Why Windows Vista and Office 2007 are so Expensive

Almost two months ago Microsoft announced the prices for Windows Vista and Office 2007 (see Update: Windows Vista Prices). Perhaps the new packaging (scroll down for more) has something to do with the higher prices? Here are few other blog sites comments:

From CyberNet News:

“Somehow The Vista Team Blog came up with a very unique way of making it sound like the packaging alone is worth hundreds of dollars. Shall we see how many words you can use describe a package:

“Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation.

The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today.”

From CruchGear:

“As we all recall, Microsoft has been famous for slapping all kinds of crazy crap on its product boxes. Well, that’s about to change, possibly because they can’t find any pictures of happy Vista users.”

From Gizmodo:

“Microsoft, planning to lure you into using Windows Vista and Office 2007 for the rest of your life, today reveals the packaging for the upcoming products, going with a rounded design reminiscent of a 1950s toaster.”

Also see Todd Bishop’s MS Blog: Analyzing the Vista and Office 2007 packaging »

I have to laugh at the comments from The Vista Team Blog, “…that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use.” What the heck is ‘life-long use’, the product will be obsolete in a couple years and in a few more years Microsoft will force you to go to a newer version. But your Vista and Office software, now useless is still in the same pristine condition it was in when you shelled out the few hundred dollars.

In many ways I am surprised Microsoft is going to make such a big deal out of packaging. Considering how inexpensive and widely available broadband is now, why not just have users upgrade or purchase the product via Internet?

My copy of Windows XP software is sitting in my closet in the same packaging (or lack thereof) it came in from the shop that built my system. The CD is in a jewel case in a pile of other CD’s and the manual is in a pile with other manuals. I suppose with this new packaging Microsoft is expecting us to put it on our bookshelves as if it would be something we would be proud to display.

Here is my final thought about this new packaging: “It is about as useful as those cardboard boxes they use to package audio CD’s in.”

Colorful Tabs & Firefox 2

A long time ago I talked about the Colorful Tabs extension. One thing I noticed when I went to Bon Echo (Firefox 2) it was one of those extensions that did not work. Further, after forcing it to work with the Nightly Tester Tools, I discovered while it did work, it broke some functionality of Firefox. Once installed, you get colorful tabs, but no close buttons.

I reviewed the extension author’s site but it has not been updated since June and have a feeling it won’t be anytime soon. However, on the extension page though, there was note from someone who said if you changed the Close Tab Button setting in about:config to ‘3′ this would work. Looking back at my post, ‘3′ would put the Close Tab button at the end of tab strip as it was in Firefox 1.5. I’ve tested and while this does work, I prefer to have mine set to ‘0′ which places the close button on the active tab. Sadly, though that setting won’t work with Colorful Tabs and Firefox 2.

Now also keep in mind you can close a tab by right-clicking on the said tab and selecting from the context menu ‘Close Tab’. I have also been told you can close a tab by middle-clicking on the said tab.

Related Articles:

• Colorful Tabs
• Update: Colorful Tabs & Firefox 2
• Tab Groups

Weather Bug Updated

For those of you who have been waiting patiently (or impatiently) for an updated version of Weather Bug which supported Firefox 2, the wait is over! While the new version was officially release on October 26th, it did not get approved and uploaded to Firefox Add-Ons until late on October 30th.

Weather Bug 1.0.0.2

Firefox 2.0: Undo Closed Tab Tip

With Firefox 2, Undo Close Tab is a standard feature. While you can undo a close tab by right-clicking on the tab bar and selecting ‘Undo Close Tab’ from the context menu. However, this reopens the last closed tab and you will have to repeat this until you have reopened the desired tab.

Tip: Hidden in the History Menu is the option, Recently Closed Tabs. When selected, it opens a sub-menu with a list of all your recently closed tabs. Simply highlight the tab you wish to reopen or you can select ‘Open All in Tabs’.

Firefox 1.5.0.8 & IE7 Force Feeding

On Wednesday, November 1st, IE6 users may begin to get force-fed IE7 via Windows Updates. If you don’t want to be force-fed IE7 here a few things you can do:

• Don’t install SP2 for Windows XP
• Remove or don’t install WGA
• Select the options to review before installing Windows Updates
• Follow the steps in my How to Block IE7 Auto-Update post

Also on Wednesday, Firefox 1.5.0.8 is tentatively scheduled for release While this build will be mostly bug and regressions fixes, it is going to implement the minor/major upgrade feature. If you are waiting on installing Firefox 2 until the ‘dust settles’ then upgrade to this version. By upgrading to Firefox 1.5.0.8 you will be notified or auto-upgraded (major) to Firefox 2 when Mozilla activates this feature (sometime after the Firefox 2.0.0.1 build is released).

If you chose to decline the upgrade to Firefox 2 you will not be prompted to upgrade to Firefox 2 again. Note: You can always upgrade on your own by downloading Firefox 2 and installing it yourself. Once you decline the Firefox 2 (major) upgrade, you will instead be notified or auto-updated (if enabled) to the next (minor) upgrade for that build (if there is one it would be Firefox 1.5.0.9).

Tip: If you want control (prompted vs auto-updated) over Firefox updates follow these directions:

1. From Tools Menu, select ‘Options…‘
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Click the Update tab below
4. Look for ‘When updates to Firefox are found: ‘ and be sure the button for ‘Ask me what I want to do‘ is clicked

mozillaZine

mozillaZine is a great source for Firefox and Thunderbird news, information and support. Some people are under the false impression mozillaZine is only a news/announcements site. mozillaZine is more than just news, they host a very extensive Knowledge Base (wiki) of information about Mozilla products and applications. Within this Knowledge Base there are numerous articles covering frequently encountered issues for both Firefox and Thunderbird.

Another large part of mozillaZine is their forums. The forums, unlike the Knowledge Base allows users to discuss Firefox,Thunderbird and SeaMonkey (former Mozilla Suite) products. All three products each have their own five forums:

• Support ~ Help Forum
• General ~ Discussion of General Topics
• Builds ~ Information and Support related to the nightly builds
• Features ~ Discussion and suggestions for features
• Bugs ~ Bug information, check here before filing a bug on Bugzilla

Further, volunteers have made French, Japanese, Chinese, German, Korean, Spanish and Hungarian translations available. Most of the translations are of the news contents, but may also include links to non-mozillaZine forums in the above languages.

For those of you wondering if MozillaZine is part of the Mozilla Project…From the about page on MozillaZine…

Established in 1998, MozillaZine is an independent Mozilla news, community and advocacy site.

MozillaZine is not run by the Mozilla Foundation and is not an official part of the Mozilla project.

MozillaZine is hosted at the Open Source Lab at Oregon State University.

As If WGA Wasn’t Enough!

Sometimes I wonder what the folks at Microsoft do all day. I am beginning to think they sit around and come up with new ways to piss off what few customers they have left. I am not a fan (as if anyone is) of Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage validating software. So much so I have removed it from my machine and refuse to install, even if means I cain’t get IE7 or any of the new Microsoft applications. Now understand I DO have a valid copy of Windows XP and it even passes WGA.

Well, it seems as if WGA wasn’t enough. Oh no, I guess Microsoft still had a few loyal Microsoft Office customer they hadn’t managed to piss off yet. So they come up with a new ’scheme’ effective October 27th (they were a bit secretive about this). It is called Office Genuine Advantage (OGA). Here is what PCWorld explains:

The company’s Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27, the software vendor quietly disclosed today. After that date, any Office Online templates downloaded from within the Office 2007 Microsoft Office System applications will require validation of legitimacy.

Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added.

Once again this only make me want to use and promote OpenOffice even more! Sure OpenOffice isn’t as powerful or as feature packed as Microsoft Office, but for the average user who doesn’t need all those extra ‘bells & whistles’ and are looking for a nice non-Microsoft, simple and FREE Office Suite, OpenOffice is the way to go.

More Odd USB Drives

A while back I posted about the Wooden USB Memory Sticks. Today on CyberNet News: Coolest USB Drives. A couple of these are just ‘wrong’ and there is the $5000 USB drive!

Blogged with Flock

Spread Firefox 2

 

With the release of Firefox 2, comes all new cool Spread Firefox icons! Presently there are seven different icons to choose from ranging in size from small buttons to full size banners. Check out The Affiliates Homepage: Spread Firefox.

Fx 2.0: Removing The Search ‘Go’ Button

Firefox 3 Users: Fx 3.0: Removing The Search ‘Go’ Button

Cookiemonster asked in the Removing ‘Go’ Button post how to remove the search button (magnifying glass) from the search bar. I didn’t understand that question as I didn’t have a magnifying glass. Then tonight a member on Go Firefox! asked me the same question. What I didn’t realize was the tip I posted for removing the ‘Go’ Button was the about:config tweak. However, the way I removed the ‘Go’ Button was via an entry in my userChrome.css file. While I was looking more into this matter I got an e-mail notification of a new comment. The comment from activetrash, just happen to be an answer to this very question. Turns out this can be done by adding a new entry into the userChrome.css file.

The userChrome.css file is located in the Chrome folder in your profile folder and can be edited with notepad. I would though recommend getting the ChromEdit Plus extension as this makes this process so much easier.

To remove the search button (magnifying glass) add this line:
.search-go-button-stack { display: none !important; }

To remove the ‘Go’ Button on the navigation bar add this line:
#go-button-stack { display: none !important; }

If you also want to remove the search engine drop-down button as this line:
.searchbar-engine-button { display: none !important }

After you have made the change and saved your userChrome.css file, you will need to restart Firefox for the changes to take effect. Thanks again to activetrash for these great tips!