Microsoft to unveil 'what's next for Windows' ... Rounded corners and what else? Microsoft will reveal "what's next for Windows" at a virtual event on June 24th, rumoured to include a UI refresh codenamed "Sun Valley". The company held its virtual Build conference last week but although historically the Build event (first held in 2011) was focused on Windows, the news at the latest one was mainly focused …
I see trouble ahead
Subscriptions for everyone
Pay up or all your data is ours. That will be $500 to unlock it.
Be very afraid. This is only the start of the monetization of Windows.
They'll take over a major Linux distro next (Ubuntu is my guess)
All your data belongs to Microsoft.
Welcome to the Borg (Windows Version)
The upside is that Microsoft successfully delivered the "as a service" update model
You missed the word "outage" in the "outage as a service" statement
What was that strap line the used to use "Where do you want to go today ?" - > Safely back to where I started this morning.
What do I get - random outages, printing suddenly stops, random things changing because "change is good" and all for no real benefit for the users.
I find it amusing they are still drilling away at that Windows as a service nonsense.
An operating system that a person installs on a machine can never be a service. In the same way a toilet brush or bedroom wallpaper can never be services.
It is just a daft way of saying, heavier monetisation, heavier telemetry, heavier DRM, heavier faux updates
The SFU/Interix replacement, WSL has no relation to Windows being a service. It just happens to be an update that some people actually find use for as they try their hardest to migrate away from Microsoft.
I remember to good ole days when you could set all networking parameters in one location of the control panel. I think it was called "Networking", or something like that. You could set IP, DNS, gateway, and as I recall the computer name just by going to --> Control Panel --> Networking. Now, you have to find where they hid the "network adapter properties" applet and make those changes, then if you need to change the computer name, find where they hid the "advanced" change computer name. If you want to have the computer start with a "magic bullet" over the internet, find the settings in Windows to start with the magic bullet and hope that your bios supports that function, make sure you setup your private network as private and be prepared to change it back to private when a Windows update changes that setting for you because they know you are a very public person. So, yes, Microsoft -- even if you mistakenly think that the previous group of incompetent software "designers" and "programmers" screwed up by putting things in the wrong spot, remember that where users expect to find icons and settings from previous versions is the right spot. Please keep the same look and feel. As much as I don't like Apple products, they have been spot-on with a consistent look and feel. I guess in some ways, Microsoft does have a consistent look (BSOD) and feel (where the f*xc!k did they put the g*mdmfkngthngnw?) Of course, some of the features and functions you may have used in the past, you don't have to anymore when they very unceremoniously remove it. So, I agree - pick something and just stick with it.
Hmm, so a bit of a (welcome) return to the XP/Vista/7 style then? Now how about doing something for us poor buggers who like to see borders thicker than a single almost invisible pixel? I absolutely hate it when I have two dark background PuTTY windows open and overlapping, and find it extremely difficult to see where one ends and the other starts! Usability, yeah we've vaguely heard of it!
I don't like rounded corner but, if they are gonna look like in the 'terminal screenshot' I welcome them because it seems the window border got a little thicker too.
If fits the MS pattern: screw up the UI and rather than admitting it or giving the option to choose 'classic style', they backpedal little by little to the point that is better, but not as good as leaving it alone in the first place.
Examples:
Win8 start menu. after several iteration we have the current start menu which is still meh.
Visual studio 2012: all white and no icons/flat gray icons. Now VS2019 it's ok (mostly because I got use to it) but Just a little restyle of the 2010 icons would have saved countless hours of lost productivity hunting for menu items.
Vs2019 blue theme. IT'S. NOT. BLUE. People complained and they claimed to 'have listened'. they modified it a bit, still not blue at all. Of course, they did not left the previous theme available, so an extension is needed.
With some luck by 2025 the UI will be more user friendly.
First, I don't want to be trying to meet a deadline when my machine decides to close all my apps and spend an hour buggering around with updates because a bonehead who doesn't know what I am doing decides I need it. By all means tell me one is there and what it adds but leave the timing to me.
Second, can we please dump whatever languages you are programming and move to one that means I don't need an array of crays just to run a notepad app?
Third stop taking away my apps or hiding them, I want notepad and paint for some small tasks compared to the elaphantine alternatives these old apps are still useful.
Finally I don't need the menus rearranged, Windows blurred, tiles, and fancy zooming in, I want speed. In 1985 you could start a computer from cold in seconds and stop it by the power switch immediately, today's windows takes so many weeks to get to operating speed the next bloody update fucks it over again, I suspect an over reliance on c sharp and or modern c++ is to blame
"In 1985 you could start a computer from cold in seconds " -- you mean the ZX spectrum!
Boot time is actually one thing Windows has improved over the years. The rest of your rant is to the point. Every day I still curse at Windows changing focus to other programs of popups while I'm typing! Nothing is really done right in Windows 7,8,8.5 and 10. Maybe I kinda forgive XP (and NT4).
Dear J.D., Microsoft has not improved boot time as you suggest - manufacturers of hard drives, cpu's, memory, support chips, and motherboards have. After your system appears to have completely booted and lets you start to run applications, Windows goes into overdrive sucking up resources to blast you with the next round of updates, virus checking, Windows Store updates (even if you have never done anything in the store), collecting data and performing telemetry to send info back to Microsoft. This ravenous consumption of resources I have seen go on for tens of minutes, consuming 70%-99% of cpu resources. On some systems I have watched the task manager report 0% resources being used because other Windows processes are sapping away so much computing power that the task manager can't get the information or report the use for minutes. Just for grins, I installed Windows XP Pro in a VirtualBox virtual machine hosted in Linux on an i3-3240 processor. Bootup and login total time was 10 seconds total for XP. Windows 10 Pro rel 20H2 bootup and login (automatic login) was 92 seconds. Don't tell me Microsoft has improved boot time unless you mean "improved" means more or increased. Speed of modern hardware is primarily responsible for any perceived improvement.
I too hate the "install and reboot" that Microsoft insists on doing without my input. A couple days ago I started a hard drive test which takes several hours. A few hours later I checked in on the progress and the computer was waiting for someone to login after an update and reboot. While I should have gone into the settings and told it to wait 7 days for updates to resume, I shouldn't have to do that. I should get a message telling me updates are waiting and give me the option to update now or not update until I say to update. I had two users who were prompted to give a time to reboot so a release upgrade could occur. They gave a 1 a.m. time to reboot. They did this around 9 a.m. As soon as they approved that time, the computers started the upgrade process, since 1 a.m. had already occured. They were unable to use their computers for a couple hours.
Given that I passionately hate the 10 UI (particularly the 3-control panels, plus registry plus powershell), overhauling the user experience would be welcomed.
A compatibility layer that runs inside any host OS of choice and absolute minimal runtime of anything else please. That would be a good UI overhaul.
Linux matters more on the Sever, than on PC's. In all of my 19 years in IT Support, not a single company I've ever worked for, used Linux, on the Desktop. IBM considered it, but then moved to Windows 10 from Windows 7. Fact is, MOST people use Windows at work, on their work PC's. >:-)
"...introduced "Windows as a service,..."
Yeah about that "introduced".
I don't think that word means what you think it does.
Now, don't get me wrong - I made a lot of money from those "something happened to my PC overnight and now our proprietary software don't work" kinda calls, but "forced" seems like a better description.
But that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But, WOW! do I look forward to those <checks notes> UI improvements.
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