Another reprieve for exhausted IT admins: Looks like there are no whizzbangers in Windows 10 21H1

Windows 10 21H1 is on its way, and seemingly without the major new features we've come to expect in a Microsoft spring rollout, if a post on Redmond's Windows Hardware Certification blog is anything to go by. Confirmation coming through the Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) is another departure from the norm. The …

[David Austin]

Good

It's a f'ing operating system: As long as it boots the hardware, and runs stably, that's job done. Leave the fancy new features to the Apps installed on the baseline OS.

Small, stable, incremental change is a *Good* thing for an OS, rather than a big bang shake up every 6 months.

[Sandtitz]

Re: Good

"It's a f'ing operating system: As long as it boots the hardware, and runs stably, that's job done."

Correct.

What'll they come up next? Include support for Guitar Hero controllers on the kernel?

[Norman Nescio]

Re: Good

Nah, they'll just flesh out support for the x64 architecture*

_{*where x="Nintendo "}

[Lee D]

Re: Good

I assume you're trying to be facetious.

Wanna tell me how you're going to access a device without a hardware device driver for it?

Or are you expecting all drivers to be user-space (good luck with that!)?

Controller input support, especially where it differs from USB / Bluetooth HID standards, is most definitely operating system territory. Even if the actual userspace driver and/or userspace use of that device isn't.

The question is: Do you want to rely on a third-party driver from the hardware manufacturer to let you use it, or have a device driver in the OS that'll work forever more, supported by the operating system manufacturer.

Be careful of your answer, because there may well be examples of the latter that you'll regret losing.

P.S. "support" does not even mean "it'll work". It means it's technically possible to use the device, not that there's complete top-to-bottom OS integration for it.

[Sandtitz]

Re: Good

"I assume you're trying to be facetious."

Facetious, moi?? Jocular more like.

My comment was 'a witticism, a gag, a bon mot, a fluctuation of words concluding with a trick ending'.

I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

"Or are you expecting all drivers to be user-space (good luck with that!)?"

If I happen to question the inclusion of a super niche device driver in a kernel, I'm not advocating an all-or-nothing approach here. Why would I expect all drivers to be user-space? Stuff like intermittently hotplugged USB doodads don't have to be kernel-space.

Such things work pretty well in Windows and Mac.

"The question is: Do you want to rely on a third-party driver from the hardware manufacturer to let you use it, or have a device driver in the OS that'll work forever more, supported by the operating system manufacturer."

Whatever works best. I'd say things are working pretty well in...Windows.

I'm sincerely glad that the Guitar Hero dingus works for the very few people interested in plugging one into a PC running Linux, even if its just those coders who made the driver.

"Be careful of your answer, because there may well be examples of the latter that you'll regret losing."

Ooh, scary! Is your rebuttal going to include scsi/parallel port flatbed scanners, 80486 Beowulf clusters, Cirrus Logic graphics and ISDN cards on the EISA bus?

[bombastic bob]

Re: Good

From the article: without the major new features

Read: without the FEATURE CREEP

Small, stable, incremental change is a *Good* thing for an OS

A qualified "agreed" except that you want to avoid the _kinds_ of feature creep that slowly shows up, such as some of the things in XP that broke stuff in SP2 (for example). I remember a few things, specifically, including the ability to (easily) create raw packets for IP.

But it's a welcome change, for sure for Micros~1 to (for a second time) release updates that don't "change the universe" according to someone's "feel".

[Robert Carnegie]

Remind me

Which are the long term support issues again?

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: Remind me

Its a m$ product?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Remind me

Listed here if you really want to know:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/release-information

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Remind me

Thank you - I did mean to say the long term releases, perhaps it was a Freudian slip! ;-)

Not every user gets the long term support, though - I'd better remember that.

[thondwe]

In the "Beta" channel

Download on Insiders Beta channel this morning (UK) - along with usual collection of Surface Firmware bits - expect it'll have broken bluetooth/wifi/etc again!