at this very point I only can recommend admins to alter registration setting. New member's posts must have approval of at least 3 until they can be seen in the forums. This avoids such BS like the past few days and also would have avoided the shut down of the Jukeboxes
@Everybody: I urge you to ignore spammers who post in this thread. The simple act of joking about them only gives them incentive to return and do a "repeat performance". This only creates more work for the staff here. No offense intended. :MJ
My suspicion is Microsoft is making very little money from Windows 10. All those free upgrades were done by sheep that didn't know any better, and the Windows store is probably making next to nothing. The reason Microsoft has a twitter feed where they talk about 75 million downloads and PR bull, is so they can create the illusion that their product is a hit when in actuality it's not. Microsoft didn't have to put any spin on Windows 95 because it was a sensation when it came out. Windows 10 is definitely not a sensation, unless you think its spying aspects are sensational. I think what's happened is that that majority of upgrades have already occurred, and now they will start tapering off. Microsoft most likely isn't selling very many new copies of Windows 10 as the enterprise isn't upgrading, the enterprise is concerned about the spying aspects, and the consumer space is a tough market. Windows 10 predominately will most likely be pulling from Windows 8.x's market share, which leaves very little growth room for Windows 10. Another bad trend for Microsoft is the PC market seriously winding down, as it has been for years. I will always use a PC because I actually like getting work done and being productive as opposed to practicing gorilla arms and smudging up a monitor, so obviously the PC isn't going to die. It's just going to become less popular. Remember, people up until recently had to have a PC to do their work and never wanted a PC to begin with. Now there are endless options when it comes to what type of device somebody will buy. Apple and Google pretty much shut Microsoft out of their own market. It's funny how history works, as it always repeats itself. Microsoft's shady business practices are coming back around like a fleeting-winged-electrified boomerang and it's now biting them in the ass. Last I checked, Windows Phone has less than a 2% market share. What a laughing joke. Taking one look at the UI is hilarious; every time I look at it I laugh. Microsoft just can't innovate. Period. They tried with Windows Phone, but it turned into a repugnant cancerous sad attempt at a mobile phone operating system. If it were good, many more people would be using it. Microsoft does, after all, have the advantage of enjoying gargantuan brand name recognition. This fact alone makes it that much more hilarious that Windows phone is DOA. This time MS wasn't able to shove their crappy product in your face and make you use it because they extinguished all competition by buying everyone out and changing industry standards for the sole purpose of profiting. This ExtremeTech article published yesterday talks about how PC sales are collapsing: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/212958-windows-10-booms-as-pc-sales-collapse This is bad news for Microsoft as CPU MHz speeds, core counts, and RAM amounts are pretty much stagnating. Moore's law is rumored to be coming to a close in the near future. Again, all problems for Microsoft as consumers and the business sector are holding on to their current PC's and servers, and not going out and buying new ones with Windows 10 pre-installed (this also includes the server variant). Generally, people that buy apps are on Android and iOS. Period. Everyone around me is on either Android or iOS. Friends, family, new people I meet, etc. Get the point? Nobody I know is on Windows Phone. In fact, I've never even seen one of those pieces of crap in the wild. People that use the desktop version of Windows are use to Win32 apps, and developers aren't going to magically switch over to doing Windows app store development, lose 30% of their profit, and risk Microsoft potentially indefinitely shutting them out of the app store should a dispute arise. Microsoft's current business model consists of tactics like making Windows 10 users pay to not see ads in Solitaire, while an unprecedented level of spying is done on the user's machine. Until Microsoft seriously changes their ways, I recommend to not even touch Windows 10 with a 30-meter pole. Unless, of course, you're a computer nerd and want to play around with it a little bit.
Well, Microsoft and Privacy rarely coexist so we may as well talk about anything. Bulgogi or Teriyaki?
Again, nobody here has answered if using Windows 10 WITHOUT a Microsoft account actually violates privacy, because all I have seen on the EULA AND the MS privacy statement, are issues about data stored on their servers and their apps. If, for example, a person uses Windows 10 without a MS account, and forgets about the modern apps, then why would that person be concerned about privacy? If I recall correctly, there is no win32 and win64 software that sends all the telemetry data that the modern apps send. In any case, I "gave up" my privacy long ago when I opened a Facebook account and started using Google for my online searches and YouTube videos. If I wanted privacy, I wouldn't have Gmail or Outlook and wouldn't have Facebook or Whatsapp...or a smartphone, yet I use all of those services. Now, about corporate implementation of Windows 10, rest assured that it will happen, and rather soon, and that's because of the "Windows as a service" strategy MS has. Heck, my dad works at a canadian company that has confidential information on their services, and they gave everything on a silver plate to MS and their cloud services because it was cheaper to maintain than having a full in-house IT department. Sure, that meant having to fire some IT guys, but saved money to the company. Is that good or bad? Only time will tell. In the meanwhile I follow the one single golden rule of all: if you want something private, keep it offline (in usb drives or physical media).
Nice of them to hand out a free operating system but if they were counting on Windows Store, they SOL. Who wants to run a bunch of crappy apps on a desktop or laptop. Most of them are jokes. Look at even MS card games, absolute trash and far better free games as full applications out there then that junk.
The apps and the MS account are certainly the main culprit but there is still telemetry being sent without them and quite a bit. Easier to block if you get rid of all the apps and don't use an MS account but still there. Even the search box talks to MS with Cortana disabled. Best to remove all apps and telemetry from install.win offline and make your own install then still block whatever is left over.
I suspect there are a few hidden agendas with regard to this Windows 10 giveaway. For one thing, Sales / Marketing promotions are a tax write off. And it's has been alleged that MS owes almost 1 billion dollars to the IRS.It's possible that releasing Windows 10 for free satisfies the criteria of a Marketing device. With that said, how much money (on paper) do you suppose Microsoft gave away? From a PR perspective, it's great spin, and puts a philanthrophic light on MS. If Windows 10 Home edition did not have the spyware issues associated with it, The plan would have worked brilliantly. Microsoft would have walked away from this looking like heroes, and the people would have loved them for it. Then, there's the anti-piracy issue. For years, Microsoft and companies like them have been trying to protect their intellectual property from theft and slippage. It's been a painful, iterative process, with the loss of projected revenues reaching staggering levels. From a technical perspective, how would you combat those kinds of losses? For one thing, You would try to remove as much anonymity from the internet as possible. IP6 allows for a much finer granularity with regards to location definition than IP4 does. Then, there's the hardware fingerprinting issue.By using the HWID generated when you activate Windows 10, It's fairly easy to build a database of users, and correlate that data with an existing financial database. Now, before anyone "cries foul" and says "It's against the law", take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act FISA has been amended in such a way as to allow domestic spying. As part of some deal with the NSA, Microsoft may very well be collecting hardware fingerprints to allow the NSA to "tag terrorists in the wild". And if Microsoft is authorized to do this for the sake of "National Security", No laws would have been broken. At least, not any laws that could be enforced in a US court. So, the issue is reduced from a legal issue to a to a moral / ethical issue. The added benefit is being able to uniquely identify any computer or mobile device that uses Windows 10, and being able to determine who is using illegal software and possibly notifying the justice department of any illegal activity. Hackers could -easily- be tracked down and brought to justice, under the guise of terrorist activity. And tampering with the economy is considered an act of terrorism. The -last- thing you want is to be accused of committing a federal crime. The Government can lay your life to waste. They are -THAT- powerful. It's important to realize that Americans have been indoctrinated into an "Us vs. Them" mindset from a very young age. From very young, We are taught to do for ourselves, and to compete with each other for financial supremacy. This is the mantra of capitalism, and, I suspect, a present day variant of Darwins' laws. I have seen this dynamic rear its' ugly head at MDL. Things like "Oh I won't take that, it's Chinese", or "I don't trust them, it's from Russia". The mindset is archaeic, and borne from years of "cold war" programming. Now, the new "Monster under the bed" is Terrorism. But that's a discussion for another time. I'm only bringing these issues up to show their relevance with regards to social engineering, and how planting those kinds of seeds can be used to undermine trust between individuals of differering cultures. In my life, I've been blessed because I've been given shining examples of how gauging people as individuals can both help you and allow you to achieve goals that could otherwise never be achieved. Not to mention the "friend factor". Please understand that these are my opinions about these subjects. Take them with a grain of salt. @Vico: You can't summarize an ongoing issue. All you can do is watch. :MJ
I mean, that's a totally laughable attitude, now I started to read an article on zdnet http://www.zdnet.com/article/cybersecurity-in-2015-what-to-expect/ and I stopped reading on at that Position: it may sound like a joke but that's the facts. Poor american People, you're totally ripped off by your government. even more scary: in USA more than 70% honestly believe america's role on this planet is to bring justice and democracy and this nation is chosen (in ewing oil we trust) by god himself to appear like that while USA is depending on a lot of other countries on this planet, even the ruined ones (trade, secrets, oil, money, dollars). the truth is rather that the neocons society (1984) can compete directly with ussr comunism (stalinism) which isn't a matter in the russia we know.
@Nexus76: It's no joke. And it's headed your way. Your respective governments are getting "on board" with US economic policy, simply so that your countries can compete in the free market.
in europe over 97% are against TTIP, TISA, ...the people learned from NAFTA it's a bad development, but the governments are paid by lobbies to do it. that's not what I call a modern society, it's a new release of the moldered roman empire and outdated ussr oligarchy. the commission and commisar system in europe is in fact a ussr adaption, no joke. why paying tax now, when the fake leaders are not following the needs of billions of human beeings for the profit of a handful of multinational concerns? there's no politics or politicians in sight, presidents are made by the koch brothers, legislative became a bazar for the biggest players. but don't blame the goverments at that point. the people need to realise themselvers what's fact and fiction and do whatever is necessary to get away from corruption (lobbyism is a legalized version) and back to democracy. here in europe we need better trade agreements with asia and russia but getting ousted is a horror vision for the USA. let's see if a stable yuan will be the gamechanger soon.
This guy seems to think we all wear tinfoil hats zdnet.com/article/no-microsoft-is-not-spying-on-you-with-windows-10/ Sorry but it says I need 20 posts to be able to post links
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-microsoft-is-not-spying-on-you-with-windows-10/ LOL....This article is as bad as listening to Obama's Press Secretary in full damage control mode... Josh Earnest But hey, we know M$ has to pay many media outlets in order to convince millions of sheeple....Windows 10, adopt it, embrace it, and just L O V E it with open arms... M$ Will take care of all (um, your) data/details.. Now what's this cute little guy really thinkin'?...uh oh!..... Kind of a poetic depiction with 10's data mining operations, with the truck, the loaded train cargo cars, and excavation/loader equipment... lol...
lol, read this line carefully: I wasn't aware that so many american children and families are holding trade secrets. It seems "Hey, just let's talk about the things we do in foreign nations - the daily business - and point it out to the other ones." Also I read on Rand Paul's Website ("Stand for Rand"), I mean he appears to be a nice guy and he's promising to end the sniffing (while he can't) in private areas, but too: just for american families.
@Nexus76: Aunt Ednas' peach cobbler recipe is a closely guarded trade secret. It's the Uranium coating that adds that special flavor.
@Nexus76: That would be nice. Along with respecting the privacy of all citizens in the world. And the USA not meddling in things that are not our affair. Care to join Me in some "Toxic River" Tea and a "Glow-In-The-Dark" Peach cobbler?
The guy is a total Microsoft shill, and ZDNet is one big pro-Microsoft website. I wouldn't worry much about his stories as his articles are 100% biased and boring reads.
I didn't read single word in media before deciding to install Windows 10 in my desktop computer (And I am not sorry about it). Maybe because I am not US citizen but from eastern country far away that has only internet access to US media. Still I don't feel like "sheeple", but I "think" I'm human being with free will that cannot be bought or compromised...To be clear, I have no bad feelings about "sheeple" (derived:sheeps) because I like ALL animals. I am always sorry for these beautiful animals that are so friendly with human beings not being aware of their intentions. There is an eastern philosophy mentioning that not all live beings are aware of their own true nature, form of existence, and goals of their lives. At the end, they coexist together, like it or not.