Slashdot Mirror
'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."
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
You really don't have to install it, you know. Just look for "[distro] systemd remove" and you can do it if you really need to, and distros that come without it already.
Why would systemd be an issue in the corporate world. What are you using that has problems with it? I'm smelling some bs here.
I have multiple products that required extra work to function in a systemd world but maybe more importantly systemd brings very little to the table in a virtualized server world and is more appropriate for desktops.
But if you had read the quote it was about the choice not to use it which is limited when the actual software you want to use has 1 or 2 distros as supported and those use systemd.
3-D Builder, Zune Music, Solitaire Collection, Bing Finance, Duo Lingo, Candy Crush, Farmville, Pandora, Twitter...these are just a few of the "AppX" items one has to use powershell to remove from Windows 10 Enterprise. You know, their OS for large corporations; because large corps really want games installed by default. You also have to make a special "tile template" for an image so your Start menu tileset doesn't have a bunch of "missing links" or holes in it afterwards.
We are, at my work, going to be moving to a newer Windows version soon...so I will once again have to strip out a bunch of shit and re-do the image.I personally wanted to go with LTSB, but several of our vendors are moving to Store Apps (I'm looking at you, Boeing Toolbox) so I'm being forced to implement AppLocker, Corporate Store...and am still fighting with management over getting Admin rights to the Store in our tenancy to do my "new" job managing the Store for Business which I would rather not have to do...it's only a matter of time before the MS store is compromised with malware just like all the others.