Microsoft takes us to 2004 with new Windows 10 so you don't mistake it for Server 2003 Microsoft crossed the streams last night as both the Fast and Slow Rings of the Windows Insider Program synchronised ahead of the final fit and finish of next year's Windows 10. While build 19033 was light on features, as is depressingly the norm with 20H1 these days, that watermark remained absent and, more importantly, the …
Good.
The last thing I need from windows is any more "Features". I don't like the ones we already have. Fix your goddamned bugs. It is utterly ridiculous that we're in a situation where my laptop occasionally just "forgets" that it has an HDMI output and requires a reboot to fix it. Sometimes it boots and the USB-C port is just... gone. Reboot, and there it is again. Sometimes it will drop _all_ sound at the end of a skype call. Sound hardware is still showing as there, but there's no output any more no matter what you do with the volume sliders. Guess what you have to do to fix that?
Same machine booted into Ubuntu _never_ has these problems. If it weren't for gaming Windows would have been ditched entirely (as opposed to just relegated to a secondary partition) a long time ago just because it's become so damn unreliable.
Not just a gaming platform, but an advertising platform, a send info about user to MSoft HQ platform, a platform to automatically install incorrect device drivers, and above all - a platform that makes linux users happy knowing they made the correct decision to not use Windows for important uses.
Problem with revenue streams that don't work reliably is they tend to dry up as people go in search of others that do. I can only hope that Microsoft realise this before Windows is irreparably damaged (if it's not been already) because believe it or not I actually think it's a good thing that there remain multiple choices in the OS space.
The OS space might end up a little healthier if Windows did get a bit damaged, as it's still far too dominant in desktop/laptops. This won't affect the availability of multiple choices of OS - no matter how damaged it gets, Windows isn't going away for the foreseeable future.
I've been building PCs for Gaming this year. Both Windows 7 and Windows 10 are suitable but the BSOD that happens in Windows is really causing me problems. I did build a Linux Mint gaming machine and insisted they only play games from Steam. This works amazingly well but the Gamers insisted that it should play Fortnite hence the switch to Windows 7 and the subsequent blue screens.
Microsoft needs to fix their OS for this market because Linux is growing more and more capable. Once the developers stop trying to block Linux then Windows will be over as a gaming platform, as it is for a business bookkeeping platform. Most people seem happy with Zero Accounts.
I dont know fortnite, but it doesnt appear to be a q3a class game ie no need for sub-degrè rotation accuracy in milliseconds even for beginners. As wikipedia lists switch, ps4,ios and android as platform why not just use a smartphone or get a console...
/ex pc now longtime console, but the change was made along with a shift in kinds of games i play (no fps any longer)
"Windows 10 is not an operating system, it's a gaming platform. Gotta admit I'm amazed that business is still using it!"
Not this boy, Linux Mint Xfce for my main biz workstation. When we lost AD a few months back I was one of the few who could login and keep working, plus I was one of the few who could get over to the AD server to help out with fixes as Xfree2 RDP client works 10x better than anything MS offer.
The UI yet.
How can I get Windows borders wider so I do not get confused?
Also am I the only person to not touch the new start menu at all as it sets me off. Used it once, no sign of shutdown or restart and things kept moving, luckily I know Ctrl-R and most of the dialog names, and of course shutdown /r and its friends.
You, my friend, are ready for Windows 10 LTSC.
No start menu, no telemetry, no Edge, no Apps, no interface or "features" changes for 2 years.
You just get Windows 10 and security updates.
It has been ultimate bliss since I moved over to it at the end of last year. I thoroughly recommend it.
Only available to corporations with a suitable number of licenses, I'm afraid... I've recently bought one such license off Amazon, and the seller subsequently reimbursed the purchase when I messaged them to the effect that the Microsoft dowload page they pointed me to only offered Pro and Home editions.
I haven't been able to find a download option on Microsoft's site that doesn't require credentials for the Volume Licensing Service Center, and I'm not going to use a dodgy torrent site to download my OS...
Barely so. Edge should go live Jan 15.
WSL (2) is great. If you code even a little for a living, say you’re in IT broadly, that thing will come in quite handy.
I remember Win 7. It’s a good OS; I don’t feel any particular nostalgia for it.
Actually WSL kind of reminds me of Wine, only backwards. After dinking with Cygwin-X (And some other BS for a fiver from the "Store") and this and that for a few months, I finally got something that mostly worked. Then my brain unclogged and I loaded Kubuntu. . . Which I'm typing this on.
The esoteric driver support is the Linux problem. Intel (for one) is notorious for buggy chipsets with lot's of software/driver work-arounds... Have been since the 8085 days, timing specs were pure fantasy. This OneMix-2S required a dozen manual tweaks, and it still won't wake up a USB-C hub to the external display more than 50% of the time. Windows is not that much better. Hit's around 85% but hey, Linux sucks, Windows is awesome. If the vendors would just publish the API's for their hardware some hack would have it 100% on Linux in days, but reverse engineering is painful and time consuming.
Frankly though the other comment hit the nail. It's office/calendaring and AD/SSO cruft (The latter being a constantly moving target, GRRR modern auth grr, but I shant digress) that drives business. MS support is as abysmal as the rest, but no CIO ever got called out for buying microsoft, and of course this year they jacked our licensing 8% (E3, K9999 anyone?). If they keep it up at that pace there will definitely be a move at point, as the other 90% of Desktop activity is web these days, and for most of that, I can run Chromebooks, or BSD, or Linux, or even DEX on my Samsung Note 9. The latter is about 80% there, 'bout like WSL...
Those pesky compatibility problems with anti-cheat software continue to linger
Maybe they should partner up with the Wine/Codeweavers folks then. Often the reason a game fails to run under Linux/Wine is because the games will mistake Wine as "cheat" software(*). Fix it in one platform and it might get fixed in the other.
(*) unless you're talking about Roblox. *THAT'S* just a case of shit programming.
One will have to keep one's drivers up to date or one's entire enterprise will, again, go titsup.
As usual.
Like some Intel drivers, from a while back, which borked loading, due to expired certificates.
Microsoft, being ever so helpful suggested "Well, download the updated driver".
"We can't, the NIC was one of the drivers you forced offline and now the entire enterprise is down!"
"Get a new enterprise."
"Linux is looking better and better..."
"Well, if you're going to be abusive - <click>."
Contracting, I want your entire department to meet me on the 100th floor conference room - now.
Maintenance, take an early lunch, got some emergency patching to perform on the elevators...
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