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20 Features Windows 7 Should Include
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Jul 14, 2008 01:48 PM
from the downhill-since-dos dept.
from the downhill-since-dos dept.
Damian Francis writes "Australian computer expert Vito Cassisi has come up with a list of 20 features that Windows 7 should have. The article includes features like modularized OS, new UAC, program caching, standards compliant browser and a whole lot more with explanations as to why these features should be included. With Windows Vista only receiving a luke-warm reception, Microsoft needs to make sure Windows 7 is a winner from the get go." What other features would you suggest to Microsoft if they are to have a hope for recovery?
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Submission: 20 features Windows 7 should include by Anonymous Coward
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Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
A Linux kernel.
Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:You fool! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Let's not forget... (Score:5, Informative)
It's not a devil, it's a daemon.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Interesting)
What other features would you suggest to Microsoft if they are to have a hope for recovery?
What is the one thing MS can do that no one else (realistically) can do these days? Games. They need to start thinking Windows needs not be a one size fits all approach. Why can I not install the most basic framework of the OS and DX in order to utilize all available resources of my rig?
I'm sure I'm not the only one at their without any choice in OS simply because my computer is most often used for games. Which if it's going to be that way, don't make a guy who tunes every bus speed and multiplier he access too use the same OS install his grandma would use to check her e-mails.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Insightful)
... ...
They need to start thinking Windows needs not be a one size fits all approach. Why can I not install the most basic framework of the OS and DX in order to utilize all available resources of my rig?
What you are reffering to is called an Xbox 360. I'm not saying that it's right, but it seems like that is the direction MS is taking games in.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Informative)
NTFS-3G [ntfs-3g.org] solves your problem.
Off you go!
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Number 21 and 22 (Score:5, Funny)
21. Microsoft Bob! /ducks
22. Clippy7
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How about LESS features? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, this is the root of many of Microsoft's problems. They need to stop bolting on poorly-designed "features" and work on reliability and functionality.
Honestly, if Microsoft made a solid, secure OS without all the "value-added enhancements" and profit-driven lock-in tactics, then public opinion of them would be much higher. I would be very happy to see them shift all OS business to their server-level products, because they really are significantly better than their consumer-level OSs. If they spun off their end-consumer products into another business, fine. Those people who like their bells and whistles can buy them, and those who just want a stable and secure platform would have it also.
Yes, I know, use and love Linux. But I also worked at Microsoft (Windows 2000 team,) and am proud of having worked on that OS. There are alot of good developers there, but they have no say in the management direction. While I was there, I saw ME in development, and couldn't believe that I was working at the same company. I was embarrassed for the team.
So, we'll see how Windows 7 turns out. MinWin is a great idea, and I hope (but don't at all believe) that the mentality behind it will influence the rest of Windows 7. But with Ballmer now completely unrestrained, I'm sure it will be trash. Things really went to crap there after he took the helm in 2000.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
Since most of the humor impaired anti-Linux crowd have moved over to Digg, I'll play devil's idio... err... advocate.
Yeah. Like that's a good idea... When you put Lunix on a computer, guess what? It doesn't come with drivers. The Fortune 500 businesses that make drivers for their equipment only do so for Windows and you can't use those drivers on Lunix. So what happens when you buy a brand new scanner or printer, or video card? You have to rebuild the kernel, pray to the gods CUPS and SANE, throw holy water over your shoulder and hope like hell that you don't have a $200+ brick sitting on your desk. Think that's going to make things easier for Microsoft because I don't.
It's like Ballmer said, "Applications! Applications! Applications"! Personally, as an important executive in a Fortune 500 company, I don't have time to waste recompiling kernel after kernel and then installing software from raw source. I want things to work and I want them to work RIGHT NOW! My time is worth a lot of money and I need programs like Photoshop and Flash so I can write betas of databases my company creates so I can get the imagination-free coders under my charge to build things like normal people want. (Never let a database developer start coding until you have the prototype fully functional in Flash!)
On top of that, Linux has ZERO support for system and application sounds. If there is one thing that will kill a database application making it in the rough and tumble market, it's a lack of action sounds. Our database sports 1400 sounds for every activity imaginable in the database. My personal favorite is the heartbeat sound when you go into bullet-time mode while scrolling through the database itself. I had to fight a few non-visionaries about putting the sound (fired them actually) into the database! I'll never understand why developers are so bad at grasping the importance of flashiness in a database application. Can you do that in Linux? HELL no! Linux just sucks for databases.
I wouldn't touch Linux with a ten foot barge pole otherwise it might infect my beautiful and innovative mind. It seems like people who use and like Linux, lack vision and lack creativity. Instead they're perfectly happy with their grey screens from 1984 and all text data. Ugh! NO ONE in their right mind likes that kind of thing. We need the kind of flashiness you see in Vista's Aero Glass interface. That is the pinnacle of innovation in the computer world. NO ONE has ever done anything like that on any other OS.
So as funny as you think your stupid comment is, I can tell you're just an idiot.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
Uh oh. Looks like someone let the monkeys escape the zoo again and they didn't write Shakespeare.
For one thing, the Linux kernel has more drivers BUILT IN than Windows includes with their OS distribution. To say that Linux has no drivers illustrates just how limited your experience with the Linux kernel is. Not only that, but the most popular and best Linux distributions actually compile nearly every driver as a module by default so most of your hardware with the exception of the very newest hardware, should work. Printers and scanners, are supported by "drivers" that are NOT part of the kernel at all. Your glib reference to CUPS (printer drivers) and SANE (scanner drivers) doesn't even make this suggestion at all. You sir, are a moron.
"Develop" a database in Adobe Flash? That's so idiotic I don't even know where to start. You're not a developer, you're a monstrous joke. It goes without saying that you are not a Fortune 500 executive. If anything you're running some kind of sham business if even that. I suspect you're some kind of troll. And... You sir, are a moron.
Sound and databases? While they could be an option in an application, they're NOT required. When David down the hall wants TPS reports on his desk by the end of the day, it doesn't matter if there's sound or not. And "bullet-time"? WHY? What purpose would something like that serve? Frankly, the BIGGEST database platforms for high reliability are on some form of Linux. They're not on Windows and they're not MS SQL. MySQL and PostgreSQL rule the open source world. Oracle is the top of the commercial world. But it goes without saying that... You sir, are an idiot.
Vista Aero Glass!? You have GOT to be kidding. It's so lame compared to Compiz-Fusion. But beyond that, what would any of this have to do with DBs? I'll tell you what: NOTHING! Once again... You sir, are an idiot.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know whether to applaud or silently edge away from you making no sudden moves.
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
Butterflies!!!
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
Notepad!
wait...
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Two words (Score:5, Funny)
Paucity (Score:5, Funny)
What other features would you suggest to Microsoft if they are to have a hope for recovery?
The ability to boot on a single core with 1GB of RAM in under 5 minutes?
Re:Paucity (Score:5, Interesting)
Allow the OS to be aware of it's own limitations, and adjust it caching style to accomodate that. If the OS knows it has a slow HDD, it should cach more into RAM. If it knows it's low on RAM, it should cache to disk backround paused tasks. If it's low on resources, unloading (or not loading at all) unsuled items (like fonts, textures, etc) would be awesome, thanks.
Take it a step futher and have it unload drivers for devices not currently connected, recomend the user terminate programs that are not needed, limit the use of "pre-load" application resources for items rarely used (I don't need itunes and acrobat pre loading crap if I only look at a PDF occasionally, and don't typically play music while working).
It should recomend TO the user to add more RAM, and be able to communicate the number of minutes or seconds it would save the user to perform the upgrade. If the user commonly runs a lot of programs, and it commonly caches stuff that would otherwise be in RAM, TELL THE USER TO GET MORE RAM, don't assume they know. If HDD performance is causing real-time applications to stutter, or games to have frame skip, tell the user it's too slow.
Microsoft should also list system requirements, as should EVERYONE else, based on an average system configuration, not on a clean install. Windows Vista runs OK on a cleam machine, but load Outlook, OneNote, iTunes, Acrobat, a domain connection, a few network shares, 2-3 printers, motherboard and network monitoring software, and some AV and spyware security software, and it runs like CRAP! Retailers are not equipped to explain this to people, so lets start quoting resource limitations in REAL WORLD scenarios. Also, games and other real time applications, should list not only the recomended requirements, but what frame rate to expect with a given screen resolution using out of the box settings (and all images on the box should be required to use default settings, or note otherwise that they're using "prefered" settings which should also have their own requirements listing and frame rate expectation). No, it won't be perfect, but if they use benchmarking on real word systems, it should be cloe enough for most people to understand.
"Game Mode" for the OS is a load of crap. A nice OS embeded script that automatically kills some background stuff, and unloads unnecessary drivers, thats fine, but to be honest, it should do that ALL BY ITSELF, not with a click. The application should be signed, and should be able to request those kinds of resources when it needs them, and background "helper" apps should be the first to go, followed by warnings about any applications the user launched that should first be killed before playing the game. Booting to a seperate mode? no, that's a pain in the ass... Besides, it's not really to OS settings that slow game play, but all the crap you added to the OS.
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Some suggestions (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps they could take FreeBSD, perhaps with a customized Mach kernel, and add a fancy, easy to use and intuitive graphical user interface?
oh, wait...
there is one not to include (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:there is one not to include (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they should definitely involve marketing -- just ask them what to do and do the exact opposite
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Re:there is one not to include (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:there is one not to include (Score:5, Insightful)
I've said this before and I'll say it again-- the problem isn't marketing. Proper marketing involves studying what your potential customer base wants and needs, and producing a product that meets those needs. Microsoft hasn't been doing much of that, at least not for the past several years.
They really should have the next version of Windows driven by market demand. A big chunk of their market wants openness and transparency. They want formats that can be moved to other platforms, and protocols that can talk with anyone. Having Office fully support ODF in the next version, for example, is a development driven by marketing.
The problem isn't marketing. The problem is a lack of interest in meeting their customers' needs. If they had sat down in the early Vista planning stages and asked, "who are our potential customers, and how can we improve Windows so that those customers will want to buy it again?" then Vista would probably have been a different product.
Or if they did sit down and ask those questions, then either (a) the people who were in that meeting were morons -or- (b) the customers they were trying to market to was "morons".
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1985 Technology (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:1985 Technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Litestep is what you're looking for; it's a replacement window manager (for Windows), and includes virtual desktops. It's also customizable and fragmented to a ludicrous degree, but if you try a few themes you should be able to find one you like.
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Tombstone? (Score:5, Funny)
A crust that rises.
13. WinFS (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah sure, straight after Duke Nukem Forever comes out.
Easy backup, for everybody. (Score:5, Insightful)
While I'll go along with the one-version-to-rule-them-all idea, the most important thing?
Easy external backup, for everybody.
Apple has it right with time machine. No muss, no fuss, and I had only the tiniest of glitches when I restored onto a newer hard drive.
And if they don't do this, well, this needs to be a feature of Ubuntu. That'll gain them market share.
Re:Easy backup, for everybody. (Score:5, Insightful)
Google "robocopy". It's been around forever and is possibly the best piece of software Microsoft has ever written. I have no idea why it's so obscure and hard to find.
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better command line (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't want to have to run cygwin just to get a reasonable CLI. Even having done that, it's just too hard to manipulate the registry etc. through text commands. I'm sure with a little thought, MS could come up with an industry leading text based interface that I could ssh into with a reasonable way to switch between different users (with different admin privileges) on the server.
And make them
Re:better command line (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at Windows Powershell [wikipedia.org], formerly known as Monad. It's different than most Unix shells out there but once you get used to it, it's pretty powerful.
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What was this guy smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
A "Gaming Mode" to disable some services? When is the last time you said "Ah, crap, my error reporting service is making me lag?"
And Program Caching notice? The average user doesn't even know that Vista uses RAM. His suggestion would just confuse them more. We need fewer popup notifications, not more. Instead of cluttering the user's view, get stuff out of the way. Interfere less.
Re:What was this guy smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
A "Gaming Mode" to disable some services? When is the last time you said "Ah, crap, my error reporting service is making me lag?"
Given all the crap people install, and how damn near everything seems to want to make its presence known in the task tray at least, sucking up however much memory it cares to, having some minimal configuration that you can run that just loads the absolute essentials for gaming (customizable of course) would be great to have. Maybe you want to run a lot of that crap when you're just browsing, listening to music, working, etc. But for gaming, you want to kill all of those unnecessary background processes and services.
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Jesus. (Score:5, Interesting)
Features? It doesn't need new features, most people don't use the features it already has. What it needs is not to suck!
The first thing Microsoft needs to do is look at everything from the user perspective. What can be faster, lighter, more convenient? What can be more stable? The absolute last thing they need to do is to--even for a second--imagine that bolting some shiny crap onto Vista is going to somehow make people happy with it.
Christ. Some of the stuff he thinks 7 needs is stuff that would make any knowledgable geek recoil in horror. WinFS?!? Are you kidding me?
"Game Mode" so I can turn off the resource hogging of my OS and run a game? NO! Pay attention! I want the OS to not hog resources.
A standards compliant web browser? It's called Firefox. Next.
Site licensing for the home user? *pause for sardonic laughter* Yea, right, that's going to happen about the time Ballmer gay marries Steve Jobs.
The only things I think he had right (aside from the impossible things like a modular os, etc) were XP virtual machine/emulation, and a better UAC interface. An XP vm would be a quick and dirty fix for compatibility issues; Mac pulled this with OS9 emulation, and it definitely smoothed their adpotion of OSX. As far as the UAC, Microsoft has always been the king of suck as far as security interfaces go; I almost always end up having to disable security to get the machine to do the crap I want it to do, and while I've got faith in my upstream security, I'm the kind of person who can't ever have enough security, and it pisses me off when some of it is useless. If you have to disable security to make your machine work, it's WORTHLESS (I'm looking at you too Symantec).
blah blah. End rant.
Proper Dual Monitor Support (Score:5, Insightful)
5 pages with broken comments... got to be kidding (Score:5, Informative)
Being that gadget zone is still a fan of the Redmond, Washington, company (although we like Apple too), gadget zone contributor and computer expert, Vito Cassisi, has come up with the 20 Microsoft must do's to ensure the success of Windows 7.
20. Modularised OS
The great thing about being modular is that the OS can be modified easily. Think Linux here - in Linux everything is modular and replaceable. For example, you can replace the whole GUI component without affecting anything else. With the abundance of third party applications written for Windows, this would spur a whole new variety of customisation and open-source implementation.
19. XP Virtual Machine
It seems that the biggest issue with Vista was compatibility with older software/drivers. A solution may be to include an XP virtual machine which ensures compatibility with said software. Apple did a similar thing when they re-wrote their OS a few years back.
18. New UAC
In theory UAC was a great idea. It protected people from themselves, but it was too intrusive. An alternate idea is to teach the user the importance of limited accounts and how they prevent the accessibility of nasties such as viruses. UAC should be a single dialogue with 'Continue' and 'Cancel' and an explanation of why the user was interrupted.
17. Gaming Mode
Most Windows users like to dabble in a bit of gaming when on their PC. But the constant demand for computing power by the latest titles (read: Crysis) can leave the majority in the dark. Perhaps Microsoft can offer a mode similar to that of the current 'Safe Mode' which only initiates the required services for gaming. This would minimise overhead and increase performance.
16. Customised Install
The avid performance tweakers out there may have heard of the likes of NLite and VLite for XP and Vista respectively. These pieces of software allow you to remove unwanted components from the OS before you install it. This increases available HDD space, and also improves performance depending on the services cut out. Offering the same amount of control when installing Windows 7 would settle the 'Windows is bloatware' activists out there.
15. Productive GUI
Microsoft bit the bullet with Vista and changed the GUI to be attractive. This is fine by all means, but the productivity of this new GUI wasn't exactly enhanced all that much. Small things such as multiple desktops and simpler open/save dialogues can make all the difference. Perhaps even let the user modify the GUI to their liking, i.e. toolbar sizes etc.
14. All for One and One for All
Vista came out in so many versions that even Chuck Norris was bewildered. There should only be three, Home, Business/Pro, and Server. This would lessen the current Windows ambiguity.
13. WinFS
Whatever happened to the infamous NTFS replacement? Windows 7 would really benefit from an improved file system, and such an improvement is bound to attract businesses that shunned Vista for its lack of innovation and improvement. The relational database structure should enhance overall system performance.
12. Home User Licensing
Let's say you have 3 PCs in your house, two desktops and a laptop. You want to upgrade to Windows 7, but have to pay three times for three separate licences. In a world where P2P and torrents are commonly used, how many users would slip into the world of cracks and keygens? The solution (to an extent) would be to offer a home licence. A small fee to be able to use the OS up to, for example, five times in the one household would surely benefit both Microsoft and the average home user.
11. Driver Availability
Arguably the Achilles heel of Vista was the slow uptake of drivers by device manufacturers. Although this is hard for Microsoft to dictate, it would be in their best interest to promote driver production during the OS development stage. Even if the drivers are beta, it sure beats being left with no hardware functionality.
10. Standards Compliant Browser
This isn't mu
Windows 7 fix (Score:5, Funny)
1. edit the boot screen from "windows XP" to say "windows 7", then just re-release it as the new version and continue to refine XP's codebase. problems solved!
UAC (Score:5, Insightful)
Nearly (Score:5, Informative)
new UAC, program caching, standards compliant browser
From what I've seen from builds so far, UAC is getting modified in that you'll be able to say "Don't bug me again for for X minutes"...program caching is in Vista called SuperFetch...works nicely if you have the RAM (even if people tend to complain it "uses my memory", ironically)...and IE8 is supposed to be standards compliant by default. So, out of that list, 2 out of 3 are already here if you don't use IE, and UAC prompts are rare if you don't use software from 10 years ago.
No DRM, (Score:5, Insightful)
A proper Windows Classic GUI, and MUCH lower system requirements than Vista. Dual-booting XP works fine for running games, and that's all I need Windows for. Make me want to upgrade, don't force me. They tried that with Vista but I got Halo 2 to run on XP anyways. Also try to make UAC less of a PITA.
The Colin Chapman theory of design applies here: "To add speed, add lightness."
Vista is a fatass riced-out American SUV with flat tires and the brakes stuck halfway on. Dump that POS and try again.
FORWARD SLASHES (Score:5, Funny)
It's 2008. Dump the triumvirate of Windows design retardedness:
1. Drive letters (we are not using CP/M)
2. Backward slashes for directory separation (we are not using DOS)
3. CRLF (we are not using a typewriter!)
TFA is crap (Score:5, Insightful)
I read that article earlier today, and it is complete drivel.
One of the points is they want to do away with UAC and instead educate the users.
But otoh they complain that there is no status bar telling people that Vista is using their RAM for caching. So what do you want the users to be: Expert or novice?
And I'm all for educating users, but
a) it doesn't work if they don't care and
b) Microsoft got bashed for not protecting the users. UAC enforces the design guidelines that were not enforced up until now.
And it has to be 'productive' Fine. You tell them what 'productive' constitutes and they'll be happy enough to implement it. As it is, usability experts find it difficult enough.
Is 'the gimp' so much better?
And it has to be rewritten from scratch.
You can complain about the Shell all you want, but the Vista kernel is an engineering masterpiece, and there are some real design innovations in there. Read 'Windows Systems Internals, 4th edition' if you don't believe me.
Yes, windows has its problems, but the list in TFA is complete bollocks as far as I am concerned. It is just a bunch of easy catchphrases for getting support from the windows bashers and for getting hits on their page.
Untrusted Apps (Score:5, Insightful)
1. I want to be able to install an application without having to give it complete and unfettered access to every single aspect of my machine. As a long list of "reputable" companies (Sony, Intuit, Apple, every game engine, etc) have proven, I can't trust any of them. They all want to install rootkits, spyware, adware, whatever they can when I choose to install their app. I can't find out beforehand what they're going to install, I can't easily find out afterwards what they did install.
Give me a way to sandbox every single app. I don't care if that means that I can't install an app that hooks the keyboard, or the filesystem. I want my machine to continue to run!
2. Implement a "Snitch" mode for performance. Tell me why my computer takes 3 minutes to boot, and name names. Tell me why my computer takes 2 minutes to shut down, and name names.
These are OS-level improvements (not eye candy implemented in the windows manager) that would make my life easier. /frank
I'd like a smarmy paperclip helper, please (Score:5, Funny)
I'd really like a smarmy paperclip that will pipe up all the time and suggest things. Say, it pops up while posting on the Intarwebs and says, "It looks like you're trying to spell the word 'ridiculous'. Can I help with that?"
Feature Parity w/ Linux and OS X (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems like the low-hanging fruit would be to copy the parts of Linux and OS X where Windows is still behind. This would include:
Re:Microsoft sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I'll believe it when I see it (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:ANYTHING as long as it doesn't fragment so easi (Score:5, Funny)
Windows isn't fragmenting your files, it's sharing them with otherwise unoccupied sectors on your hard drive.
Another legitimate use of file sharing in my opinion.
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Re:I'll believe it when I see it (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of which - how would WinFS and ZFS compare?
Much like chalk and cheese. WinFS is(/was) *not* a filesystem, it's a database/metadata layer that sits between the filesystem (NTFS) and the applications.
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Re:5 features (Score:5, Insightful)
Really though, the killer app of Linux is. Customization. For MS to get more marketshare, you need to be able to customize everything on it. From the kernel to the GUI.
I'm pretty sure they're willing to let the 0.01% of people who care about this sort of thing, slide.
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