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posted by janrinok on Saturday January 17 2015, @09:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the going-live-today dept.

Longtime Microsoft-centric journalist and blogger Paul Thurrott has left Supersite for Windows, and the website he founded sixteen years ago, and its sister site Windows IT Pro, for reasons explained in his farewell post. The sites (the former of which is still branded 'Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows' for now, but that will surely change) will be maintained by a staff of journalists employed by Penton, an information services conglomerate.

Thurrott's new site, thurrott.com, went live on January 17 with a photo of a coffee cup; the site's tab headings indicate a continuation of the Microsoft focus, but the tag "News & Analysis for Tech Enthusiasts" leaves the door open for broader coverage. Thurrott has also signed on as a contributor to Petri IT Knowledgebase; the timing of the move was not coincidental:

So when Blue Whale Web Managing Partner George Coll and I had the opportunity to bring Paul aboard as a contributor to the Petri IT Knowledgebase and to partner with him to launch an all-new tech website at Thurrott.com, we jumped at the chance.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @09:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @09:41PM (#135728)

    Seriously, who?
    Is this story linkspam for the guy's new site?

  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:02PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:02PM (#135733)

    Microsoft News and Analysis by Paul Thurrott – Windows, Office, Mobile & More

    let's not kid ourselves, this is a "Microsoft and Friends!" only site. so despite their being a better solution for free, they will push you to buy the latest bullshit software and support from MS and companies with close ties to them.

    that site is not to help you, it's to sell you bullshit software you dont need.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Whoever on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:25PM

      by Whoever (4524) on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:25PM (#135736) Journal

      I do wonder if such journalists realize that they have been "captured"? They get special access in return for writing nice things about Microsoft. Apparently, the guy is a die hard Windows Phone user [winsupersite.com], which shows how firmly he has been captured.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @11:48PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @11:48PM (#135745)

        No they don't. Because they put themselves in the cage of their own free will. BigCorps don't take normal people and force them into the cage, they just find useful idiots and then spend money to elevate their voices. Same thing with "buying" political candidates, it isn't so much that they they are swayed by the views of their donors than it is the donors find people who already agree with them and then fund their campaigns.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @03:06PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @03:06PM (#135826)

          I guess you can make a chicken and egg argument but it seems to me that politicians often change their stance once elected and when they do change their stance it's often from a pro-public interest position to a pro-corporate interest position. If they aren't honest about their stance when running for office, changing it afterwords, it would suggest that they were either crooks all along from the outset or that corporate money changed their position once elected. I tend to believe the former.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @03:12PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @03:12PM (#135827)

            and what politician runs for office proclaiming they are going to extend and expand copy protection laws and lengths? That would be a sure way to lose an election. It seems like politicians, once elected, take all sorts of pro-corporate stances against the public interest that they never told the public they were going to do when running for office. Where is the honesty there? If they were honest they would have let the public know what they planned to do before getting elected and told us about their pro-corporate position ahead of time. but most politicians are crooks.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by cmn32480 on Sunday January 18 2015, @04:17AM

      by cmn32480 (443) <reversethis-{moc.liamg} {ta} {08423nmc}> on Sunday January 18 2015, @04:17AM (#135759) Journal

      It may very well be an MS and Friends only site. Given the fact that there are a lot of us in this world (though not so many on this site) that put food on the table and a roof over our heads by supporting MS products, these sites are useful.

      Windows IT Pro has been a very useful site to me over the years, I hope that Thurrot.com becomes a good repository of knowledge.

      Remember, if Windows didn't exist, all the Linux crowd would have to bitch about is systemd!

      --
      "It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
    • (Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Sunday January 18 2015, @04:34PM

      by iamjacksusername (1479) on Sunday January 18 2015, @04:34PM (#135832)

      While I do not disagree that Microsoft uses Supersite to push their products, I do not agree that is all it the site is about. Paul’s articles over the years gave very good and in-depth coverage on things going on with Windows and that is important if you work in that world. If you work in the OSS world, then yes, Paul’s site is not a particularly valuable resource. The articles cover topics and push a pure Microsoft approach to them... but that is Ok because it was always very open and unapologetic about it. This is a useful thing for those of us that live and work with Microsoft products on a daily basis.

        I know I learned about many upcoming features with Windows through Paul’s articles; if you are a sysadmin working with MS products, you know how opaque the TechNet articles can be – sometimes you cannot even figure out what functionality the TechNet article is trying to explain. The articles on Supersite were often a great breakdown on major pieces of functionality that you could use as a roadmap when trawling through TechNet.

        There is a huge marketing component to the site but, to my mind, that does not take away from the quality of the information and coverage that is also there. No company is going to offer something for nothing – be it Microsoft or RedHat or whomever. There will always be a subtext of how the company will benefit. And that is Ok because that is how the world works.

      In any case, I am happy to see Paul will be contributing to Petri IT knowledge base as well as continuing to write articles.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:40PM

    by gallondr00nk (392) on Saturday January 17 2015, @10:40PM (#135739)

    It sounds like the site has had its Dice moment, and he's had enough.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @11:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @11:03PM (#135740)

      Or he wants a more direct line to the revenue the site generates.

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:23AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:23AM (#135771) Journal

      Microsoft site, having a Dice moment! Ha ha! Ha! That really begs the question! Either that, or this is some of the best hyperbolic unintentional irony ever created by a sentient being.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @05:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @05:17PM (#135836)

      He may have had a fundamental disagreement with his employers over the site's direction. Penton would want good relations with Microsoft and its business partners so they can maximize their ad revenues. Thurrott, while historically has been somewhat of a cheerleader for Redmond, also wants journalistic independence. This type of article [winsupersite.com] might have led to closed door discussions.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 18 2015, @07:30PM (#135856)

        So... many... words... in that article.

        They probably asked him to start getting to his point a little sooner.