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Microsoft Announces Windows 10

Today at a press conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the new version of their flagship operating system, called Windows 10. (Yes, t-e-n. I don't know.) With the new version of the operating system, they'll be unifying the application platform for all devices: desktops, laptops, consoles, tablets, and phones. As early leaks showed, the Start Menu is back — it's a hybrid of old and new, combining a list of applications with a small group of resizable tiles that can include widgets. Metro-style apps can now each operate inside their own window (video). There's a new, multiple-desktop feature, which power users have been demanding for years, and also a feature that lets users easily grab objects from one desktop and transfer it to another. The command line is even getting some love. The Technical Preview builds for desktops and laptops will be available tomorrow through the Windows Insider Program. They're requesting feedback from customers. Windows 10 will launch in late 2015.

113 of 644 comments (clear)

  1. Unified Experience Across Devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't that what Windows 8 was supposed to do? I am confused.

    1. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You're not the only one, obviously, and that's intentional. By calling it Windows 10, they're trying to put as much distance as possible between it and Windows 8. And make 7 look even more "old".

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're not the only one, obviously, and that's intentional. By calling it Windows 10, they're trying to put as much distance as possible between it and Windows 8. And make 7 look even more "old".

      And the OS version will probably report something linke 'Version 6.5.xxxx'

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    3. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And the OS version will probably report something linke 'Version 6.5.xxxx'

      This seems odd, but they do it on purpose for driver compatibility.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    4. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by aralin · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but... only odd numbered versions don't suck...

      --
      If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
    5. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by Ravaldy · · Score: 3

      Stepping stones. Windows 8 was a wobbly stepping stone but it was a stepping stone. Dev on MS is much easier to cross over platforms than it was in the past.

    6. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by VGPowerlord · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not just driver compatibility.

      Windows 7 fixed a bunch of Vista compatibility issues with programs built for XP simply by having the version be set to 6.1.

      Turns out that companies doing braindead Windows version detection of

      if (majorVersion >= 5 && minorVersion >= 1)

      had it fail spectacularly for version 6.0.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
    7. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not just driver compatibility.

      Windows 7 fixed a bunch of Vista compatibility issues with programs built for XP simply by having the version be set to 6.1.

      Turns out that companies doing braindead Windows version detection of

      if (majorVersion >= 5 && minorVersion >= 1)

      had it fail spectacularly for version 6.0.

      Particularly bad since Windows does have built-in functions to compare version numbers (eg. major.minor.patch.build format)

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    8. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by jsepeta · · Score: 2, Insightful

      a unified experience means putting start menus on phones, like Windows Mobile 6.0 -- which I enjoyed, btw, although it was dog slow. good keyboard and stylus though.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    9. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by tompaulco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unified Experience Across Devices

      Which basically means that the UI for all platforms are dumbed down to the least capable device.
      So which competitor to Windows is offering basically the opposite, ie, an Experience tailored to the device? That's the one I will be buying.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    10. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Well, how many times have you seen "let's make our own date/time/number/argument/xml parser"?

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    11. Re: Unified Experience Across Devices by PsychoSlashDot · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows 9x-ME was really Windows 4 all along. 2000 was version 5, XP-10 is version 6.

      I don't want to be pedantic, but since we're all being pedantic, I guess I'll do it anyway. You're looking at the wrong codebase. The predecessor of Win2k (v5) was WinNT 4 (v4). The predecessor of that was WinNT 3.5 (v3.5). The predecessor of that Was WinNT 3.1 (v3.1).

      WinME was based on the consumer codebase that (in inverted order) was Win3.x, Win95, Win98, WinME. The entire Win9X/ME series reported internal version 4.x but that had nothing to do with the codebase we run today. Again, Win95 was literally v4.0 and Win98 was v4.1 but the current kernel had its very own v4 (and v3) and WinME wasn't it.

      --
      "Oh no... he found the .sig setting."
    12. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by tompaulco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't care for consistency in UI between my smart phone and my desktop. On my smartphone, I am stuck with a tiny screen, with not input method other than my fingers and a couple of buttons. On my desktop, I have a mouse and keyboard, which are dozens of times more efficient. I only use my smart phone for apps if I don't have a more efficient method readily available at the moment. I have no desire to be stuck with that input method on my desktop.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    13. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, how many times have you seen "let's make our own date/time/number/argument/xml parser"?

      Weeks of programming can save you from the arduous task of 5 minutes of searching Google.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    14. Re:Unified Experience Across Devices by unixisc · · Score: 2

      You're not the only one, obviously, and that's intentional. By calling it Windows 10, they're trying to put as much distance as possible between it and Windows 8. And make 7 look even more "old".

      I saw the video. The thing looks like Windows 7 when the keyboard is joined at the hip, and when it's removed to make it a tablet mode, it looks like Windows 8. Given this, Microsoft could have named this thing Windows 15 - adding up 7 & 8.

      I hated Windows 8 - so I removed it, and replaced it w/ PC-BSD, and now there's no looking back. However, the good news on this one is that people can now skip Windows 8 and go directly to Windows 10. I think they want to make the even numbers attractive, instead of the odd.

  2. Better call it Windows 11 by jkrise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone knows the even number versions suck.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by plebeian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Everyone knows the even number versions suck.

      You forget windows 2000. When compared to the alternatives at the time it was a kick a$$ operating system.

      --
      "I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."
    2. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Funny

      This one goes to 11, it's one louder

    3. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by scm · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wasn't Windows 2000 technically version 5.0? IIRC that's the version number it reported. Also IIRC, XP was 5.1, Vista was 6.0.

    4. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by jd2112 · · Score: 2

      Everyone knows the even number versions suck.

      I was hoping for a Spinal Tap reference...

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    5. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by MTEK · · Score: 2

      Right-on! No self-respecting geek would install that Windows ME shit.

    6. Re:Better call it Windows 11 by VorpalRodent · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's the alphanumeric ones that suck.

      I'm holding out for Windows !

      --
      Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
  3. Windows OS X by glennrrr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds familiar.

    1. Re:Windows OS X by Art3x · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sounds familiar.

      Yes, they should use the Roman numeral and call this Windows X. Apple did it, and it was cool. Then they could call their next version Windows 10 Plus, or for short, Windows XP. Businesses will jump right on that one.

  4. we are DOOOMED!!! by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Funny

    based on previous rollouts, we are doomed. xp - good, vista - garbage. 7 good- 8 garbage. if we are skipping 9 (which historically would be the good release) and go to 10 will be a disaster! Someone needs to tell MS that users skip a generation of windows, not them!

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:we are DOOOMED!!! by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nah, it's fine. Every other release is garbage, not every odd number. How would you possibly try to figure out Microsoft's numbering, anyway? Their version numbers go from 3 to 95, jumps to 98, 2000, then goes to the lettering, ME and XP (are those roman numerals?). Then in goes to Vista. Now, lets be fair. 95 and 98 are the years, so let's just count. So 95 is version 4, 98 is version 5, 2000 is version 6, ME is version 8, XP is version 9, and Vista is version 10. So next comes 11, right? Nope, version 7.

      Ok, but some of those were professional builds, right? So let's just start from NT v4 and count major NT releases. 2000 is version 5, XP is version 6, Vista is version 7, and... wait.

      Wait, wait, I know, let's look at Microsoft's internal versioning numbers. NTv4 is version 4, 2000 is version 5, XP is version 5.1, Vista is version 6. Ok this is making sense, because next version after vista (v6) should be 7, right? Nope, Windows 7's internal version number is v6.1. Windows 8 is version 6.2. WTF?

    2. Re:we are DOOOMED!!! by chuckugly · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Engineering, meet marketing.

      The internal version numbers are completely sensible, the marketing names are dreamed up by marketing people, what did you expect, logic?

    3. Re:we are DOOOMED!!! by Eristone · · Score: 2

      Slaves weren't their intended customers. Chains and whips appealed to 90% of slave owners. (Keep this in mind when you consider Facebook and end users aren't the intended customers....) :)

    4. Re:we are DOOOMED!!! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      It doesn't add up. Fruit - good. Cake - great. Fruitcake - nasty crap.
      Jim Gaffigan

  5. Missed opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They should have called it Windows X.

    1. Re: Missed opportunity by VTBlue · · Score: 5, Funny

      The coolest things have X:

      OS X
      Windows X
      Xbox
      Malcolm X
      Mega Man X
      X-wing ...
      Xylophone

    2. Re: Missed opportunity by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2

      X-Men and X-Com blow away all of those in coolness. And fun.

    3. Re: Missed opportunity by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But coolest things have 3 X's.

    4. Re: Missed opportunity by Calydor · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, those are the hottest things, not the coolest.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    5. Re: Missed opportunity by Richy_T · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or, (can't believe I missed this) Windows 0Ah

      Abbreviated as "W0Ah" and endorsed by Keanu Reeves

  6. April fools! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Truth stranger than fiction...

  7. Re:Skipping a version number by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're not skipping a version number.
    Windows 9 is basically going to be a Service Pack for Windows 8.

    Confirmed: Windows 9 to be a free upgrade for Windows 8 users

    Releasing Win10 so quickly supports the idea that Win9 is just an update.
    Win10 is really what they want all the Win7 users to move to.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  8. That feature has been in windows since XP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been using JS Pager Virtual Desktop since the 1990's. It has all the features described here, and still works in Windows 7, even though it hasn't been updated since 2000.

  9. Re-Sizable Tiles? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    Is a re-sizable tile like a window?

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Re-Sizable Tiles? by NormalVisual · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can they be ajar?

      If they're written in Java, maybe.

      --
      Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
  10. Re:Catching up with Fedora by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, the feature list sounds like a 90s linux desktop. Is Windows finally ready for the power-user desktop?! This could be the year.

  11. Re:OMFG, stupid by kthreadd · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look at it from the bright side, at least it wasn't called Windows One.

  12. Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to Win by neilo_1701D · · Score: 5, Funny

    From InfoWorld, April 1, 2013:

    If you've been looking forward to Windows 9, the OS that will fix what Windows 8 got wrong, you're in for a surprise: There will be no Windows 9. Instead, Microsoft announced it will proceed directly to Windows 10.

    "The Windows 9 internal beta was a phenomenal success," said Microsoft PR rep Cheryl Tunt. "I mean, it blew Windows 8 out of the water, and as we all know, Windows 8 is nigh flawless. After discussion at the C level, Microsoft has decided it will not mess with success and will leave Windows 9 exactly as it is. As such, work is now getting under way on Windows 10, which should see a public release."

    http://www.infoworld.com/artic...

  13. No 9? by Retron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was a kid I remember reading that in Japanese, "4" sounded like death and "9" sounded like suffering. A quick bit of Googling 25 years on and:

    "[In Japanese] Nine is also sometimes pronounced ku, which can mean suffering."

    I'm guessing they skipped Windows 9 because they didn't want it to sound like "Windows Suffering" in parts of the world!

    1. Re:No 9? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Windows Nine is pronounced like the German "Windows Nein", which means Windows No.

    2. Re:No 9? by baka_toroi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows 7 is "uindouzu sebun" (seven) in Japanese, and not "nana" or "shichi." Same goes for 8 (eito instead of "hachi"), So 9 would've been "uindouzu nain" and not "ku."

    3. Re:No 9? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Well, there you go. They didn't want to offend the *other* Axis nation by making "Windows Nein".

  14. Re:Skipping a version number by Aighearach · · Score: 2

    It gives a +1 to all Shark Jump saving throws for 6 months, but they have to spend an extra 1m GP explaining it.

  15. Windows 10, huh? by ErichTheRed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I guess they want version parity with MacOS? Or they want to put it in people's minds that this version of Windows is so much better than 8, they had to skip a version number.

    I just hope they listen to user feedback this time about the UI. If the Start menu is back, that's a good sign. I know a lot of people say it's a throwback, but the Metrofication of the familiar desktop was what caused our group to skip Windows 8 for inclusion in our product. (We provide a managed IT service to a very staid, boring industry that actively resists change.) I really really REALLY want Aero Glass or something like it back in the OS, or at least theming support that would allow a third party hack. Windows 8.1 Update 1 was pretty decent in terms of UI cleanup, and I hope they continue. Maybe they'll answer my other wish and fix the Office UI...having a background choice of white, bright white and insanely bright white is a killer on any screen larger than a tablet.

    We'll see if they learned their lesson with Windows 8. Hopefully by the time the release rolls around, the tablet/social/mobile bubble will have at least deflated a little, and people might be back down on Earth wanting to do actual work on a laptop or desktop. Windows 8 and Server 2012 R2 are actually really nice under the hood, and excellent upgrades to Windows 7 -- but they're hobbled by a clunky UI that I've only recently come to terms with.

  16. Re:Need to see how to get in the Windows Insider P by Aighearach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't let them bring you down, I'm sure this is finally the update where windows is ready for the desktop. What do you have without your dreams?

  17. Everything makes sense now! by xepel · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to think that Microsoft's problems were due to leadership issues and completely ignoring their userbase's wants and needs...

    But no! Really, the problem is that they've been coding everything in base 9!

  18. Now that Windows has reached version 10 by JoeyRox · · Score: 2

    We can do a proper ten-point countdown to complete irrelevance.

  19. Huh? by LVSlushdat · · Score: 2

    So let me get this straight.. what WAS going to be "Windows 9" is NOW "Windows 10"???? Idiot-central up there in Redmond.. Sooooo GLAD I retired from supporting MS's crap a few years ago.. Now I use Linux and damn glad about THAT!

    --
    THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
  20. Microsoft Math by dysmal · · Score: 3, Funny

    This reminds me of something my first boss told me: "Microsoft can't tell time. Have you ever seen how it counts down 3 minutes... 2 minutes... 7 minutes... 2 minutes... 1 minute...? They can't tell time!"

  21. Re:Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to by cptdondo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Translation:

    It's such a screwed up mess that we don't know how to deal with it, so instead we're going to pull some marketing razzle dazzle and hope like hell people forget the mess we made.

    But the real question is this:

    If every other release sucks, and windows 8 sucked, and windows 9 is so good that it can't even be released, does that mean that Windows 10 will suck?

  22. At This Rate by NEDHead · · Score: 3, Funny

    How long before I can reinstall Windows 95 and be up to date?

    1. Re:At This Rate by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was thinking of going back to Windows 2.11. Screw this Internet crap.

    2. Re:At This Rate by jd2112 · · Score: 2

      How long before I can reinstall Windows 95 and be up to date?

      About 7 years and a few months. It appears that Microsoft is adopting the Chrome/Firefox versioning system. Version number will be increased by 1 on every patch Tuesday.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  23. Camel = Horse designed by committee... by erp_consultant · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's what Windows 10 looks like to me - a Camel. Mixing "traditional" apps with "Metro" tiles looks ridiculous. Why can't MS just leave Windows 8 behind? It was an experiment and it failed - massively. Yet they are still stubbornly handing on to "tiles" and such.

    On the bright side...

    1) Nice to see the Start Menu back...if only they could drop those stupid tiles.
    2) Multiple desktops is nice. Been using it on OSX and Linux forever. From what I can tell the functionality seems a bit limited in Windows 10 but it's a start.

    I've been using Windows 8 for about a year now on my home PC and, metro interface aside, it's great. Very stable, requires little in the way of resources. It looks awful but runs well. That's what Microsoft should be taking away from this. The guts of the system are fine. Fix the interface.

    What I'd like to see is something similar to Linux where you can choose the interface you want (Mint, KDE, etc.) from the login screen and it just loads it up. So if you're running a desktop with a big screen you get something that looks a lot like Windows 7. If it's a table or phone, give 'em tiles.

    This "one size fits all" approach is just an abomination.

    1. Re:Camel = Horse designed by committee... by neilo_1701D · · Score: 4, Informative

      2) Multiple desktops is nice. Been using it on OSX and Linux forever. From what I can tell the functionality seems a bit limited in Windows 10 but it's a start.

      Windows, since XP, has had this ability. You needed a SysInternals tool to enable it. But, finally, a welcome addition.

      I've been using Windows 8 for about a year now on my home PC and, metro interface aside, it's great. .... The guts of the system are fine.

      And that, my friend, is the great tragedy that is Windows 8. Underneath the flawed user interface is the best Windows NT system ever. Considering what it does, it uses less memory, is more stable, runs faster and is downright better than any Windows before.

    2. Re:Camel = Horse designed by committee... by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 2

      It's more of a task-switching thing for me.

      I have multiple contexts I work in during the day. Each time I change tasks, but don't want to close the windows for the task I was doing before, I move to a new desktop. That, plus one desktop devoted entirely to communications (email, social media, etc), and I can switch between contexts with one or two ctrl-alt-arrow key combos, rather than painstakingly reconstructing the window layout each time I switch.

      Until the OS supports saving a group of apps, complete with window position, open documents, etc (which would require a lot of app support), this is the best solution to task switching I've got.

    3. Re:Camel = Horse designed by committee... by erp_consultant · · Score: 2

      I find that it works best if you have a laptop and no secondary monitor. On my home office desktop machine I have 2 external monitors so I have no need for multiple virtual desktops.

      If I find myself using my laptop then it can be handy to have virtual desktops. For me, it keeps things neater and cleaner. I can devote one desktop for email/skype/etc. A second desktop for spreadsheets, a third for remote desktop sessions.

      It's nice to have the choice.

    4. Re:Camel = Horse designed by committee... by El_Oscuro · · Score: 3, Informative

      In Linux, the killer feature is that each desktop has a separate taskbar. I once had several major migrations running from my workstation, and had a separate deskop named for each one of them. This feature made keeping track of the tasks in each project much easier.

      --
      "Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
  24. Re:Skipping a version number by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not quite. If you read the article, what the article is calling "Windows 9" is now "Windows 10."

    Also, from the same site, if your computer came with Windows 8 installed, you'll have to pay to upgrade. Which ain't gonna happen.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  25. Re:OMFG, stupid by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Shouldn't it be called "WinX"?

    Then, we'd know it was on par and lock step with Apple's OS going forward.

    ;)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  26. Re:OMFG, stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Aside from being amazingly off-topic, how about you also point how how many non-Telsa fires there were last year? You know... the estimate of about 150,000. (http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles). How about mentioning how many serious injuries were a result of Telsa fires? That one's easy, precisely zero.

    Stop being an ass.

  27. detailed feature list leaked! by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Full list of planned features here.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  28. Windows NG was a better name by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Funny

    Windows: Next Generation

    Can be shortened to WiNG

    Maybe even a flying wing logo. (man oh man why didn't I become a genius advertising guru instead of a loser IT geek)

    And the version after this could be called Windows into Darkness

    1. Re:Windows NG was a better name by suutar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, after avoiding 9, going to Windows DS9 would be silly, but Windows Voyager could work.

  29. MS did this before with MS Word by Primate+Pete · · Score: 2

    MS Word jumped directly from version 2.0c to version 6, so that MS could catch up with WordPerfect.

    Oddly, changing the version numbering doesn't actually make the product better. Who'd have guessed that?

    1. Re:MS did this before with MS Word by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Word for Windows jumped to 6 to match Word for Mac, not Wordperfect. Word on the Mac was already at 6.

  30. Product Differentiation Needed by Grindalf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can we not just have a large tower PC based OS, that works and installs offline via DISKS and that has swappable / maintainable cards and devices. A machine that's another order of power in comparison with the previous year in terms of processor, 3D etc. I'm sick of the sight of "cheaped off" slow thin breakable devices that are nearly impossible to use for professional work, and even harder to open and maintain. Keep the smudge screen toys separate, we're not fooled any more, they're rubbish! How about a second operating system for tablet devices called “Windows Bomb Boy Chintz.” That way the kids would know that there's a better life out there, filled with jobs, large screen entertainment and games that work.

    --
    The purpose of existence is to make money.
  31. Re:OMFG, stupid by jamiesan · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if they create a Developer Edition, They can call it Windows Developer Edition X..... WinDEX!

  32. Re:OMFG, stupid by blueg3 · · Score: 2

    Chemical potential energy.

  33. Re:Skipping a version number by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Calling it "Windows 8.2" would support the idea that Windows 9 was just an update.

    Skipping straight to Windows 10 makes it look like they're either just messing with us, or trying to compete with WordPerfect again.

  34. Windows 10 = iPhone 6 by xeno · · Score: 2

    Wait... what? Multiple desktops, same apps behave properly as fullscreen tablet apps or desktop windows, snapping control, hybrid menus, launch/switch/end gestures (copied from WebOS and Unity), a task view with app and desktop preview... Every single one of these features has been out for years on Linux (and most on Android or OS X), in much more polished form. It's 2014 and the Windows team is just now figuring out how to have two window managers co-exist? How very retro!

    Windows 10 vs. Linux Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora/etc = iPhone 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy/Note series...
    The dominant/big-name brand is _years_ behind and floating forward on market momentum.

    --
    I think not...(*poof*)
  35. Re:OMFG, stupid by SJHillman · · Score: 2

    If your Tesla has a gas tank, you might be doing it wrong...

  36. Re:OMFG, stupid by LessThanObvious · · Score: 3, Funny

    Warm nacho cheese.

  37. Re:Microsoft skips 'too good' Windows 9, jumps to by Bogtha · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fuck everything, we're doing Windows 10.

    Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of operating systems in this country. Windows XP was the operating system to run. Then Apple came out with OS X. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called Windows Vista. That's Aero UI and a sidebar. For widgets. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened - the bastards went to mobile. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling a desktop operating system with a sidebar. Aero or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to Windows 10.

    Sure, we could go to Windows 9 next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, 8 worked out pretty well, and 9 is the next number after 8. So let's play it safe. Let's make a better UI and call it the Start Screen. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  38. Re:Skipping a version number by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

    There will be no free upgrade if your computer came with Win8.x pre-installed. And there is not going to be a Windows 9 - they skipped directly to 10.

    The Windows 9 upgrade might not be as free as initially believed

    ... just those customers who have purchased a Windows 8 (or Windows 8.1) copy will qualify for free upgrades. Users who have purchased a computer with Windows 8 preinstalled (OEM version of the software) will have to pay a fee.

    Guess they wanted to catch up to Apple OSX version 10. Same as when one linux distro would bump their version number, others would to, even if that meant skipping a few digits in the process, so they wouldn't seem "behind."

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  39. MS OS X ? by daniel23 · · Score: 2

    win10? If they had humour the'd call it windows Ah

    --
    605413? Yes, it's a prime.
  40. this must be stopped. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gentlemen I'm from the future, a microsoft you do not yet know, and I bring dire warnings. here in this foul year of 2054 where we've reached windows 456,776 elite premium solar helium wombat version, the releases never end.. The upcoming version is just a box with a nine volt battery and a stack of old playing cards but we cannot stop. newer products are being released every millisecond without so much as a tertiary consideration for what, if anything, users still want from us. The leaks are also getting worse, with version 914,135 electric pickle teleportation premium recently being leaked from the year 2089 by a screaming, sweating man in a time-suit known only as ball-mar. The latest version of Microsoft Windows RT CBBQ pro pony mobile implant indigestion premium was also mistakenly leaked to a confused Thomas Jefferson during a continental congress meeting of the Land Ordinance of 1784. this was approved by the Microsoft board of directors in the year 2153, despite the computer not even existing, with a standing ovation.

    help us. Even now windows 11-14 are being released. First to feral cats off a european costal city, next to an air conditioner in tempe arizona, and finally to a street light in a dennys parking lot. Windows 28 will simultaneously require, and forbid, the use of a touchscreen to gain functionality to a windows "start" button (later this will be renamed the Gorloc device, in honor of Gorlok the malevolent for a future release predicted by the corporate runemaster during the coming interplanetary ork battle.) I beg you, stop the madness.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  41. Yes multiple desktops! by Kludge · · Score: 4, Funny

    Windows has caught up with fvwm. 1.

    1. Re:Yes multiple desktops! by JoeMerchant · · Score: 2

      Windows 3.1 had accessory tools (I think I used one called "Dashboard") that did multiple desktops - what's that, like 23 years ago?

    2. Re:Yes multiple desktops! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      I had multiple desktops over 30 years ago. One desk had a Commodore 64, another desk had a Color Computer 2, etc.

    3. Re:Yes multiple desktops! by NJRoadfan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Xerox Rooms was one: http://toastytech.com/guis/xrm...

      Symantec's Norton Navigator for Windows 95 included a virtual desktop feature as well and it integrated into the taskbar. http://www.danielsays.com/ss-g...

      Whats odd is that until recently, only X11 windows managers seemed to have the feature standard. Apple only added the feature a few years ago to OS X, and now Windows finally has it.

  42. Re:Catching up with Fedora by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Doesn't see to have a real shell yet. Bash, csh, tcsh, I don't care. Windows is a gaming OS unless it can put productivity back. Otherwise it's OS X or Linux...

  43. Dear MS by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One size fits all never worked. It doesn't with underwear, it doesn't even with socks. Sorry. Cutting corners here will only mean that your OS will be the WORST choice on ALL products. Because every other product in the market that is fitted to the type of device it is meant to run on will have a better suited interface and give the user a better experience.

    One size fits all is nothing but a mediocre compromise, and by definition inferior to any specialized solution.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  44. Re:OMFG, stupid by kad77 · · Score: 2

    Perhaps my comment was rude, and 'a bit over the top' as you say. Microsoft's VP of Operating Systems is probably not a moron.

    My initial reaction to Belfiore seeming to downgrade a previous version of their flagship product by referring to it as a first gen Prius, and then extending the bad car analogy to try and sell us the new shiny pissed me off.

    Comparing a previous version to an niche, ugly, low powered econobox (that is heavily government subsidized) to an electric car, made by an independent company and is decidedly not meant to be mass market cheap, nor aimed at the same demographic... Having the people in charge of these products make these statements gives me the impression the same brain trust that turned Windows 7 into Windows 8 is still running the show.

    What car would he have made Windows 8 in that analogy?

  45. Re:Skipping a version number by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's the thing... those are are marketing numbers, not version numbers. If you go by their internal version numbers, they make a lot more sense, and better reflect incremental changes vs total rewrites.

    Windows 2000 - 5.0
    Windows XP - 5.1
    Windows XP 64-Bit/Server 2003 (incl R2) - 5.2
    Windows Vista/Server 2008 - 6.0
    Windows Server 2008 R2 - 6.1
    Windows 7 - 6.1
    Windows 8 - 6.2
    Windows Server 2012 R2 - 6.3
    Windows 8.1 - 6.3

    Before Windows 2000/XP, there were two completely separate OSes (NT and DOS), rather than simply different editions of the same OS. Because 2000 and later are the successors to NT, that's why it starts with 5.0.

    So why did NT start at 3.x? Because it started life as the successor to OS/2 1.3 and 2.0, known as OS/2 3.0. When it shifted to become Windows rather than OS/2, it kept the version number.

    The DOS based Windows go: 1.01, 1.03, 1.04, 2.0, 2.10, 2.11, 3.00, 3.10, 3.11, 3.2, 4.0 (Win95), 4.10 (Win98), 4.90 (WinMe)

    Windows versioning numbers makes a lot more sense once you separate the marketing name from the actual version number. MS Office works the same way (e.g. Office 10 is Office XP).

  46. Re:OMFG, stupid by Stargoat · · Score: 2

    Well no wonder your Tesla blew up....

    --
    Hoist Number One and Number Six.
  47. Re:Catching up with Fedora by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    oi excuse me? PowerShell is actually pretty damn awesome. It's very powerful.

  48. Well the pattern fits by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Given the history of Windows naming, MS likes to change the pattern after two versions:
    Windows 3.1
    Windows 3.11
    . . .
    Windows 95
    Windows 98
    . . .
    Windows ME
    Windows XP
    . . .
    Windows Vista
    . . .
    Windows 7
    Windows 8
    . . .
    Windows 10

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  49. Why not... by TomRC · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why not just merge the Start menu and the desktop once and for all, with all the best features of both?
    Hold down the Windows key to instantly hide all but the desktop.

    Basically like clicking in the lower right corner on Win7, but much faster, while bringing in some of the UI features from Win8.

    Get rid of the various "hover/slide in from the edge" Win8 conventions - put those options on the desktop.

    Make the task bar default visible only on the Desktop (optionally always visible, of course).
    For touch, keep a transparent Start button hovering in the lower left - hold touch on it if you don't have a Windows key/button to show the desktop.
    Apps could request true full screen to get rid of the button, of course.

  50. About god damn time.. by william.meaney1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That i can use CTRL-C and CTRL-V on the command line. Jesus christ...

    1. Re:About god damn time.. by Prien715 · · Score: 2

      ...which I may add, does not work on Linux. Ctrl+C is break, so most terms use Ctrl+Shift+C. It didn't really become apparent how weird this was before I started using a Mac, where Command+C and Command+V were consistent across both the normal programs and the CLI.

      --
      -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  51. Re:Catching up with Fedora by benjymouse · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Doesn't see to have a real shell yet. Bash, csh, tcsh, I don't care. Windows is a gaming OS unless it can put productivity back. Otherwise it's OS X or Linux...

    PowerShell beats anything *sh on consistency, terseness, expressiveness, risk management, integration, remoting, job control, interactive assistance.

    And it is not as dangerous :-)

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  52. Re:On the bright side by theskipper · · Score: 2

    The "Post Anonymously" checkbox is right above where you type the comment subject.

  53. Re:OMFG, stupid by Moof123 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or they could adopt the new place names like Yosemite. Being a Washington state company they should do Windows Mount St. Helens.

  54. Windows 10 by apcullen · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's actually just a re-do of Windows 8, but they wrote it in octal.

  55. Re:Catching up with Fedora by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except it's not *sh, all my sh* is in *sh, and all my sh* runs on Linux's *sh and OS X's *sh. I'm not interested in being tied to anyone's platform, not in my shell, not in my language (No C#, .NET Obj-C, Swift, other bullshit).

    Without *sh the OS is useless to me.

  56. Re:Catching up with Fedora by DocHoncho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Terseness??

    PS C:\> Get-ChildItem

    [INSERT LONG ASS LIST OF FILES HERE IN SIMILAR FORMAT TO ls -l THAT SLASHDOT REFUSES TO LET ME POST]

    PS C:\> Set-Location dev
    PS C:\dev> Get-Content _vimrc .....


    How one might obtain a directory listing in a concise format is beyond me.
    Sure, those stupid commands are aliased to ls and cd, but the "real" versions are indicative of how all the commands are named. Names only a Java dev could love. Invoke-some-random-command-with-a-very-long-name-for-no-reason. LOL.

    My personal favorite, however, is command invocation:

    PS C:\> 7z.exe
    Bad numeric constant: 7. (What??)

    PS C:\> '7z.exe'
    7z.exe (Uh...)

    PS C:\> & '.\7z.exe' (WTF?)

    7-Zip 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18

    Every command drags you further and further down into the soul crushing hell that is COM, or whatever the current framework du jour is this year. I suppose it must be useful for something, but I think I'll stick with GnuWin32 and the powershell's idiot cousin, cmd.exe when I absolutely must work on a windows box.

    Terseness. Hah. I'm sure the poor sons of bitches stuck administering a bunch of crufty Windows boxes get some millage out of it, but I'll be damned if I'd use it for day to day CLI work.

    --
    Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
  57. Windows has become irrelevant by cjonslashdot · · Score: 2

    They should just liquidate the company and give the money back to the shareholders. ;-) Oh wait, Michael Dell said that about Apple.

  58. Re:Catching up with Fedora by DocHoncho · · Score: 2

    No, I don't understand it. And I don't really feel as though I want to, since I'm only working in a Windows environment because I'm too lazy to switch back and forth between a Linux one for work and Windows for games. I do web development, and it will be a cold day in hell before I touch any part of the MS web stack, so I spend most of my time remoted into one Linux box or another. Cygwin fills in the gaps. .Net? Hmmph, more like .Meh

    --
    Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
  59. Re:Catching up with Fedora by adonoman · · Score: 2
    Yes, you can. Except instead of getting back text, which you then have to parse if you want to do anything with, you get back a stream of .NET objects which will be formatted into a text table if you do nothing with them, but also let you do things like this:

    ls | where { $_.Length -gt 5000 }

  60. Re:OMFG, stupid by tysonedwards · · Score: 2

    Nissan Cube? Loved by a vocal minority, outside that group considered exceptionally stupid looking, boxy, and difficult to operate, and discontinued for 2015 citing poor sales?

    --
    Thirty four characters live here.
  61. Re:Catching up with Fedora by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, terseness. Have you heard of this fancy thing called "aliases"? Powershell has quite a few out of the box. For example, "Get-ChildItem" is aliased to... "ls". And "Set-Location" is aliased to "cd". And "Get-Helped" is aliased to "man". And aliases work everywhere, so "man ls" works exactly as you'd expect it to.

    On the other hand, when you have no clue of what a particular command might be to do something that you need done, your chances of guessing it in PSh are much higher, because the canonical names are descriptive rather than terse.

  62. Re:Catching up with Fedora by steelfood · · Score: 2

    The difference between powershell and *sh (besides the obvious many-small-binaries unix philosophy vs the one-giant-blob windows philosophy) is that *sh is both a CLI and a scripting language. Powershell is useful just as a scripting language. Sure you could use powershell as the CLI, but it does seriously suck.

    Granted with bash illustrating the problems of a dual-use CLI and shell, separating the two might not be such a bad idea, but it's so much easier transitioning from shell one-liners to full shell scripting than the same from dos commands to powershell scripting. But posix enables this, not any particular unix shell in and of itself.

    --
    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  63. Re:Wow by exomondo · · Score: 2

    Because they don't actually hate Microsoft, it's just something to complain about. If they really hated Microsoft they simply wouldn't use it and would instead advance desktop Linux operating systems. But look at the hundreds of comments any story about Microsoft gets (and just look, most of them are about the marketing of name of it) and then when there is a new Linux kernel version you see a dozen or so comments at best, very few people here care about technical details or being clever anymore, it's just trolls, flamebait and irrelevance.

    This site used to be about technical details and hacks to make things work differently, now it's about complaining that the out-of-the-box experience isn't palatable to whichever audience it isn't palatable to (if it's too user-friendly then it's too power-user hostile and vice versa). Nevermind that the obvious solution to any geek or hacker for the Windows 8 Metro thing is to replace the shell with something like LiteStep or install Classic Shell and boot-to-desktop, if the out-of-the-box experience isn't what they want then they'll buy it anyway and complain about it rather than taking the initiative to make it work how they want.

  64. Re:Catching up with Fedora by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

    Given that all the Unix shells predate PowerShell by at least two decades, and more for most of them, of course they wouldn't alias PS commands.

    And no-one said that PS is better because it has aliases. Aliases are there for convenience of people who come to it from other shells (which is why it has other aliases for people coming from cmd.exe - "dir" works same as "ls", for example, and "help" works like "man" etc). What makes it better is something else - the notion of passing structured data in streams, rather than just text (which is then just a subset). For some things where you have to write insane sed/awk scripts in Unix to massage the text output of a command into something that another command wants, the equivalent PS can be three times as short, and orders of magnitude clearer, because it doesn't need to parse text to extract the data - it just reads the property of an object.

  65. When all else fails by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    When the going gets tough at Microsoft, they fall back on their oldest practices.

    C:\WINDOWS>copy Apple

  66. Re:Catching up with Fedora by godefroi · · Score: 2

    C:\Program Files\7-Zip
    $ ./7z

    7-Zip [64] 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18

    What's so complicated about that? Feel free to use the .exe as well if it makes you feel better:

    C:\Program Files\7-Zip
    $ ./7z.exe

    7-Zip [64] 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18

    If 7z.exe is in your path, no need to give it a directory:

    D:\
    $ 7z

    7-Zip [64] 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18

    Also, if you're into terseness, you can use the "gci" alias for Get-ChildItem, or the "dir" alias, or the "ls" alias.

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    Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
  67. Re:Catching up with Fedora by benjymouse · · Score: 2

    ... (besides the obvious many-small-binaries unix philosophy vs the one-giant-blob windows philosophy) is that *sh is both a CLI and a scripting language.

    PowerShell is not a one-giant-blob. The commands of PowerShell are all of them defined in a module. The core commands comes from a core module. The shell itself does not need "magic" commands like bash and other *sh shells do (for instance, cd could not have been implemented as a loadable command in bash - because it manipulates the environment that is not accessible from external commands).

    Even the ability to navigate a file system hierarchy is loadable. PowerShell itself set up infrastructure for navigating "hierarchies" - and a file system is just one such hierarchy. Other providers/hierarchies are certificate store (think advanced keyring), registry, active directory, IIS server virtual file system, SQL server (navigate tables etc).

    ... is that *sh is both a CLI and a scripting language. Powershell is useful just as a scripting language.

    False. PowerShell has many features aimed squarely at interactive user, and frankly there is no other shell that come close:

    * Automatic metadata inference: Tab completion, automatic suggestions, syntax help, (parts of) man pages are derived automatically from the command/function definitions. Number, names and types of parameters are declared for cmdlet parameters. Even declarative validators will be picked up. When you type "man somecommand", PowerShell looks up all that information and generates up-to-date call syntax instructions along with whatever man content has been written. It works for built-in commands and functions, user defined commands/functions and even script files. Script files use a param directive to declare parameter names and types.

    * Tab completion *and* automatic suggestions (intellisense - in the ISE), again generated from the metadata. Even works for your own script files without having to write completion definitions.

    * Risk management. If you invoke commands with -WhatIf or -Confirm, the command will inform you what it *would have* done and inform you what it is *going to do* and ask for your consent, respectively. This is shell infrastructure and it even works for entire script files and nested scripts (when you invoke a script file with -WhatIf it will execute as if all the command invocations had been invoked with -WhatIf).

    * Custom actions for warnings, errors, verbose messages and debug messages. You can pass -WarningAction Inquire (or short form -ea Inquire) to have the shell ask you whether it should continue if a command (or script) writes a warning message.

    * Progess indicator and input functions infrastructure that work even across job and machine boundaries.

    * Get-Credential cmdlet to *securely* obtain credentials from the user - allowing the user to prove identity by not just password, but by any authentication mechanisms available at the workstation, such as card reader, biometric devices, onetime passwords etc. Passwords are guaranteed to *NEVER* be available in memory in clear text (as opposed to bash/Linux).

    * Out-Gridview (with alias ogv) lets you present a collection of objects in a GUI list and have the user pick one or many of them. The picked objects will be passed on on the commandline.

    * much more

    Sure you could use powershell as the CLI, but it does seriously suck.

    I suspect that you have never really tried it. And I'm quite sure that you have never used the ISE - which has a command(console) pane but which also has source-level debugging, snippets, multiple script windows, multiple sessions, remote sessions etc.

    Granted with bash illustrating the problems of a dual-use CLI and shell, separating the two might not be such a bad idea, but it's so much easier transitioning from shell one-lin

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