I am sick and friggen tired of this.
Ok actually I was tired of this particular issue from the moment of the first press announcement.
But now it is getting to be just plain annoying.
It does not help any that Microsoft has a history of doing this.
The particular case I am talking about here is what is known as Remote Desktop Sharing.
Microsoft would LIKE you to believe that it is a revolutionary new feature that they invented just especially for Windows XP.
Which it sure as hell isn’t even before GUIs existed the old text terminals had this.
And The X Window System (I think I got that right. . . . They are so picky about spelling) has had remote usage since, err, let see now,
1986.
But neglecting that, (*nixs are evil you know. . . . :rolleyes: Bill said so so it has to be true. . . . ) Windows 2K can do Remote Desktop Sharing just as well.
Hell, even IGNORING Terminal Services, IGNORING that with a properly setup network I could use a Pentium 133mhz Laptop running Windows98 to log into a Win2K box halfway around the world (or hell all the way around the world and just route the damn message via the scenic route);
Ignoring ALL of that, ignoring the last 16 years of computing;
Windows 2000 comes with Netmeeting built into it. Netmeeting has Remote Desktop Sharing built into it. Double Click icon, click through three dialog boxs, it is installed. Wowies.
:mad: :mad: :mad:
So what does MS go and do? Tout Remote Desktop Sharing (now relabled Remote Desktop Assistance and with a few bits twiddled, same damn thing, but just integrated more tightly with the OS, or at least made to appear such) as the Big Hip New Thing in Windows XP.
Which it isn’t. It has existed in Windows 2000 installs for years now (since 1999, yah I know I said I would disregard the last 16 years, but don’t be quite so literal, yeesh) as a default. It works. I know. I provide support to Windows XP users with it all the time. It is just not a one double-click process like it is in XP, but instead, oh, say, a two or three double-click process. Oh wow. Big deal. ::sighs:: So they moved it in XP, yeeshkies.
But this alone, hey, FUD, call something old new, OK, I can deal.
Then, oh then, Microsoft goes that ONE extra step in BULL SHITING the consumers that shows exactly how full of shit they are.
MSN messenger, I hate it, really, loath it. It is basically Netmeeting with a pretty interface around it and a centralized contact list (actually even the contact list isn’t so far away from Netmeeting, as Netmeeting includes support for a central directory, hardly a giant leap to go from one to another.)
Microsoft took their Hotmail database and let their messaging client authenticate users against it. Oh big whoop. Ugh.
(not that you get to use user names, ooh noooo, because Microsoft runs both @MSN.com and @Hotmail.com services you have to use your full e-mail address and then select a SEPARATE user name that is actually SHOWN to people.)
But here is the kicker, here is a sign of exactly HOW FAR Microsoft is willing to go to lie to you.
There are two different versions of Microsoft Messenger (actually there are loads of versions, but for the purpose of this rant, only two of them are pertinent).
One for XP, one for everybody else.
Guess what the major difference is?
The XP one includes Remote Desktop Assistance.
And if an XP user is talking to a 2K user and the XP user selects “Remote Desktop Sharing” the application sends back a “Feature Not supporting, please ask your friend to upgrade to the latest version of Windows XP”.
Which is ABSOLUTE POSITIVE BULL SHIT.
Let me say it a bit more clearly.
Microsoft is ARTIFICIALLY creating TWO versions of a program JUST TO CREATE THE IMPRESSION that XP has a “unique” feature that is not unique at all.
This is beyond just marketoids telling their standard lies, this is about MS going through the trouble of creating two separate versions of a program JUST to create an illusion.
Now I understand that there would be some minor dependency issues if Remote Desktop Assistance was allowed for other platforms besides XP;
Namely some minor additional crud would have to be loaded at startup.
Considering how the user is already loading a messaging client, sticking the remote desktop sharing program in there at boot time as well does not seem like such an arduous task. I mean hell, it is not like MS has not in the past added plenty of crap to startup without asking their users about it.
and as a closing note, you should be aware that XP is actualy little more then 2K with a ~$20 “Themes” program shoved on top of it (you have been able to get them for the other Windows OSs for ages now, nice having had a CHOICE though, with XP you are stuck with all of the extra code that goes along with it, oh joy, you lose your choice!), some crud reorganized and made more prominent (see the above rant) and some minor kernel tweaks to make up for the added bloat of all of that Themes crud.
Oh, and XPs amazing loading times? Get this. In order to manage those, when ever your computer is idle (meaning you have left it running for awhile without doing anything on it) XP actually goes and optimizes the first few sections of your Hard Drive so as to ensure that it loads up as fast as possible.
Yup, that is right, it actually uses your computer’s Idle Time to work at creating the IMPRESSION that it is faster.
It isn’t, any decent boot optimizer for 2K (or even the other Windows OSs, though not as great of a gain shall be found) will have the same effect. And not lie to you about where the decrease boot times came from either.
Microsoft, lies, more lies, and damned lies.
(On the plus side though, when they are not under the directives of Marketoids trying to stupidify the populas down, Microsoft’s Programmers can indeed turn out some darn good UIs. Too bad that with XP this hardly shows. A UI should be clean and simple and be very refined. Microsoft’s Messanger handles a lot of tasks better then AIM, but then again, Netmeeting has been around since at least NT4, remember the old Windows Messanger client, used fun to spaming people over the school network with it. ::sighs:: )
(built into 2K though. 
)