.”

More photos of the new Kindle here. Nice!

Windows 7: the untold story of how the enterprise gets snubbed

pthurrott — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:49:01 GMT

Julie Bort over at Network World interviewed me for a piece on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, specifically how they do or do not interact. My feeling on this is that the Windows 7/R2 “better together” story is a little on the weak side, that Windows 7 is more of a consumer release than a business one, and that Windows Server 2008 R2 is a much stronger value than most people now realize. Cue the headline seen above. :) Anyway…

There is a lot to like about Windows 7 for the consumer. For the enterprise, not so much. While Microsoft has added some fancy new features aimed at the enterprise (see box, below) it seems to have treated the enterprise's needs as an afterthought, contends Windows guru Paul Thurrott in an interview with Microsoft Subnet. Thurrott is editor of the SuperSite for Windows website and author of Windows Vista Secrets SP1 edition. Considering that the bulk of Microsoft's customers are businesses, its neglect here could be described as not smart.

Don't get him wrong, there are cool, eye-popping features in Windows 7 for the enterprise –- unfortunately some are randomly tied to Windows Server 2008 R2 -– which is also in beta. If you want to yank out the VPN and let Windows handle a secure connection to the server (a new feature called DirectAccess), you can. But only if all of your clients and servers are using the latest operating systems from Microsoft. That's a shame in this economy when expensive, large-scale upgrades of the entire operating system infrastructure are not going to fly. (To be fair, enterprises that have opted for Microsoft's Software Assurance deal should be covered for the license fees of an upgrade from WS2008 to R2, but that won't cover the cost of man hours).

On the other hand, the enterprise story for R2 is quite good. It is a compelling new version, despite a name that makes R2 seem as if it’s a minor upgrade when it's not. In this interview, we get Thurrott's under-the-hood view of both of these beta operating systems.

Fourth ‘Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition’ give-away is over

pthurrott — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:40:13 GMT

Thanks to the several hundred people who participated in my fourth give-away for my latest book, Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition. I’ve already notified the winners, so if you haven’t received an email from me, sorry, but there’s always next time. I will have the next give-away before the end of November and, no, international folks, I haven’t forgotten you. The winners names are available on the give-away page.

Play me in Gears of War 2 and win a free Zune!

pthurrott — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:15:00 GMT

From my Win a Gears of War 2 Zune 120 Special Edition page:

In celebration of the release of Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360, Microsoft has provided me with a free Zune 120 Gears of War Special Edition--a $279 value--to give away! And this give-away is going to be a little different: I'll be playing Gears of War 2 between Friday and Monday online. To win, you'll need to compete with or against me in a Gears of War 2 multiplayer match online (My Gamertag is Paul Thurrott). Once you see me in a game, Send me one text message (no voice or video please) via the Xbox 360 Message Center, telling me you'd like to win the Zune. I'll select a winner randomly from the first 50 people who message me. Note that duplicates will be rejected: Please only message me once, and only on Friday, November 7, Saturday, November 8, and Sunday, November 9, 2008. This contest is limited to players from the United States and Canada, sorry.

See you online! --Paul

Back to the home page redesign

pthurrott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:51:08 GMT

At some point this week, it occurred to me that I could redesign the site header as part of the wider site redesign which will soon include, I hope, a home page redesign as well. Here’s one idea I was working on that I like quite a bit, if just for the top (i.e. “above the toolbar”) part of the site. This would appear on the top of all modern (i.e. 2008 and beyond) articles and pages on the site:

The only thing is, we serve ads up there now as well. There are big ads and small ads, and the size of the big ad dictates the size of the header now. But when there’s a big ad, most of the imagery gets blocked out, like this:

With a small ad, more shows through:

So this is nice and all. I briefly considered having it randomly display one of five Windows 7 background images, but then it occurred to me that Microsoft still has a legal department, so I might just use my own image (or images). Or maybe I could get rid of the section badges (those image strips that appear below the toolbar on activity center pages and ID the site section) and use a custom top image for each topic. Maybe.

Anyway, I’ll keep working on it. But I kind of like this style, even with the ads, which I can’t do anything about, sorry.

You can see a live version of this page here. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the served ads are the big version.