Posts by Jonathan 27

Re: Really?

It works, they just don't want to support it. Those are different things. You can install Windows 98 on an Intel 7th generation Core processor as well. Doesn't mean it support all the new features of that processor.

Re: Does any browser team manage to communicate with actual users?

I think you've missed the point of Mozilla entirely. They're an open-source project that doesn't get any funding from users. So therefore, they don't care what users think. They do what they want, similar to many other open source projects. GIMP comes to mind particularly, because it's had a terrible user interface for years, but instead of fixing it the team just constantly talks about how they think it's better than any other option, years and years after everyone else ditched floating palettes, they're still there in GIMP.

To distill this down, Mozilla doesn't care what you think. If you don't like it switch browsers.

Re: Bonkers

If you don't like it, switch browsers. Outdated browsers aren't really an option with the pace the web moves at now, you'll quickly find the gates start coming down on you once you're a year or so behind.

Nah, every browser maker is dropping NPAPI because it's an in-process binary specification and they want to go with a HTML-Javascript implementation that's easier to sandbox and integrate with their browsers. Everything being Javascript (or HTML5 as hipsters like to call the new ECMAScript versions) is much simpler for browser makers and web developers. This is helpful, particularly for security. NPAPI leaves security in the hands of 3rd party plugin developers and there have been many instances of those developers dropping the ball, particularly Adobe with Flash and Reader plugins.

Re: MSFT and Facebook

The Google option not to serve targeted ads does just that, they still slurp all your data all the time. I don't really see much practical difference, they still have all your data.

The Windows OS shares are based on the percentage of the total Windows number, so they don't add up like that.

Windows 7 has 45.76% and Windows Vista 0.93%.

Windows 7 is still more popular than 10, despite Microsoft's heavy marketing offensive.

I'd liken it to a big shiny stone tower built on top of a slowly rotting wooden foundation.

Re: april 2019 and the pink elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

Those POS systems are probably not included in these numbers. Not unless they're accessing the public websites these numbers are pulled from.

The way they check is by measuring reported OS on web browser requests, so it doesn't differentiate between a VM and bare metal install.

P.S. "XP Mode" in Windows 7 is just a Hyper-V VM with Windows XP on it.

Re: Macbook Air replacement my arse

How is that different from Mac OS? You have to "jailbreak" that too, by installing bootcamp and a copy of Windows, otherwise you're severely limited in software choice. I know I'm being a bit of a jerk here, but it's a fairly similar situation if you look at the situation as it sits today, totally ignoring the history of the personal computer.

I don't think so. They can't really get away with that at this point. I think it's an attempt to get most people (basically, all the not us type people) on to Windows 10 S, to increase the popularity of the store. If that happens we'll have to use the store too and Microsoft will have succeeded in becoming the central hub of the Windows software ecosystem like they want.

Even saying that, I don't think this will work.

Re: Numpties will buy it with win10s if it's 20p cheaper than the full win version.

Then they'll be paying that $50 upgrade fee won't they. What Microsoft is doing is scummy, but it's not like they have to chuck the entire thing in the bin because it can't be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro (in under 2 minutes).

Re: But...

Who needs DOS commands? DOS is dead, if youths want to learn console commands they need to learn Bash or PowerShell.

Re: But...

Nah, that's Mac OS. You know the one they advertise as being magically immune to viruses.

Re: Enough said

You can't protect idiots from themselves no matter how hard you try. If you have an SMBv1 share exposed to the internet they can brute force the password fairly easily even without a flaw. No one should ever have any SMB shares on the Internet.

The cost effective solution would be to disable SMB sharing on effected versions of Windows, I imagine you wouldn't like Microsoft doing that unilaterally either.

Re: more needed than ever

I think it's funny that you should make that reference, seeing as the spyware in Windows 10 is a reaction to all the spyware in Android and iOS. Google is the big daddy of spyware, not Microsoft.

Re: KeePass

If you want a local or self-managed vault, an open-source product like KeePass is the only logical option at this point. It's not a matter of if but when will any commercial password locker maker decide that that < 1% of users that don't use their cloud service aren't worth supporting anymore. Companies aren't charities, so they're not going to keep supporting unpopular features, when the other option is so profitable.

Re: Nice

Form factor is an issue, my laptop can't accommodate anything more than one m.2 drive for storage. This isn't a real issue for me because I have USB drives, a NAS box and a desktop computer. But if you want a lot of storage in a thin and light laptop, NAND density is the only real solution.