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Microsoft Unveils Windows 10 S, an Education Edition Limited To Windows Store Apps (venturebeat.com)
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new edition of its latest operating system: Windows 10 S. Available on first-party and third-party hardware -- Microsoft will be releasing its own Windows 10 S device and will also let manufacturers sell their own -- Windows 10 S is a streamlined edition of Windows 10 aimed at the education market. From a report: "We really are working hard to deliver the best platform for education, for students of all ages and school districts of all devices," said Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president in Microsoft's operating systems group, about the new Windows 10 S release. The main way that Windows 10 S differs from the other editions is that it can only run apps from the Windows Store. That includes Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps and Win32 apps that Microsoft has approved into its app store. The goal is to avoid the problems of traditional Win32 apps that often run in the background and push their own updates. Microsoft wants to stop apps from hooking into the boot and sign-in process to handle all their own updates, which in turn slows down startup time. Windows Store can take care of this today, but Windows 10 S makes it the only way to install and update apps. As a result, Microsoft hopes Windows 10 S will be able to offer faster sign-in times and better battery life. This is still a full version of Windows 10. It's just locked down to only work with apps that Microsoft has approved, similar to how Apple and Google lock down iOS and Android to their respective app stores. The operating system follows the company's Intune for Education announcement back in January. Those systems created by third-party hardware partners like Acer, Asus, HP, Dell and Toshiba, start at $189.
I'm sure someone with decision making power will buy this and force implementation on some unfortunate soul.
Why have the opportunity to get applications from multiple sources when you can restrict everyone to only purchasing from Microsoft! Who cares if they have made available the actual programs we would like to use, when there are others with half as much functionality (and the added benefit of Microsoft getting a cut of the sales from) they can force you to use?
Why aren't we dumping large amounts of money into ReactOS and WINE? It seems like it's high time to put together a real alternative to a Windows that can still run a Windows software.
Mark my words, this version of W10 has nothing to do with the education markets. Microsoft is just using them as a lab rat to get people used to the notion of having everything locked down to their app store. Soon enough, Secure Boot will become mandatory, and you'll find yourself having to jailbreak a fucking PC just to make it useful again.
If this gets adopted, expect it to become the norm at some point in the future for all editions. Once software devs adapt their distribution to not lock themselves out of the edu market, it will be very easy to throw the switch and wall off the rest of the OS.
I'm sure it will be very educational for anyone who buys it just not in the way that M$ want it to be
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
MS is trying to copy Apples walled garden approach... and it's a BAD idea.
I got news for you, assholes... NOBODY buys windows to get locked into using only certain apps... they buy it to have a more CHOICES...
There's a reason Apple has lost market share in schools in recent years, and it's not just the cost of hardware.
I guess English speakers know what the 'S' stands for :)
They really want to try Windows RT again. Good luck. I get that outside applications using updater services is annoying, but that's nothing but a scapegoat here. It's pretty obvious to everyone that MS eventually wants a cut of every application sold.
So on a lark I went to the Microsoft store web site and tried to find a few applications I knew would be useful in education - R, yEd and QGIS.
I gave up. I couldn't even find a friggin' search box.
What the hell, Microsoft? Why are they making it hard to search their own online store?!?
...is to severely lock down what they can do!
As long as you don't buy new. Easily done.
I paid $175 2 years ago for a used HP Elitebook with great specs. Got my wife a used HP Stream 11 for $100 a year ago, which is probably not too different from the specs of one of these Windows S boxes, except that it isn't locked down.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
Android is not a walled garden. The fact that the Google Play Store is generally the only app store installed by default doesn't stop users from downloading an APK for an alternative like F-Droid. No rooting or unlocking required. The full version of Windows 10 is similar -- the Windows Store is the easiest way for users to install software with some assurance that it will work well on their device, but if they want to download applications from other sources, nothing is stopping them.
Yet another brick on the road to absolute tyranny.
Another vendor wants to control everything.. in pursuit keep churning out nonsensical justifications... oh...it's more secure... uh huh.. can't even prevent their own software from being unintentionally compromised when they fully control source code and all aspects of development...I'm sure they have the power to properly vet all the shitware CAUSED by race to the bottom app store environments... jails and hypervisors keep users safe not preventing unblessed execution... oh and the ever priceless when everyone implements the same shit we do THEY suck at it... Particularly rich argument given how resource intensive windows update is. If they wanted to they could create a useful vendor independent interface for managing updates the same way software installation interfaces are standardized and widely used because they provide a useful path of least resistance and value to users and vendors alike.
No this is nothing more than a selfish power grab. Many are clamoring to bring about a "future" in which unclean hands are forbidden from owning general purpose computers where all software is locked down for approval by state/megacorp. Centralized control, centralized extraction of value from the market, monopolistic dominance and pervasive monitoring. As we have seen demonstrated with iPhone's denying rights/censorship using technical measures divorced from anything resembling representative governance.
A more likely outcome is sufficient number of people abandon Windows forever allocating more resources for development of alternatives hastening a future in which MS is no longer relevant. I fully expect Microsoft will "die trying" to turn Windows into the next Apple iPhone.
MS management couldn't even understand desktop users didn't want crummy watered down interfaces.. or locked down windows that couldn't run their software (RT) when they started down their path to madness starting with Windows 8 "metro" shell... Now after fully embracing the same business practices as malware vendors they have become incapable of performing the basic function of provisioning more value to their customers. Inevitably someone else will fill the vacuum.
Microsoft Paranoia still reigns, and with some good reason, but I think the walled garden approach here is mainly about Chromebooks. Schools are buying Chromebooks because they are simple to maintain, and MS is producing a locked down windows product to compete. Whether this indicates long term plans of MS to try and implement on all of Windows, feel free to speculate away. I think a hybrid approach is more likely. They want a cut of the walled garden, but they still have to accommodate a large portion of their customers.
Too young and dumb to know any better. Plus, in a scholastic setting, where they're limited to start with -- bonus points! The word I want to use here is 'indoctrination'. Just Say No, everyone; think of the children!
The goal is to avoid the problems of traditional Win32 apps that often run in the background and push their own updates. Microsoft wants to stop apps from hooking into the boot and sign-in process to handle all their own updates, which in turn slows down startup time.
In defense of Microsoft's decision I think this is a good idea (partially).
As a system's administrator I do what I can to shut-down scheduled jobs and launch on startup from apps that don't need it. I especially try to prevent apps that annoy the user by begging for updates from having their beg service run. Everything Adobe has touched in the past 20+ years, Java, even browsers do this. I use a Kace K1000 system to push updates to users, and I handle updates to those apps. I don't need users calling me for updates within an hour of Adobe releasing a new point revision on Acrobat reader. I'll have it pushed to the users within a couple of days depending on my work load.
That's what I do at work. I'm a Linux user at home. I've been saying for years using the Apt Package manager is easier than maintaining software on Windows. It's also easier than keeping up with software on a Mac. I've got both stand-alone software and software manager software both at work and at home - gamers - tell me Steam isn't 100x's better than the old fashioned keep up with the boxes, the disks and every single patch from a different website as well as the drivers in the days of yore.
I realize Microsoft is evil.
Apple I can chose between the store or manual installs - though it does progressively harass you more about unsigned stuff with each OS release.
Linux - I can use an apt repository like I do for nearly everything, or I can download/install it separately like I do for Calibre and MakeMKV.
For students the lock-down thing may not be a bad idea. For corporations on the full-blown MS bandwagon it may not be a bad idea. That being said I've never worked for any company that didn't have one piece of poorly written software that doesn't comply to normal or modern conventions the whole place nearly runs on. That shitty software is going to have to run on something other than one of these - I see up uptick in Citrix use in the future...
I would jailbreak and replace the OS on this like I do nearly everything else for my own personal use, no surprise there, I haven't used Windows at home since 2000 was now. For handing out to users that don't have the good sense not to download stupid shit and cause problems for me, I could get behind something like this at a corporation.
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So it's an education version, but it will be available everywhere? I don't get it. That's not an EDU version of software. It's just another consumer confusing version of Windows 10. Unaware consumers walking into their local big box store will end up machines with S on it unaware of it's restrictions.
Sent from my TARDIS