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Windows 10, From a Linux User's Perspective
Phoronix features today a review of Windows 10 that's a little different from most you might read, because it's specifically from the point of view of an admin who uses both Windows and Linux daily, rather than concentrating only on the UI of Windows qua Windows. Reviewer Eric Griffith finds some annoyances (giant start menu even when edited to contain fewer items, complicated process if you want a truly clean install), but also some good things, like improved responsiveness ("feels much more responsive than even my Gnome and KDE installations under Fedora") and an appropriately straightforward implementation of virtual workspaces.
Overall? Windows 10 is largely an evolutionary upgrade over Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, rather than a revolutionary one. Honestly I think the only reason it will be declared as 'so good' is because Windows 8/8.1 were so bad. Sure, Microsoft has made some good changes under the surface-- the animations feel crisper, its relatively light on resources, battery life is good. There is nothing -wrong- with Windows 10 aside from the Privacy Policy.
If you're on Windows Vista, or Windows 8/8.1, then sure, upgrade. The system is refreshing to use, it's perfectly fine and definitely an upgrade. If you're on Windows 7 though? I'm not so sure. ...
Overall, there's really nothing to see here. It's not terrible, it's not even 'bad, it's just... okay. A quiet little upgrade.
Honestly I think the only reason it will be declared as 'so good' is because Windows 8/8.1 were so bad.
I thought the Windows 8/8.1 desktop was no better or no worse than the Windows 7 desktop. Of course, I banished the Metro interface five minutes after installing. Then again, I never bother with the GUI on Linux, as the command line is always excellent.
The UI is truly awful with the random flat, single mono-colored tiles and windows. As mentioned in the article, there really is no benefit to upgrading from Windows 7. If games start to make good use of Direct X 12 there might be a reason to switch, but it really isn't an upgrade in most respects.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
“Overall, there's really nothing to see here. It's not terrible, it's not even 'bad, it's just... okay. A quiet little upgrade.”
Cue choir music and white spotlight! This is the way it should be! I've often observed, people use applications not the OS. The OS should make it easy, simple, fast, etc. for people to use their applications in the way that they want. No more, no less. When the OS gets in the way, it is a fail. The best, and best selling, versions of Windows were the ones that moved closer to this principle than their predecessors.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
As a former long time Linux user, lately I've felt that I've had much less choice than ever before.
I primarily used Debian. When installing Debian 8, I didn't really have a choice about which init system I wanted to use. I got saddled with systemd. After experiencing some problems with it, I wanted to switch back to sysvinit. Sysvinit isn't perfect, but at least it worked for me in the past. But after reading how to do this, it sounded like a very bad idea to me. Most likely I would have ended up with a broken installation.
I looked at using a different Linux distro, but there too my choices were limited. Most of them have switched to systemd, too. The ones that didn't are unusable for other reasons. Slackware is stuck in the 1990s. I don't have days to spare to configure my system so it's just barely usable! Gentoo is another option, but I don't have a week to waste waiting for the basic software to compile. In practice, I don't have much choice at all!
It isn't much different for the desktop environments. Recent versions of KDE and GNOME aren't all that different. KDE 5 isn't as outright awful as GNOME 3 is, but it isn't a desktop environment I like using, either. It's bloated, and has never felt natural to use. The other desktop environments, like Xfce or the many window managers, end up providing an environment that's too stripped down to be useful. In practice, I don't have much choice at all!
It's the same for web browsers. One option is Chrome (or Chromium). The other option is Firefox. Firefox looks and feels almost exactly like Chrome, except it's a lot slower and uses way more memory. Opera still exists, but the newest version is basically just a skin for Chrome. Seamonkey, Dillo and some of the other Gecko- or WebKit-wrapping browsers are way too limited for real use. In practice, I don't have much choice at all!
With modern Linux, I now get to choose between broken and unusable. Or I get to choose between bloated and slow. Or I get to choose between a bunch of options, all of which are equally shitty. I have "choice", but only in theory. In practice, I just get fucked.
The one problem I encountered with Windows 10 is my Linux box could no longer print to the network printer. Sure enough, sharing had been disabled by the upgrade. But even when I re-enabled sharing of the printer, Linux couldn't print to it. Linux could find it. Linux could connect to it. But it would get stuck trying to spool the document and never show up in the print queue under Windows 10.
I opted for the obvious (and easy) solution of moving the printer to my Linux box, but not everyone can do that, especially with a truly shared printer in an office. Though, to be fair, print servers really should be running Linux in the first place. They're more reliable.
I couldn't believe how much crapware I had to disable with Windows 10, though, especially from the menu. WTF would I want an "XBox" account tile for when I don't own a gaming system of any kind, much less one susceptible to the "red ring of death"?
On the bright side, all of my commercial databases seem to run just fine. Even Cygwin hasn't given me grief yet.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
One major advantage over 7 (although 8.1 had it - but who wanted 8.1)
Multiple magnification settings
Win7 allowed ONE windows magnification setting for all screens (100%, 125%, 150%). Win10 allows you to set it per screen. Useful if you have one High DPI screen (my laptop) and one standard DPI - the second monitor in my case.
Other than that? No huge difference. Some things are faster (just as they were in 8.x). The first machine I upgraded was on 8.x, and couldn't wait to get rid of that pig. Then I upgraded the laptop that has the high DPI screen, but right now, my main boxes are still on Win7...
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Folks one thing WIndows 10 has going for it that is very revolutionary ahead of Linux or close to be being tied are cloud and profile integration and development tools. For example I can sync my IE settings, desktop wallpaper, saved passwords, app purchases, and more from my Surface and vice versa with my desktop. OneNote and Word have the same files since it uses OneDrive by default. Yes, it is bashed here HEY MS I DO NOT WANT A HOTMAIL ACCOUNT!! but man it is nice not to sync. ... actually this functionality is crippled in Windows 10 compared to 8.1 due to meeting the release date :-(
VS 2015 can make Android, CLANG, Python, and limited Mono apps for Linux. It's code editor for VS 2016 is free and even runs on Linux if you do a google for MS Code?
Powershell has some strong features with DSC desired state configuration and different levels of security and piping objects over the dated Bash shell popular in Linux. Rumor has it MS is going to port Powershell to gnome. This will be an interesting flamewar read when it comes stable and is linked here on Slashdot :-)
Now Windows 10 at the time of this 8-9-15? SUCKS! Unstable, rushed, and unusable on my machine. It is WindowsME 2.0 as of right now. Edge does not even freaking have Chrome plugins as it was not finished. Placeholders missing in Onedrive is a killer feature as I do not want to remember where my files are saved. I just like opening Excel and selecing my file after a fresh image. Try that with Linux?
What Linux has going? A TON more hacks and tools and scripts in php and other things under the sun. I predict once Redstone 10.1 comes out by Thanksgiving and VS 2015 which is now free stabilizes it will be a very competitive system to Linux for a lot of users.
http://saveie6.com/
I was so chuffed when Gnome and KDE beat Windows at its own game. For years they had been lagging behind Microsoft, mostly mimicking the look and feel of Windows. KDE 4.0 gave us a hint of what was to come - it was a mess. With Gnome 3 we had clearly pulled ahead of Microsoft, producing a complete clusterfuck of an interface in long before Microsoft got their own clusterfuck to the market with Windows 8. Finally, we were setting the pace and Microsoft was following!
But things move quickly, and open source is falling behind again. Right now we are in the "ouch! that hurt phase" and fixing the mess created by the last fad. Microsoft has pared down the Vista "wow, we virtualised the 3D pipeline so everyone wants to watch ponies dancing on a spinning Icosahedron while their windows open" to something that almost always runs faster than Gnome and KDE in Windows 10. In the mean time people who preferred to use Gnome to get shit done rather than watch ponies retreated to Gnome flashback, or whatever it is called today. But, sigh, in a flash of recent inspiration Gnome made flashback depend on the 3D graphics as well, meaning you can no longer debug someones desktop using a frame buffer protocol like VNC, effectively ensuring that in some cases it isn't possible to get any work done with it, at all. Just fucking wonderful Gnome.
Unlike poor Windows users, Linux is all about choice, and so putting up with a window manager that removed features with with each iteration while managing to run slower at the same time (awesome effort, boys!) is some ways my own fault. But the reality is the choosing the right thing from the many choices Linux offers you is hard work, hard work that Windows users are spared. I tend to compensate by sticking like deranged limpet to what I used yesterday. Kudo's to Gnome I guess, for finding a way to force me off my rock.
Now I have a new rock: LXDE. While it may be true Microsoft has moved faster than KDE and Gnome to produce something todays GUI fashion Nazi's just love, if paired down, fast, and just get out of my fucking way is the benchmark, LXDE entered that race long before Microsoft knew even existed, and they now beat Microsoft at it hands down. Saying Windows 10 beats Gnome and KDE in speed as this review does is just plain dumb. Gnome and KDE haven't yet twigged they event that think they are competing in was abandoned last year, at the latest. Microsoft, to their credit did twig, and now they have Windows 10.
I've been a linux user since 1997, except for a couple of years when I ran OS X (10.5-10.6). I started out on Redhat (a couple of weeks with slackware before that, but too short a time to count), then went to OpenSuse after the second Fedora release and migrated to Linux Mint 17.1 because I found too many annoying bugs in the most recent release of OpenSuse. I'm strictly a desktop user and was waiting for the rise of the Linux desktop like everyone else, but always kept a version of Windows on dual boot because A. It usually came with the machine and B. "just in case".
Yesterday, I installed Grub Customizer and switched my default boot to Windows 10. It is, to me, the best version of Windows they've managed to come out with. I happen to love the start menu. I did away with all my icons I normally put on the desktop and, instead, they reside in the start menu. The privacy issues seem to be no better nor worse than you get from Apple, but the OS seems to finally be as good as what you'd get from Apple.
I have to say... I've gotten sick, over the years, of Linux being treated like the red-headed stepchild when it comes to drivers, software and websites. But, just as importantly, I've grown sick of the bugs that continually creep up in the desktop experience. Dilbert stops showing up on the KDE comic applet....search all around...no fixes seem to work....gotta live with it. Can't find an mp3 player that really seems to work, catalog my library, manage the playlists and mp3s on my samsung s3 etc. without hanging or outright crashing... It's the bugs like that which seem to really be in your face on a near daily basis....and they don't seem to be fixed. It's much more exciting to add features than hunt down bugs. I understand that. Some will say that, if I don't like the bugs, then fix them myself. But, I don't want an OS I have to learn to code and help out projects just to make something I can use.... I'm a single parent raising a 7 year old. I just want something I can use and that fits my needs....
Linux Mint has been, by far, the most polished and professional desktop experience I've had in a while. That could be because they've stayed with the same release of Ubuntu underlying it for the last couple of releases. Whatever the reason, I've still found a more pleasing desktop experience in Windows 10.
It is. Microsoft and Gnome are marketing to companies. And companies want to treat their employees as interchangeable cogs. That means the desktop needs to be non-configurable in any meaningful way, to ensure any user can be dropped in front of any computer and be instantly up to speed without having to learn anything. So as far as Microsoft and Gnome are concerned, personalization is a bad thing.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
I do most of my work on Linux, but have to use windows occasionally. Last year I upgraded my computer for the first time in like 10 years, and decided to skip 7 and go to 8.1 for the Windows booting. So, OK, I don't use it a lot - but after installing classic shell and having it boot straight to the desktop, I don't see what all the whining is about. Every time I upgrade or install Linux, I have to customize it to my liking, too, so it's a bit annoying when I hear that as a complaint from Linux users about windows. I'm glad I get to mostly use Linux, but I didn't see what all the fuss was about - plus it had better support for my ssd and, yes, it seems to run better/be more responsive than Windows 7 or XP.
I've heard a couple of legitimate complaints from power users, but by and large what I see is a bunch of people essentially complaining it's not exactly like it was before.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
At work or Academia, I had used all there is to use. DOS, Windows, Solaris, HP-UX, Sinix, VMS, Linux, FreeBSD...
At home, it was DOS (3.2, 3.3, 5.0, 6.22) Windows (WFW 3.11, 95, 98, NT4, 2000, XP, Vista) all the way (with a brief innuendo with Warp), until Early 2009, when I declared my switchover to MAC Successful.
Now, Apple forced my hand by not releasing Win7 Drivers for the 2015 13"Air... So, between having a ragtag fleet of machines on Win732, Win764 and Win8.1 64, I'll go 10 all the way.
The fact that I can get Windows 10 Working on a Toshiba Satellite A123 ** (My last windows machine), with an Xpress200m Chipset whose graphics part is based on a chip (R300) released in Aug. 2002, and a processor whose architecture (Yonah T2080) was released on 2006 speaks volumes at the effort microsoft has put in preserving compatibility AND make the OS perform better.
On the same resources, Win 8 will perform better than 7 and Win 10 will outperform them both. It has actually breathed new life into the old machine.
What really interest me is the new powers under the hood. Better performance (as said before), Edge, better included antivirus and security tools, DX12, etc, etc, etc.
Maybe things moved around a lot from what I remember, but is in no way as bad as windows 8, were I had to rip of the virtual machine due to the hotcorners, and wanted to pull my hair everytime I had to use a Win8 machine from a friend without a shell replacement. Besides, if one does not like the interface, one can change it (as they said in the TFA, Classic Shell works like a charm, and I am sure there will be other customization apps in no time), if they removed mediaplayer, there is MithTV or VLC, the app store is empty, so what, is not like I forgot how to download an exe or a msi file...
But then again, I use this only for some games (currently Batman Arkam Origins, and anything that strikes my fancy that Steam has not ported to Apple yet) on bootcamp, and via VirtualBox on raw partition for Visio and Project.
The fact that the upgrade is free sweetens and seals the deal (if I had to pay for it, or had to go through the hoops of the university to get the license key, well....). Yes, there are privacy concerns, and I will deal with them, the same way I dealt with iCloud and all of Apple's privacy invasions, I have the knowledge to do so, and I can relay on my fellow techies when my knowledge fails me.
For me is a welcome upgrade, one that will bring homogeneity to my fleet, along with better performance accross the board, and I am recommending all non-techie friends to upgrade (after updating FW, maxing RAM and putting an SSD, of course), especially from Windows XP. Besides, I already issued them a stern Warning. After march 2016, I'll only answer questions about Win10 or "El Capitan". That will drastically cut the amount of free tech support I must do... ;-)
Welcome Windows 10, you may not warrant a rolling stones theme song, but your low-key entry will make many lives easier...
Suerte a todos y feliz dia.
** Yes, after firmware updates, maxed RAM to 2GB, and put a SATA3 64GB SSD on the puny SATA1 interface of the Xpress200M
PS: For what is worth, I have CrunchBang++ for basic Linux demos to my students in the Toshiba (the machine I carry around in mass transport to class, because, if they mug me, I'll not miss it), and have A few CentOS and Oracle Linux machines for, you know, stuff...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
The laptop appeared to upgrade ok but upon rebooting was excrutiatingly slow and unresponsive. It kept asking for permission to run an activesync exchange app or somesuch and neither Windows Update or Edge could connect to the internet even though Firefox could. I suspect that the machine had family safety turned on in 8.1 and it fucked up on the upgrade. In the end I reverted to 8.1. I might turn off family safety and try again.
The docking tablet upgraded fine but the drivers for the keyboard and touch pad are botched. I can't type certain keys on the keyboard and after a while it goes completely haywire. I'll probably live with it for a week to give Lenovo a change to produce a new driver and if they don't I'll revert to 8.1 there too.
The only one which worked relatively well was the Windows 7 desktop which migrated and booted back up in a good state. But even here there are glitches - some of my tiles look like they've been cut in half and shifted over. All my software works and the desktop experience is good even though the start menu still has a lot of room for improvement. I also discovered that Win 10 has a setting (enabled by default) that allows Microsoft to stuff promotional tiles into your start menu which is annoying.
Overall I'm not impressed at all with Windows 10. It was released prematurely as far as I'm concerned. From an administration point of view, it's also more of a burden because now there isn't just a control panel but also now a settings and clicking a button in one often leads to the other. It's a mess for configuration. None of the administrator tools seem to have gotten any attention either so they're not high-dpi aware for example which means they look blurred on a high density screen.