Start Button Definitely Returns to Windows 8, but No Start Menu

The constant whining that Microsoft took my Start button away means that the Start button will be back in Windows 8.1, which will be released by the end of the year. Microsoft will make other changes to the operating system, but they're unlikely to placate the whiners.

There are times when I want to shout "Get (insert profane expletive here) over it! You don't need the Start button or the Start menu." This is one of those times. But there are also times when I want to shout, "Microsoft! You (insert profane expletive here) idiots!" This is also one of those times.

Microsoft will release a public preview of Windows 8.1 at the Build developer conference, which begins June 26. When the update (not to say "service pack" because it isn't one) is released later this year, it will be free to Windows 8 users.

The whiners who can't seem to figure out how to use a computer without a Start button will finally get their way because Microsoft will reinstate the button in Windows 8.1 before the end of the year. The Start button will not lead to the Start menu, though. It will simply go to the existing Start Screen. All this accomplishes is the elimination of some valuable real estate in the Task Bar without the change that the whiners want, which is the Start Menu. (I was going to call them "incompetent whiners", but maybe that's a bit too much.)

Fortunately, there will be some worthwhile advances, too, although most of those will be targeted on portable devices. This makes sense because Windows 8 already works quite well with desktops and notebooks; the cutting-edge stuff is all happening on tablets.

Desktop and notebook users will be able to boot directly to the desktop. This will make it possible for people who have thus far been unable to figure out how to press the Windows key and the "D" key (as in "desktop") to once again find the desktop and will possibly save each user approximately one tenth of a second per day.

The Metro interface will have a much improved Start Screen. Currently the tiles are available only in large and enormous sizes. The update will add a size that Microsoft calls "small" but I would call "normal" and an even larger size that's ridiculous.

The Start button can be set up to perform either of 2 actions: It can do what it does now and show the Start screen, or it can be set to display the "all apps" view, which is an alphabetical list of all installed applications. It cannot be configured to display the kind of Start menu used in previous versions of Windows. Some of the pundits are already whining about not being able to rearrange the alphabetical list. If you want to arrange the icons, use the Start screen -- not the all-apps view. The Start screen is customizable and, with the smaller tiles, it will be even better.

Among the improvements that even Windows haters might grudgingly consider to be worthwhile is improved functionality in the Metro interface search function, which will examine the Web, your installed applications, any content you've stored on SkyDrive, and files stored locally on the computer. Search has come a long way since its early days, when it did little but slow the computer's operation.

One clear disconnect in Windows 8 is being remedied in version 8.1. The Metro Settings panel displayed only a few settings while the full Control Panel was available only from the Desktop. The new Settings panel in Metro contains far more settings than before, but still not everything. If you're someone who needs the full Control Panel, you're probably smart enough to know how to get there already, though, and the Metro improvements will help most people modify their computers

The 8.1 update will allow the Metro interface to resize and position up to 4 apps on a single screen. Currently, you're limited to 2 apps and the sizing isn't very flexible. For those with multiple screens, Metro will be able to run on both (or all) of them instead of on just one.

But for many of the pundits, it still comes back to the Start menu and a surprising number of "experts" who should know better are still suggesting the people obtain applications that replace the Start menu. These, of course, are the same people who, when the Start menu was invented, railed about the "stupidity" of using the Start menu to shut down the computer even though most of them were quite familiar with using the "start key" to shut down their automobiles.

A Windows computer without a Start button is a lot like a llama without a pastrami sandwich.

Google Apps, Zoho, Office 365, Office Suite, or Libre Office

At their most basic, office software suites offer the ability to create and edit text documents and numeric documents. They may also provide e-mail, presentation, and database applications. Today's choices include both applications users install on their computers and applications that are delivered as a service from the Internet.

The first major decision will be whether you want to have applications that are installed on your computer or use software as a service. To some extent, that decision will still depend on how many power features you need. The capabilities of online services pale when compared either to Microsoft Office or to Libre Office.

The online services will improve over time, but today's power users still need the capabilities that come with software that's installed locally.

If you're considering changing from one system to another (installed to online or PC to Mac), keep in mind that there will be a period during which your (or your company's) productivity will suffer.

Recently I read a message posted to an online discussion list. The poster had switched from a Windows PC to a Mac and from Office 2010 to Office 2011 (the equivalent Mac version). He was extremely frustrated and proceeded to list 20 things that he detested about the Mac in general and about Office 2011 specifically.

A very wise person that I once worked for liked to explain how critically important it is to determine that the software you want to use will do what you want it to do on the hardware you plan to buy before you buy the software or the hardware. It's easy to simply assume that the shiny new computer and the applications that you purchase will run exactly as you want them to without any effort on your part to learn how they work or to configure them.

What's hard is finding out that your easy decision was wrong. Most of the complaints that the writer had could easily be fixed, but some were simply differences in application implementation between the PC version and the Mac version of Office. The two versions are developed by separate teams that are separated by hundreds of miles. And although Windows computers and Macs are more similar than different, some of the complaints were the result of differences between operating systems and would not be resolved, at least not easily.

So the point is this: "Due diligence" is required. Decisions made in haste and without considering the various implications of the choices often return with bad news.

If you are thinking about switching from a PC to a Mac or from a Mac to a PC, that's a bit beyond the topic of this report, but here's some help if you want to go from PC to Mac: Buy a copy of David Pogue's (Missing Manual Series) Switching to the Mac. Pogue is the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times and you'll find his book online or in many book stores.
If you're going the other way, good luck. I wasn't able to find any books about switching from a Mac to a PC. Maybe PCs are easy for Mac users to figure out. Maybe not many people switch from Macs to PC. All I came up with was an article in the Christian Science Monitor, "Five Lessons from an Apple Fanboy".

Looking at Online Services

Google Apps and Microsoft's Office 365 are the best known of the online services, but there's also Zoho.

The primary applications people need are present in all three:

Application	Zoho	Google Apps	Microsoft Office 365
Word Processor	Writer	Docs	Word
Spreadsheet	Sheet	Sheets	Excel
Presentations	Show	Slides	PowerPoint
E-mail	Mail	Gmail	Outlook (some versions)
Scheduling	Calendar	Calendar	Outlook (some versions)

Some versions of Office 365 offer the all of the Microsoft Office suite applications that can be installed on users' computers in the office and at home, but this applies only to the enterprise version and requires 25 users at $20 per license per month.

If you're thinking about online services, I recommend reading an article by Tech Republic's Ian Hardenburgh in which he compares the core features of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps. This article doesn't include Zoho's offerings, but it does include an application you can download and review to determine whether one of these offerings would serve your needs. (Note, though, that the downloadable application must be purchased from Tech Republic's online store ($50) unless you're a pro member of Tech Republic ($99/year), in which case you can download it at no additional charge.)

On Your Desktop

As with computers, there are more similarities than differences between Microsoft's Office Suite and Libre Office. The primary differences are price (Libre Office is free and Microsoft Office is not) and the user interface (Microsoft uses a ribbon interface that some people like and others detest and Libre Office uses a more traditional interface that some people like and others detest). Each can edit the other's files and the conversion between formats can be counted on to work most of the time. Still, if you're collaborating primarily with people who use one suite or the other, and particularly if they use any of the power-user features, the safer option will be to use the application that created the file (Word for DOC and DOCX files, Writer for ODT files).

Word versus Writer

Both LibreOffice Writer and Microsoft Word are powerful applications and both contain far more features than most people will ever use. That, in fact, is a common problem with many applications today: They are so feature rich that, in attempting to meet all of every user's needs, they become bloated and tend to confuse users who can't find the features they want among the forest of features that they will never use.

Word 2013 is shown at the right.

Writer might be the better application for you and Word might be the better application for me. Or vice versa. It all depends on what's important to you. Word 2013 has a navigator pane that lets you move through the document quickly and easily. Writer actually improves over Word's offering by allowing navigation by more than just headlines. But how many people even know this feature exists in either application?

Word's grammar checker is far better than any other application's attempt. Ideally, we shouldn't need something to tell us that "lose" means you can't find something and "loose" means it's not tight; to tell us the difference between their, there, and they're; or to call us out when we use "it's" ("it is") instead of "its" (possessive). But even professional writers sometimes write the wrong one and Word has your back.

That's LibreOffice 4 Writer at the right.

I like this feature because it's a good safety net. My wife hates it. It can be turned off.

Those are just a few of the hundreds (thousands, more likely) of features. In some cases, the open-source free LibreOffice Writer is ahead and in others the proprietary non-free Microsoft Word takes the lead. Determining which will be right for you requires determining which will be right for you.

And that statement isn't as dumb as it might seem.

Short Circuits

Samsung Might Have Out-Sold Apple in May

Investment research firm Canaccord Genuity says that Samsung appears to have sold more phones in the US in May than Apple did. The survey included AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint stores and showed that Samsung's Galaxy S4 was the top seller for Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, although it was in second place at AT&T to Apple's Iphone 5.

Note, though that the figures don't include sales made at Apple's stores, where sales would presumably be 100% Iphone.

Whether Samsung is #1 or #2 may be less important than the fact that is is #1 or #2. In other words, the company has found a way to sell a lot of smart phones in a market that many still see as being dominated by Apple.

The companies are bitter enemies. The United States International Trade Commission this week issued a ban on the importation of several older Apple devices because Apple infringed Samsung's patents in developing the phone. Apple is also suing Samsung for violating Apple's patented technologies. The prohibited phones include the Iphone 4 for AT&T’s network. Although Apple says it will appeal the decision, the trade commission's ban will have little commercial effect on sales for either company.

The ruling might be extended to ban imports of the Iphone 3GS, Ipad 3G, and Ipad 2 3G for AT&T Wireless.

So although the ruling won't have much effect on Apple, it could change the way patent law is interpreted. And it gives Samsung a clear victory in light of the fact that it has been on the losing side of several legal actions by Apple.

South Korean securities analyst Park Hyun told Bloomberg News that the ruling will probably have "a negative impact on Apple" and might "give Samsung a chance to narrow its market-share gap with Apple in the US."

The down side for everyone is that the decision is likely to fuel the patent wars that threaten to stall innovation.

Hacking Into an Iphone in One Minute

It's possible to defeat security on an Iphone and to plant malware on it in less than a minute. Actually, that sounds somewhat more alarming than it really is, but it's still something to be wary of.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers created the technique and it's less threatening because it requires a physical connection to the phone. Specifically a charger. Plug your phone into the charger and in less than a minute, it will have been infected with malware that's extremely difficult to find.

Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang, and Chengyu Song plan to demonstrate "Mactans" at the annual Black Hat conference in July. The researchers have described the problem to Apple, but they refuse to provide details about the exploit because Apple's developers haven't addressed the issue yet.

So if somebody offers you a free recharging service for your Iphone, it might be a good idea to decline the offer.