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Look at the f*cking thing and see how reasonable it is:
https://technet.microsoft.com/...

It's completely ridiculous. Windows 10 is basically spyware disguised as an OS at this point.

Link to the actual list, not an article about the list: https://technet.microsoft.com/...

Awesome! How can we turn off ALL data collection? Show us THAT link and we are golden...

Link to the actual list, not an article about the list: https://technet.microsoft.com/...

You sure about that?

OpenBSD

Whoops. Better make sure you're patched.

Microsoft

Yeah, because Windows 10 has no problems parsing strings or managing memory safely or anything.

OpenBSD

Whoops. Better make sure you're patched.

Microsoft

Yeah, because Windows 10 has no problems parsing strings or managing memory safely or anything.

OpenBSD

Whoops. Better make sure you're patched.

Microsoft

Yeah, because Windows 10 has no problems parsing strings or managing memory safely or anything.

How would you feel if I asked you if I could run Ubuntu on Windows 10? I could but why?

Uuuh, you do realize that Microsoft enables Ubuntu to be run in-process in Windows 10? It's called "Windows Subsystem for Linux."

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

As to "why", it's because lots of open-source tools are designed to only run on Linux, and Microsoft wanted to make those tools available to Windows users too.

I don't get it. Microsoft is moving their stuff from CodePlex to github. But Microsoft offers VSTS, which is their own service that competes with github. They both provide git + a web UI for bug tracking, releasing, pull requests, etc. Why would they move to github instead of to VSTS? And why would they make a migration tool that migrates to github instead of VSTS? This is like Microsoft deciding to cancel Windows Vista, and making a migration tool that migrates to Linux instead of to Windows 10. Did they forget about their own product?

You need to run them on Windows. Deal killer.

It's not 2005 any longer. Modern versions of ASP.NET, C# and .NET Core run on Windows, Linux and macOS, in addition to being open source.

Here are some links to browse if you're interested in getting up to date:
- https://www.asp.net/open-source
- https://github.com/microsoft/dotnet
- https://github.com/aspnet
- https://dotnetfoundation.org/
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#linuxredhat
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#macos

Even SQL Server is being ported to Linux.

The Microsoft of 2017 is not the Microsoft of the early 2000s.

You need to run them on Windows. Deal killer.

It's not 2005 any longer. Modern versions of ASP.NET, C# and .NET Core run on Windows, Linux and macOS, in addition to being open source.

Here are some links to browse if you're interested in getting up to date:
- https://www.asp.net/open-source
- https://github.com/microsoft/dotnet
- https://github.com/aspnet
- https://dotnetfoundation.org/
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#linuxredhat
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#macos

Even SQL Server is being ported to Linux.

The Microsoft of 2017 is not the Microsoft of the early 2000s.

You need to run them on Windows. Deal killer.

It's not 2005 any longer. Modern versions of ASP.NET, C# and .NET Core run on Windows, Linux and macOS, in addition to being open source.

Here are some links to browse if you're interested in getting up to date:
- https://www.asp.net/open-source
- https://github.com/microsoft/dotnet
- https://github.com/aspnet
- https://dotnetfoundation.org/
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#linuxredhat
- https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#macos

Even SQL Server is being ported to Linux.

The Microsoft of 2017 is not the Microsoft of the early 2000s.

That's one thing I will applaud Microsoft for. We've purchased a couple of Dell notebooks from them, and there's virtually no crapware at all, not even Dell's.

You can get the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft and just select the version you want (only three) and the ISO only comes with Windows 10 without additional crapware. In all fairness, I do suggest this to anyone who has a Windows 10 machine since it is useful for recovery purposes.

If you do install from the ISO don't use the quick setup which Microsoft seems to prefer you use although this is fine if you are lazy and have no real clue what you are doing. Always configure your installation and on viewing all the settings which are "on" by default you may question why you want to install Windows 10 in the first place since it ticks all the boxes in the description of Malware . Even after installation, it is always best to do some research as to locking down your operating system further.

Still, if you are an avid gamer who just has to play the latest games or someone who has locked themselves into the Microsft ecosystem then I guess Windows 10 is for you.

Bounds checking can be turned off.

unchecked { }

Software emulation is never an efficient use of resources.

Watch the video. Their implementation is efficient.

why would they even want you to?

Because the Windows software ecosystem is huge.

arent designed for the ui interface and controls on a touchscreen

You forget that Continuum is part of the deal. The whole point is that you have the option to use your phone as a desktop. Trust me: this will be huge for businesses. Win32 x86 compatibility with Continuum will be the thing that drives Windows 10 adoption on mobile starting later this year.

I keep hearing this, but I've never experienced such a scenario. If you don't run your server from an ISP's dynamic IP pool and don't run an open relay, you're extremely unlikely to be blocked by these services (as shitty and unaccountable as they are). If you go a step further and set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, it's even less likely for mail to be binned as spam.

Are you sure you're not just sending spam or running an open relay?

Either you have been very lucky or have not been paying attention. I don't sent spam. I don't run an open relay. I've had SPF for a decade. I added DKIM and DEMARC about a month ago. It hasn't made a difference. When self hosted on Sonic, I had to check every few months for RBL's who misclassified my static IP as dynamic. Less frequently, there were bone headed operations like Earthlink to deal with.

Since moving the server to a VPS, it's been far worse. It took about a month to get minor mismanaged RBL's to report clean. Then I found that AT&T was blocking me. That took several months, countless requests, multiple support forum posts to get any action. Dealing with Outlook.com delivery lead me to discover that Symantec somehow thought I was sending Snow Shoe spam. The automated removal page worked for about a day, then I would once again have "negative reputation". Through a forum post I found an email address for getting properly removed Symantec's list. That worked. Didn't fix Outlook delivery though.

I'm still fighting Microsoft. They have a removal page for hard IP blocks but they don't even acknowledge that I have a list that sends mail to Junk, though they clearly do

And these are just the ones I know about. There could be more but even they just silently junk incoming email, I wouldn't necessarily know. I should probably check Earthlink again.

Just FYI Microsoft issued a patch to fix their broken patch you describe yesterday https://support.microsoft.com/...

Yes if you claim you are disabled.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

Tell them you have a limp.

This is kind of in support of what you're saying (innovative stuff) so don't take it as a counter post, but a supportive post clarifying part of what they were trying to do for anyone reading it.

Steam Library Sharing, while progressive, is not nearly as good as what Microsoft was trying to do (and to a limited point actually did) with the family sharing.

Owning two XBOX One machines, I do not have to buy every game twice for me and my wife. She can play on my Home Xbox and I can use my Roaming License on the other Xbox so that we can both play the same game at the same time.

With steam only one user can access the library at a time.

If Microsoft could have expanded the licensing to the entire family (instead of just giving one home xbox license and one roaming license) then a family would only need to buy a single license for a game and the entire family could play it at home on separate xboxes. Steam does not do this. In fact, almost nobody does this aside from GOG. You typically need to buy the game for each family member (whether disc or digital) or play one at a time.

Single people and people with only one xbox are not affected by this as much as those with multiple machines. Blizzard used to do something similar with their games (spawns).

tldr; Microsoft gives users two (2) licenses for each digital game that they purchase on Xbox One.
Xbox Home Gold Sharing (digital game and xbox live gold sharing) > Steam Library Sharing, assuming you have more than one person in your family that games.

https://support.microsoft.com/...

If you are doing something for the web consider AWS or Azure. I use both and have found them extremely useful for my people. If you are doing things Linux based AWS with RDS can not be beat. If you are doing something with Microsoft consider Azure. There are a lot of pre-built AMI's or images available. If you are on a pc VMWare is good, if you have any mac users parallels is better. There are free options but with that many people I'd check out one of the paid ones. License wise you will need to investigate it but Microsoft offers 90 day licenses for Windows. https://www.microsoft.com/en-u.... That is something I'm checking out as well. The thought is if your developer needs for testing only then throw away the virtual machine this is a good way to go. I'm a fan of hiring professionals and making sure people know to not download anything that crosses their path. So opening permissions is great and gives them flexibility. I am not a fan of managed desktops, but know a lot of companies that use that. If you do open having a good anti-virus/firewall is a must. BYOD is good for phones/tablets in that it saves you the cost, and people byod if you let them download mail, or slack or whatever on their I-Device or Droid. So would you rather the person see the email late at night on their phone or wait til tomorrow? I am not a fan of someone bringing their own laptop. If not whatever they are working on is on their own system when they exit the company. Finally multiple monitors for individuals. You will be surprised at how much more efficient you can be with two monitors, or even 4. Myself I telecommute and am up to 9 now so multiple monitors is the best.

I agree that grovelling for solutions to oddball problems is annoying; but my experience has been that any OS puts you in that place from time to time.

If, say, Windows Update is throwing cryptic errors, it doesn't take too long to be instructed to 'Reset the BITS service to the default security descriptor'. Just open an elevated CMD shell and run "sc.exe sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)", n00b.

OSX has the virtue of changing at least a few of the command line options that aren't pulled straight from BSD every version bump(changes related to user/directory structure seem to be particularly popular); and not all advice is clear on which versions it pertains to; which can be really annoying.

I don't disagree with the fact that, if a Linux system does something...unexpected...you may well deeply fail to enjoy finding the answer; but any time the automagic fails, regardless of OS, you are usually in for some pain(since, if the answer were trivial and unambigious, the automagic would probably still be working); and a trip to the command line, registry, PLists, or some combination is likely in your future.

If anything, it's the scary, hostile-looking OSes that are least risky in this regard because they never pretended to have automagic to help you in the first place; and so are simpler; and designed so that an unaided human can grind through everything themselves. That's a huge nuisance, which is why most OSes aren't like that; but fallible automatic failing is never pretty.

Already there... 6. Updates. The softwareperiodically checks for system and app updates, and downloads and installs them for you. You may obtain updates only from Microsoft or authorized sources, and Microsoft may need to update your system to provide you with those updates. By accepting this agreement, you agree to receive these types of automatic updates without any additional notice. I also left the missing space for your entertainment which is also there... Link - https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

Here's the deal: All proprietary software has that in there as well. Every piece of software has an EULA that says they are responsible for nothing. Have a look at the MS EULA if you wish, there's all kinds of shit that supposedly limits liability, requires arbitration, etc, etc https://www.microsoft.com/en-u....

You can say it all you like, doesn't make it true. I can write an EULA saying "By using this software you agree I get to take your first born child," and yet if I tried, I'd still go to jail because just saying it in an EULA doesn't make it so. You can't disclaim all warranties, all damages, etc by law. For some info on it look up the Uniform Commercial Code.

Ok well all that aside when it comes to an issue like this courts are not known for applying the law one way in one case, and a different way in another. They don't say "Oh we like this nice OSS" and give it one rule and "We don't like this mean commercial software" and give it another. Thus if courts find that software makers are liable for incidental data loss then it will apply to ALL software. OSS has no special get out clause. You don't get to have it both ways where OSS gets a magic liability shield just by putting something in a text document but commercial EULAs aren't worth the bits used to store them.

In fact, OSS will be MORE vulnerable. Commercial companies have lawyers to help them wrangle out of things. They also can always go the real contract route, where you sign an actual contract up front with them before buying (you see this with some enterprise software) which can enforce more stringent terms. OSS that is just distributed on the web doesn't have all that.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-...

Actually OneDrive is a PoS in general. We have it at work, and when it comes to the sync client, I have to go around to each computer for every user and do this to get it working the first time (Relevant post here):

1. Kill all instances of any Office application.

2. Clear out any office related credentials saved in the Credential Manager.

3. Go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\ and delete the "Spw" and "16.0\OfficeFileCache" subdirectories.

4. Launch some other office program (Word / Excel / etc.) and have the user sign in.

5. Open OneFrive (Office365) in the browser, and start the sync process from it.

Then it works, even after a reboot. What's worse, it's the recommended method for fixing this issue: as seen here and here. By a Microsoft mod of all people, in 2015!!!!

That's really fun to have to do over and over. But of course they can't fix a problem that prevents the damn sync client from working. Oh no, apparently they are too busy breaking it on purpose to have a working product.

Well at least I know why it's broken now.....

Actually OneDrive is a PoS in general. We have it at work, and when it comes to the sync client, I have to go around to each computer for every user and do this to get it working the first time (Relevant post here):

1. Kill all instances of any Office application.

2. Clear out any office related credentials saved in the Credential Manager.

3. Go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\ and delete the "Spw" and "16.0\OfficeFileCache" subdirectories.

4. Launch some other office program (Word / Excel / etc.) and have the user sign in.

5. Open OneFrive (Office365) in the browser, and start the sync process from it.

Then it works, even after a reboot. What's worse, it's the recommended method for fixing this issue: as seen here and here. By a Microsoft mod of all people, in 2015!!!!

That's really fun to have to do over and over. But of course they can't fix a problem that prevents the damn sync client from working. Oh no, apparently they are too busy breaking it on purpose to have a working product.

Well at least I know why it's broken now.....

Actually OneDrive is a PoS in general. We have it at work, and when it comes to the sync client, I have to go around to each computer for every user and do this to get it working the first time (Relevant post here):

1. Kill all instances of any Office application.

2. Clear out any office related credentials saved in the Credential Manager.

3. Go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\ and delete the "Spw" and "16.0\OfficeFileCache" subdirectories.

4. Launch some other office program (Word / Excel / etc.) and have the user sign in.

5. Open OneFrive (Office365) in the browser, and start the sync process from it.

Then it works, even after a reboot. What's worse, it's the recommended method for fixing this issue: as seen here and here. By a Microsoft mod of all people, in 2015!!!!

That's really fun to have to do over and over. But of course they can't fix a problem that prevents the damn sync client from working. Oh no, apparently they are too busy breaking it on purpose to have a working product.

Well at least I know why it's broken now.....

Microsoft LOVES Linux!

... specifically, M$ loves to have it disappear.

Microsoft LOVES Linux!

> Microsoft needs to focus on what's next, not what was.

Microsoft promised extended support for Windows 7 into 2020 https://support.microsoft.com/... If they break that promise, why should anybody trust anything else they ever promise?

> How is it "morally bankrupt"? Why do they have any obligation to support customers
> with brand-new hardware on an ancient OS version that they're phasing out?

Microsoft *PROMISED* extended support for Windows 7 to January 2020 https://support.microsoft.com/... I suppose they can weasel their way out of calling it an outright lie, but people expected January 2020 to mean January 2020.

> The OS they're selling now is Windows 10. If you hate it so much, then buy an old CPU, or find an OS
> that you do like. It's not their responsibility to make you happy; their responsibility is to make money.

If you had bought a 2014 model car with warranty coverage to 2020, and the manufacturer suddenly decided that since they're now selling 2017 models, they're going to renege on their warranty,, how would you feel?

Windows supports multiple DNSSEC trust anchors (source) and deploys them through Active Directory Domain Services (source).

Windows supports multiple DNSSEC trust anchors (source) and deploys them through Active Directory Domain Services (source).

Wrong. https://support.microsoft.com/...

Level 5, is do not ever say or write or even imply anything deragatory against NATO or CIA or NSA or else they'll level 5 you right off a cliff. Level 5 software warranty is really going to be interesting.

Obviously the cars wont be running M$ because "Microsoft excludes all implied warranties and conditions, including those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement." and "Except for any repair, replacement, or refund Microsoft may provide, you may not recover under this limited warranty, under any other part of this agreement, or under any theory, any damages or other remedy, including lost profits or direct, consequential, special, indirect, or incidental damages." from https://www.microsoft.com/en-u.... So if you have an accident in a M$ car basically fuck off heres you fifty bucks back and it is your fucking fault for using M$, this according to M$.

> but I'm pretty sure that our license agreement with Microsoft will not allow us to keep running old versions of their OS past their expire date.

Why do you allow yourself to be held hostage by Microsoft ??

I don't see anything in the Windows 7 Terms of Service PDF that says anything about not running after the expiration date. Just that _support_ is terminated.

"When you try to scan or download updates through Windows Update, you receive the following error message: Unsupported Hardware .. Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows and you won’t receive updates."

Use Linux. I don't understand why people use OSes that dictate how they can use their computers.

"When you try to scan or download updates through Windows Update, you receive the following error message: Unsupported Hardware .. Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows and you won’t receive updates."

I for one, would be ***totally*** happy with that arrangement.

Bear in mind that when I purchased my copies of Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit from Microsoft, they cost me £220 each (including VaT). Yet even when they charge me, Microsoft are still harvesting all my activity data which they are then selling - and making a significant profit on.

But to your point - if Microsoft were willing to sell a £200 copy of Windows 10 with no harvesting, or give me a free copy *with* harvesting [or, say, for the cost of the media], then I'd take the paid version every time. The thing is, they will refuse to do that. If we could ask them why, I suspect they would come out with some complete nonsense story, like "it's not possible to split the code between the two versions", which [let's be honest] is just another version of "Internet Explorer is part of the Operating System now, we can't split it out".

The really [hilarious/scary/offensive/insulting] thing is: they actually have a privacy policy on their web site. It's here

https://privacy.microsoft.com/...

if you are interested... Not worth reading, however, since it just says [I summarise for you], "We harvest data about you, and reserve the right to do whatever we want with it. Oh - except that we don't use your personal data to target ads to you."

That last bit might sound very magnanimous of them, until you realise that whilst Microsoft might promise not to use your personal data to target ads to you, there is nothing stopping them selling your personal data to third parties so that *they* can target ads at you! The problem with widespread data collection is simple: leaks happen. You cannot leak what you don't collect. No matter how sincere, no matter how honourable they may be, Microsoft are not infallible. If they build up profiles on their users for marketing purposes [and: that's exactly what they are doing] and those profiles got into the hands of criminals, then as users we would be all out of luck...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-c...

Win 10 won't install as an upgrade on it.

Did it complain about the graphics drivers not being compatible? You can work around that, I don't remember how, but Googling the message was enough to find a relatively straightforward solution.

You can still upgrade using the assistive technologies workaround. Still works, just did it last week on a second hand laptop I acquired. It came with 7, I upgraded to 10, to secure the license and then installed Linux. I don't use Microsoft, but I do not want to remove the choice for anyone who might get the machine after me. (That future person can now use 7, 10 and any free operating system).

I don't see how a user could use the on-screen keyboard to authenticate to Windows when the elevation prompt covers up the on-screen keyboard or when pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on the login or lock screen does not cause the password prompt to appear.

Nor does it help if the user replaced a broken mouse at the same time.

a WebAssembly VM will be a common feature on all OSs, and most scripting languages can then simply transpile down to this. Do something similar with generation of LLVM bytecode, and you can remove the need for actual binaries for most purposes, and also tweak OS designs so that many security properties can be enforced at the language level more easily

That's what the experimental Singularity operating system tried to do, except with .NET IL instead of WebAssembly.

But at least WebAssembly will allow use of languages that currently compile to native code, unlike .NET that required changes to popular languages to get them to work. For example, Microsoft's C++/CLI is set of extensions to the C++ programming language to allow creating managed code. But the syntax for arrays, pointers, and references differs between the unmanaged and managed "worlds". This means a program intended to compile in both a standard C++ compiler and the verifiably type-safe subset of C++/CLI ( /clr:safe ) can't use arrays, pointers, or references, which more or less restricts the common subset to programs not much more complex than Hello World. In fact, not even that works as advertised because most of the C++ standard library is missing in the verifiably type-safe subset.

bits of clang have been showing up in Visual Studio for a while now.
Clang with Microsoft CodeGen in VS 2015 Update 1

Clang is the C-LANGuage family front end for LLVM compiler. Microsoft is using it the same way: clang parses your files, but Microsoft CodeGen finishes the job.
This means that source/syntax will be the same between VS and Linux, but on window's you'll get microsoft's optimizations instead of LLVM's.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...

Hyper-v server is also free to use.

Still lots of other ways it is bloated, and one can find some pretty minimalistic Linux installs that Windows Server could never come close to in small footprint.

Well, there is always Windows Server Nano. It's approximately 410 MB installed, I believe.

They cut it down to *only* 400 Megabytes and called it NANO!?!?
I didn't realize M$ was such good comedians.

Still lots of other ways it is bloated, and one can find some pretty minimalistic Linux installs that Windows Server could never come close to in small footprint.

Well, there is always Windows Server Nano. It's approximately 410 MB installed, I believe.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet
'nuff said.

Vista represents less than 1% of the market, we're talking 3 to 4 times less than linux
    Vista exited mainstream support FIVE YEARS AGO
    Vista extended support expires this week

At some point you just stop beating the dead horse.

One of those is relevant, that's the user base. When MS decides to end mainstream / extended support for their OS is entirely irrelevant, especially given the announcement that Mozilla is dropping support for both systems at the same time, despite those systems ending extended support a few years ago.

I kind of love that Microsoft's expiry notice basically says if you're still running Vista you should probably buy a new computer.