The New York Times' troll video about the new Windows 8

According to the New York Times this is the look of a
another "flummoxed" user (this one a Mac user) trying
to "figure out" the new Windows 8 interface.

Emily B. Hager, a video journalist, and David F. Gallagher, a technology editor, both working for the New York Times, no doubt experienced professionals in their field, published a video called "Microsoft's Makeover. Getting to know Windows 8", in which they supposedly invited 5 computer users, two of them Mac users, to "test" the new Windows 8. In what, in my opinion, appears to be more of a parody than a real, journalistic, piece of information, except for a few tidbits of actual information, these two journalists, which I have no doubt they are not Windows users themselves, try to show the readers (or viewers) "how difficult" it is to find your way around the new interface. This video is basically visually misleading. However, what I find most appalling is the fact that this type of trolling disguised as journalism comes from a prestigious journalistic house like the New York Times. Let's see what's wrong with this video:

1. The "invited" users are sitting in front of an Acer laptop, no Surface tablet in sight. They're "trying" to move around the main screen and all they accomplish is softly swiping their index finger right and left. Hard to believe they could not go beyond that point, and tap into any of the tiles. Just about any toddler could've done that easily. I can see that in New York very often in the subway: toddlers navigating effortlessly iPads, all types of smartphones, etc.  The interviewees were not exactly the newest generation of electronic device users.
2. "Windows 8 is the most radical change to the look of [Microsoft] sofware since the late 1980's", says the voice-over of Mr. Gallagher while showing some screen shots of Windows 3.1, which was introduced in 1992 (!) Are you serious?!  One of the most radical changes occurred 17 years ago with Windows 95. Windows 8 is the most radical so far.
3. "None of the people we've interviewed plan to upgrade right away". Kind of obvious for the Mac Users. As of the other users, two old timers, and the clueless lady, who says "That's so cool", and "awesome" and "how do I go back?", obviously not, either.

In another New York Times article, Fresh Windows, but Where’s the Start Button? which has a link to the above video, the author, Nick Wingfield, explains how a 59-year old copywriter in New York was flummoxed when he got his hands on a laptop running Windows 8.
Finally, another article related to this troll video is Daily Report: Windows Makeover May Cause Head-Scratching. I know  I have missed other articles and other media, but this is but a sample of the "bad press" that Windows 8 has gotten, gets and will get. The authors may mean well, and sincerely believe what they say, but I disagree with them. Somehow the competition finds always a way to discredit their rivals with unfair arguments, because they feel perhaps threatened...?

Windows 8 RTM running in a Hyper-V virtual machine

This time I installed the latest Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturing) version in a virtual machine, using Microsoft Hyper-V, as explained in the previous post. I did not want to get rid of my nicely set up Windows 8 Release Preview, that I'm running for several months now. This is a view from my Windows 8 RP desktop that includes a Windows 8 RTM running as another window, in a virtual machine. This is probably the best way for me to compare these two versions of Windows 8.

Virtualization is built into Windows 8

Whereas in Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows there were Virtual PC and Windows XP mode (a great feature that will persuade many a skeptic about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7) there is now Hyper-V, the incredible and mature Microsoft virtualization system. Hyper-V, now up to par with the leader VMware, is built into Windows 8 (though the Desktop version) but still useful to install and control a number of virtual machines using the Hyper-V Manager. The first step to take is to enable it by accessing "Turn Windows features on or off" (to do that, while in the Start screen, the one with the tiles, type "features" and then select "Settings") to reveal the application shown here. There is plenty to learn here and it's the wave of the future. The link to MSDN, up there, includes a great video explaining how to enable and install Hyper-V, including the trickiest part: networking and Internet access.

Oh, please! Stop complaining and just type...

It may be reasonable the "frustration" of some folks when Windows 8 starts and all they see is precisely that, The Start Screen laid out with nicely arranged dynamic tiles. Some still want to see the old desktop that existed up until Windows 7 and that had been around since Windows 95. Guess what? Just start typing and you will get to where you want to go. For instance, do you want the control panel? All right, then start typing "control" and you'll see on the right hand side the Windows 8 SEARCH feature (shown here) that will instantly drill down Apps, Settings and Files to find what you are looking for. At the left hand side (not shown) you will see the search results in the forms of icons and, if the application, setting or file you need is highlighted just hit Enter or click on the corresponding icon. I have explained before, in addition to this neat search feature (that is way better than the old start button), how to use the Windows Key and switch between Metro and Desktop and also challenged my readers asking What do you need the Start button for? Hope this post helps new users and gives a break to "frustrated" would-be users of this great OS.

Outlook.com: more cloud integration and power to you

Microsoft launched today its new web mail service, Outlook.com, as a personal e-mail service that aspires to be "a modern email for the next billion mailboxes." It is the same desktop application and service for business (Exchange server) that you are probably already used to, but with a new Metro interface, from within your Internet browser, with a neat interface and a nimble performance . You can subscribe to this free service either creating a new account or using one of your Hotmail or Live.com accounts. Outlook.com will replace Hotmail and its aimed, among other things, to attract users from Google's Gmail service as a very solid competitor. Microsoft thinks that the time is right to reimagine email, "we realized that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past and build you a brand new service from the ground up." Read more in the Outlook Blog.

In spite of "strategic" naysayers Windows 8 is and will continue to be a success

In a tech media landscape apparently covered by iPhone and iPad fanboys, if not Android ones, there appears to be a concerted effort to rain on Microsoft's parade, with its new line of products around Windows 8, namely, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 for desktop PCs and tablets. Take for example, the unwarranted article featured on the cover of the otherwise serious and unbiased magazine Vanity Fair under the header Microsoft's Lost Decade. The question is, why precisely now? This article has the "news (?) angle" or better yet the "editorial angle" in which Microsoft is portrayed as if they hadn't done anything (to be reckoned with)  since the release of Windows XP, ten years ago! And it also appears to come from ex Microsoft employees, like someone who left the company 16 years ago (in 1996!) and is featured by blogger Preston Gralla of ComputerWord,  in an article with a dramatic National Enquirer-style headline:  Microsoft ex-employee -- Windows 8 is a "catastrophe." Gralla boasts that "he can offer insightful, clear-eyed commentary about Microsoft and all its technologies" (!) Hard to believe. Not to mention, a number of so called tech journalists, i.e. "journos" everywhere on the Web spewing, often regurgitated, false statements and clearly biased opinions on these products. "Analysis" on software and hardware products they haven't used for more than a few minutes, and that in the event that they actually did. And don't get me started with the ubiquitous Apple laptop on every movie, commercial, magazine ad or news about computers developers and startups and entrepreneurs. Coincidence? I definitely don't think so!
On the other hand there are the thousands of enthusiastic old and new followers of the super nimble and elegant Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 Release preview and the Surface Tablet. How about "Mac User: Why I love Windows 8"? And how about Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, providing new freshmen with a Windows 8 Tablet and a Nokia Lumia 900 phone?
A lost decade for Microsoft? With a repertoire of proven business tools like these?! The bias is completely obvious in the media outlets mentioned above and everywhere else.

Wozniak, Apple's co-founder, praises Microsoft, again

Steve Wozniak is an electronics engineer and a computer pioneer, with a bunch of Doctor of Engineering degrees, and better known as the co-founder, with Steve Jobs, of Apple. Last week, as a special guest of the Entel Summit, in Chile, once again he expressed his appreciation for Microsoft technologies.  He said, more or less verbatim, that "I do see a lot of stuff coming out from Microsoft in the consumer arena (Nokia Lumia phones, Surface) and they have such a strikingly good visual appearance, which is a lot of what Steve Jobs always looked for: the convergence of art and technology...so I made a joke that Steve Jobs came back reincarnated at Microsoft... and I do want to see the surface, I want to own one, I want to use one; I prefer to judge things that I really know, and not what I read about. I'm glad that Microsoft is starting to show that maybe they're a different company than before. I don't remember this sort of thing happening in a long, long time for Microsoft. I'm very happy..." Wozniak, a gadget geek, had specifically expressed his admiration for the Nokia Lumia 900 a few months ago when he declared, in a interview, that "Windows Phone apps are much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone". Well, I have to agree with him, not just, this because this a Windows blog and because I am a happy owner of a Nokia Lumia phone, but because he's spot on.