With all due respect...
1) There's a lot of good reasons to question Microsoft's methods, but we all know their intentions, that is to promote themselves. Actually, they just want to rule the world - to be the only product available on the shelves.
While I'm not too happy about the heavy handed ways they do it, I feel they are having to adjust somewhat to industry demands, albeit faintly and slowly. See #2 next.
I do however love the way they attempt to block all previous versions of their software from integrating with their new ones, how they at the request of their "partners" who get in bed with them, depreciate or even block earlier verions of 3rd party applications by simply stopping support for them within a very short timeframe. Their motivation? Why to force you to upgrade everything else once you've found out that a product you already own and rely on won't run correctly, can't integrate or in some cases won't even install.
Each and every time they come up with what they call a better experience, or better tools, it's plugged into you having to purchase the whole farm. Unlike Linux or BSD (for example), you gotta buy the whole thing. And with that, they hold the ace, and you do not.
Microsoft needs this in order to drive revenue. Without it, they must downsize and let some of their programmer wealth go. And that would ultimately lead to something less than world dominance - which of course, is totally unacceptible.
2) There are nearly all other formats of these tutorials/videos/marketing blurbs on the screen in front of you. You do not have to use Silverlight (thank God) - look at the Formats: drop down right under the video. I chose WMV (High), and boy was that crystal clear and event-less.
3) As for content, these really are marketing blurbs, and not all that well done. One person interviewed says..."that it [Windows 7] will be more expensive to deploy early rather than late is a misnomer". This show us who we're working with. Perhaps he meant misconception.
4) Overall, I kinda like some of the new features, like Windows Backup, iSCSI, Previous Versions (now handled by some very innovative block oriented file management) and the fact they've realized a lot of mid and small sized businesses are well served by right-sized versions of system management tools.
But these tools also eat into (or at least they think they do) sales revenues of their upscale tools. So they're very, very scared of providing too much for free.
5) Worst of all, MS is not able to really fix anything because it is always replaced in each iteration. With each new version, they abandon tools that user's and IT staff have spent years learning and using for "new and improved" ones, instead of fixing the ones they already have. You can support earlier programs. It is possible. ?nix does this all the time.
And now, probably 40% of all legitimate Internet traffic is nothing but MS updates and patches. Heaven forbid they'd develop something good, and stick with it.
Did you ever notice a toilet is still just a toilet? My God what would MS ever do if they were American Standard?
?nix is developed in an elemental fashion by end users and academia. And while neither are as good as 100 wizbang overpaid programmers who really excel at what they do, at least the outcome represents what the end users truly need, as opposed to what we're told are "at the request of end users" as MS claims.
Trust me, no end user every requested DRM. But you're gonna get plenty more of it real soon. What a crock.
What end users really want is an OS that works, is light, easy, discoverable, stable, secure, has the tools they really need and isn't relying on a five megabit-per-second Internet feed in order to keep it from crashing or becomming infected by tricksters who've discovered some of the millions of back doors left open by sloppy programming practices spawned by the goals of such a poor overall methodology.
After all though, it's only about the money, and nothing more.
How sad it is this world is led by the lust for gold.
I may sound like an old fart - and actually, I am.
But I know what I want and need, and I sure as heck know what I don't.
