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Windows 10 Now on 600 Million Active Devices (geekwire.com)

Windows 10 has found its way onto 600 million active devices, says CEO Satya Nadella. From a report: CEO Satya Nadella referenced the new number for the first time moments ago at the company's annual shareholders meeting. The number is up from the 500 million devices touted by Microsoft earlier this year, but it's still well short of the company's original goal of 1 billion Windows 10 devices within two to three years of its 2015 release.

142 comments

  1. Satya Nadella triumphant over Steve Jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


     

    1. Re:Satya Nadella triumphant over Steve Jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're saying Satay Nutella can only win against dead people.

  2. Good leadership at the helm... by rwven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10 and the company's direction as a whole in the past few years. Placing Nadella at the helm, and getting rid of Balmer has been a real boon to the company. I know this probably makes me sound like a MS shill, but having spent multiple years in the Linux desktop scene, macOS, and windows, the current windows OS is by far the best OS I've ever used.

    While the target of 1B devices might be a little bit of a pipe dream, they still have another year to hit their goal, and if they don't, it's not like it's even remotely a failure.

    I still can't deny that Ubuntu 17.10 is very tempting though...

    1. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I have to agree. I'm writing this on a Surface Pro running Windows 10. It's a great OS running on a sweet machine.

    2. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah, the management of Herpes has also done a good job, it's not active on 3 billion humans...

    3. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10" = you're a moron.

    4. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by gtall · · Score: 0

      Yep, you do sound like an MS shill. Stop it, it is embarrassing.

    5. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by rwven · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, it's not embarrassing. They make a better desktop OS than Apple or any Linux desktop at the moment. I don't even view that as an "opinion." Having spent loads of time in all of them, it's just the current state of affairs.

      Maybe if Apple gets their collective heads out of their rears, or if a Linux distro finally decides what it wants to be, that might change.

    6. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by cmaurand · · Score: 1

      It's starting to look more like a MAC. It's now baked into the BIOS on Lenovo and Dell machines. It's still a security nightmare. It does not play nice with Office 2010 or Office 2013 or Office 2016. It now drives advertising at me via the start menu. It's unstable (Don't try to run a workstation for more than week without a reboot -- Linux isn't much better these days since systemctl came about). It frequently eats it's own files. And all the security they added to it, didn't solve the problems that they needed to solve.

    7. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As far as price/utility, Ubuntu 17 is pretty good. It's free. It doesn't send my personal data outside my machine by default. It doesn't try to nudge me to use Microsoft's (or anyone else's) servers for storage of personal info.

      And it comes with a decent (OK, not great) office suite, graphic edition, media software, etc, etc built in. What's really missing is an Outlook equivalent, but with web-based email solutions, this is less relevant. (Strictly for email, I connect Thunderbird to the uni Exchange servers.)

    8. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, you do sound like an MS shill. Stop it, it is embarrassing.

      Regarding the herpes comment above, I wonder how many were willing users?

    9. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, it isn't. Windows 10 stinks, is still slow as fuck, and you can't do simple things (like backing up) easily. Installing software is a nightmare, but of course you are rewarded with not being able to even move an app post install. There is no coherency, with settings shat seemingly at random over different places. It has a moronic welcome screen "Hi..." every time it updates, and the differential between home/pro/ultimate still makes no sesne (why would home users want encryption or to run VMs). The list of installed apps after you've put on some of the usual shit makes no real sense (did I really want VS2013 runtime and can I unstall it?) and you don't really know how to configure it to your liking (since you can't disable some features at all). It's also expensive and uncool. Perhaps this is because of the massive number of untalented hacks all spunking off into the Microsoft codebase, whilst a badly managed corporate behemoth clings on to the sheer momentum which is about the only thing notable about it.

      Apart from that it's absolutely fucking wonderful.

    10. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      I'd leave M$ on the desktop in a heartbeat if my apps would work elsewhere in a reasonable fashion, and the laptop I take into the field runs Mint, but I nevertheless agree with you, especially about getting the heck rid of Balmer. And I have to admit other than persistently nagging me to use Cortana and Edge, (which I now understand can be turned off) Windows 10 isn't all that bad. Microsoft is (at least at the moment) acting like a company that realize that a balance must be maintained between the annoyance of using Windows and the cost of switching to something else. If that's the outcome of Nadella's leadership, good on him.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    11. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Not everyone who tolerates Windows 10 is a corporate shill. For one thing, for anyone who has suffered through Windows 8.X, Windows 10 seems comparatively like the sound of angels, the taste of an expertly made macchiato and the feeling of deep carpeting beneath your feet. That's not shilling, that's just a tremendous feeling of relief.

      Moreover, there's still some of us who's essential apps still run on Windows, and won't run well under Wine, at least not yet, and running individual apps in Virtualbox (a) is clumsy, and (b) doesn't actually achieve the goal of getting rid of Windows.

      So praising M$ for Windows 10, which is actually solid and reliable and not too obnoxious to use like XP used to be, can be said by someone who doesn't have SJ branded on their forehead. Really.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    12. Re: Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      *gasp!*

      HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha

    13. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by rwven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sounds like you're quoting a bunch of ignorant drivel from the Vista days...

      - It's extremely fast. It cold boots for me in 5 seconds after posting is complete. I'd also like to see your competing system run graphics intensive tasks using the latest and greatest graphics hardware and even have a chance of competing. "Slow" is about the stupidest and most ignorant claim about Windows 10 that I've ever heard.
      - Installing software is a nightmare? I guess clicking an icon and clicking "Next" is too complex for some people... Definitely SO much harder than mounting a virtual drive on your machine, extracting an app from it, dragging that app to an arbitrary folder (or running an installer), and then unmounting the drive.
      - "I can't move an app after I install it!" is a fake complaint and probably identifies you as an angry mac user. You never move an app after you install it anyway, and don't lie and pretend you do. They sit right in the Applications folder the way they always have. That's not an issue.
      - Are you really complaining that there's a welcome screen after major OS updates that says "Hi!"? Apple plays a frigging theme video after their major OS updates, and Linux often just indiscriminately breaks or uninstalls half the crap you had installed.
      - The "List of installed apps" is only confusing if you're a toddler. It's an alphabetized list of your installed apps. If that doesn't make sense to you, then you very well may be beyond help. Compare that with a mac, and you end up with garbage files spewed all over your Library that you know nothing about, and are effectively there forever, even if you decide to get rid of the application itself. Even most linux distros do a better job of keeping track of the mess they makes.
      - Windows was free for me, five times over, and whether or not something is "cool" is irrelevant to how good it is at its job. Skateboards are cool. They also suck as cross country vehicles.

    14. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, splendid leadership. Not innovating, ignoring your users and forcing spyware down their throats is how you lead a company in a responsible and sustainable way. Nothing could go wrong with that. Ever.

    15. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like you have no comprehension skills.

      It isn't extremely fast. It's slower in operation generally than Linux on the same machine. Now you move the goalposts because Korean graphics cards manufacturers can't be arsed doing anything that doesn't target the gaming market, which isn't relevant to me.

      I see. So with respect to my machine, apparently I'm using it wrong. On other systems, I can arbitrarily move subdirectories and link them as I see fit. On Windows we have drive letters which get spunked over the registry. Apparently that's good design.

      The List of installed apps shows lists of Random SKUs called things that, unless you are a fucking muppet, would realize do not belong in a user visible list.

      So I can see you are indeed a complete retard, who has probably never designed or delivered anything in his, her or zher life, and probably has no clue about how to design a user facing OS that doesn't demonstrate the complete ineptitude and minimum-viable-productness of the releasing company. Much like Microsoft.

    16. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 2

      Not everyone who tolerates Windows 10 is a corporate shill. For one thing, for anyone who has suffered through Windows 8.X, Windows 10 seems comparatively like the sound of angels, the taste of an expertly made macchiato and the feeling of deep carpeting beneath your feet.

      The parts that sucked about Windows 8.x:
      -Non-coherent control panel menus that are half "Metro" style, half Standard Desktop style (fixable with Classic shell, though it shouldn't be required)
      -Full screen start menu with annoying smart tiles, and no tree view of the start menu. Search and completely flat only.

      Windows 10:
      -Same identity crisis control panels
      -Mini version of the same smart tile start menu, with no tree view

      Addition of:
      -Forced updates with automatic restart.
      -Forced upgrades that are somewhere between a service pack and a whole new version, that can break shit.
      -Telemetry.

    17. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How you doing, Mr. Nadella?

    18. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10 and the company's direction as a whole in the past few years.

      Could you narrow down the things that Windows 10 has done and what the company's direction as a whole is? I mean, I'd love to know it.

      Placing Nadella at the helm, and getting rid of Balmer has been a real boon to the company.

      Perhaps the latter, but I don't see the former. Yes, the whole push to a more open, inclusive focus might seem good for the user, but I don't see it helping MS much and honestly most consumers won't notice. That's a large part of why they've stuck to MS regardless.

      I know this probably makes me sound like a MS shill, but having spent multiple years in the Linux desktop scene, macOS, and windows, the current windows OS is by far the best OS I've ever used.

      Yes, that does make you sound like a MS shill. Or an idiot. Every 6 months they push the equivalent of a system reinstall through that's cause headaches to massive numbers of people. For example, I've had to decrypt my system drive (the one thing you should NEVER do) just to Windows 10 can upgrade. Oh, I guess I could just never upgrade and hope that years from now they'll still support it. I mean, that's clearly where Windows 10 is heading, right? Meanwhile, on a VM of Windows 10 I have it will just get stuck on the Windows Logo screen indefinitely (no swirl), and each new attempt requires re-dling again the whole thing (which seemingly is at least a few GB). So, yea, awesome.

      While the target of 1B devices might be a little bit of a pipe dream, they still have another year to hit their goal, and if they don't, it's not like it's even remotely a failure.

      Sure. It's not like the whole move towards a uniform platform has consistently been a clusterfuck. Oh, right it has. And universal binaries have never been a clusterfuck. Oh, right they have. Well, it's not like the desktop environment is shrinking. Oh, right it is. MS might see the writing on the wall that Windows on the desktop alone is death to them, but MS seems to not realize that Windows is the one trick pony that you can jam into everything or leverage to their benefit. Even the XBox, which now could be called a success, only succeeded because (1) they didn't call it Windows and (2) they spent billions into it and accepted massive losses for years and years.

      Something like Surface Tablets aren't the tablet market. You can't both be a Windows machine (with legacy support) and a streamlined, low power tablet. So, it's not a place to expand into with any success. Which is why the whole target, even if it were reached, is not some sort of success. It'll come as a result of eating extant Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 machines. And that's becoming a drying well, not a market for expansion.

      I still can't deny that Ubuntu 17.10 is very tempting though...

      Can't see what's particularly tempting for Ubuntu 17.10. I'm personally waiting for 18.04 LTS. Perhaps some day we'll see a decent mainstream rolling release Linux distro (with a buffer) to avoid mass upgrade hell. Until then, LTSs seem to be where it's at.

    19. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

      ... It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10 and the company's direction as a whole in the past few years. ...

      Yeah, MS came out with an operating system that so few wanted, they tried to give it away. And when that didn't work, they tried to trick customers into installing it. Good Job!

    20. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

      ...While the target of 1B devices might be a little bit of a pipe dream...

      And the back-pedalling begins.

    21. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it does in fact sound like you want to suck Nadella's cock. Stop that.

    22. Re: Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking clown. Can you juggle?

    23. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Well I got to admit that Microsoft has for once been in tune with the times, with the cloud and Facebook and all that it's proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the average user doesn't care that he's being spied on. On mobile phones Android has 85% market share and most of those are loaded with services from Google who is the mother of all data mining companies. Not sure why I thought maybe this time it would be different when they didn't leave over Vista or Win8. I've been forced to upgrade my gaming computer to Win10 to play with my friends, the OS itself is stable and working great. I'd like a box with three features:

      1. It runs Windows applications.
      2. It gets security updates.
      3. There are no other "features".

      Basically I'd pay for an Enterprise LTSB license without the "Enterpricy" bits, like no joining a domain seems to be main home/pro differentiation. Even if I wanted to pay for it now, I couldn't without a volume license agreement. Right now my gaming PC is heading for a future as a Wintendo, unless Microsoft pulls a rabbit out of the hat. Everything else will stay on Win7 for as long as it can and then go Linux, I guess. Like you say, they've been way too successful to turn back now...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    24. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It cold boots for me in 5 seconds after POST'ing

      That was not a cold boot you mooran, Win 10 just hibernates then when you push the power button again, it just loads everything from RAM. Heck my WinNT and Win2K can do that too. Once my Win2K hibernates, I can just tap the mouse trackpad and the OS loads in just 1 second. So your 5 seconds with Win10 is still slower with my 1 second on an old OS.

    25. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - It's extremely fast. It cold boots for me in 5 seconds after posting is complete.

      Awesome. So, you've got an SSD too? Btw, I've got a slightly slower SSD in my Linux machine and it cold boots slight slower as a result. Probably because I disabled "fast boot" since that has ~50% chance of giving me a "no boot drive" type error. Of course even with it, I get only a couple seconds faster boot. Not 5 seconds..and the whole "after posting" is bullshit. You certainly count posting time.

      I'd also like to see your competing system run graphics intensive tasks using the latest and greatest graphics hardware and even have a chance of competing. "Slow" is about the stupidest and most ignorant claim about Windows 10 that I've ever heard.

      Uh, yea, nVidia cards work just fine on Linux. I presume the same on Macs. Nothing really slow there. I wouldn't say Windows 10 is slower, either. But, whatever.

      - Installing software is a nightmare? I guess clicking an icon and clicking "Next" is too complex for some people...

      The nightmare is less the "installing" and more the "must visit website and cross fingers you're getting a trusted executable" because tons of stuff is not signed. Even if everything was signed, it's not a given that what you're getting is the latest version because Windows doesn't have a good mechanism for automatic updates of all programs on the system. So, more "cross your fingers" you're not just getting honeypotted with a swiss cheese version.

      Definitely SO much harder than mounting a virtual drive on your machine, extracting an app from it, dragging that app to an arbitrary folder (or running an installer), and then unmounting the drive.

      The Linux way is usually "sudo apt-get install " or using Synaptic and doing a search that way...unless it's not in the repository, and then it's a pain in the ass. Truth be told, most the stuff I install is actually games in Steam/Origin/Uplay. Which leads to..

      - "I can't move an app after I install it!" is a fake complaint and probably identifies you as an angry mac user. You never move an app after you install it anyway, and don't lie and pretend you do. They sit right in the Applications folder the way they always have. That's not an issue.

      Actually, that's a big issue for a limited-space SSD. This is "fixed' in Steam by having a "move folder" option which is pretty ass (since it's a much slower process than moving stuff outside of Steam). For Origin and Uplay? There's the old Steam hackish way of copying + "reinstalling" to a new folder and letting it [hopefully] spot most the same files. Generally, though, Windows is a clusterfuck when it comes to install stuff. Things that come with an installer? Great. Things that don't? You'll want to dump them, well, anywhere. But not Program Files because that's a pain in the ass to manage. No trivial way to add short cuts to the Start Menu for everyone. So, about as bad as Linux in that regard.

      - Are you really complaining that there's a welcome screen after major OS updates that says "Hi!"? Apple plays a frigging theme video after their major OS updates, and Linux often just indiscriminately breaks or uninstalls half the crap you had installed.

      I complain that major OS updates often don't install at all or will only if you disable drive encryption. Oh, and no, Linux doesn't just indiscriminately break or uninstall anything. Yes, there's definitely issues with some programs that want a certain magic collection of multiarch stuff that'll try something like that, so you do have to be careful. That's very rare, though. Really, it's one of those admin things to go "hey, why does it want to *uninstall* stuff for this install?" and then aborting.

      - The "List of installed apps" is only confusing if you're a toddler.

    26. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      Once my Win2K hibernates, I can just tap the mouse trackpad and the OS loads in just 1 second.

      That isn't hibernation. It's standby.

      If you don't understand the difference, disconnect the power cord/battery and reconnect. Hibernate will boot in the same time, standby will not.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    27. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So praising M$ for Windows 10, which is actually solid and reliable and not too obnoxious to use like XP used to be, can be said by someone who doesn't have SJ branded on their forehead. Really.

      So praising M$ for Windows 10, which is actually solid and reliable and not too obnoxious to use like XP used to be, can be said by someone who doesn't have 'SJW' branded on their forehead. Really.

      There, FTFY.

    28. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool. Let me know when they strip out all of the malware, spyware, adware, forced updates, forced reboots and return control to users. It would also be nice if they hired some competent programmers who can put out a fully realised product instead of having amateurs pushing out trial and error, duct tape patches constantly.

    29. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, it's hibernation. Maybe you should join the 21st century and ditch the spinning rust disk drives for something more contemporary.

    30. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Windows app installation concept of running an opaque executable binary (i.e. setup.exe or whatever) is simply arcane. Macs manage apps like little containers and the major Linux package management systems all blow the process that Windows uses out of the water.

      It would be nice if more vendors packaged Linux apps properly, because when they do it really is a download, double-click and install experience. Those more cynical can easily view the package contents to see what goes where and what scripts are run on installation. Once it's installed the OS's underlying package manager can then automatically update the app forever more along with regular system updates. Much more elegant than a random binary.

    31. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Thanatiel · · Score: 1

      Fast ?

      When I was so fed up with Windows 10 and its long list of annoyances (the final one being preventing me accessing every directory on my filesystem, settings the rights back as soon as I specifically set them so I could see their content) I decided to give up playing with a couple hundred games that would not work in Linux ... yet (mostly the 'AAA' ones). It's not like I've much time to play anyway.

      The backup of my disks (a few terabytes) took about 5 days. Just initializing it took the better part of an hour.
      5 Days later, I switched to an Arch (a systemd-free version) and restoring the data took less than one hour.

      Fast ...

      --
      Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
    32. Re: Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft shill unmasked.

    33. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Dusty101 · · Score: 0

      It can't be understated...

      So you're actually saying that there's next to nothing good to be said about what MS has done in the last few years?

      I so, then I can't argue with that. Windows 10 is an intrusive, invasive piece of spyware with a horrible interface.

    34. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      What really pisses me off with Windows 10 is its self importance. I play a full screen game and suddenly the game disappears and Windows informs me that I have to choose a time for a restart because some update was installed in the background. I generally hate applications that steal the focus, but this shit goes even beyond that.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    35. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      So, in short, 2024 will be the year of the Windows desktop?

      Not for me, I don't game as I already have a life (and don't need a half-life), so I am sticking with Linux.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    36. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      "It's extremely fast."

      Sure, it can show you icons extremely quickly, but that doesn't mean it's ready to do anything.

      My Win10 machine pegs the disk at 100% for the first 5 minutes after every boot. If I make the mistake of actually trying to open Visual Studio during that time it can take up to 15 minutes to become responsive.

      I honestly haven't seen anything quite like it since the LOAD "*",8,1 days.

    37. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      What really pisses me off with Windows 10 is its self importance. I play a full screen game and suddenly the game disappears and Windows informs me that I have to choose a time for a restart because some update was installed in the background. I generally hate applications that steal the focus, but this shit goes even beyond that.

      Not only that, but don't you notice your game lagging while the update is being downloaded, a process over which you have little control?

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    38. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      So constant telemetry back to Microsoft and forced updates and reboots aren't that bad? Both used to be considered flat-out bugs, often unacceptable ones. This is some grade A astroturfing.

    39. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by jez9999 · · Score: 2

      It reboots uncontrollably.

      It spews telemetry out over the internet.

      Both are unacceptable.

    40. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10 and the company's direction as a whole in the past few years. Placing Nadella at the helm, and getting rid of Balmer has been a real boon to the company.

      Let's see;

      forced win10 upgrades for tech purists: check

      removal of control per-system for tech stalwarts: check

      killing off win mobile (again): check

      making their console just another PC: Check

      firing EVERY QA tester, resulting in horribly buggy patches: CHECK

      Yeah I'm seeing nothing but sunshine here, Roy.

      And we can't forget the whole UEFI crap that locks out countless non-windows builds from running on new systems.
      ______________________________________________________________
      Or telling anyone with a new processor, 'if you don't upgrade to win10 we WONT give you security updates on 7/8'.

      What a fucking visionary. If only we had him sooner.

    41. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      I have a 8 core Xeon CPU and a shitload of RAM in my computer (have cannibalised an old server) so there is no lag.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    42. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by Shogun37 · · Score: 1

      Saying Nadella is better than Balmer is saying that being strangled slowly is better than being set on fire. Neither one is good, it just takes longer for the bad aspects to out themselves. Windows 10 itself isn't bad, but the baked-in spyware means it isn't coming near my systems. Windows 7 is working just fine, for now. When it doesn't, there are plenty of linux distros that will.

    43. Re:Good leadership at the helm... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You know, I have worked on OSes that didn't decide to take over my computer for hours to install updates I hadn't asked for and then hanging so I couldn't just let the blasted thing update itself overnight. But, then, I'm one of those rare people who actually wants to use his computer to do something with rather than run crappy updates. I've also worked with OSes that could actually keep a wireless connection up without needing to be rebooted now and then when it decided to go down. I've even worked on OSes that didn't hang for minutes while not showing any app or process showing excess use on the Resource Monitor.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. Had to give it away by Revek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When that didn't work they forced it on you.

    1. Re:Had to give it away by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Yep, the malware distribution model, courtesy of a major US corepiration.

    2. Re:Had to give it away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, at the end of the year-after-release, when it was about to stop being a no-charge upgrade, I started upgrading all of my systems as quickly as I could. Release day, it was a mess, as usual. A year later, it was quite stable and mostly not a problem. (No more problem than Windows ever is, anyway.) I haven't regretted the upgrade.

      But during that almost-a-year, I was one of the guys that made read-only files with the name that the download cache tried to reserve, with explicit deny permissions on TrustedInstaller and all that. I nerfed the everlovin' shit out of their scheduled tasks that popped up the upgrade offer, then fucked-over the registry entries that those scheduled tasks relied upon. I held off their attempts to sneak-upgrade my systems rather handily. There was no forced upgrade.

    3. Re:Had to give it away by DickBreath · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Windows 10 is free.
      Not free as in freedom.
      Not primarily free as in beer.
      But mostly free as in herpes.

      How is this malware running on 600 million machines?

      Did the recently announced Microsoft Sets look like Windows will become another Chromebook?

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    4. Re:Had to give it away by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 0

      Same old tired gripe.

    5. Re:Had to give it away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plague continues.

    6. Re:Had to give it away by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows 10 is not free now, and in fact was never really free. It was a free upgrade only for already-paid-for versions of Windows, and that offer has long since expired. If you want to install it today on a new machine, it will cost you $120-$200. Buying a Windows license doesn't give you a perpetual lifetime license either. It only gives you a license for the lifetime of your machine.

      Microsoft probably realized that the vast majority of people buy a machine and never upgrade Windows. So, they just changed their business model to better fit this reality, and at the same time, made things easier on themselves by ensuring they're only supporting one OS version going forward.

      I'm always a bit surprised by the "Windows is free" mantra. Microsoft only eliminated paid updates, which I suspect wasn't a huge money-maker anyhow, and will likely be partially offset by reduced maintenance costs. With those numbers, assuming only half those are desktop PCs, and even with an average of once a decade machine replacement, Microsoft is still likely grossing several billion a year on new license fees alone..

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    7. Re:Had to give it away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is this malware running on 600 million machines?

      Microsoft pulled all other versions, so any new computer is forced to Windows 10 if you want to have Windows on it.

      (Yes, you might have a old install disk but today physical media is an exception.)

    8. Re:Had to give it away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can still get Windows 10 as a free upgrade...

      https://www.howtogeek.com/272201/all-the-ways-you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free/

      Mint 18.3 is where it's at though.

    9. Re:Had to give it away by Revek · · Score: 1

      Same truth.

    10. Re:Had to give it away by Revek · · Score: 1

      I'm glad you got paid for all that work.

  4. And they still haven't gotten a clue by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Informative

    And the most important thing to remember is that if people had the choice of installing Windows 7 on new machines, the Win10 numbers wouldn't even be THAT high.

    The only reason people are installing Windows 10 is because they have no choice. Not only is it not that particularly compelling, but there are so many downsides, that people are actively resisting using it.

    I know I won't allow it at our company until we've implemented a full deployment plan including blocking all of Microsoft telemetry IP addresses, and set up a WSUS server with a VERY conservative update schedule. Microsoft has fucked up SO many updates, SO regularly, that they cannot be trusted. This probably also means we'll be forced to subscribe to their Windows 10 Enterprise nonsense since they removed so much of the GPO functionality from Pro.

    1. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For me, this is the biggest problem with both Linux and Windows. Whenever you update, upgrade or reinstall anything, you have to constantly check to see that no telemetry, Amazon Wiretapping Services, covert Firefox SSDP servers have been installed. Practically, that involves running wireshark on a separate PC continuously.

    2. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      Which Linux distro(s) will frequently and automatically try to install the sorts of malware you described during their normal update process?

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    3. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      Just let me *gasp* buy a valid Windows 7 key for $20 each (I don't even need a stupid USB nor DVD) and I'll immediately buy 6 copies just so I can stop with the shenanigans of deleting the WPA registry setting just to run indefinitely on my spare machines and VMs.

      1. Reboot - Repair - Command Line
      reg load HKLM\MY_SYSTEM "\Windows\System32\config\system"
      reg delete HKLM\MY_SYSTEM\WPA /f
      reg unload HKLM\MY_SYSTEM

      2. Reboot
      slmgr /upk
      slmgr /cpky
      slmgr /ipk HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487

    4. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ubuntu, for one. And that's not the only thing. They've rolled out updates which report data back to Google, not just Amazon.

    5. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blocking all of Microsoft telemetry IP addresses

      You know that's pointless, don't you. If you don't trust the OS, you can't use it. To get around blocking attempts, Microsoft can simply use botnet tactics: fast changing DNS and forwarders with IP addresses in the cloud. There are several large IP address spaces that you can't block without significantly impacting everyday use, but which enable anyone to get a fresh IP address at any moment. If the OS wants to phone home and you can't block all network connections, incoming and outgoing, then it will be able to phone home, especially if you allow it to install updates.

    6. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      ;And the most important thing to remember is that if people had the choice of installing Windows 7 on new machines, the Win10 numbers wouldn't even be THAT high.

      The only reason people are installing Windows 10 is because they have no choice. Not only is it not that particularly compelling, but there are so many downsides, that people are actively resisting using it.

      Windows 10 has full downgrade rights. The last few PCs we bought came with Windows 7 preinstalled. It had a Windows 10 key downgraded to Windows 7.

      It was an option, I believe Microsoft killed it in 2017, but you can still downgrade - OEMs just cannot ship Windows 7 machines preinstalled.

      Just let me *gasp* buy a valid Windows 7 key for $20 each (I don't even need a stupid USB nor DVD) and I'll immediately buy 6 copies just so I can stop with the shenanigans of deleting the WPA registry setting just to run indefinitely on my spare machines and VMs.

      Don't know where you get off dictating the price, but there are still new old stock ocpies of windows 7 retail out there, and windows 10 has downgrade rights

    7. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by UnixUnix · · Score: 1

      That's a good company approach. As for personal use, to the extent one still needs Windows, Win7 laptops are inexpensive nowadays and quite serviceable if you up the hardware. They typically have 4Gig of RAM, make that 8Gig, add storage and they are good to go for the foreseeable future. I have two of them. Some refurbishers have caught on and are doing it already.

    8. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Woldscum · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      Just let me *gasp* buy a valid Windows 7 key for $20 each (I don't even need a stupid USB nor DVD) and I'll immediately buy 6 copies just so I can stop with the shenanigans of deleting the WPA registry setting just to run indefinitely on my spare machines and VMs.

      1. Reboot - Repair - Command Line
      reg load HKLM\MY_SYSTEM "\Windows\System32\config\system"
      reg delete HKLM\MY_SYSTEM\WPA /f
      reg unload HKLM\MY_SYSTEM

      2. Reboot
      slmgr /upk
      slmgr /cpky
      slmgr /ipk HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487

      Look on Kinguin. Win 7 pro is $25 and win 10 pro is $30. I bought a dozon or so keys there. Just use the 1-800 # to activate.

    9. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by danomac · · Score: 1

      It's probably a good idea to use Windows 10 LTSB if you can...

    10. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No no, there are no downsides. I LIKE having ads in my start menu, and pop-up ads above my system tray. I LIKE having the UI changed for the worse on my existing OS, with no option to decline. I like having thousands of bugs in an operating system, some of which are 20 years old, in the one piece of software that needs to be more reliable than anything else.

    11. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by guacamole · · Score: 1

      Windows 10 has full downgrade rights.

      Absolutely not. Certain OEMs have chosen to include a Windows 7 license on their new Windows 10 desktops. This was done by including some kind of a valid Windows 7 key in the BIOS or by other means. But Windows 10 by itself does not give you any downgrade rights.

    12. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 2

      So if you're that worried about telemetry, do you block Google analytics and Facebook?

      And have you done any research at all into how to disable Windows 10 telemetry, or what that telemetry is doing and whether it might actually be beneficial?

      To me you sound like you're letting your own personal biases get in the way of doing your job properly.

    13. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ones made in China?

    14. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you really want downgrade rights, MSDN gives you full downgrade rights on damned near everything Microsoft makes.

      For a mere $5000. (The "enterprise" tier, which is the only one with everything.)

      Per year.

      capcha: idiotic

    15. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      They've rolled out updates which report data back to Google

      The first one you mentioned was literally the only example I could think of, and obviously it was controversial and much criticised. What have they done that sends stuff to Google?

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    16. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Let me guess... you didn't even read your own links, did you?

      Your link to "disable Windows 10 telemetry" is actually not what it says in the label... what it says in the label is "disable telemetry for Service Management Automation, Service Provider Foundation, and Service Manager Self-Serve Portal", which is not exactly the same thing.

      On your second link, go to "Telemetry levels" and notice that there are 4 levels (from less snitch to more snitch): Security, Basic, Enhanced, Full. Notice that there isn't a "None" level. Also, notice that the lowest level ("Security") is not enabled for most versions of Windows 10.

      It's clear who has a bias here...

    17. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      And the most important thing to remember is that if people had the choice of installing Windows 7 on new machines, the Win10 numbers wouldn't even be THAT high.

      You're talking like a geek. What is actually important to remember is that people don't give a shit what OS is on their machine and will run with whatever works / what comes with their device.

    18. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by PingSpike · · Score: 1

      Also, what about Hitler? Think about Hitler and all the bad stuff he did for a minute. Can you really complain about Microsoft data mining when Hitler?

      I rest my case.

    19. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Miser · · Score: 1

      ... and that's why we won't be upgrading to W10 until absolutely needed. All that extra $ for Win10 Enterprise to be able to control it how we want to, not at Microsofts whims. The powers that be here really do not like being controlled by other companies, so it's going to be interesting. Microsoft will bend to us, not the other way around or we'll search for alternatives. Seriously.

    20. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can stop believing that.

      That may be true for you and the vast majority of your acquaintances in your field, but by far the unwashed masses just want "whatever the latest is, so it won't be constantly nagging me to upgrade". If that's Win10, that's what they'll be happier with and otherwise DO NOT CARE.

    21. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link to https://www.kinguin.net/ !

    22. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      Even if they did, that still won't necessarily help you because Microsoft cripples Windows 7 if you use it on a processor >= Kaby Lake or Ryzen. And there is hardware now where there arn't even drivers available for Windows 7.

      They're basically trying to pull an Apple, but as usual they botch up the whole thing and end up making it look so bad that Apple actually looks reasonable by comparison.

    23. Re:And they still haven't gotten a clue by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

      That argument is stupid and you know it.

      No one is forced to use Google. No one is forced to use Facebook. If I did block access to them, then it wouldn't hurt anyone or hinder anyone from doing their jobs.

      Further, if Google or Facebook botches an update, no one cares, because they are not essential.

      Windows is a locked in requirement of doing business. You don't have a *choice* but to use Windows. That puts it in a completely different league. As a system administrator, I both have control of, and more importantly, and *responsible* for the machines under my control. Microsoft wants to take my control away, but they refuse to take responsibility. Almost every major update they've put out has hosed countless machines across the world. They took out most of Europe due to a bad DHCP update, for example. We had a pilot of Windows 10 laptops, and their Anniversary update trashed *all* of them, requiring us to revert and/or reimage them.

      They want to do all that telemetry crap, consuming our bandwidth, but we derive zero benefit from this. Furthermore, they have already been slapped in Europe for the obscene amount of unnecessary data that they collect, which is completely counter to their protestations.

      Between the two of us, it's clear that YOU are the one who hasn't done enough research on the issue.

  5. Active or activated? by OffTheLip · · Score: 1

    I installed Win10 in a VM to test it and didn't like it. Does that count?

    1. Re:Active or activated? by donaldm · · Score: 1

      I installed Win10 in a VM to test it and didn't like it. Does that count?

      I did the same thing and after confirming (with Wireshark) that Windows 10 loves to phone home even though I told it not to, I shut it down and have not used it since and that was over a year ago. I haven't missed it but then again I really have not used MS Windows seriously for over ten years.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  6. What type of devices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Xbox One, Windows Phone, Surface, various 3rd party tablets and netbooks, laptops, servers and virtual machines, IoT devices, Raspberry Pi...

    That increases the numbers beyond what we would think of as a traditional Windows 10 application environment. It doesn't mean we can easily target those 600M active devices in any meaningful way.

    https://winblogs.azureedge.net...

    Microsoft loves to throw this graphic around but they're delusional if they think it's that simple.

  7. 34 million of them are currently updating by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And 34 million of them are currently locked on a forced update in the middle of the workday. Thank you Jesu^b^b^bMicrosoft!

    1. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by cmaurand · · Score: 0

      Disable the windows update service. Only enable it when you want to do updates. Saves a whole lot of headaches.

    2. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      This lie gets really old. Unless you go in and pick the "update immediately without asking permission checkbox" (which doesn't exist) Windows 10 pops up a warning when updates are ready to install, when the clumsily short "active time" nears its end and there are updates ready to install, and when the time you reschedule updates to after noticing the previous warning approaches.

      The only way to have a "forced update" in the middle of the workday is to hit the "update and shut down" option when shutting down your PC to go to the watercooler or some other irrational habit.

    3. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by darkain · · Score: 1

      This problem has long since been fixed: https://www.google.com/search?...

    4. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      Seriously? Working hours is "the fix"? When it will still force an mid-day update after X days if the user was unlucky enough to not leave their machine on during the grace period?

      From:
      https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-restart

      "Limit restart delays - After an update is installed, Windows 10 attempts automatic restart outside of active hours. If the restart does not succeed after 7 days (by default), the user will see a notification that restart is required."

    5. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by guacamole · · Score: 1

      "Active hours" does not fix shit. Depending on day of week, I can be using my personal desktop any hour of the day. Moreover, MS active hours only allows 8 hours to be designated as active, which implies that the other 16 hours are inactive? Moreover MS has installed updated and rebooted my PC in the middle of running background tasks, like trans-coding or downloads. What a piece of junk. Did microsoft pay you a lot for this post? A free license?

    6. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      34 million people changed the default settings which were to update in the evening and not in the middle of the day to something that disrupts them, and then don't acknowledge the notification that the system gives them that it will happen and they have a chance to avoid it?

      Holy shit, man. Since we're over populated I think I found 34million dead weights we could eliminate. The CO2 savings alone make it worth while.

    7. Re:34 million of them are currently updating by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      I had a streaming PC running a TwitchPlays for over a month.

      No, this is not standard usage for most people.

      Yes, it eventually rebooted without my permission.

  8. World record! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The biggest exercise in arm twisting in History.

  9. MS always say this by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2

    Even with Vista and 8 they claimed each had 'sold better than any previous Windows version'.

    Of course that will be the case given that

    1) PC shipments increase globally with time
    2) Most PC OEMs have a contract which says they must install an OS on each machine

    It's the reason Dell sold machines with FreeDos on them for a while. Their contract with MS stopped them selling machines with no OS.

    3) PC OEMs get a discount on Windows
    4) Most customers prefer Windows to any alternative OS.

    So something like Vista or 8 which was relatively unpopular sold better than something like XP, 7 or (arguably) 10 which was relatively well received. In fact you could argue that each release of Windows since 2000 has been controversial once it started coming on new machines by default. Still each one sold better than the last one.

    Still MS will continue to claim that everything is fine, regardless of whether an OS release is well received - 7 springs to mind after the disastrous Vista, or very badly received - 8 or Vista.

    It's what happens when monopolies take the fact that people have to accept what they're doing as a sign that people like what they're doing.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    1. Re:MS always say this by donaldm · · Score: 1

      4) Most customers prefer Windows to any alternative OS.

      4) Most customers don't know of any alternative OS and stick with the OS (ie. MS Windows) that is pre-installed on their PC.

      There fixed it for you.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    2. Re: MS always say this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most Users want the bling of ms office. They would go on barricades if they had to use LaTeX.

      Convenience even trumps the keylogger concerns of win10.

    3. Re:MS always say this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What alternatives are there, realistically? You can't get macOS on anything other than an Apple computer (unless you want to take a crack at a Hackintosh and hope that it works with your hardware) and you still need a VM in Linux to reliably run Windows-exclusive software, unless your main answer is that the user should just do without.

      At the same time, Chromebooks/Chromeboxes are starting to gain traction (and they now can run MS Office natively), so there does exist some semi-legitimate competition in the consumer market.

  10. windows 10 ... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is not a bad OS... but stop nudging me, Microsoft.

    I want a local account with locally-saved password, not one that's tied to a Microsoft account. Yes, it can be done, but the amount of nudging to get me to create a cloud account is infuriating. I don't want my settings in the cloud, and to give you power to change them. My computer is mine -- I don't want to be on a worldwide AD domain. Nor do I want WiFi passwords "cared and shared" with the world.

    I want UX updates when I request them, not when you think I should have them.

    I want one switch to turn off all telemetry. It's not that difficult to set a flag that all parts of your OS would respect.

    I don't want to be nudged into using cloud storage when I can be saving and backing up locally. Oh, and I want ad-free, unpaid Solitaire back already :)

    Windows 10 is a good, relatively-stable OS that's also a monetization platform -- it makes me feel like my device doesn't belong to me.

    1. Re:windows 10 ... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      There are third party hacks out there to disable telemetry.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    2. Re:windows 10 ... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Informative

      Of course there are, but having to resort to them to do something that should exist out of the box is ridiculous.

    3. Re:windows 10 ... by vux984 · · Score: 1

      "I want a local account with locally-saved password, not one that's tied to a Microsoft account. Yes, it can be done,"

      I just did a fresh install of the fall update on a system. It's a lot less obnoxious than it used to be. Yeah, it still steers you towards a microsoft account, but the path to not do do that is now pretty clearly marked, where before at its worst, you practically had to "fail" to connect to the microsoft cloud before it would grudgingly offer to let you use a local account.

      "Nor do I want WiFi passwords "cared and shared" with the world."

      I thought that had been killed.

      I agree with the rest of your post.

    4. Re:windows 10 ... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      That's the reason I didn't buy a Windows 8 laptop to be honest. I knew I could install Classic Shell but it irked me that I had to do that. So I kept my Windows 7 laptop.

      Actually I think Windows has a Good/Bad release strategy. I.e. it's tolerable if you skip every other release, at least post Windows 2000 which I also liked.

      Windows XP - Good
      Vista - Bad
      7 - Good
      8 - Bad
      10 - Good

      Admittedly I don't have any Windows 10 machines either. I do run an unactivated copy in Parallels VM on my Macbook though. And it's ... OK. It is to 8 what 7 was to Vista. They've toned down the most irritating stuff and it's reasonably fast.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    5. Re:windows 10 ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I want a local account with locally-saved password, not one that's tied to a Microsoft account. Yes, it can be done,"

      Of course it can be done, and quite easily.
      1. disconnect the network cable
      2. install Windows
      3. ???
      4. Profit!

      If there's no network available, the installer doesn't try to railroad you into setting up with a network account. At least, that's been my experience when I relented and installed (on temporary drives, so I could put the real boot drive back when confirmed that Win10 still sucks).

    6. Re:windows 10 ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They skipped a version:

      XP - Good
      Vista - Bad
      7 - Good
      8 - Bad
      9 - ??????
      10 - Bad

      So now we must wait for Windows to go to 11!

    7. Re:windows 10 ... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Windows 10 isn't all that bad. I'd say it's about as well received as XP or 7.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    8. Re:windows 10 ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am pretty convinced that someone at Microsoft QA looked at an early beta of what would have been Windows 9, and said "WTF is this crap? Don't you guys know that odd-numbered releases are supposed to be good? Throw this sh*t out and start over from Windows 7. Or you could call it Windows 10, then it doesn't have to pass QA".

    9. Re:windows 10 ... by SurenEnfiajyan · · Score: 0

      Windows XP - Good
      Vista - Bad
      7 - Good
      8 - Bad
      10 - Good

      Actually:

      Vista - Bad
      7 - Good
      8 - Bad
      10 - Mediocre

    10. Re:windows 10 ... by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      Anyone who calls an OS that reboots uncontrollably for forced updates "stable" is flat-out certifiable.

  11. MS does better than Linux even when MS falls short by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As a long time Linux user I find it pathetic how even when Microsoft falls short of their goal, they still manage to do so much better than the entire GNU/Linux community has managed to do.

    Windows Vista, Windows 8, and even Windows 10 gave the GNU/Linux community great opportunities to get some significant market share. But instead of doing that, the GNU/Linux community screwed itself over with nonsense like GNOME 3, PulseAudio, NetworkManager, systemd, and Wayland.

    The only success we've seen with the Linux kernel is when the users have absolutely no idea at all that it's there, like in embedded devices or in Android. That has nothing to do with Linux itself, though. Those embedded devices could have just as easily, and perhaps even more successfully, used NetBSD's kernel instead. Android is successful because of its apps. Even for server use we see Linux taking a beating, with there being significant movement to FreeBSD (for stability), to OpenBSD (for security), and even to Windows Server (to benefit from .NET).

    Here we have Windows 10 with almost half a billion installations, which is probably around 800 to 900 times more installations than GNU/Linux (including all distros) has on desktops or laptops. Microsoft and Windows 10 haven't failed. They've been wildly successful. If anything should be considered a failure, its the lack of GNU/Linux to capture any meaningful desktop or laptop market share.

  12. totally brainwashed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is not a bad OS..

    It spies on you and reports your activities to Microsoft and you can't turn it off

    if you don't think that's bad then you are totally brainwashed

    1. Re:totally brainwashed by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      I addressed all of those complaints in my post as ways to improve it. As it stands, the only way I'd run it on my own machine is in a nice, padded cell, courtesy of VirtualBox.

  13. Stop the telemetry, you'd exceed your goals... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: The fact that it goes on & nobody KNOWS what's being sent back to MS (afaik, unless others know differently).

    * You'd EXCEED your goal if you'd "fly right/straight" on that much Microsoft!

    APK

    P.S.=> No questions asked - it's what's held ME back w/ other things (like some programs NOT RUNNING on 10 & all it is, is a Win32/Win64 API based programming set - NO REAL GOOD REASON for things to NOT RUN THERE other than something is up (& it's up to no good imo))... apk

  14. are they sure by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    are they really sure and are just not counting the reinstalls insider fast ring builds do every week? i am the only pro w10 person (within reason, and not out of the box) person i know so 600mil seems high.

  15. I don't give a monkey's toss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft under Nadella are not much different in their execution. The centre of their entire theory is to embrace, extend, and extinguish. Look at how quickly they raced to get *nix people to run their bits on Azure, and now they offer Kubernetes. The Linux subsystem for Windows. Office on Chromebooks, Android, and iOS. They are a house full of entitled nutters who think, "Right, we cannot allow people to not use our software, so we'll make it ubiquitous."

    No, thank you. I've had the realisation over the years that whatever they do is not out of benevolence. Releasing open source code? So what. Just 10 years ago, they declared Linux and open source a "cancer" that needed to be eradicated.

    I'm forced to use Windows 10 at work and it's a chore. It's slow, buggy, and unfriendly compared to macOS, Linux, or FreeBSD desktop offerings. Full stop. I've been in IT for 20 years and I always wince when I'm forced to use Windows client, Windows server, of Office. I prefer running Gnome or KDE on FreeBSD or Linux. I get more work done.

  16. No other choice by sanf780 · · Score: 1
    For some reason, laptops require up to date drivers. Installing Windows 7 on a brand new laptop is similar as installing an old Ubuntu distribution. It might or might not compute, and even so, you might be missing peripherals.

    The company I am working for took the plunge and is now delivering laptops with Windows 10.

  17. One...Billion...Devices by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Next they will want devices with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!

    1. Re:One...Billion...Devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be referring to Linux.

      Over One Billion installations if you include Android, Chromebook, etc.

      We mount the lasers to the sharks' heads.

  18. Windows 10 is good despite Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think Windows 10 is very good but Microsoft has tried hard to not make it so. Pushing out broken updates, making users accept whatever in terms of these updates and apps some of which can’t even be uninstalled even if you will never use them. So yes Windows 10 is great despite Microsoft attempts at killing it.

  19. OVERLY POSITIVE about Windows 10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The above comment says these things about Windows 10, which was forced on many unsuspecting users:
    "It's still a security nightmare."
    "It now drives advertising at me via the start menu."
    "It's unstable..."

    Don't you hate it when someone says overly positive things about Windows 10? Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made.

    Quote: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."

    To Microsoft employees giving positive comments: Get another job! Get a job with a company you can respect!

  20. Windows 10 is a plague. MS has shit on their brand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Windows 10 is a plague. MS has shit on their brand.

  21. all that telemetry data goes somewhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's nice to see they are using some all that telemetry. i'm glad you tested it in a VM. i hope you firewalled it too.

  22. Where are they? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has anyone seen one? I heard my wife's boss had one of those Surface things, but he never has it when I run into him so I haven't seen it yet. And that's the closest I've gotten to what I assume was Windows 10. What type of devices are they talking about? Are they like Linux, in that they're in headless thermostats and stuff like that, so that I could look at one without knowing?

  23. Windows 10 is a plague. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Feces are at least good for fertilizer. Microsoft should have stronger words for its self-destruction. Slow painful suicide?

  24. not that many by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suspect there are only 100 million, but people had had to load 6x times due to the system locking them out of their PC.s

  25. 600 million pour souls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Raped in the ass every day by Microsoft malware operating system. Not exactly something I would elect to celebrate... but hey... to each his own.

  26. Just bought a brand new Win10 laptop by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    It is horribly loaded with crap ware. Disk bus was at 100% thrashing the hard disk

    It is a 12 GB machine, the pagefile was 2GB. I have a 1TB hard disk. In unix/linux side my swap disk has always been twice the RAM. OK raise it, still it was too slow, disk activity 100%.

    OK find and disable one drive. Mild help, still over 90%

    Find and disable superfetch. Ding ding ding! Pay dirt. Disk started idling.

    These are not some crap ware loaded by the Vendor. IT is microsoft pushing useless things that leads to such bad user experience.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Just bought a brand new Win10 laptop by DogDude · · Score: 1

      You're wrong. You should read some more. Superfetch is pretty cool. You just have to let it index, initially.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    2. Re:Just bought a brand new Win10 laptop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In unix/linux side my swap disk has always been twice the RAM.

      You have been doing it wrong. Swap should be the amount of memory you need, minus the RAM you have. Unless you use suspend to disc, in which case it should be the amount of memory you need.

      I used to set swap equal to RAM size, then added another swap partition when I got a second hard drive (for performance reasons - Linux will load balance swap when you have more than one swap partition), and ended up with 2 x RAM that way. As a result, every time Firefox went into it's memory eating loop, the machine would be trashing for 10 minutes before Firefox at finally used up enough swap space to get killed.

      Now I have so much RAM that I can't fill it up even with disk cache, and swap is a distant memory. Firefox is still the 32-bit version, and if it starts eating memory will die on its own once it reaches 4GB.

  27. Doesn't make sense by dreamygeek · · Score: 1

    I really don't get their policy. They let users upgrade to Windows 10 for free and then they just shut the free upgrade down. Now they say people with disabilities can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. But any other user can simple go to that link and avail this opportunity too. Why can't they just let everyone upgrade for free.

  28. 600 million device botnet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not bad, not bad at all.

  29. Home users use mobile by Munich+Munchkin · · Score: 1

    The office worker may not have the choice but to use Windows 10 but most home users I know use mobile devices and probably couldn't tell you what O/S is running on it. It just works for what they want it to do. I have both a work Windows 10 laptop and a personal Linux Mint laptop. For leisure purposes I don't use either half as much as my tablet or mobile phone.

    1. Re:Home users use mobile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It just works for what they want it to do.

      That's easy, they are using either Windows 7 or OSX. Maybe XP.

      The ones that do nothing but complain every time they turn the computer on "now it's updated AGAIN, and reset all the settings AGAIN, and I need you to fix it AGAIN" - they are using Windows 10.

  30. just think... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just think how many that could have been if they weren't lumbered by the Microsoft anti-brand.

  31. But is it safe? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And does it work? It's been stuck updating to 79% for 8 hours now, I have been here before, try to resolve a Win 10 update crash with a reboot and the entire OS is bung and needs to be reinstalled. But then don't resolve the crash and you might as well just use the screen for a night light as the update issues never, never end.

  32. Re:MS does better than Linux even when MS falls sh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only success we've seen with the Linux kernel is when the users have absolutely no idea at all that it's there, like in embedded devices or in Android.

    And what is worse about all this is that those linux implementations are all horrible. Android is a mess and embedded devices with linux are a security nightmare. All the while, we have 'desktop linux' which has none of those issues and it's getting nowhere.

  33. That's a whole bunch of bandwidth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With Windows 10 "Typed text on keyboard sent every 30 minutes Anything you say into a microphone is transmitted Transcripts of things you say while using Cortana Index of all media files on your computer When your webcam is first enabled, 35mb of data Telemetry data."

      Still do not understand how the OS is HIPAA compliant. Still looking to see a vendors agreement penned with Satya Nadella signature.

  34. Win10 best desktop OS says MS shill by najajomo · · Score: 1

    "It can't be understated how good of a job MS has done with Win10"

    What good job, a good job in maintain a monopoly on the desktop PC, seeing as no one has a choice in 'upgrading' to Win10 ..

    "I know this probably makes me sound like a MS shill"

    Yes ..

    "but having spent multiple years in the Linux desktop scene"

    Appeal to authority .. here it comes ...

    "the current windows OS is by far the best OS I've ever used".

  35. Never.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They will pry my Win7 machine from my cold dead hands. (or until security updates stop... whichever comes first).

  36. BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would anyone want to use that pile of horseshit?

  37. I hated win7, same for 10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have 8.1 now. On a laptop. Out of the box it had Win8, and it was absolutely terrible. I hated it.

    Use classic shell, boot to desktop. I can organize my start menu to the way I like it. Never seemed to be able to do that in 7 or 10. Looks sort of like Win2000. Happy with that.

    There's still a lot of stupid crap, but not in areas I have to use very often.

  38. A more telling number... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would be how many devices are still running Windows versions before 10.

    In other words, how many people and organizations did everything they could to fight the forced upgrade to spyware.

    That would be a more revealing, more meaningful statistic .

  39. Microsoft is untrustworthy scum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Forcibly stealing your data (i.e. telemetry), Taking away user-choice, becoming user-hostile in many areas, trying to force the scummy Microsoft store. Did I mention the forced spying / data-theft that you CANT TURN OFF? It spans from Windows 10 through Office to even Freaking SQL server!

    Untrustworthy scum.

    While not quite stable software is one thing, forced data-theft / spying doesn't even allow our whole org. of over 10k users to try Win 10 (Not updating Win 7 with the Telemetry updates also).

    Technology is making those in control evil.