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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?
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.'"
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)
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.
Actually the "datamining crap" you are referring to has been present since at least Windows XP if not earlier. Much of that data is what is used to help build compatibility shims that allow older applications to continue to run on newer OS versions. Also how else do you think that Microsoft has been able to gather data about the most popular screen resolutions, how much the start menu is/isn't used, etc?
Other data (such as stack traces from crash reports) are often sent to the 3rd party developers in an attempt to identify the underlying cause of the crash and fixed it if it is the result of a software bug.
Enterprise users can disable the reporting entirely via group policy or have the reports forwarded to their own internal server for private use. It is only the home editions that can't completely disable the crash reporting and telemetry features.