I just read about windows longhorn and i must say microsoft and the direction they are taking scares me. They seem like they are slowly infringing on our privacy. Longhorn is going to essentially uniquely ID you and copying a cd? that will be a thing of the past as microsoft decides that it doesnt want users sharing media unless microsoft says its legitimate by there standards. Longhorn sounds more bloated, slower, and more confusing than windows xp. Every other day they have some new standard they make up that is more trouble than its worth. They say longhorn will have new protective measures to stop viruses and worms by only allowing authorized programs to run. Are they kidding me? how many people have authorized a program with a virus? um none. Sorry for the long message but anyone else feel this way? When they own 95 percent of markshare we live by there decision pretty much. Curious what any of u think on this.

Reply

Do you have links to some of these things?
If any are true, I'm switching my family to Linux no matter how computer illiterate they are.

Reply

I cant believe it, its just dumb. I cant wait to see the day the M$ goes down b/c the users wont like it anymore, and they start switching to a different OS. It just makes me mad that they have to do all that, why cant they just iimprobe their OS without does so much dumb stuff with it, i mean people are still gonna buy longhorn, but i bet many will switch, at least i hope so.

Reply

First of all, I've already accepted the fact that I no longer have any privacy. Everytime you buy something with a credit card or a check the whole world knows about it. Preventing people from breaking copyright laws & distributing child porn is insignificant compared to that.

I think it's rediculous that people think that they are somehow forced to do whatever Microsoft says. It really is a take it or leave it technology. If you don't like the features of the new Windows why would you start using Lynx? That would be like switching from Pepsi to Coke beacuase you don't like the new Seira Mist. Why not just keep using XP?

I invite any one who feels seriously threatened by Microsoft to throw out their TV & PC & go move to a shack in the woods for a few months. Then tell me how you feel about operating systems. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have a private internet connection, I'm just saying a lot of people feel like there world will end because of Microsoft but the reality is that the computer world as we know it would not exist without Microsoft.

At the moment I actually use a Mac becuase my school made me buy one. I absolutely love it. I guess that makes me even more of an odball than Lynx users, more expensive & less compatible. It doesn't suffer from any windows viruses, & it's never crashed, ever!

 

 

 

Reply

Oh on a similar note, does anyone find it the least bit strange that some of the most paranoid people on the planet still carry around supermarket & CVS savings cards? They know who you are, & they know everything you buy. My dad drinks a lot of this particular brand of lemonade. Now we get coupons in the mail for it all the time.

Reply

I have seen windows longhorn build 4074. A friend of mine downloaded it from somplace online. I fooled around with it for a little while and was actually somewhat impressed with what I saw. I tested it with GRC's Shields Up. It had only the windows internet firwall enabled and the results came back that the computer was in stealth mode. Not only that but the new version of internet explorer that is integrated has a blurb in the "about" section of help that says it has 256 bit encription! It also mentions something about Nasa engineering!?! I personally can't wait for it to come out! It looks like its going to have some neat toys.

zippy77

Reply

Well, we cant judge it just from a rumour. We will have to test it first, if we don't like it, we can always switch to another operating system or change it to XP. There is a specific reason why I don't like using Linux or Mac, because most of the PC games are compatible to Windows. That is why, no matter what, I will always use Windows. Just say that it is in my blood...lol.

Well, although your topic makes me a little ill about longhorn, I can't wait to get my hands on it. I want to play with the new toy, and hopefully careful enough not to break it...lol.

Reply

Totally Agree!!!!!!

A normal user could move to Linux and keep using tools really similar and powerful as he used to.
Let say:
Gimp instead of Photoshop, OpenOffice instead of Office and so on...
What keeps most of the people there, are the Games. Even if now some Games run in Linux and Mac there are centuries behind Windows. The next year battle for Linux developer will be to achieve Games support and persuade Games developers to programm also for linux. Until that moment arrive linux will remain as a programmer/expert user platform.

Reply

I don't care if Windows Longhorn is gonna ever come out (although I wish it was going to be a vapourware) because I can do 90% of the stuff on Linux. The other 10% are games and stuff that require Windows only.

That's IMO.

xboxrulz

Reply

I don't know what microsoft is doing but I think that windows long horn will be another hit. How can microsoft lose with its current customer base? Also with the deals at Dell, IBM, HP, etc. how can they not make money? When you say that windows longhorn won't let you run potentially dangerous software, I'm assuming there will probably be a setting for ADVANCED users and NORMAL users. I highly doubt that microsoft would make an OS that doesn't give Administrators the option of installing certain programs.

Reply