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How Microsoft Built, and Is Still Building, Windows 10
An anonymous reader writes with this Venturebeat story about how Windows 10 is different from previous versions because of the way it was designed, including 15 public preview builds, and how much work is still being done. Windows 10 for PCs arrived two weeks ago. Thankfully, we don't need to wait years to say this will be a Microsoft operating system release like no other. The most obvious clue is not the fact that Windows 10 was installed on more than 14 million devices in 24 hours, that you can get it for cheap or upgrade to it for free, nor even that it ships with a digital assistant and a proper browser. No, the big deal here is that Microsoft is turning its OS into a service, and that means as you read these words, it's still being built. For the next few years, we'll be getting not just Windows 10 updates and patches, but new improvments and features. This is possible because Microsoft built this version very differently from all its previous releases.
I hope you got money for running this advertisement, Slashdot.
...is that all the reasons to choose Windows 10 over the competition, i.e. that it was a desktop operating system rather than a cloud service which required you to give not the slightest shit about your privacy (you did nothing of consequence) and a fast, always-on Internet connection (and you worked nowhere interesting), have gone.
That's it's privacy nightmare for those with the inclination to give a damn.
Windows 10 isn't "built very differently" from Windows 8. Microsoft has always had the attitude of "F' it, ship it, we'll fix it on the road." -- Now it's just a "service" so they can proudly say it. Gheesh...
M$ is evil and everything they do is bad!
I know everything that goes into writing an operating system yet will never actually make one.
I will just criticize them based on actions in the 90s.
If they can provide me with an OS that boots consistently...
What in their long history of OS's leads you to believe this one is different from all its predecessors?
How much did MS pay for this bit of astroturfing, or are you an MS intern, not getting paid at all?
..and as a result compatibility with older hardware goes out of the window. A number of users, me included, have had problems with installation on older hardware that had no problem running Windows 7. And due to a marketing-driven decision of not showing an informative BSOD, all you can do is guess what on earth went wrong. :( ...sure is much cuter than a screen full of scary error messages and stack traces. Maybe Apple can get away with it due to a controlled environment and rigid hardware configurations, but for such a paradigm shifting OS release (by their own admission), they should've asked the developers and not the head of marketing department what kind of error handling this OS should have during its installation.
We couldn't install Windows 10 due to a hardware issue
FTFA:
That's right, it's a new feature that Microsoft is able to offer a specific group of people a given set of builds. You know, what all the Unix distributions we know have been able to do since time immemorial? You can even create your own builds. Just create a new repo and add it onto the end of the list, with newer versions of packages. Done! Microsoft physically couldn't do that until right now? That's pathetic, just like the rest of their package management functionality.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
..has really done down. These guys might as well hang a flashing neon TROLL or SHILL sign above their posts nowadays its so obvious. Whatever happened to the subtle trolls (yes they did exist) that had - on the surface at least - had very convincing arguments?
Perhaps they weren't trolls at all, and simply had different opinions than you do. They were subtle and had convincing arguments, yet in your mind they were all definitely trolls. Why is that?
Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
I love the virtual desktop feature - Didn't Linux have that like 20 yrs ago? Hmmmmm
Hope there aren't any open source patent violations!
*** Don't be dull.***
For various reasons, I run multiple OS's. I was part of the recent wave of upgrades to WIN-10 because I have to anticipate what my accounting clients are going to run into when they upgrade which they tend to do without warning.
I personally think MS is just assuming that people will run through the process without thinking much about privacy settings and security issues on the other side. I'm a wee bit OCD about that, but the public I try to work with isn't even when they're told to be careful. I'm still baffled by the number of systems I deal with that have either no antivirus or outdated versions, no firewall, etc. Let's face it, if MS gains marketing data in exchange for a "free" upgrade, most folks won't complain. What I'm also concerned about from a practical manner is the fact that various support builds are going to be pushed though without the option of deciding when to install meaning that various drivers that worked earlier are suddenly off in the ozone upon restart.
There is also the matter of when, where, and how MS will acknowledge problems with the OS. For example, the Edge browser seems to have some real issues integrating with printing which simply aren't there when you switch back to IE-11 which fortunately hasn't been removed (yet), but only disappears from view.
MS's view of the future which they've been fairly clear about is a device-spanning OS that they're going to drive and I think that's one of the main things to keep in mind with WIN-10.
We have met the enemy and he is us - Pogo (Walt Kelly)