But Windows 8.1 is better than Windows 10, and is supported for at least another 7 years, so it's decent advice. Recommending Windows 10 to friends and families is a good way to lose friends and miss out being invited to family reunions.
That's Microsoft for you. They insist on doing all the applications themselves even if they have no clue how to do it properly. Whenever they see a game they show up late and say "hey guys, I wanna play in your game too!", and then they screw it up. Search; they wanna do that too! Advertisements; they want to do that now. Phone apps; sure they'll put them on a PC, why not? Voice search; they think they can do that. Maps; they'll send you down the wrong road because they think they know how to do that. Games; sure, they've been trying to play games with their customers forever! Nobody works harder at playing catch-up than Microsoft; they've spent most of their existence playing catch-up.
I don't visit any Facebook websites. For Google I do use it carefully. I keep noscript up at all times, I never run any "analystics" script, I don't keep any long term cookies, etc. Of course that makes the web painful to use at times, but that's ok, there's so little of value there anymore.
You believe this? You believe that it's similar to DuckDuckGo??
There's also the difference between a well established OS deciding to go off the deep end versus a brand new service built on top of advertising. So you get a choice up front, do you use a smart phone or not. Whereas if you've already made the choice of using Windowsyou're being told "surprise, now that you're hooked we're going to start advertising and monitoring what you do, and will stop asking for permission to send data back because you might say 'no'".
FYI I've turned off all this stuff in Google. No location services or GPS at all, I read every single permission that an app wants and refuse to keep it installed if it wants to know data about me. I even use DuckDuckGo because it's not tracking my search history like google, no more creepy search results popping up.
No one's going to use Universal Windows Apps. If your jobs is making you do this then I suggest getting that resume up to date. The only people who want this are the same short minded people who think using Office on a mobile phone is a good idea. If you're doing Windows development then you need to broaden your skill base anyway, as Windows doesn't have much of a long term future. Windows Phone is essentially dead, which was the original reason Microsoft wanted universal apps. If you really want to do something more universal, consider looking at Qt or other products where "universal" includes things outside of the provincial Microsoft garden.
No, the Microsoft ID is not worth getting. Do. Not. Do. It! It is spyware, it exists only so that they can track what you do as well as getting you hooked on their own services. Once you get it you can not back out of it without reinstalling! At least if you skip getting it you can change your mind later if there ever happens to be a good reason (OneDrive is not a good reason!) . Not having it also removes the temptation of ever looking at one of the metro apps or going to their app store, which saves a lot of time and brain cells. You don't need any special account to use OSX or Linux for examples, so the reason Microsoft wants you to have one is not for your own benefit.
Oh yes, for sure, never a Microsoft Account EVER. People get confused on installation and think they need one, but you don't. Of course many of those built in apps refuse to run without a Microsoft Account but that's actually a good thing as it prevents you from using some of the most buggy parts of Windows.
Apple offerings are expensive. That's really the only thing holding them back though. The OS is much nicer overall. Better look, better underpinnings (it's BSD), you can ignore their store, faster, a backup solution that is easy to use and doesn't get thrown out and replaced on every new OS release, no touchscreen crap, and it can run Office (which is why it can get used in corporations since there's some sort of law that Office is mandatory). It just feels much more professional than Windows.
Sure it has some flaws but they're relatively minor compared to the flaws on Windows.
Yup, two control panels. Still a flaw in Windows 8.1, and there was hope that after apologizing for the W8 debacle that W10 would fix up a lot of this. But apparently it's even more fragmented in W10.
Microsoft claimed they could not disconnect IE from Windows, until a court told them that they had to. Then they reluctantly (and belatedly) rolled it out, only for EU users. Which all means that you can't believe Microsoft when they say they "can't" do something, if they ever say they "can't" remove cortana it means they really can if they wanted to.
I think I have a Windows 7 restoration partition on my Dell. I upgraded to Windows 8 so I have that number written down and I think I have it on a thumb drive or DVD as I installed from scratch Windows 10 you can get an ISO download, but you have to use their application to create it.
I've got older OEM install discs somewhere. Technically I'm not supposed to use them, according to Microsoft rules, but I don't think any legal or ethical or moral rules prevent it. Trick is to get it authenticated.
They're only used once because you have no way of knowing if they're utter shit until you load it. People have vain hope that the app might be merely mediocre or inadequate and are often disappointed. 10 seconds later it's deleted. Or you try four different apps that all say they do what you want, you try them out and see which actually works, then delete the other three.
(heaven help us if poeple PAY for this shit and then don't use it)
Two games using that that I hear. Big deal. Most customers are still on DX10, with large chunks on DX 9 or 11. Those are where most games are going to be targeting. Gamers aren't clamoring for DX 12 as there's nothing really new in it. It was created solely to migrate people to Windows 10. So it'll be like DX 10, gamers annoyed with it since it was only supported in Vista, but at least Vista was followed on by something better, whereas Microsoft has given no indication that it considers Windows 10 a mistake. Meanwhile others are moving away from Microsoft dependencies; Steam wants its own system and that's a massive chunk of PC gaming and customers.
So some people say don't get in the van with the creepy guy. And the kid says "but he's got DX12 candy!!"
Which is why I think they're cheating their clients as well. During dotcom book the online advertisers were charging maybe ten times the amount per "impression" than radio or televison, and justified it because it was the internet. Which of course helped inflate the bubble and made the pop so much bigger. So today we're in the spot that the top industrial sector appears to be advertising and advertising services.
I got my dumb tv at Sears. It was not one up on the display for eveyone because stores at the time were all big on the smart tv and 3d tv crap. They put up the tvs with the most features on display. But walk through them all and you find the ones that aren't premium, probably half of them. And everyone was cheaper than those with more features.
And since you'll keep that tv for at least a decade, it's worth the effort to shop around.
You absolutely CAN opt out. Disconnect the TV from the internet. Then start streaming using Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast, or whatever. If they TV refuses to show a picture without being on the internet, then that's a valuable lesson learned about the low correlation of price to quality.
Sounds like a family that needs to start a budget and start saying "no" to the kids. One console, one media player, one DVD or blu-ray player (optional), and nothing built-in to the TV since that costs extra. When the kids complain that they don't have the best console then take it away and give them a book. Stop buying things with all the features because money is plentiful and start buying by assuming you might be unemployed someday or have unexpected medical bills.
Seiki is not an off-brand. Probably has most of the hardware identical to Samsung. But if you're so intent on the best picture in the showroom, then you're probably buying a new TV every year.
I've got a dumb Seiki. A good decision on my part, and I don't have many of those. If Samsung doesn't sell dumb TVs then that's another reason to avoid them completely. If someone is buying a television to last for a decade or two (and that's not a stretch goal) then the hardware that makes the tv "smart" is going to be the first thing to become obsolete; it's as dumb as buying an automobile with internet upgradeable features.
Was there not a TV available without the networking and no "smart" features? Last I checked they still have dumb TVs in large sizes, so there's no need to pay more to get features that you're not going to use. I could be out of date though, maybe the dumb TVs are all gone because there's no way to put advertising on them... But that's ok, I can keep mine for 15 years if I don't break it and I don't go all hipster and demand 4K.
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Yes, it's the appiest.
But Windows 8.1 is better than Windows 10, and is supported for at least another 7 years, so it's decent advice. Recommending Windows 10 to friends and families is a good way to lose friends and miss out being invited to family reunions.
That's Microsoft for you. They insist on doing all the applications themselves even if they have no clue how to do it properly. Whenever they see a game they show up late and say "hey guys, I wanna play in your game too!", and then they screw it up. Search; they wanna do that too! Advertisements; they want to do that now. Phone apps; sure they'll put them on a PC, why not? Voice search; they think they can do that. Maps; they'll send you down the wrong road because they think they know how to do that. Games; sure, they've been trying to play games with their customers forever! Nobody works harder at playing catch-up than Microsoft; they've spent most of their existence playing catch-up.
Upgrading to Windows 10 from XP or Vista is not free.
I don't visit any Facebook websites. For Google I do use it carefully. I keep noscript up at all times, I never run any "analystics" script, I don't keep any long term cookies, etc. Of course that makes the web painful to use at times, but that's ok, there's so little of value there anymore.
You believe this? You believe that it's similar to DuckDuckGo??
There's also the difference between a well established OS deciding to go off the deep end versus a brand new service built on top of advertising. So you get a choice up front, do you use a smart phone or not. Whereas if you've already made the choice of using Windowsyou're being told "surprise, now that you're hooked we're going to start advertising and monitoring what you do, and will stop asking for permission to send data back because you might say 'no'".
FYI I've turned off all this stuff in Google. No location services or GPS at all, I read every single permission that an app wants and refuse to keep it installed if it wants to know data about me. I even use DuckDuckGo because it's not tracking my search history like google, no more creepy search results popping up.
Ha, you think bigger numbers are better.
No one's going to use Universal Windows Apps. If your jobs is making you do this then I suggest getting that resume up to date. The only people who want this are the same short minded people who think using Office on a mobile phone is a good idea. If you're doing Windows development then you need to broaden your skill base anyway, as Windows doesn't have much of a long term future. Windows Phone is essentially dead, which was the original reason Microsoft wanted universal apps. If you really want to do something more universal, consider looking at Qt or other products where "universal" includes things outside of the provincial Microsoft garden.
No, the Microsoft ID is not worth getting. Do. Not. Do. It! It is spyware, it exists only so that they can track what you do as well as getting you hooked on their own services. Once you get it you can not back out of it without reinstalling! At least if you skip getting it you can change your mind later if there ever happens to be a good reason (OneDrive is not a good reason!) . Not having it also removes the temptation of ever looking at one of the metro apps or going to their app store, which saves a lot of time and brain cells. You don't need any special account to use OSX or Linux for examples, so the reason Microsoft wants you to have one is not for your own benefit.
Oh yes, for sure, never a Microsoft Account EVER. People get confused on installation and think they need one, but you don't. Of course many of those built in apps refuse to run without a Microsoft Account but that's actually a good thing as it prevents you from using some of the most buggy parts of Windows.
Apple offerings are expensive. That's really the only thing holding them back though. The OS is much nicer overall. Better look, better underpinnings (it's BSD), you can ignore their store, faster, a backup solution that is easy to use and doesn't get thrown out and replaced on every new OS release, no touchscreen crap, and it can run Office (which is why it can get used in corporations since there's some sort of law that Office is mandatory). It just feels much more professional than Windows.
Sure it has some flaws but they're relatively minor compared to the flaws on Windows.
Yup, two control panels. Still a flaw in Windows 8.1, and there was hope that after apologizing for the W8 debacle that W10 would fix up a lot of this. But apparently it's even more fragmented in W10.
Microsoft claimed they could not disconnect IE from Windows, until a court told them that they had to. Then they reluctantly (and belatedly) rolled it out, only for EU users. Which all means that you can't believe Microsoft when they say they "can't" do something, if they ever say they "can't" remove cortana it means they really can if they wanted to.
I think I have a Windows 7 restoration partition on my Dell. I upgraded to Windows 8 so I have that number written down and I think I have it on a thumb drive or DVD as I installed from scratch Windows 10 you can get an ISO download, but you have to use their application to create it.
I've got older OEM install discs somewhere. Technically I'm not supposed to use them, according to Microsoft rules, but I don't think any legal or ethical or moral rules prevent it. Trick is to get it authenticated.
"CoolApp37 wants to use your location information to provide a more personalized experience, Accept or Disallow?"
They're only used once because you have no way of knowing if they're utter shit until you load it. People have vain hope that the app might be merely mediocre or inadequate and are often disappointed. 10 seconds later it's deleted. Or you try four different apps that all say they do what you want, you try them out and see which actually works, then delete the other three.
(heaven help us if poeple PAY for this shit and then don't use it)
Two games using that that I hear. Big deal. Most customers are still on DX10, with large chunks on DX 9 or 11. Those are where most games are going to be targeting. Gamers aren't clamoring for DX 12 as there's nothing really new in it. It was created solely to migrate people to Windows 10. So it'll be like DX 10, gamers annoyed with it since it was only supported in Vista, but at least Vista was followed on by something better, whereas Microsoft has given no indication that it considers Windows 10 a mistake. Meanwhile others are moving away from Microsoft dependencies; Steam wants its own system and that's a massive chunk of PC gaming and customers.
So some people say don't get in the van with the creepy guy. And the kid says "but he's got DX12 candy!!"
Which is why I think they're cheating their clients as well. During dotcom book the online advertisers were charging maybe ten times the amount per "impression" than radio or televison, and justified it because it was the internet. Which of course helped inflate the bubble and made the pop so much bigger. So today we're in the spot that the top industrial sector appears to be advertising and advertising services.
I got my dumb tv at Sears. It was not one up on the display for eveyone because stores at the time were all big on the smart tv and 3d tv crap. They put up the tvs with the most features on display. But walk through them all and you find the ones that aren't premium, probably half of them. And everyone was cheaper than those with more features.
And since you'll keep that tv for at least a decade, it's worth the effort to shop around.
You absolutely CAN opt out. Disconnect the TV from the internet. Then start streaming using Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast, or whatever. If they TV refuses to show a picture without being on the internet, then that's a valuable lesson learned about the low correlation of price to quality.
Sounds like a family that needs to start a budget and start saying "no" to the kids. One console, one media player, one DVD or blu-ray player (optional), and nothing built-in to the TV since that costs extra. When the kids complain that they don't have the best console then take it away and give them a book. Stop buying things with all the features because money is plentiful and start buying by assuming you might be unemployed someday or have unexpected medical bills.
Seiki is not an off-brand. Probably has most of the hardware identical to Samsung. But if you're so intent on the best picture in the showroom, then you're probably buying a new TV every year.
I've got a dumb Seiki. A good decision on my part, and I don't have many of those. If Samsung doesn't sell dumb TVs then that's another reason to avoid them completely. If someone is buying a television to last for a decade or two (and that's not a stretch goal) then the hardware that makes the tv "smart" is going to be the first thing to become obsolete; it's as dumb as buying an automobile with internet upgradeable features.
Was there not a TV available without the networking and no "smart" features? Last I checked they still have dumb TVs in large sizes, so there's no need to pay more to get features that you're not going to use. I could be out of date though, maybe the dumb TVs are all gone because there's no way to put advertising on them... But that's ok, I can keep mine for 15 years if I don't break it and I don't go all hipster and demand 4K.
However dumb televisions are still cheaper than smart televisions.