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'Windows Isn't a Service, It's an Operating System' (howtogeek.com)
Iwastheone shares an article by former PC World columnist Chris Hoffman.
"No PC users asked Microsoft for Windows as a service," Hoffman complains. "It was all Microsoft's idea." "Software as a service" is trendy. But these types of services are generally hosted on a remote platform, like Amazon Web Services or even Microsoft Azure. Web applications like Gmail and Facebook are services. That all makes sense -- the company maintains the software, and you access it remotely. An operating system that runs on millions of different hardware configurations is not a service. It can't be updated as easily, and you'll run into issues with hardware, drivers, and software when you change things. The upgrade process isn't instant and transparent -- it's a big download and can take a while to install... [M]illions of applications (or computers!) could break if Microsoft makes a mistake with Windows.
What has Windows as a service even gotten us? How much has Windows 10 improved since its release? Sure, Microsoft keeps adding new features like the Timeline and Paint 3D, but how many Windows users care about those? Many of these new features, like Paint 3D and updates to Microsoft Edge, could be delivered without major operating system upgrades. Just take a look at the many features in Windows 10's October 2018 Update and ask whether they were worth all the deleted files and drama. Texting from your PC is great, but Microsoft could release an app that does that -- in fact, this was once supposed to be a Skype feature. Clipboard history is cool, and a dark theme for File Explorer is cute. But couldn't we have waited another six months for Microsoft to properly polish and test this stuff?
"Windows as a Service" does get us a few things. It gets us applications like Candy Crush installed on our PCs. It gets us an ever-increasing number of built-in advertisements. And it gets us activation problems when Windows phones home once a day and discovers that Microsoft has a server problem.
"Please Microsoft, slow down," the article concludes. "How about releasing a new version of Windows once per year instead? That's what Apple does, and Apple doesn't need 'macOS as a Service' to do it. Just create a new version of Windows every year, give it a new name, and spend a lot of time polishing it and fixing bugs.
"Wait until it's stable to release it, even if you have to delay it."
"No PC users asked Microsoft for Windows as a service," Hoffman complains. "It was all Microsoft's idea." "Software as a service" is trendy. But these types of services are generally hosted on a remote platform, like Amazon Web Services or even Microsoft Azure. Web applications like Gmail and Facebook are services. That all makes sense -- the company maintains the software, and you access it remotely. An operating system that runs on millions of different hardware configurations is not a service. It can't be updated as easily, and you'll run into issues with hardware, drivers, and software when you change things. The upgrade process isn't instant and transparent -- it's a big download and can take a while to install... [M]illions of applications (or computers!) could break if Microsoft makes a mistake with Windows.
What has Windows as a service even gotten us? How much has Windows 10 improved since its release? Sure, Microsoft keeps adding new features like the Timeline and Paint 3D, but how many Windows users care about those? Many of these new features, like Paint 3D and updates to Microsoft Edge, could be delivered without major operating system upgrades. Just take a look at the many features in Windows 10's October 2018 Update and ask whether they were worth all the deleted files and drama. Texting from your PC is great, but Microsoft could release an app that does that -- in fact, this was once supposed to be a Skype feature. Clipboard history is cool, and a dark theme for File Explorer is cute. But couldn't we have waited another six months for Microsoft to properly polish and test this stuff?
"Windows as a Service" does get us a few things. It gets us applications like Candy Crush installed on our PCs. It gets us an ever-increasing number of built-in advertisements. And it gets us activation problems when Windows phones home once a day and discovers that Microsoft has a server problem.
"Please Microsoft, slow down," the article concludes. "How about releasing a new version of Windows once per year instead? That's what Apple does, and Apple doesn't need 'macOS as a Service' to do it. Just create a new version of Windows every year, give it a new name, and spend a lot of time polishing it and fixing bugs.
"Wait until it's stable to release it, even if you have to delay it."
In this day and age we can thank Linux in terms of hosting web apps and making Android tablets which devalued operating systems to nothing.
Microsoft no longer sells if really for any profit and it is just a tool for them to shill out Office 365 licenses for profits but that can be done on Mac OSX and web thin clients as well.
Sure MS makes some sales I guess in corporate America but the roost is done and slaughtered. Windows XP is a classic example which shocked me in 2014 as people still used it and fought change??!! No one is going to pay lots of money for an upgrade nor stand in line at CompUSA at midnight for the latest version of Windows anymore.
It is just something that comes with your bestbuy purchase now so it will function. It kind of is a portal to sell services since you can get copies of cheap or next to nothing.
http://saveie6.com/
It's a time capsule of cobbled together legacy code "managed" by an unscrupulous mega-whore corporation. Calling it an Operating System implies you have any control over its functional viability ongoing. You do not. It's a service.
A misguided backwards-fawning under-attempt at a service.
they're after eyeballs and dollars. and not necessarily in that order.
frequent updates, forced upon users, is a platform for them to shove shit up your ass and down your throat at the same time. ads. paid placement. paid installs. more ads. user data. user tracking. more ads. more placements.
fuck windows 10. most people with windows computers don't need windows to do what they do on them. switch to linux. switch to macs or fuck, even chromebooks (even with google's own addiction to paid placements and ads). but just fucking go cold turkey on microsoft.
your windows 7 gonna kick the bucket in 14 months? here's your next operating system: https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
If you think about it OSX has very much moved to Software as Service - it costs nothing anymore, it's just that Apple offers as a service, that it will keep your device current for a while. Or maybe it is the updating that is the service, since OSX does not have activation codes or anything and you can stay on one version forever if you prefer.
To the extent that is not working out for Windows, they need to figure out why Apple seems to do SAS in a way that most people like, whereas Windows does not (I always hated Windows Update).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Get a Mac.
So a long article based on 1 problem that they caught early on and didn't affect a significant number of users. Maybe I am lucky but I have benefited more from the additional features such as WSL than problems.
I was affected by the activation problem that went away without me doing anything, and didn't get affected by the file deletion problem because I guess they stopped the rollout as soon as the problem surfaced.
I failed to understand how once a year rollout solves the problem he talked about. If the bug is there, you still loose your files.
In fact I think Windows has major rollouts once or twice a year anyway. And iOS updates can brick the iPhones and that's okay?
I don't see the point of whiny articles like this. If you agree with this guy and are still using Windows, then you've chosen your fate. Microsoft is going to do what's best for Microsoft, they don't give a single fuck about you. The only reason any alternatives still exist is that some people vote with their wallets and buy something else or contribute to free projects. If you value convenience above your independence from MS' control, fine. But stop complaining about the consequences of that choice, because it *is* a choice.
And for extra credit, stop using Github as well. Just kidding, I know they won't do that either.
It is amazing to still hear after all these years that people think that Microsoft takes telling. They don't. Microsoft will decide what you are going to accept.
I'll probably get marked as troll for this, perhaps only because the truth triggers some folks.
There is a conversation going on CNet right now that brings out all of the reasons why the faithful will accept whatever Microsoft tells them they will accept.
The locked in factor. Some people look at the lock-in to Microsoft almost like it is some advantage.
The Macs are too expensive. Will they be too expensive when they pay a monthly fee for Windows?
Linux is something something
The fact is that Many Windows users will simply accept whatever Microsoft decides that they will accept. Microsoft knows this, and has no reason to change tactics.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Microsoft has always been insufficiently and badly managed. But now Microsoft is carrying foolish, self-destructive and other-destructive management much farther than before.
One of the many, many articles:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (Aug. 4, 2015)
A previous comment of mine:
Microsoft is damaging customers and itself. (Oct. 22, 2018)
So.......no new releases ever?
https://slashdot.org/comments....
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In this day and age we can thank Linux in terms of hosting web apps and making Android tablets which devalued operating systems to nothing.
These days Windows is not the only one come loaded with useless baggage, Linux too, come loaded with insane stuffs like systemd .
No one asked Windows users if they like their Windows to be loaded with garbage.
Similarly, no one asked us, the Linux users, if we want that insane garbage systemd , before they forced us to use it !!
... is really about.
It's about the final move to take control of the customers PC out of the users hand and move all apps into authenticated spaces controlled my corporations. Big companies like Apple and Google pioneered app walled gardens behind their smart phones over the last 10 years, and the the videogame gaming industry, being tech companies, have always wanted to take control of software out of the end users hands for profit.
The internet allowed all this to happen because the average citizen is a tech illiterate moron. The last 20 years for anyone who was involved in tech in the 90's has been surreal, everything we were worried about in the 90's like trusted computing is slowly coming fruition due to ignorant people getting smart phones and the internet removing any and all ability to hold software companies accountable.
What are you going to do when Microsoft, Valve, or Activivison develop some new locked down piece of software? You are hundreds of miles away from these companies, you have ZERO market power in this relationship. In ye old days, they were forced to give you the complete software, otherwise they would be comitting fraud. "software as a service" is really just another name for fraud where companies undermine your ability to own, control, and operate your PC and software free from company influence.
All companies want to turn every piece of tech into a dumb terminal and they are largely getting their way because 90% of the population is tech clueless, those of us who know how technology works, were pretty horrified when say RPG's like ultima were rebadged and labelled mmo's in the 90's and a gullible and lay public lapped it up. Things like Ultima online, EQ, world of warcraft were paving the way towards an era where companies can steal whatever isn't nailed down outright because the average person is a moron.
You have no freedom and rights under big business because many aspects of how we are socially organized would need to be rethought in an internet enabled society, there's no accountability, it's just a one way fuck you free for all and companies are making mad bank.
Microsoft is trying to make office the same way. It is damn near impossible to attempt to use retail versions of this. At our small business we buy retail for our 5 year shelf life computers and with sign ins, etc. its a nightmare. You can only have like 20 different installs on a Microsoft account, the keycodes don't match what you enter/what is displayed in Office account. Ugh. I am begging for the day when we can use Google docs instead of requiring office.
Is microsoft a bacteria or a virus? /s
When their "services" become so network centric that you can't use your computing device for anything when your network connection is unavailable, then you can ask the users the original question.
There is nothing more embarrassing than loading up your laptop for a important conference presentation than to say "Sorry, My computer decided to update, Everyone, please wait while Microsoft eat's our time."
Idiots use Windows, that's what it's become.
It will never die, nor be replaced. Microsoft will continue its OS dominance until the end of time. In the meantime your data will be collected not just on Windows, but your Government / corporate required exchange clients, your cloud apps, and Linux itself thru Microsoft partner distributions like Ubuntu.
Welcome to the new age...
As somebody who works in IT, go shoot the person who said we want a new version of Windows every year. We do not.
That's basically the last thing keeping me on Windows.
why would they start now?
Wait... did MS really force Candy Crush on people's PCs? I mean, I'm not surprised or anything, what with shoving down ads down your start menu etc. I'm more appalled that they're getting away with this shit at all. God, I'm never letting go of that Win7 disc.
Bryan Lunduke, who worked for Microsoft, and talks a lot about Linux subjects, made a good point in one of his Linux lectures that really opened my mind.
The "Who asked for this?" question. systemd having a full network stack and various other huge features instead of just being a better init script. With Wayland, and Mir, was anyone really going "OMG, X Windows sucks so bad. I really hate being able to stream a graphics shell over ssh on a system that was fast enough to use on a 486." I can't really do his arguments justice with my old man's memory, but the point is sound.
With Windows 8 Metro, or the Ribbon interface, or any of the other Microsoft failures... was anyone explicitly ASKING for this? Or, was it just some middle or upper manager type trying to justify his existence by pushing something his intuition told him would be "the future" with no science and user studies to back it up? Did the decision get made BECAUSE users complained, or, was the decision made, and any evidence contrary (such as research or users) simply thrown under the rug?
Are people DEMANDING lootboxes? Are people demanding DRM?
Are people demanding phones with shit battery life that are thinner and thinner and easier to bend? Or "notches" in their screens instead of full screens?
Where do these anti-features come from? I don't know. But I've at least started to ask the question "Who asked for this?" to help me identify those features and the examples are boundless.
+Funny
Best post in the thread.
I'm going to copy and paste the most salient points of the stock BS answer that is given to almost EVERYONE that has an issue with Windows 10 these days and says something about it on the Microsoft Answers forum:
... If it does not help, then perform clean boot and check. Refer this article: How to perform a clean boot in Windows ... After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps from section “How to reset the computer to start as usual after clean boot troubleshooting” to reset the computer to start as usual.
/dev/null because Microsoft seems to ignore all user feedback that doesn't align with what they wanted to do anyway.
This issue may occur either due to software conflicts or if unused files are present in Windows. I would suggest you to run system maintenance troubleshooter and check if it helps.
And then in the following comments there are floods of users saying THIS DID NOT HELP, PLEASE GIVE US SOME F***ING REAL HELP. It's like this regardless of the actual problem. It's always someone with an Indian name posting the "solution" and it's always the same basic boilerplate garbage suggestions that don't solve the problem. There is never any follow-up. There is an intervention by an actual Microsoft product team employee that can legitimately help on an extremely rare basis. On a related note, I'm fairly convinced that Feedback Hub is a fancy way of referring to
I swear, dealing with the Windows 8+ era Microsoft is like dealing with a petulant three-year-old on a constant basis, one that will deactivate or crash your shit at random and pull a South Park BP executive style "we're sorry!" when it becomes big tech news.
Execs can't figure out why people pirate software.
It's because it becomes a better product. Even if they paid for it.
Windows has been in beta since 1.0. I know, I've attempted them all. I didn't figure it out until 3.1 though...
you're the one whose been spamming slashdot for years, you grow up.
Line of the century. Shut down Slashdot as nothing better will ever be posted.
The internet allowed all this to happen because the average citizen is a tech illiterate moron.
No-one "allowed" anything. What happened was Apple built more locked down systems by default, and people responded by buying systems for personal use they did not have to administer or rely on an entire industry of charlatans to fix things like viruses (read: Best Buy PC repair).
The thing is, it really *is* a good idea for "tech illiterate morons" to have locked down systems. They really need that because they simply cannot manage handling computer security as you and I know it today.
It's not like there are no ways around this. On OSX you can still run apps from untrusted developers - if you tell the machine to allow that. And that seems like a pretty good compromise to me, ship a locked down system by default and let people open it up more if they can handle the extra responsibility.
Do not forget the consequences of security failure are worse now than they have ever been. Even ten years ago, if a phone or computer got hacked to most people it wouldn't be a huge deal losing a whole system. Now so many people have entire lives stored on computers and phones, keeping at least the ability to restore a system and/or prevent access is a lot more important than it has been.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Whatever Microsoft wants it to be.
They have been easing over to a subscription model for some time.
Giving away Win10 was part of their strategy.
I see no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to keep using old software as long as I want to.
You can do that with Apple - I have very old Apple laptops that still work perfectly well.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Cigarette is to "nicotine delivery device" as Windows OS is to cash delivery machine!
Free support forums for most commercial software gets little to no attention from support.
Paid support tends to be really good.
for the Who asked for it question, looking over the feedback hub, the request to "cleanup the old folders after redirection" was highly upvoted by insiders. but the "I left files in the old location and they are gone", crowd got little to no attention.
I think most of the new features are being driven by insiders rather then business requests. The pace of releases is more related to trying to stay relevant in a time when Apple and Android ship once a year. and everything cloud is constantly changing.
gweihir KNOWS you IMPERSONATE me https://it.slashdot.org/commen... c6gunner proves it https://linux.slashdot.org/com... forgetting to SUBMIT BY AC & f'd up using his registered 'lusrname' instead (just because he tried to mock me after I FAIRLY challenged him to show he's done better work - he had ZERO).
YOU EVEN HELPED ME https://science.slashdot.org/c... (& you quit trying to make hosts look 'ineffectual' IN YOUR IMPERSONATIONS of me regarding Intel speculative execution attacks & HOSTS HELP PREVENT THEM lol!)
APK
P.S.=> LMAO - I totally KNOW that 3rd/last link above?
It's SO obvious It's KILLING YOU inside YOU ACTUALLY HELPED ME getting me to see if hosts stop more than just portsmash (they also stop Meltdown & Spectre too) - you got ME to look & "lo & behold" - hosts WORK by stopping you being INFESTED by what uses them against you (& YOU STOPPED TRYING THAT in your impersonations of me, lol).... apk
This is their real business model. Microsoft dreams of being Google.
i think the plan is to convert to a service, then in a few years, start charging a monthly service fee, if they do it right away,there could be lots of legal problems, but if they "phase" it in less problems
Cleaning up old folders immediately after redirection is fine; they should have been moved as part of the redirection process, so there should be an empty folder that gets deleted upon completion of redirection. Cleaning up old folders DURING A FEATURE UPDATE that WOULD HAVE been cleaned up after a redirection is a big fat no-no that never should have been written into the code in the first place. Anyone who understands what user shell folder redirection is and what its purpose is can plainly see how bad of an idea it is: if the folder exists after redirection then it's a user-created data folder, not part of a redirection, and should be considered untouchable by all OS self-maintenance such as updates. There are clearly some seriously dysfunctional programmers and sysadmins making their way into Microsoft. The simple fact that this sort of stupid mistake made it out the door is proof that Microsoft has a staff competence issue. Perhaps they can't help in MS Answers because they are losing the ability to maintain the system properly in the first place.
"As A Service" means that you're not buying something you can keep, but agreeing to pay a monthly fee to use the service. When Micro$oft tries to do that, don't do that upgrade. And start making plans to escape.
In fact, when Blizzard games become available on Linux, I'm going!
That guy wins in life
Your post has me in tears. Finally, FINALLY somebody speaks up about the complete MADNESS that is not just Microsoft but reality everywhere these days. I was beginning to think that I had gone insane for real, since nobody would ever recognize this when I tried to explain it to them.
There is a difference in liability between, say, Ford, and someone who built a kit car in their garage.
There is none at all when Ford and the kit car sell in the same volume, as would be true of compassion Microsoft with Open Source software.
In fact if you considered it, open source would be the Ford really, being used by many more people...
The only question would be where would the liability fall, but probably if you took every contributor from larger open source repos you could extract quite a lot of money from personal finances.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I only post on hosts IF they stop threats OR speed you up. I don't off topic. HOWEVER: I won't "lay down" to a bunch of losers that don't do a DAMN THING OF VALUE (I do) - I'll defend myself w/ facts they can't beat.
I've got my own "psycho fanclub" IMPERSONATING me & spamming + lying about MY work STALKING me constantly by UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous posts like whackos!
GOOFS like c6gunner CAUGHT IMPERSONATING ME https://linux.slashdot.org/com...
(His name's on that post link as SUBMITTER signing "APK" as I do while he ALTERED users words of praise of my work (since he tried INSULTING me & I issued a FAIR CHALLENGE to him that HE SHOW HE CAN DO BETTER - he hasn't to date).
gweihir PROVED you IMPERSONATE me https://it.slashdot.org/commen... too!
ZIP is a FOOL & A BLOWHARD LIAR vs. https://linux.slashdot.org/com...
APK
P.S.=> I'm not here to lose (it's for LOSERS like ZIP &/or c6gunner - not I): I'm here to WIN & all do that use hosts files ... apk
Silicon has one, maybe two more major node jumps in it and then that's that, you can't shrink any more, all that's left is to polish the architecture and try to sell the same thing for cheaper.
Warning: you might be surrounded by idiots.
One thing everyone always misses with Microsoft's twice-a-year updates (same frequency as Ubuntu Linux mind you) is that they recompile every single binary in the OS now, rather than just replacing the few that have been touched in each update here n there. What does this mean? There have been new advances in compiler optimizations, plus new advances in memory allocators to help protect against certain types of exploits. There are also the mitigations for things like Specter and Meltdown, which are also baked into the compiler chain. "Features" are not always new toys for people to play with, but also fixes to outstanding issues.
Noted, this is by no means perfect. I'm still pissed the fuck off that Microsoft decided to remove a critical video codec that was used in countless webcams.
But really, what is "software as a service" even mean? It is just another buzz phrase for C-suites, that's it. Again, Windows update schedule mirrors that of Ubuntu and countless other open source distributions. Those F/OSS distros have had their plentiful fair share of fuckups too, but their user base is almost entirely technical users that can work around issues, and is a significantly smaller user base so mass media wont report on it. As someone who services Windows, Debian, and FreeBSD machines, I could rant all day long about amazing new features in each release, side by side with all the amazing new boneheaded fuck ups each has done on those same releases.
Quote: "Microsoft keeps adding new *features* like the Timeline and Paint 3D"
Sorry, Timeline, Paint 3D & etc. are *NOT* features. They are programs (and IMHO, crapware).
Calm your tits Kowalski.
It's their software, so it's whatever they want to to be. They don't need to ask for permission. Getting user feedback is ok.
Without windows how does any Windows program get sold? An OS is the razor, sell it to enable selling the razor blades. It's the inkjet printer sold to make you buy the ink. Windows OS should be pretty much free. Sales of Office require Windows. AD requires windows. Outlook runs on windows. If you can't make your margins selling those then how the fuck do you expect to make your margins on the OS required to run them?
Enough said.
So since by holding those rights they are by law the only ones ALLOWED to support the software, YES THEY FUCKING SHOULD SUPPORT IT FOREVER. If they don't want to, then release the code and the copyright on it so that others can support it instead.
If it isn't worth fuck all is the excuse for not supporting an old OS, then the copyright is ALSO worth fuck all. Yet they will insist on the millions of dollars compensation for INFRINGEMENT, not theft, of that copyright. If it's worth that much, yes they damn well DO owe support.
If product X costs A and B each year and product Y costs C, if C is higher than A but less than A+B, to claim C is more expensive than A is irrational. For greater differences in price from A to C, it depends on the lifetime of the product. THAT would be rational. Looking just at A and C is irrational.
Until an update made it unbootable again a few weeks ago, my Linux partition updated almost every day. Reboots were required in these updates once every couple of weeks or so. Several times a year, I'd have to spend significant time fixing a problem caused by an update. I imagine updates cost me around a week a year on average. This time, I decided to go back to my Windows partition. It just works better with my hardware - a laptop with the NVidia Optimus graphics configuration that Linux has never supported well.
I could have configured my Linux installation to be more stable by only allowing security updates, but that's not what I like as a user. I opt in to every beta I can. I've always liked being on the bleeding edge.
Windows needs to offer every user a choice in the frequency of their updates. Many are like me and want them sooner than later. I am in the preview program. Others want more stability. One size doesn't fit all.
Windows is a series of operating systems developed by Microsoft. Each version of Windows includes a graphical user interface, with a desktop that allows users to view files and folders in windows. If anyone face printer error issue go on this https://www.epsonsupport247.co...
The indians are beginning to stand up their own support sites with detailed fixes for Windows. That's right, the companies they've outsourced to and have ignored have decided to begin publishing fixes on their own sites to make money. On Technet forums as official answers from Microsoft no less.
Go there if you want real fixes.
If hes impersonating you, that means you admit being GAYpk? That's what I have gathered from your rant there. Granted I did not read it.
One of the benefits of being retired, I know longer have to pay the MS tax anymore.
you have choice, even more so today then 10 years ago.
you don't have to use windows at all.
if you don't like it, use something else!
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Yes I don't even hang out at those tech support sites, yet I see those worthless cut-and-paste stock responses all the time when I am googling windows error solutions. They're spam and the sites need to treat them as such.
Does most - or even much - of it run on a server? No? Then how is it a service?
You forgot the BEST part: "If this answer solves your issue, please mark this as Answered"...that MS pesters you with if you post a technet forum question.
Oh yeah, that's right, but you forgot the bestest part: 9/10 times, they just go ahead and mark their boilerplate as the "solution" and then the comments get flooded with extremely angry techies who can see that the suggestions will do nothing to help. If someone said that their printer was printing PCL errors, the idiots would suggest a "clean boot state" and mark that as answered when it's plain to anyone that "clean boot" will do nothing to help at all.
Then guess what the follow-up advice is? "Reinstall Windows." Except imagine it with more flowery non-native speaker nonsense. "Kindly please install the operating system to a clean status." Or perhaps "kindly bend over and let Microsoft service the customer."
Instead of unpredictable (e.g. sales of Windows 8, Windows ME) bursts of income at the release of a new Windows version in addition to relying on sales of new devices, selling Windows as a service generates a steady flow of income, which is really great for the cash flow and predictability of it. From a development point of view it might even be a motivation to put out a steady stream of improvements instead of bundling them up as a sales argument for Windows n+1. That'd be closer to open-source development where larger version jumps are dictated by the development process, not by the sales department.
For some big customers windows as a service may well make sense, to them it's the flip side of the same cash flow problem: they may prefer a steady flow instead of decision making and paying whenever a new windows is on the market, but usually they already got deals to upgrade their license pool.
For a private PC- or Laptop owner it makes no sense at all. Someone who buys a PC doesn't want it to run under a rented license so his device becomes a useless brick the moment he doesn't pay his fees or there is a hiccup in the licensing system.
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
I've noticed that, except it's fake tech support more often than not. It's like iYogi was a gigantic cancerous mass growing on the computer repair industry and at some point it exploded, seeding cancerous growths of garbage "tech support" fronts trying to take the stupid American's money to clean up all the "infections" that the customer sees when the "agent" opens HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID.
Oh look more anti-MS bashing articles written by trendy hipsters with no ideas what they're talking about.
1. Buy Professional. There is no other version but Professional/Enterprise. Period. If you're using something else, you're wrong.
2. There are no advertisements. Period. Anywhere. If you are complaining about ads ON THE MICROSOFT STORE, you're literally the dumbest person in the history of time. The price difference between Home and Pro is negligent. So get Pro.
As for other comments. Don't use Windows if you don't know how to use Windows. It's 2018. Windows NT based system has been, at its core, the same for over a decade. There is no excuse whatsoever to not understand how to use it properly. Barring the fact that you aren't an expert, here's how to use Windows:
1. Keep backups. Don't put anything that matters on your Windows partition.
2. If there's a problem that eludes 15 minutes of intense troubleshooting, reimage your partition. It's quick, painless, and will literally always solve all problems.
Windows has become a great concern not just for the user-hate that's built in, but the evil as well. Installing unwanted programs, forced telemetry, removing user choice, creating an impressively stupid interface that takes you more steps to do less. Did I mention removing user choice?
Microsoft has gone in a bad direction and is not to be trusted.
No one cares. Go away.
Can we just go back to XP or Win 7 and call it a day? I have never had as many issues supporting a Win XP Pro environment as I do supporting Win 10. Every creator patch or whatever they're calling them now always fails to update on at least a quarter of my deployed systems and the only fix seems to be a system wipe and re-install.
The strategy feels like something out of an MBA 101 course.
Windows is just a brand.
We get to say what it means.
Windows as a service is about the revenue stream.
Providing something that a customer want's to buy is not the main focus.
Seems the likely outcome is the customer and Windows loose.
They have lost the old fashioned idea of making value for the customer that built Msoft in the beginning.
The funny thing is that they knew better from IBM and planned not to do this, and did anyway.
Your endless advertising is both futile and ironic. Too bad you're too much of a dimwit to understand the irony in it.
Just get a Chromebook and stop complaining.
For anything to change at Microsoft, the management mentality has to change. Getting an Engineer in the hot seat at the top is the key to ensuring that their poorest performing students aren't the ones being taught to. They need someone in there that says, "Let's teach to the top students and not treat everyone like they're a fucking idiot by trying to do everything for you with some sort of 'we know what's best' attitude." Having a sales-y guy at the top who is just trying to blow the investors by raising the EPS of the company is how you arrive at Win 10 and the respective future of the GUI based OS. Microsoft is not apple. They should stop trying to cash in on an app store for the operating system. No one gives a fuck about candy crush on their OS -- especially in the Enterprise. Until a level headed engineer is in the top spot over at M$, you will continue to see advertising in the OS, data whoring, forced automatic updates (unless you're in a domain,) and buried settings that force average users to put up with their crap.
You need to know what the users who did not state a preference publicly said privately to claim the OP was "WRONG!". You don't know that. Their claim is unsupported and unlikely, but those that don't state a preference are still those who did not state a preference FOR systemD. Not like they got a choice, either, is it.
If / when Microsoft decides to go with the subscription plan, I would think it would seriously impact a lot of software that relies upon it as the backbone OS to work. I wonder if they would get sued for effectively denying access to the OS without ongoing subscription payments.
Much of the software I have is license locked to my system via a permanent key. Any one of them costs far more than what the operating system does, yet if I fail to pay what will effectively be ransomware to MS, I will be unable to use said software in any form. Some of them have Linux or OSx variants I can switch to, but not all of them.
I am curious just how many folks are going to be willing to go with a monthly / annual subscription for an OS that has already taken too much control from the folks who use it. For the first time in my life, I think I would actually consider a " Yar Matey " version of the OS that has been stripped of all the controversial bullshit because re-licensing all the software I use on Windows would be quite a financial undertaking.
I know we've been saying this for years but, I think the year of the Linux Desktop is, in a hilarious ironic twist, going to be brought about by none other than Microsoft itself.
Adding new features is EASY but increasing security/stability is HARD!!! :-) :-)
(& any changes to UI/apps are easily noticeable by users, but security/stability improvements are NOT!!!
PS:
Actually, to solve (pretty much) all computer/internet security issues, Windows, Linux, MacOS need a complete redesign!!!
They need to be redesigned to work like Android/iOS (which run all apps in sandbox and all instructions run by apps are always checked by the VM-based OS for security policy violations (guaranteed)!
(In Windows/Linux/MacOS on the other hand, any bug in any app code allows any malware to get out of control/command of the OS and do whatever the malware wants!)
Tech companies love "software as a service" because it is never paid for and provides them with an eternal revenue stream. You can buy the PC, but if you want to use it, you need to keep making payments to Microsoft forever. It also simplifies their service load because everyone has the same version of the system, getting gradual updates as time passes. They don't need to keep providing fixes and maintenance for Windows Vista, for example, because old releases don't exist in the service model. The benefits for users are a lot more sparse: We get steady updates, but we also get a wave of advertising and continuous reporting of our activities back to Mama Microsoft. I made the decision to just use Linux for everything a long time ago.
That YOU don't is fuck all to do with Linux and everything to do with YOU. The GPP was right, you are not.
Not quite true. If ever your filesystem gets corrupted you probably have no simple way (if any) of reinstalling the Apple software you currently have.
A) Backups
B) App store
But mainly A, especially for old computers using any OS you are going to have a hell of a time getting older software so you should keep a backup.
For OS X you can easily download older versions.
How do you install an old version of Keynote? Or GarageBand? Or anything really.
Apple's App Store keeps around older versions for just that purpose - I can still restore older apps on an iPad 2.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It is only about taking your money. Microsoft Windows had finally got to the point where it didn't eat itself to death after just a couple of years use(constant rebootss helped ) so too many people were happy with the performance and hardware under the OS. ie slow upgrades and therefore slowing income. How were they to get more money from people and in a constant stream? Rent them the software. They'd already defined the software in the EULA as such so now it was time to make them pay like they were renting it.
Microsoft has ALWAYS been about taking your money and solving your problems ALWAYS low on the list. Securing the monopoly via MS-DOS pre-loads got them in the game even if MS-BASIC had been their original goal. I got a good laugh when Microsoft posted in their FAQ about builtin advertising saying Google and Facebook do it too. Then again, an extremely huge part of our population does not even know what a hard drive does in the scheme of making the colored dots light up on the screen.
Yep. And the boilerplate answers describe prompts and alternatives that are not in YOUR version of the OS -- since its no longer just Windows 10 but one needs the build number and release ring and even then... Or they just don't work.
But what is worse is that one of the recovery steps is often just uninstall the affected product and reinstall it from the STORE. Thats fine provided the STORE is working. One one of my machines, STORE no longer retains my user login and has been downloading the same five applications now for a couple of weeks. And yes, one of them was the reinstall of an application I use that just stopped synchronizing for no apparent reason (none logged or displayed... just 'an error has occurred, please try again later'). Does not make the user (looser) a happy camper.
Other favorite is the best practices scans that complain mightily about obscure and largely undocumented parameters being not set correctly -- stuff down in the bowls of the registry and OS that typical sysadmins would never touch. Like crying wolf -- after a while you just ignore them.
So whatever their plans are for world domination I wish them luck. But wherever possible I move stuff to linux and raspberry pi boxes -- having things break for BS reasons and no way to fix or lose a work session because windoze decided to update right now -- regardless of what you are doing. Wonder how hard it would be to do a Windows emulator on VMS?
In your IMPERSONATIONS of me saying what you thought "makes me look bad" e.g. https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (like now)? You did me a favor:
1st - Hosts stop portsmash (blocking downloads of it) "You basically have to already be able to run your own evil code on a machine in order to PortSmash it." from https://www.theregister.co.uk/...
2nd hosts MAY prevent the OTHER forms of Intel CPU weakness per ACADEMIC RESEARCH I read:
SPECTRE "As an attempted mitigation for our JavaScript-based attack" https://spectreattack.com/spec...
MELTDOWN "We presented Meltdown, a novel software-based attack" https://meltdownattack.com/mel...
So like portsmash?
Academics NEEDED LOCAL CODE (like portsmash hosts can prevent) so hosts ALSO work vs. Spectre/Meltdown!
APK
P.S.=> 3rd strike "yer out" - U FAIL PORTFILTERING TESTS https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... (IF hosts could DO it I'd implement it in my work & I STOP THAT ERROR) ... apk
The Dark Side is, once companies switch to a subscription based service, is they no longer feel that bug fixes and development of new features the users want are important.
Once they have an infinite amount of cash coming in via subscription, they don't really give a damn about much of anything really.
Already seeing this behavior with some of the software that has gone subscription only.
Windows Isn't a Service, It's an Operating System
Windows is an advertising engine posing as an operating system.
The funniest think is that even Bing knows that W10 is a crap. I just opened Bing and entered "windows 10 is a ", it showed me the following suggestions:
"windows 10 is a joke",
"windows 10 is a mess",
"windows 10 is a piece of garbage",
"windows 10 is a pig",
"windows 10 is a dog",
"windows 10 is a spy",
"windows 10 is a pain" and
"windows 10 is a disease".
It didn't showed such negative suggestions for Windows 7/8/8.1 . This shows that Windows 10 has serious problems, it's even worse than Vista. If MS continues to ignore its users, then I guess after the end of Windows 7/8.1 support Windows will start dying slowly and painfully and will be replaced by something like Chrome/Fuchsia OS.
The service part is "software updates" and continued renewal of the limited term license to use updates to the software that you purchased a limited license for.
Microsoft "helpfully" remembers some of the applications that it closed before doing an automatic update and reopens them when it restarts (and annoyingly frequently starts one or more Youtube channels playing when it does so) and some applications auto-save on a regular basis and will prompt you to restore lost data when you reopen them. But some applications don't, and even though a warning will pop up if you try to shut down windows with those programs still open with unsaved data the Windows update will just ignore those flags and go ahead and purge all your data.
I realize that to a certain extent that it's my own fault for not saving as early and often as i ought to, but I still feel like Microsoft bears some of the blame for the malicious way in which they go about handling updates.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
What's worse is an operating system never getting updates. No amount of host files bullshit will protect your internet-connected system if the vendor ceases support.
That you know about Linux having bugs should be considered a feature. Especially considering that likely all the bugs you're referring to are already fixed.
ZIP
Back when Windows NT 4.0 was Microsoft's latest / greatest (??) server OS, you had to have a license for the OS and you had to have a number of Client Access Licenses (CALs). If you wanted to operate an internet server, the number of CALs limited how many requests it could handle at a time.
Many companies bought servers which came bundled with WinNT 4.0 and a certain number of CALs. They promptly wiped the servers, installed Linux and started reselling the software and / or CALs on eBay. Microsoft fought that long and hard; they didn't want those selling "used." They wanted companies to just buy more CALs from them. But, insomuch as software considered a product, it was subject to First Sale Doctrine. You can't sell more copies of it but, if you have purchased something physical (usually a booklet / certificate with the necessary keys printed on it), you can resell it if you aren't going to be using it.
They finally ditched the ridiculous CALs but, after that, you found yourself not with a product but with a license. Products are subject to First Sale, licenses are not. Indeed, there were cases where one company ("predator") bought another ("prey") and, because the prey's licenses were NOT transferable to predator, they had to go out and buy licenses just to keep operating the servers / applications the prey was using.
MS has been getting evermore militant ever since.
I'm regularly amazed that they haven't killed off their market. There's something to be said, though, for lock-in, both real and mental.
... by the Dew of Mountains the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning
Suddenly war with USA is no longer an option because your country's bussiness, services and infrastructure depends on booting on a service provided by them. Cool way to hold hostage the world!
The key difference is that with free software, you can hire any willing vendor, not just the original publisher, to backport security fixes to your legacy system. You don't have to have, say, half the publisher's market capitalization to force your will on the publisher.
> Sure, Microsoft keeps adding new features like the Timeline and Paint 3D, but how many Windows users care about those?
Certainly not me. And I really wish I didn't have to go through a "glitch" in the system to remove non-essential software (Do I *really* need Candy Crush on a fresh Windows 10 install? No, no I don't. Nor do I need Paint 3D or "Pictures" UWP when the built-in Windows 7 image viewer is available and just fine).
MS's updates are good for Joe Sixpack in the sense of updating them for security purposes. But everything else? Terrible. And even if you disregard the security, their quality has been crap for months (October update delayed into November due to harddrive-file deletions, anyone?)
it is far cheaper to just upgrade to a supported machine than it is to spend my time (or money employing somebody) to keep the operating system up to date for old hardware.
Yet 35-year-old video game consoles still get new commercial releases for them. Family Computer in 1983; Micro Mages in 2018. What explains that?
FFS, please just install them from the package repos on B.
Many distributions have a policy of not carrying in their repositories any software that is not free software.
If not possible, get the application's source code, compile and install it.
That would cost half the publisher's market capitalization.
Please consider using FOSS alternatives to the software you think you can't live without
How does one go about finding free software replacements for A. video games in particular genres with a substantial player population, B. players for rented movies, and C. individual income tax return preparation wizards? If you can't think of any, the reasons in this article might be why.
The thing is, it really *is* a good idea for "tech illiterate morons" to have locked down systems. They really need that because they simply cannot manage handling computer security as you and I know it today.
When "tech illiterate morons" decide to become no longer "tech illiterate morons", is it also a good idea for them to have to repurchase most of their computing hardware from scratch? This is the case for those who use iOS or a game console.
In fact, when Blizzard games become available on Linux, I'm going!
This list of Android/Linux apps published by Blizzard Entertainment probably doesn't count, as the only actual games there are Hearthstone and the forthcoming Diablo Immortal. The rest are apps for authenticating to its Windows games' multiplayer service or for following high-level competitions in its Windows games.
If ever there was a time, it's coming very soon. With MS forcing users into a walled garden, stripping the idea that you own the software, and boarding the 'monetize user data' train, more people are going to look for an alternative. Jump on this one. Move into a more prominent share of the market.
Challenge accepted.
-- Microsoft
This goes back to the decline in competent support that started back in the late 1990s, and using outsourced support instead of skilled support staff working for the company. A big part of this came from corporate executives with zero technical knowledge wanting to "save money" by outsourcing technical support, not understanding that having a staff with real understanding of the products/services really helps customers decide which products to buy.
With that said, there are times when doing a re-upgrade to Windows 10 is needed, in the same way that when something is broken, rather than tracking which component broke, fixing installation problems in Windows 10 by just doing a re-upgrade makes more sense than spending hours trying to figure out what part of the update went wrong.
People who read from scripts as their way of helping a customer should not be paid to work in technical support, since customers could easily just find these same scripts on the company support site! Helping the customer understand what is going on so that the proper solution can be provided does require knowing what you are doing, and reading from scripts will not do the job.
I'm going to copy and paste the most salient points of the stock BS answer that is given to almost EVERYONE that has an issue with Windows 10 these days and says something about it on the Microsoft Answers forum:
This issue may occur either due to software conflicts or if unused files are present in Windows. I would suggest you to run system maintenance troubleshooter and check if it helps. ... If it does not help, then perform clean boot and check. Refer this article: How to perform a clean boot in Windows ... After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps from section âoeHow to reset the computer to start as usual after clean boot troubleshootingâ to reset the computer to start as usual.
Really a shame Microsoft Answer forums (99.9999% worthless spam) are indexed in search engines. It makes trolling Internet for answers instead of bothering to figure it out yourself more difficult. Microsoft should do everyone a favor and shut it down.
I literally not once ever in my entire life clicked on a MS answer forum where the MS troll answering the question provided a useful response. Not once. This isn't an exaggeration. It's always let me reply with boiler plate bullshit that doesn't apply to the question... followed by chorus of angry people pointing out all the (obvious) ways the answer was total garbage.
The ONLY answers on that forums are from people who come back later and bother to post solutions after figuring it out themselves or getting the answer from a different source.
For Windows to operate remotely is nothing new, we've been doing it for literally decades. The only things new here are A) it's being marketed to individuals and at a global level, instead of aimed at enterprises for use in-house. B) Microsoft is hoping to completely redefine what it means to have a PC by rent seeking. (I know, arguably it isn't "rent seeking" since Microsoft would be providing something of value. But it would be looking to get annual or even monthly payments for the life of the device instead of a single license fee. Who here is willing to believe that this will result in lower revenue?)
What I'm very curious to know is what will happen to the _massive_ subsidies Microsoft currently pays to the big OEMs. Once the OEMs and system integrators are reduced to appliance manufacturers, I think we'll see those subsidies disappear and profit margins for those companies to get even thinner.
From Microsofts point of view, this is a total win on several levels:
a) They get to increase and smooth out their revenue stream from the Windows UI
b) As others have noted, their development and support costs go way down.
c) They get their own captive audience for targeted ads.
d) They get to further develop their own walled garden of apps. Central control will undoubtedly be used to block arbitrary 3rd parties software.
e) They get to cut back or even end the payola that the big OEM's have been dependant on.
And the ironic thing? We can probably thank Google and Apple for this. Microsoft is just trying to combine the two business models those companies have proven to be very lucrative. I can't see any easy way for them to tackle Amazon's business model, it's just too different from dealing in software. Otherwise I'm sure they'd be doing that as well.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
That's gay. What are you a faggot?
The problem is that Windows is basically fine. And to be fair, iphone OS is fine. I don't really need new versions of either. I used to have XP, and it was great. The only reason I updated to Win7 was because it was x64 and I wanted more memory, and it was free. Then Win10 was offered free so I upgraded to that. They've been great. I would've paid for them as well. The only reason that I update my iphone is because it's available and eventually I have to.
The comparison to Apple's OS' is not quite right because Apple doesn't make money from the OS (at least not directly). They're not part of the "as a service" BS either. Apple sells phones, and it makes sense to bundle their own OS that includes itunes etc etc. The big players in the server world don't charge for their OS' either - Oracle, AIX/IBM etc. They charge for hardware & support because they know that the OS is a zero-sum game.
Windows and Office are different because you have always paid for new versions - this is not a bad thing. But I wouldn't have moved from XP if it wasn't for the extra memory I wanted and eventually the security fixes. But I also hate the idea of a "subscriptions" to something like Office. Or Adobe. And especially Windows. It's also like Netflix - I have it and it's great... until the show I like isn't renewed (hello Rick and Morty). All of a sudden I don't have access to it anymore. I'll buy the dvds, because I want the show, but it sucks that it's not readily available.
So this "Windows as a service" BS is just an attempt to make money. And people don't like it, because Windows has always been kind of free, or at least a one-time payment. All Windows is, is a platform, and the average PC user doesn't want to pay for a platform. In the business world this could make sense, but for everyone at home it's just a pain in the ass.
You can't be sure things will stay that way. Proprietary software grants proprietors the exclusive power to change how that software works. This means that at any time the program's behavior could change (as far as your perception goes); limits you haven't yet bumped into and therefore don't yet know about could be revealed to you. Add in networked computers that check for updates and that's a universal backdoor allowing the proprietor to change things they didn't think to set up earlier. It's always dangerous to make claims on behalf of how proprietary software works no matter how many time you've run that software and you therefore believe you're familiar with how that software operates. Free software lets you run, inspect, share, and modify the software so you can be sure of what you're running.
Digital Citizen
Microsoft cannot "slow down." Do we want security patches only after a year? No. No operating system exists without bugs, because that's impossible. Any software past a given size, of course, will have bugs, both known and unknown, and nothing can be done with that. Fixing them in flight is a better option than waiting, "until the OS is stable." Apple might be able to do once a year because they don't have the numbers and device types that Microsoft faces. I hate all operating systems equally. But as far as breadth of hardware and usability, No one touches Windows 10.
When "tech illiterate morons" decide to become no longer "tech illiterate morons", is it also a good idea for them to have to repurchase most of their computing hardware from scratch?
That is the great thing about Macs - you do not have to. If you become more tech literate you can make greater use of what they offer by unlocking things.
Personally I originally bought Macs because I wanted a real lid stable UNIX system and that choice has not failed me yet.
Apple has done a good job shipping defaults that protect users that need it, and allow technically people fuller access if they know what they are doing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I would never base my business on this, thanks god I mostly run Linux. And each time I boot a Windows test VM it is unusable for some minutes doing zillions of updates :-/ Also wonder why people and business use something with some much "telemetry" sent back to companies and advertising servers, ..!?
True of Mac. Not true of iPad Pro
You can always Jailbreak it of course.
But aside from that, I can keep using an iPad of any kind (pro or not) as long as the hardware stays alive. I can replace the battery. I can program anything I like for even my oldest iPad.
The iPad absolutely is a computer, and like any computer can do anything you are capable of making it do.
So how Is it not true of any iPad, pro or otherwise?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley