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Microsoft Leak Reveals New Windows 10 Workstation Edition For Power Users (theverge.com)
Upon close inspection of the Windows 10 build that Microsoft accidentally pushed to insiders last week, several users are reporting discovering the reference of a new Windows 10 SKU. From a report: In a leaked slide, Microsoft describes the edition as "Windows 10 Pro for Workstation" with four main capabilities:
1. Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying "typical compute and graphics intensive workloads" to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled.
2. Resilient file system: Microsoft's file system successor to NTFS, dubbed ReFS, is enabled in this new version, with support for fault-tolerance, optimized for large data volumes, and auto-correcting.
3. Faster file handling: As workstation machines are typically used for large data volumes across networks, Microsoft is including the SMBDirect protocol for file sharing and high throughput, low latency, and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares.
4. Expanded hardware support: Microsoft is also planning to allow Windows 10 Pro for Workstation on machines with up to 4 CPUs and a memory limit of 6TB. Windows 10 Pro currently only supports 2 CPUs.
1. Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying "typical compute and graphics intensive workloads" to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled.
2. Resilient file system: Microsoft's file system successor to NTFS, dubbed ReFS, is enabled in this new version, with support for fault-tolerance, optimized for large data volumes, and auto-correcting.
3. Faster file handling: As workstation machines are typically used for large data volumes across networks, Microsoft is including the SMBDirect protocol for file sharing and high throughput, low latency, and low CPU utilization when accessing network shares.
4. Expanded hardware support: Microsoft is also planning to allow Windows 10 Pro for Workstation on machines with up to 4 CPUs and a memory limit of 6TB. Windows 10 Pro currently only supports 2 CPUs.
Good to hear they're making a version of Windows specifically for professional use. It should then come without all the crap bloatware, ads, and telemetry, right? Right?
So we've got different behavior for drivers (or otherwise different handling of hardware) for Windows Update to routinely fuck up, a new, untested file system that was delayed so much because it was unreliable, and a new SMB thing to get hacked.
And all you're promising me is somewhat better resource/process management, slightly faster access to network files, an allegedly more robust file system, and the ability to use more CPUs and RAM?
No thanks.
Until you provide numbers, I won't care about your alleged improvements. In the old days, the extent of their tuning for the server OS vs the desktop OS was changing the "Processor scheduling" option from "Programs" to "Background Services" and presumable adjusting the scheduling algorithm to stop putting services on the short bus.
Network file access is fast enough on a wired link. Sure, I'd like for it to be faster, but where are the numbers? Do I need a new share that supports the new shit as well? Or are the improvements only on the client side? If they're client side, then why not just improve regular SMB handling for everyone?
I haven't had an issue with NTFS that wasn't related to hardware issues. NTFS isn't the greatest, but I have no issues with out. I've encountered the ol' scandisk errors on it when shit is shutdown forcefully due to power loss or thermal protection, but those were always recoverable events. I've only had unrecoverable events on failing hardware.
With AMD's Threadripper you can get 16 cores and 32 threads in a single socket. With Epyc, you can get 32/64. And Epyc supports multiple sockets. If you need more than that you wait for Intel's upcoming 18/36 CPU for $2000, or get a big, slow Xeon (or two). I wouldn't consider such beasts "workstations". They'd be servers, in a rack with proper cooling, power filtering/redundancy/backup, ECC memory, physical security, etc., and the workstation would be someone remoting in to it. I don't know what the limit on RAM is for existing Windows 10 SKUs, but I doubt it's a practical limit for anyone who shouldn't be running shit on an actual server.
Now, if they had removed the telemetry entirely and let me truly turn off shit like Cortana, the Windows Store, the forced updates, etc., AND respect that decision and (and not default it back to on after each update I do choose to install), then I'd care.
Or put another way:
1. Runs as fast as possible.
2. Fast and fault-tolerant file system.
3. Handles files as fast as possible.
4. Supports the hardware you already have.
Isn't that what all operating systems should do out of the box? What's with this stupid tiered pricing thing for non-feature features? Keep your SLA pricing where it belongs.