Windoze 8

The buzz is starting about MS's upcoming Office suite for touch-based systems, namely, perhaps, for Win8(.1).

If memory serves, that dreadful excuse for an interface was launched about a little over a year ago. Which quite naturally leads to the following question: Why wasn't a touch version of Office developed alongside it? This may be a bit unfair. If I recall correctly, it took a few months for an Office version for Win95 as well, but not a year plus.

So I see two possibilities: 1) MS is having a great deal of trouble coming up with a touch version of Office that can match the desktop version (which wouldn't surprise me), or 2) the Office division is working at odds, or cross-purposes, against, or with, the Windows division.

Either way it's not good for Microsoft. Office is more a strength for them than even Windows. In the end Windows captured the lion's share,a dn then some, of the PC market because Office ran on it (Office for Mac came later).

Oh, a third option is that MS considered it unnecessary, because Win8(.1) tablets could run the desktop, and Office along with it. But I don't think so, as everything else in Windows 8(.1) points to a desktop on death row.

ON other things (not what you're thinking), hopefully this weekend I'll have the leisure to finish the experiments with Win8.1, including the screen shot of the propper configuration for the M/M/W interface (there is one, it should be simple to guess what I think it is).

On a side note, while writing the previous post I dragged up a memory of Sonny having once amde a Mac under license from Apple, or a computer running the Mac OS (Whatever it was called) sometime in the mid or late 90s. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Back then the argument was that Macs were just too damned expensive (they still are). One "solution" was to open up manufacturing to third parties, the way IBM had done with the IBM PC (remember when we called them that?) By then it was too late to grab a big share of the market on price alone, of course.

BTW Windows 8(.1) may be the absolutely worse interface MS, or anyone else, ever foisted on an operating system, but it can be sued, with some tweaking, in a civilized fashion which surpasses the Mac by, as I wouldn't say, light-years (one's rabid anti-Apple credentials must be polished from time to time; MS is not making it easy).

Microsoft announced what seems like a really good deal for Office 365. I forget the exact detail, but for $100 a year (I beg your pardon, that's $99.99) you get a license for five "devices" assigned and expnaded Sky Drive space plus some minutes on Skype.

I don't mind a company promoting its products. I do mind being told what a great deal it is and that I'm missing out by not getting it. So let's take it one item at a time:

1) Five licenses. I have a desktop PC, a laptop and a tablet. If you can deduce I need exactly two licenses, you're right. the current Office I own can be installed in 3 PCs (there were no tablets in 2008, or none worth mentioning). What's more, the current version Iown works perfectly well. To wit, I only use Word and very occasionally Excel. I would not use it on a tablet.

2) Sky Drive: <shrug> I will never keep anything remotely relevant in "the cloud." If I want to, there's Google Drive, with umpteen GB for free.

3) Skype. I've heard of it. Seriously, I never use it. I've never used it.

If you add it all up, the great deal means: for only $100 per year (sorry, that's $99.99), you get exactly what you have now!

Oh, but wait! There's less! What about the free upgrades?

Well, what about them? The last major upgrade MS did to Office in 2007 was so bad, I am still struggling with it. Since then, and reinforced by the great big Windows 8 disaster, I've been weary of "upgrades" to versions that demand more effort and deliver less results. My rule now is simple: read up on upgrades before they are released and again when they are released. Next wait at least three months for most of the bugs and undocumented features to come to light (I'm not casting blame here; testing has limits), or longer if a recalcitrant bug refuses to be fixed.

And if I don't like the upgrade, I don't get it.

I'm still angry I did not take the opportunity to port Office 2003 to my home PC. I figured the product had been improving steadily wince 1995, so Office 2007 was bound to be great. Little did I know Microsoft was steadily losing it (though Vista should have been a clue).

So, no, the deal Microsoft is offering is not a good deal for me, on top of having to pay rent for software.

More Office rumors. MS will, unavoidably, soon(ish) release a M/M/W version of Office.

For once, we can know the date of a product's death in advance, though not with precision. But I can get ahead of everyone else and date the death of the Office productivity suite from the minute Microsoft releases the Metro/Modern/Whatever-it's-name-is-now version of Office.

Why do I say this? Simple. Considering how difficult it is to handle the M/M/W interface with a mouse and keyboard, not to mention how limited the interface is with the number of windows, task-switching, lack of a taskbar to keep track, etc, imagine how much harder this new version of Office will be like.

The M/M/W interface is also loathe to run several instances of the same "app." Not always, but very frequently. If you can run only one instance of Word at a time, that pretty much renders it useless for many common tasks. Of course, they could resort to tabs...

The bottom line is I've no idea what this new touch-centric Office will be like, but I can't see how anyone can put the full Office functionality in a touch-centric "app." There's not enough precision, no auxiliary keys like SHIFT and CTRL (indispensabel for making selections quickly). And I see no hope, based on Microsoft's design philosophy as manifested in Win8(.1) that they will have separate Office versions for the desktop and M/M/W.

Better check when support for Office 2013 and 365 is scheduled to end. That's how long most of us will be able to use it.

On the other hand, perhaps a small company like Stardock will step up and make a shell that can convert the crippled M/M/W Office into something useful. They've managed it with the crippled Win8(.1) desktop, after all (though with limits). But again, MS will be selling crippled software that requires third-party crutches to run.

I haven't really used the M/M/W "apps" much. After all, I've yet to find one that is any value at all on the desktop and that can be used easily. But my reading and limited experience leads me to believe some functions of all "apps" like settings and search are external to the program running, and have to be accessed rather through the "charms" bar.

If that be so, then if you need to doa simple search in, say, Word, will the over-hyped search function know you're searching in the document, or will it search the document, all other files in your hard drive, all settings, and the internet as well? What about search and replace?

It would be a major inconveninece if you needed to find something in the document and the OS went searching, literally, all over the world, even if the results are quick in coming. And imagine if you're looking for a common term that just doesn't appear too often in your document? Would it rank your document so not relevant it wouldn't figure in the search results?

At work I often search for key terms I know are there. Like, say, "samples." I've developed the habit to search using a partial word, too, because sometimes the word is used differently. For example, they may use "sample" or "representative sampling." So I search for "samp." Imagine a worldwide search for that, which might just even be a full word in another language, and probably a partial word as well.

At home I search documents less frequently, but I often use partial words or made-up abreviations which I then replace. Why? Because I can go faster, for one thing, and because it spares me having to figure out the correct spelling. So for example I may type "ltt." and then do a search and replace with "Lieutenant." I don't do this always. In the heat of writting I don't check myself to see I'm following procedure. I just type. What this means is that a document will have mostly "ltt."s with a sprinkling of "Lieutenant"s. As it is Word 2007 can't quite cope with me. I had to define some abreviations as words so it would stop trying to correct them.

It's getting harder and harder to post a Windows 8(.1) post every day. So I thought I'd tackle the Mac OS for a change.

The reason is that someone asked me why I don't switch to Mac. IT's simple, really, the Mac OS is completely different rom Windows. I tried to use it once a little over a year ago, and I hadn't the faintest notion how, even turning on the computer was difficult (the switch is hidden behind the monitor. Whereas I can configure Win8(.1) to near-usefulness, and attempts to use Linux in Xubuntu and Mint variants were a lot mroe successful than my brief foray into the Mac logic (or lack thereof).

Simply put, Linux usues a taskbar and a kind of start menu. It runs programs in windows, which can be closed and minimized the same as in Windows 1-7. So using that is relatively simple, though it should take getting used to. In the Mac I saw nothing but icons scattered on the desktop and some which seemed to be pinned in the bottom of the screen. There was some kind of bar with commands on the top of the screen. I don't recall seeing minimized windows. When I managed to get something running, the controls to close the window were on the left side and they were color-coded rather than pictographic.

In conclussion, learning to use Linux supposes a gentle "learning curve" while learning to use Mac seems more like climbing the Everest with some rope and bare hands (i.e. steep). I'd attempt to use a Mac to save my life. Otherwise no.

The furhter logical question is: why aren't I angry at Apple as I am at MS?

I've never tried to use Apple past the Apple ][e in the 80s. I moved to PC in the 90s and have been using that exclusively ever since. Had Apple priced their products as though they were made of plastic and silicone rather than diamond and gold, then perhaps I might have tried a Mac at some point.

I date the beginning of the decline of Microsoft (we'll see if it leads to a Fall as well) to 2007. That was when the twin disasters of Vista and the Office ribbon debuted. Fittingly enough, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire also involved twins. As in Rome's case, one twin died and the other didn't. And that was the tragedy of Rome, because the twin who survived grew up to become the emperor Comodus.

No, the ribbon is not as bad as that particular bad emperor, not even close, but the consequences are.

To begin with, rather than offer the ribbon interface as an option, or keeping the old drop-down menu interface as an option (even if hidden beneath a myriad layers of obscure commands and configuration procedures), MS opted to make the ribbon the one and only Office control. Poeple did not flee Office in droves. how could they, when that was the universal standard? Sure, there were options, but these were not nearly as well supported as Office. I think this set the precedent that allowed MS to remove an even more important component from Windows. Yes, I'm speaking of the Start Menu again (and short of an untimely death, I don't see ever stopping).

Rationally the ribbon seems adequate and in some ways better than the older controls. but it isn't. I appreciate the idea of showing all the functions (or almost all), but functionally it's harder to use.

In a drop-down menu, you move horizontally or diagonally to the tab you want, then vertically down to the function you're looking for. In the ribbon it starts the same, but then you move horizontally again. This has the adverse effect of feeling one is moving all over the ribbon looking for something.

The other error was that Microsoft switched around the names of the tabs. So now I don't even know, sometimes, where to even look for something. The "Edit" tab in Word, for example, is gone. One thing I used to do often was choose "edit" and then "select all." That's gone. The function remains, sure. But now it's in the "start" tab, hidden under the "select" function. It took me a while to find that out.

Now repeat that with about 65% of the functions I knew where to find before.

So the ribbon may be more "efficient" in some nebulous, abstract sense. But in a concrete, real-world, let's-use-this-program sense, it's an obstacle standing between me and my work.

Comodus, BTW, did not destroy the Empire. Far from it. What proved disastrous was what followed him. And so it is with MS. Office 2007 did not destroy the positive user experience, but it began chipping away at it. What followed, though somewhat good at first (like Win7, though I have major issues with it), eventually advanced the Decline, too. Windows 8. Windows 8.1. The idea that limiting a powerful desktop PC to a less powerful tablet functionality was a good idea. But above all the notion that Micrisift knows best and the user can either like it or lump it, secure in the certainty, even now, that there's nowhere for 99.99% of users to go anyway if they don't like it.

So Vista flopped and it was rather swiftly killed. That was bad. What was worse is that Office 2007 did not die soon after birth.

It may be I'll replace my PC sooner than I expected. This weekend, in fact.

See, in immitation of the US, and with less justification, merchants have for the past few years been promoting "El Buen Fin." Literally this translates as "The good ending," but what it means is "the good weekend" (from "fin de semana" which means weekend). So stores fall over themselves offering discounts, credit and even rebates.

I spotted two nice offers. One is at Sam's Club, which offers 18 months at zero itnerest (right!) but will reimburse three payments. That means a 16.67% discount over the whole price. The other is at Comercial Mexicana (a supermarket), which offers 250 pesos in store credit for every 1,000 pesos spent on home electronics, appliances and computers. That's a 25% kind-of-rebate. But it works well for me because I do about 90% of my grocery shopping there.

The problem with both is their computer departments are rather skimpy. Any other offers at better supplied palces, liek Office Depot or Best Buy, are not as good and I'd find better prices come late January. So we'll see.

My main concern is that all oferings are Windows 8, not 8.1. Now, the "upgrade" would be free, I know, but I've heard enough about problems with it to be concerned.

What I'd really like is Win7 PC, but that ship sailed while I hesitated. I asked some people at out IT dept. because they keep getting such machines. They told me I could get one, but have to pay cash and the prices they get are higher than available Win8 machines. So I'm stuck and will have to dive deep into radical reconfigurations.

So guess what I found. Go on, guess.

Ok, I'll tell you. I found a Windows 7 PC!!!!

I'd almost settled for a i3 processor with 4 GB RAM, then I decided to look online at the more expensive stores just in case they had a big discount. I found an i5 processor with 6GB RAM for only a little more money. I thought it was worth it for the better CPU and the fact that it had a video card, rather than integrated graphics. And then I noticed the specs said "Windows 7."

Well, There's a branch from that store near my home, so I went. Indeed, there it was, complete with a "Windows 7" sticker :)

It gets better. They told me they only had the display model left. Unfortunately it was chipped on one side. Long story short, I wrangled a 20% discount and 18 months interest-free credit (the latter's standard with any credit card during big promotions).

The other thing is they need to do a system restore because the display model is loaded with the usual promo crapware. So I'll get it tonight at 8 pm.

I want to say there's no need to worry, though. My enmity for Windows 8(.1) shall continue unabated. And i shall move forwards with my plans to set up a WINDOS page on Facebook, as time permits. Granted that might have been more effective had I needed to suffer Win8(.1), but I'm just as glad not to have to :)

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have issues with the Windows 7 desktop. But I won't complain (too much), because Win7 at least has a full-fledged, featured desktop, as opposed to the crippled, "legacy" kind-of-desktop in Win8(.1)

I'll just say this: I'm finding ways to disable the annoying aspects like flashing highights, window previews and bunched "apps" icons (the latter took all of three seconds of light thought).

I do wonder why Win7 garners so much praise. I have to conclude that it is great only as compared to Vista. Vista, now, was very lovely to look at, but it worked with all the speed of an asmathic, old VW Beetle hooked to a ten ton trailer going up a steep hill, or maybe not as fast as that. However, all the new features could be customized as one wanted, including the preview windows on the taskbar and other things. Win7 allows less customization. For instance, to remove the tiny previews on the taskbar one needs to mess around with the registry editor.

Oh, it's evident Microsoft thought the world of the missguided idea of pinning "apps" to the taskbar and launching from there. also of having the tasks combined into one icon rather than a convenient box with a label. So you'd have to use the preview to see what you had opened, or whether you had anything opened at all.

MS continued and extended this unfortunate lack of choice in Win8(.1), going as far as making the window borders fully opaque and the taskbar fully transparent, without a choice to change either one (I think a Stardock utility, Window Blinds, can solve this problem).

Now, glad as I was to find a Win7 PC, that's nothing comapred with how much happier I'm now with it. While I've had some issues, such as persistent system-wide crashing when running BOINC, it does run much better than my old PC ever dreamt of. And I don't have to worry about "Metro" or "Modern" or "Whatever-are-we-going-to-call-the useless-Windows-8-(.1) interface," nor add-ons to correct the severe desktop defficiencies.

There is one ironic detail. When I was still looking for a Win8 machine (none for sale now offer native 8.1), I did notice those with touch screens were $100 to $200 more expensive than similar systems without touch screens of the same brand. The irony is the Win7 I picked up has a touch screen (which I will never, ever touch). So there!

Another thing I noticed were two promos regarding Office 365, the rental software. One, at Best Buy it was advertised for "only" 995 pesos. Now, the usual rental yearly fee is $100 US, which is around 1,300 pesos (it fluctuates up and down in time), so that would be a nice discount. Except nowhere in the prominent ads did it say that's a yearly fee, nor, naturally, how many years it's good for. Second, at Office Max Office 365 was free with thepurchase of any of several PCs (most brands, except Apple and Asus, I think). Again, nowhere was it stated there's a yearly fee, now how long will it remain free. I suspect only the first year is free, but I dind't ask (you show any itnerest, and the sales associate pounces on you and disgorges spun facts until you need to become rude and loudly say "I'm just browsing!")