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Windows 10 Launches

Posted by Soulskill on from the onward-and-upward dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Today Microsoft officially released Windows 10 in 190 countries as a free upgrade for anyone with Windows 7 or later. Major features include Continuum (which brings back the start menu and lets you switch between a keyboard/mouse UI and a touch UI without forcing you into one or the other), the Cortana digital assistant, the Edge browser, virtual desktops, DirectX 12 support, universal apps, an Xbox app, and security improvements. Reviews of the operating system generally consider it an improvement over Windows 8.1, despite launch-day bugs. Peter Bright writes, "Windows 8 felt unfinished, but it was an unfinished thought. ... Windows 10 feels unfinished, but in a different way. The concept of the operating system is a great deal better than its predecessor. It's better in fact than all of its predecessors. ... For all my gripes, it's the right idea, and it's implemented in more or less the right way. But I think it's also buggier than Windows 8.1, 8, 7, or Vista were on their respective launch days." Tom Warren draws similar conclusions: "During my testing on a variety of hardware, I've run into a lot of bugs and issues — even with the version that will be released to consumers on launch day. ... Everything about Windows 10 feels like a new approach for Microsoft, and I'm confident these early bugs and issues will be addressed fairly quickly."

4 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. So far so good.... by tomknight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Am I allowed to say this on /.?
    W10 is so far not too awful.
    W8 introduced File History and a far improved Task Manager, the former alone was enough to get me to put in on my home PC. I'll admit I had to install Classic Shell to remain sane, but I don't think I was alone in not enjoying the Metro interface.

    With W10 there remain those goodies, virtual desktops (finally, hurrah!) and best of all a non-offensive UI. Yes, it's different to W7 and still a little messy for my liking, but then things do change, and we do cope. I'm not going to move my home PC to W10 for a while, but I'm not totally discounting it either...

    --
    Oh arse
    1. Re:So far so good.... by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, according to the universal laws of Star Trek movies and Windows releases, this one shouldn't be completely awful, so it's not surprising... unless you consider Windows 8.1 to be a major release (which I don't). Windows 11 directed by J.J. Abrams, though, isn't looking too promising.. especially the rumors that the twist might be "Where did my data go?"

  2. Re:The OEM UEFI locked with M$ keys issue. by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No, it's official. Microsoft no longer requires that Secure Boot must be able to be disabled on x86 machines to get Windows certification.

  3. Re:Windows 10 Sucks by MancunianMaskMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the occurrence of systemd rants: the new corollary to Godwin's law