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New Ultimate Extras

A

Aberforth

Golden Member
I just noticed there are new Ultimate Extras available for download, that includes Dream Scene Content Pack and New Windows Sound Schemes.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Update 09-24-2008

Microsoft ® Tinker (TM): Microsoft Tinker is a casual game that provides players with short puzzle game play sessions set in a warm, calming environment.

Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker: Based on the positive feedback we received from the release of additional Windows Sound Schemes in April, we've integrated the unique audio sounds from Microsoft Tinker into a new sound scheme.

Windows ® DreamScene (TM) Content Pack #4 Windows DreamScene Content Pack #4 which adds three additional nature-setting Windows DreamScenes.
 
Thanks for the heads-up OP but I mean DAMN, can Microshaft come up with any USEFUL extras to make it worth the extra cash they suckered people out of?
 
Yeah the Ultimate Extras have been pretty underwhelming so far.
I think they would have been better off PR-wise not having them at all, or just releasing them to all Vista users.
 
I think the team working on Ultimate extras doesn't exist anymore, maybe MS has told them to take extras as a weekend hobby project.
 
Microsoft really ripped us off with the whole ultimate ad campaign. i bought it hoping they would release something worthwhile for it. i am still waiting
 
Wow, that's just ... sad.
Games are NICE and all, but how about something really USEFUL like, say,
being able to burn an ISO CD/DVD image,
or some better image processing / browsing / editing tools,
or some file/email security tools to interoperate with GPG/PGP/DSS/...,
a good SSH client,
a host based intrusion detection tool,
a front end for the firewall that gives you policy / rule based QOS control and outbound as well as inbound filtering,
a decent text/voice note taking application for PDA and desktop (free OneNote 2008?),
a free 'extras' version of MS Office maybe Home+Student for Home SKUs,
a printing utility that doesn't suck and lets you actually control margins/borders/color profiles, N-up / matrix prints,...
a good generic archiving tool that can create ZIP, 7-ZIP, RAR, TAR, ....
a good calendaring / PIM program or something like that,
a better sound / mixer system so you can actually control what outputs (plural at once) audio goes out to / etc.
a good hard disc security / power management tool so you can power down / lock / unlock drives dynamically,
....
 
Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
Wow, that's just ... sad.
Games are NICE and all, but how about something really USEFUL like, say,
being able to burn an ISO CD/DVD image,
or some better image processing / browsing / editing tools,
or some file/email security tools to interoperate with GPG/PGP/DSS/...,
a good SSH client,
a host based intrusion detection tool,
a front end for the firewall that gives you policy / rule based QOS control and outbound as well as inbound filtering,
a decent text/voice note taking application for PDA and desktop (free OneNote 2008?),
a free 'extras' version of MS Office maybe Home+Student for Home SKUs,
a printing utility that doesn't suck and lets you actually control margins/borders/color profiles, N-up / matrix prints,...
a good generic archiving tool that can create ZIP, 7-ZIP, RAR, TAR, ....
a good calendaring / PIM program or something like that,
a better sound / mixer system so you can actually control what outputs (plural at once) audio goes out to / etc.
a good hard disc security / power management tool so you can power down / lock / unlock drives dynamically,
....
Click to expand...

They cannot add all that, independent developers will scream and EU will come up with new ideas to sue MS.
 
I doubt the EU or DOJ would care as long as Microsoft adds software developed with a level playing field, i.e.
* uses published open standards / documented OS APIs to make the code work
* doesn't force / manipulate resellers / integrators to discourage 3rd party tool sales / integration
* permits the Microsoftware to be uninstalled "add remove programs" and replaced w/ equivalent 3rd party tools if the end user / integrator desires to do that.
* doesn't engineer in any "conflicts" in the OS or apps to make 3rd party programs fail to work as well as the Microsoftware does, i.e. not sabotaging file associations or forcing the default applications to always be MS'.

Although I'll always personally prefer Firefox to MSIE, I don't really care if MS develops a browser as long as the above guidelines are true. Same for Outlook vs. Thunderbird or whatever.

Just don't FORCE me to accept the inconvenience of or insecurity of bundled applications that I CAN'T replace / remove.

The nice fact is (although it is sad for Microsoft and sad for me when I boot into XP/Vista) that a "default" desktop distribution install of LINUX has tons more out of the box capability in terms of basic utilities / applications than Microsoft's full Vista Ultimate 64 has in many areas. Document reading (Microsoft Office file viewers are mostly absent and otherwise crippled), Document Writing (OpenOffice vs WordPad -- no comparison whatsoever), ISO CD/DVD burning (something I'd consider a BASIC function since 1990 or so), etc.

I don't mind Microsoft charging for its OS and making a profit, but that is all the more reason that when I pay the "Ultimate price" for the "Ultimate" OS, I'd like to feel that I was getting MORE or at least EQUALLY GOOD utility / application features with the paid OS versus what is totally commonly available for free in LINUX or freeware 3rd party Windows tools.

I don't want to pay $300 or whatever for an OS only to have to go download 300 utilities just so I can do BASIC stuff that should've been included like read / write documents, burn ISO images, convert media file formats (Media Player doesn't really do much but CD rip, Media Encoder is not default, and free stuff like MediaCoder / Mencoder / LAME etc. is WAY better in flexibility), create ZIP / 7Z archives, etc.

If Microsoft followed Apple's lead (basing Windows 8 on BSD UNIX kernel like OS-X is), or followed SUN's lead (basically buying out / sponsoring the OpenOffice project and creating a proprietary StarOffice version of it), or followed IBM's lead (creating a custom OpenOffice variant to distribute / support commercially as LotusSymphony), I wouldn't blame them -- IMHO it'd be a smart move.

I just want a rich set of applications / utilities at least as good as the most popular freeware / open source ones to be readily available or integrated / supported by default with the OS install. If MS doesn't want to author the stuff themselves they can just sponsor / buy independently produced products and license them.

No ISV can complain with a straight face that MS is including tools that are commonly available as freeware or integrated into any competitive OS (all the calendar / photo / document / printing etc. tools in OS-X or similar for LINUX).

The only thing that MS is accomplishing by distributing almost worthless junk applications (paint, notepad, wordpad, MS Mail, File Explorer, half baked DVD creator / Media center, et. al.) in their "Ultimate" OS is just a disservice to their customers.

I don't see how they can think they can continue to nickle-and-dime milk the home market for tools like good backup, office applications, file / network security, et. al. when there are so many free ones that are comparable to or better than what Microsoft charges a lot of money for.

If some of their good / better office / productivity / security / sysadmin applications were included in the OS license then at least they'd have a much more compelling case for "Why Vista is better, why it is a worthwhile upgrade".

Originally posted by: Aberforth
They cannot add all that, independent developers will scream and EU will come up with new ideas to sue MS.
Click to expand...

 
QuixoticOne, you don't know how EU works; they don't care whether companies are violating the laws are not- they first bite and then talk about violation and then demand clarification. And there is a lot of Anti-Microsoft attitude even among normal people- if you dig deeply into the core of their arguments - they just hate MS for making so much money and creating a monopoly, they hate Bill Gates and so on. MS wouldn't waste time and money to deal with this, Ultimate version wasn't supposed to be made, it was a last minute decision- because some partners were worried that customers would want all of the Windows Features, Ultimate Extras was designed to deliver online premium publications, videos, tutorials and fun apps, they just couldn't do it because the team is virtually non-existent (working on Windows Live etc).

MS plays the game very cleverly; it's been a long term successful strategy. They release tons of API's, Documentation and developer tools that you can do virtually anything; this naturally attracts a wide range of developers and customers of various backgrounds. When they start developing they have this "Windows hasn't got this app" mindset, do you really think MS hasn't thought of it? Of course, they have thought of it but they want you to do it, more developers=more customers=more popular=more market share. You might argue "A file splitter program bundled with windows doesn't make a big difference" -but in reality it makes a huge difference, file splitters are used by large number of end users and developers, tell me how many file splitters are out there? 🙂 simply too many?.because there are too many developers. Let?s say MS comes up with a cool new GUI feature within Windows, they immediately rebrand it, document it and release it for the developers with a name ?Windows Presentation Foundation? which attracts non-existent developers and designers.

Also bundling such small apps decreases reliability among enterprise customers and would cause enterprise developers to scream as well. Also Enterprise Developers don't like open-source- this is why most companies still use IE, this is the absolute truth, I know you might disagree but it's the truth, software will always have flaws but by making it open-source you will hurt enterprise developer's reputation, job security and psychology every time when you expose a flaw. This doesn't happen to open-source developers because they are mainly community driven and there are lot of people involved; this is why Open-Source is widely popular among independent developers and also because it?s free. And when it comes to browsers, it doesn't matter whether it's open source or a closed one. Both have a fair amount of good and bad stuff, with open source, the code is susceptible to more variety of attacks than the closed one and in the browsers like IE the flaws are patched whenever there is an incident. So, why then Firefox is so popular and secure? I doubt it's secure but it's very popular. I tell you why this happens- Bill Gates once said "Why be in the business of making something that's almost free?" - it's an epic question because you should ask this question to every open-source developer out there and if they say "We want to help people get free software" or "we want to do good to the community" they are lying. Open-Source, Linux, Firefox exists because of a reason, the ultimate reason is to get rid of all money making software companies not to help people- what?s the point of starting a company/foundation where Business isn?t the motivation, I've been writing code since I was 7, I definitely know how it works. So these calls like "Open Source is more secure and easy" is only temporary, they are currently in-charge of a cycle just like Windows 95, iPod, Xbox etc and people just like to jump on a bandwagon.
 
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