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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...
make; make install?
Is the datamining crap turned off in the Enterprise edition of Windows 10?
Big news - learned from mistakes!
I for one am very happy that the Win8 Metro shit is dead and buried, as well as the other things that we were told more than ten years ago "are already in Longhorn", but now are real instead of hype trying to one-up Apple.
No. People criticise microsoft because Windows 10 is disappointing and they seemed to have chucked privacy out the window. MS reached their peak with Windows 7 - a good OS most people would agree - and MS itself seemed to be changing and focusing more on customers than just on their bottom line. Yeah well, more fool us on that latter point.
>>...and I knew I could trust them.
This part is especially funny, in light of the recent Ars Technica article about how Win10 continues to send stuff to MS, even after you tell it *not* to.
Trust, it's a two way street...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Not yet.
Unless you want solitaire without the ads.
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.'"
Subtle trolling takes too much thought - we hire out to foreigners who speak the language well enough to recognize patterns and send out the appropriate canned troll/astroturf message.
Did I just share a company secret?
That is all.
..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
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)
Not sure if troll. I don't disagree with many of your preferences, but there are options out there. Use MATE (a fork of GNOME 2) and Chrome/Chromium. Use Fedora, which seems to have SystemD figured out and working well. Wait, Edge? You are a troll.
How many times does it have to be repeated that are no annual fees for Windows 10?
SERVICE != SUBSCRIPTION
Examples:
Steam = Service
Salesforce = Subscription
Figure it out already and quit spouting the nonsense.
The reason for free Windows makes perfect sense. The cost of buying an upgrade has always made upgrades on existing hardware a very low number. So just give it away to end users since it doesn't make any money anyway. It's pretty well known 99% the of income for Windows comes from new PCs and enterprise agreements.
If they try to turn around and start charging annually for Windows after this, piracy will shoot through the roof and patching will go through the floor as people will hack to get it free and stop Windows Update so their hacks won't get blocked. (Remember the Windows Genuine Advantage garbage from XP, that was a lesson learned) This would result in 2 black eyes that Microsoft doesn't want and would lead to increases for Mac, Linux or other alternative. 1st is customer ill will over "pay us or your PC stops" and the 2nd is from getting a reputation about Windows being buggy exploit ridden as a result of people not patching and updating.
yup... MS has shot themselves in the foot with this one.. If a technical user wants to turn off all of the privacy-destroying crap, then MS has ZERO business ignoring said users wishes.. This had to be said ...... FUCK YOU MS!!!
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Well Microsoft have said explicitly that you won't, so no.
I think Microsoft is happy with the revenue from their "PC tax", the fact you'll have to buy a PC every few years to run modern applications should be enough to ensure they get roughly the same revenue from Windows as before. That said, they've also been giving Windows away for free on low cost devices lately, so they're obviously planning to tap into other revenue streams.
Subscriptions for operating systems though? Nah.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
It's always been "a service" that's still being built. It's just that the rate of change was slower. If memory serves, NT4 only got good after Service Pack 4, XP after SP1 (or maybe 2), Windows Vista only got good when you upgraded it to Windows 7, and so it goes on. Windows 10 will stick around for a while, but in a year or two, they'll release a 'feature pack' or whatever they'll call it that'll get rolled into the initial install images and will make everything look and behave differently (but it'll still be Windows 10 - because this is the last windows ever - no, no need to worry about upgrades because it's all the same version, honestly).
The only new thing, as you say, is that we'll be pestered to upgrade windows 7/8 forever and we'll end up paying constantly for Windows 10.
Linux is too glitchy and unpredictable to be a realistic competitor on the x86 desktop PC market.
It stops and just does not install the update. It goes through a few boot cycles first to try to install it. It is not unstoppable nor does it render the computer useless or anything. I am not even a regular Windows user and I know this.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The enterprise is going to be interesting with this stuff. If MS sends PII from Windows 10 to Microsoft, and an enterprise in the USA or Europe "upgrades" to Windows 10, then how can that enterprise continue to claim "Safe Harbor" certification?
I suspect that Microsoft is going to have to rip out all the privacy-destroying stuff before it can sell to a company that needs to be "Safe Harbor" certified.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
'...a suite of middleware that relies heavily on some of the internals of Windows. Changing out anything is a risk that the product doesn't work as expected. '
You need to FIX that. ITSec researchers are seeing more and more threats going forwards. Any product that locks an end user to a specific configuration with no updates allowed is a security nightmare waiting to happen.
Devs have to accept and adjust to a world where every library and tool (Java, Oracle, Adobe, M$, etc.) is going to be updated at short notice as part of the enterprise need to have secure systems and meet regulatory and contractual obligations. The days are OVER where lazy businesses and devs can assume they will be on the same IE 6 and Java JRE 3.1 forever and ever because security is Someone Else's Problem.
Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...