The barrier for ReactOS as much as for Linux is software from vendors that they will only support on MS Windows. It may work but if you hit a problem and they won't help because of an unsupported platform, that can be scary for some organisations. Esp with legacy software and closed source so called "industry standard" stuff. The sea of change can be slow sadly.
For home users this is a different situation, they can find workarounds etc. Third party apps grow around annoyances etc. Enterprises are already paying a subscription model and using KMS for OS and Office etc. Different needs, different risks.
Group Policy is pretty much just an interface to registry settings. I'm sure most changes can still be made by amending the right keys. You could even push down those key changes with group policy on AD or use DSC or other methods like auto hotkey or a deployed powershell script running as system on a scheduled task etc.
In all seriousness though they won't need to. What may end up happening is Windows remains free but to do anything on it requires software from the windows store or hosted on Azure. Kinda like CoreOS - Windows could slowly end up being a vehicle for docker like containers of software or services. Subscription based etc. I would assume that they would allow third party or open source but take a cut for delivery or for disabling advertising through the delivery method. Everything will be a gateway to Azure and Windows store. To some extent I'm not against payment for something good. I'd just prefer it to be an open model with nice generic standards and without the cloying stench of vendor lock-in. Competition is good for all.
You don't have to run every game at over 70fps.You don't have to buy the highest spec corei7. It's like buying a car, you don't have to have a Bugatti or a complicated but cheap to buy kit car to enjoy a track day at your local circuit. An easier or cheaper machine can still be fun. Maybe less performance but the compromise to be made is much the same. Sure there are experts who are mechanics by day who can build a Caterham themselves on a shoestring with cheap parts from scrapyard's etc. But that's just how it is.
If anything the compromises are easier these days because computing is cheaper. I'm sure there are many here who forked out huge money for Pentium 1 at ~200mhz and then discovered the game they wanted to play needed an additional 3DFX Voodoo2 card etc. I remember my first computer was £1612 Irish Pounds and voodoo card was probably another 150 or 200. Probably several month average salary in today's terms. Even before the Dell XPS and Alienware a good gaming computer didn't come cheap. RAM is cheaper, storage is a lot cheaper now.
But most games now want to reach as large a target audience as possible so most games will work fine on a meagre hardware if you turn down the detail and accept it isn't going to perform like a beast without some effort and learning.
It's not like modern pcs even need to set jumpers to assign IRQ and so on. Things are much more accessible than ever for the budding homebuild pc enthusiasts.
Maybe you just wish to conduct normal law abiding living with some privacy from governments which aren't democratic (Tor is a global resource don't forget) or large corporations looking to exploit any data on individuals for profit. Data has a value and quite often it's taken without users knowledge and sold onwards without giving them any say. Given how terrible some government's and companies secure your personal data from blatant criminality using your data for their gain, everybody has a vested interest in privacy even if theyre law abiding.
When an encryption method ia broken, normally there is a newer stronger and more secure method recommended. The flaws in Tor are hardly news now but still there is no viable and usable alternative. Any attempts to be anonymous or simply not be tracked and recorded in the databases of multinationals and so on is a lot of hard work these days of turning off and opting out and disabling things.
Is there nothing better on the way? Is a dubious and untrustworthy Tor connection the last refuge of online anonymity?
Microsoft already ruined Nokia they may as well ruin what's left of Blackberry. Microsoft kinda has the opposite of a Midas touch with mobile phone devices.
Shame really as despite Nokia having an increasingly untidy ux with Symbian, it was better in many ways than anything we have now. Certainly it multitasked extremely well and things like Nokia Beta Labs had cool stuff like the sleeping screen which was just very intelligent use of technology.
I don't think Blackberry was innovating in the way Nokia was up to its last phones as much as trying to cup the water of old successes in its hands, always a futile and diminishing problem.
Too little too late with both companies. For nokia it was slow to fix it's ux to keep up with Apple and a persisting with resistive screens instead of capacitive. For blackberry it was a reliance on its messaging and taking wild stabs at markets without a cohesive plan. Blackberry playbook for example, what a mess esp for developers.
I hope Blackberry can find itself and Nokia plans to rise again with new phones after MS. But I fear both will be rejoining a very cramped and changed market. Nothing short of revolutionary levels of innovation and desirability will bring either back to the levels of Apple and Samsung and upstarts like Huawei.
It could also be that corporate and educational implementations that people are looking at ltsp and equivalent vdi thin client solutions using Linux?
Windows licencing and some of the Citrix/VMware stuff can be hideously expensive to implement. Aside of browser agent strings, I suspect traditional desktop solutions are being bolstered by exorbitant licence costs in many businesses. Software like x2go and ltsp could start to make some more traction here if they manage to get more diverse client support for tablets and phones etc.
It's not just the home user market that's important anymore.
A target for desktop applications I think is the point here. A desktop end user uses browsers and plugins like Java or flash. A server OS is going to be running serious services like DNS or dhcp or ssh or a web server. Very different exploit targets.
The main issue is so much more work was required in the past to port malware to a different operating system. Nowadays with Java and flash and JavaScript it's a bit easier for nasty stuff to get in. And users can l have a false sense of invincibility clicking things with blind abandon without the sanity checks and anti malware you'd require as a default in Windows systems.
With the rate containerisation and application virtualisation is happening, there may well be a solution to that in time, even beyond Apple support for other operating systems.
One of the main problems with Firefox is they have put in next to zero effort to making it nice for enterprises to deploy and manage. Sure there are third-party group policy templates and you can get special builds from other sites with commercial support etc but Google and MS give you that free and properly maintained.
I like Firefox personally and use it. But I don't deploy it to users as a first or even second choice as that's just going to generate work in maintaining and support calls.
If Mozilla don't get this, that users get familiar with what they use at work and then use that at home they are failing to understand people.
The home user was always very relevant but it's a changing environment. I would be sad to see Firefox end up the shambles that was the demise of Netscape Navigator.
Edge is just not finding a place. It feels kinda beta and is not cohesive in the way you would expect... is there even an Edge for mobile devices? Edge is probably better described by what it isn't than what it is. And that's a dull place of forgotten IE icons burried where you go as a last resort after you try chrome and firefox. Probably for the 5 people left with a Lumia or windows phone but I've yet to see it on Android. Firefox is there, it may be far from the usage of Chrome on Android but at least it's there at all.
Edge and plugins is something they need to sort out fast. No plugins is a death knell for many home users.
I just wish they would put a bit more effort into rekindling the support they had for the Raspberry Pi platform. There are quirky hacks to get the full version to work but it shouldn't have to be that complicated.
I feel a bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand, you're absolutely correct - MS is pushing this to monetise the OS and use windows store platformto generate a new revenue stream to compensate for the drop in PC sales etc.
But on the other hand Windows 10 has some stuff in it I really like. Ignoring briefly the dubious back peddling on the ux disaster that was 8 and 8.1 there's some nice stuff in there like OneGete and powershell 5 and native stuff like virtual desktops and forthcoming ssh and bash shell etc. Some stuff lifted from other platforms who but nice nonetheless.
The real problem is it's gonna only get worse as they try and suck everything into Azure and Office 365 and a variety of other vendor lock in stuff. All looks somewhat enticing now while they love all the open source at the moment. But this can't last.
ZFS can be replaced by btrfs in many cases. Yes ZFS is more mature and has more of a track record. But only by people using btrfs will it gain that level of testing in production environments. It is quite stable now and OK some may have data that they just can't bring themselves to trust away from XFS or ext4 or ZFS but I think it's time to look at alternatives to ZFS.
Powershell has some great features and ideas. And whilst it can be great to script in, it is very long winded to just type and use in an adhoc fashion. Sure there's aliases but its still a bit tedious.
The other thing power shell needs is more social interaction and perhaps just a bit more fun. I guess it's still quite new and evolving. Bash is ancient relatively speaking.
I'd like to see stuff like figlet, write, wall, mutt natively in powershell so it becomes more of a destination than a mere dull workhorse of productivity.
A lot of people clung to XP up to the end too. Some even pay to keep it supported by MS or third party. But all OS have a usable lifespan in normal home or corporate implementations.
The other thing about this is the undocumented feature allowing resumption of wonky connections sounds a bit like Mosh. A feature I would actually like to see in openssh itself. Mosh is still not compatible with enough clients for me as yet.
After patching this (which does sound unlikely to be explored issue to be fair for most implementations). They should concentrate on finishing and documenting that feature.
Undocumented features in security focused software. This doesn't sound like a good idea! Test or unfinished features should probably go in code forks or unreleased prototypes far from production use.
Well now that Adobe is FINALLY getting rid of Flash, I guess this is the next flawed web technology to hunt down and kill off. It took a long time for html5 to be ready for the task of replacing flash. But what is mature enough and most appropriate to replace JavaScript? And how long will it take the industry to adopt a replacement?
The quality of some CDs and other media was poor enough in some cases to be effectively self destructive. Micro thin metallic layer with just as thin lacquer over it and plastic that seems to scratch remarkably easy.
I do like vinyl and always have done but I wonder has its recent resurgence been helped by vested interests of record companies.
It may be all apps this and apps that these days but the humble Web browser is still a lucrative business for some. MS are not going to let go easily. Secondly the loss of the Web browser on desktops is seen a slippery slope to depleted control of the desktop itself.
We geeks tend to forget that most home users and businesses tend to just go with what is native to a system OS. Many simply won't bother getting another browser and will just put up with things they may not fully like.
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The barrier for ReactOS as much as for Linux is software from vendors that they will only support on MS Windows. It may work but if you hit a problem and they won't help because of an unsupported platform, that can be scary for some organisations. Esp with legacy software and closed source so called "industry standard" stuff. The sea of change can be slow sadly.
For home users this is a different situation, they can find workarounds etc. Third party apps grow around annoyances etc. Enterprises are already paying a subscription model and using KMS for OS and Office etc. Different needs, different risks.
Group Policy is pretty much just an interface to registry settings. I'm sure most changes can still be made by amending the right keys. You could even push down those key changes with group policy on AD or use DSC or other methods like auto hotkey or a deployed powershell script running as system on a scheduled task etc.
In all seriousness though they won't need to. What may end up happening is Windows remains free but to do anything on it requires software from the windows store
or hosted on Azure. Kinda like CoreOS - Windows could slowly end up being a vehicle for docker like containers of software or services. Subscription based etc. I would assume
that they would allow third party or open source but take a cut for delivery or for disabling advertising through the delivery method.
Everything will be a gateway to Azure and Windows store. To some extent I'm not against payment for something good. I'd just prefer it to be an open model with nice generic standards and without the cloying stench of vendor lock-in. Competition is good for all.
No fee, they just take your soul :)
You don't have to run every game at over 70fps.You don't have to buy the highest spec corei7. It's like buying a car, you don't have to have a Bugatti or a complicated but cheap to buy kit car to enjoy a track day at your local circuit. An easier or cheaper machine can still be fun. Maybe less performance but the compromise to be made is much the same. Sure there are experts who are mechanics by day who can build a Caterham themselves on a shoestring with cheap parts from scrapyard's etc. But that's just how it is.
If anything the compromises are easier these days because computing is cheaper. I'm sure there are many here who forked out huge money for Pentium 1 at ~200mhz and then discovered the game they wanted to play needed an additional 3DFX Voodoo2 card etc. I remember my first computer was £1612 Irish Pounds and voodoo card was probably another 150 or 200. Probably several month average salary in today's terms. Even before the Dell XPS and Alienware a good gaming computer didn't come cheap. RAM is cheaper, storage is a lot cheaper now.
But most games now want to reach as large a target audience as possible so most games will work fine on a meagre hardware if you turn down the detail and accept it isn't going to perform like a beast without some effort and learning.
It's not like modern pcs even need to set jumpers to assign IRQ and so on. Things are much more accessible than ever for the budding homebuild pc enthusiasts.
Maybe you just wish to conduct normal law abiding living with some privacy from governments which aren't democratic (Tor is a global resource don't forget) or large corporations looking to exploit any data on individuals for profit. Data has a value and quite often it's taken without users knowledge and sold onwards without giving them any say. Given how terrible some government's and companies secure your personal data from blatant criminality using your data for their gain, everybody has a vested interest in privacy even if theyre law abiding.
When an encryption method ia broken, normally there is a newer stronger and more secure method recommended. The flaws in Tor are hardly news now but still there is no viable and usable alternative.
Any attempts to be anonymous or simply not be tracked and recorded in the databases of multinationals and so on is a lot of hard work these days of turning off and opting out and disabling things.
Is there nothing better on the way? Is a dubious and untrustworthy Tor connection the last refuge of online anonymity?
Microsoft already ruined Nokia they may as well ruin what's left of Blackberry.
Microsoft kinda has the opposite of a Midas touch with mobile phone devices.
Shame really as despite Nokia having an increasingly untidy ux with Symbian, it was better in many ways than anything we have now. Certainly it multitasked extremely well and things like Nokia Beta Labs had cool stuff like the sleeping screen which was just very intelligent use of technology.
I don't think Blackberry was innovating in the way Nokia was up to its last phones as much as trying to cup the water of old successes in its hands, always a futile and diminishing problem.
Too little too late with both companies. For nokia it was slow to fix it's ux to keep up with Apple and a persisting with resistive screens instead of capacitive. For blackberry it was a reliance on its messaging and taking wild stabs at markets without a cohesive plan. Blackberry playbook for example, what a mess esp for developers.
I hope Blackberry can find itself and Nokia plans to rise again with new phones after MS. But I fear both will be rejoining a very cramped and changed market. Nothing short of revolutionary levels of innovation and desirability will bring either back to the levels of Apple and Samsung and upstarts like Huawei.
It could also be that corporate and educational implementations that people are looking at ltsp and equivalent vdi thin client solutions using Linux?
Windows licencing and some of the Citrix/VMware stuff can be hideously expensive to implement. Aside of browser agent strings, I suspect traditional desktop solutions are being bolstered by exorbitant licence costs in many businesses. Software like x2go and ltsp could start to make some more traction here if they manage to get more diverse client support for tablets and phones etc.
It's not just the home user market that's important anymore.
A target for desktop applications I think is the point here. A desktop end user uses browsers and plugins like Java or flash. A server OS is going to be running serious services like DNS or dhcp or ssh or a web server. Very different exploit targets.
The main issue is so much more work was required in the past to port malware to a different operating system. Nowadays with Java and flash and JavaScript it's a bit easier for nasty stuff to get in. And users can l have a false sense of invincibility clicking things with blind abandon without the sanity checks and anti malware you'd require as a default in Windows systems.
it's also to let you know that your warranty is up so you know when to buy another Kenobi :p
With the rate containerisation and application virtualisation is happening, there may well be a solution to that in time, even beyond Apple support for other operating systems.
One of the main problems with Firefox is they have put in next to zero effort to making it nice for enterprises to deploy and manage. Sure there are third-party group policy templates and you can get special builds from other sites with commercial support etc but Google and MS give you that free and properly maintained.
I like Firefox personally and use it. But I don't deploy it to users as a first or even second choice as that's just going to generate work in maintaining and support calls.
If Mozilla don't get this, that users get familiar with what they use at work and then use that at home they are failing to understand people.
The home user was always very relevant but it's a changing environment. I would be sad to see Firefox end up the shambles that was the demise of Netscape Navigator.
Edge is just not finding a place. It feels kinda beta and is not cohesive in the way you would expect... is there even an Edge for mobile devices? Edge is probably better described by what it isn't than what it is. And that's a dull place of forgotten IE icons burried where you go as a last resort after you try chrome and firefox. Probably for the 5 people left with a Lumia or windows phone but I've yet to see it on Android. Firefox is there, it may be far from the usage of Chrome on Android but at least it's there at all.
Edge and plugins is something they need to sort out fast. No plugins is a death knell for many home users.
I just wish they would put a bit more effort into rekindling the support they had for the Raspberry Pi platform. There are quirky hacks to get the full version to work but it shouldn't have to be that complicated.
I feel a bit conflicted on this one. On the one hand, you're absolutely correct - MS is pushing this to monetise the OS and use windows store platformto generate a new revenue stream to compensate for the drop in PC sales etc.
But on the other hand Windows 10 has some stuff in it I really like. Ignoring briefly the dubious back peddling on the ux disaster that was 8 and 8.1 there's some nice stuff in there like OneGete and powershell 5 and native stuff like virtual desktops and forthcoming ssh and bash shell etc. Some stuff lifted from other platforms who but nice nonetheless.
The real problem is it's gonna only get worse as they try and suck everything into Azure and Office 365 and a variety of other vendor lock in stuff. All looks somewhat enticing now while they love all the open source at the moment. But this can't last.
ZFS can be replaced by btrfs in many cases. Yes ZFS is more mature and has more of a track record. But only by people using btrfs will it gain that level of testing in production environments. It is quite stable now and OK some may have data that they just can't bring themselves to trust away from XFS or ext4 or ZFS but I think it's time to look at alternatives to ZFS.
Powershell has some great features and ideas. And whilst it can be great to script in, it is very long winded to just type and use in an adhoc fashion. Sure there's aliases but its still a bit tedious.
The other thing power shell needs is more social interaction and perhaps just a bit more fun. I guess it's still quite new and evolving. Bash is ancient relatively speaking.
I'd like to see stuff like figlet, write, wall, mutt natively in powershell so it becomes more of a destination than a mere dull workhorse of productivity.
A lot of people clung to XP up to the end too. Some even pay to keep it supported by MS or third party. But all OS have a usable lifespan in normal home or corporate implementations.
explored/exploited..
The other thing about this is the undocumented feature allowing resumption of wonky connections sounds a bit like Mosh. A feature I would actually like to see in openssh itself. Mosh is still not compatible with enough clients for me as yet.
After patching this (which does sound unlikely to be explored issue to be fair for most implementations). They should concentrate on finishing and documenting that feature.
Undocumented features in security focused software. This doesn't sound like a good idea! Test or unfinished features should probably go in code forks or unreleased prototypes far from production use.
Well now that Adobe is FINALLY getting rid of Flash, I guess this is the next flawed web technology to hunt down and kill off. It took a long time for html5 to be ready for the task of replacing flash. But what is mature enough and most appropriate to replace JavaScript? And how long will it take the industry to adopt a replacement?
The quality of some CDs and other media was poor enough in some cases to be effectively self destructive. Micro thin metallic layer with just as thin lacquer over it and plastic that seems to scratch remarkably easy.
I do like vinyl and always have done but I wonder has its recent resurgence been helped by vested interests of record companies.
I suspect it's driven by nends to some extent but also by the marketing and price and legal teams of competors who see financial opportunities
It may be all apps this and apps that these days but the humble Web browser is still a lucrative business for some. MS are not going to let go easily. Secondly the loss of the Web browser on desktops is seen a slippery slope to depleted control of the desktop itself.
We geeks tend to forget that most home users and businesses tend to just go with what is native to a system OS. Many simply won't bother getting another browser and will just put up with things they may not fully like.