Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software Windows 10 is the last version of Windows that will ever be released. If this really is the last version of Windows desktop operating system ever, though, where will Microsoft make its money? Microsoft, after-all, has built a multi-billion-dollar business on sales of new versions of Windows through retailers and to PC makers, …
That sounds like SWTOR's virtual item and unlock retail circus...
But I don't think that has much of a chance to stick with Microsoft.
The threshold for consumers to switch to less convenient alternatives hasn't been met yet, but whenever MS goes too far with things that are acceptable to companies but not to individuals, they will go.
I recently was asked by a technically challenged business owner who is familiar enough with Windows to do his work fluidly to replace it with Linux... I recommended against it, but he insisted and even suffers the horrible state of skype for linux and the Thunderbird email client with terrible default settings for business use, just to be off Microsoft and their constant arbitrary changes.
...that's funny because I know a business user that complains that the Windows version of Skype is full of ads and steals all upstream bandwidth.
The Linux version of Skype seems like an improvement over that actually.
The cash cow mentality when applied to software creates these strange paradoxes.
I'm no expert on enterprise deployment (I'm forced to use the typical outlook+office+sharepoint here and in my opinion it's shite, especially sharepoint) but isn't the usual way when dispensing of microsoft to switch to Google's business tools? I've heard good things from people who use it.
Wow, not sure if it was just my phone screen but Steve looked as if he'd been tango'd.
As for Windows subscription, an OS is one thing I won't pay for monthly. I want to own it and upgrade when I'm ready. I suspect they're about to shoot themselves in the foot if they think people are going to swallow this.
PS: I actually like Windows 10. Upgraded it over a dinner time from Windows 8.1 and started using it as I'd left off before. No glitches or anything. Very impressed.
I'm sure a random dog turd on the sidewalk, would be more impressive then Windows 8.x. So I'll trust your opinion on this matter. But, what I'd like to know is how it fairs against say a real OS like Windows 7 x64 Ultimate...
In reality the only turgid thing about Windows 8 was its bolted on touch crap and lack of cohesion between that and WIMP. Underneath it is not so bad. I refused to use Windows 8 and got used to the compromise of 8.1. Windows 10 is what 8 should have been as is the pattern with Microsoft OS releases. It looks shiny and new,seems stable and it seems just after a couple of days serious use everything is where it should be again.
I really can't understand all the Windows hate these days as there's just no need. I use Linux too occasionally, I appreciate what it is and where it is going and have installed it for none techy people who I suspect will get infected easily that just need Web browsing.
I cut my teeth on Windows, I use and administer it at work as well as Linux Web servers, I can't imagine a world without Windows and don't see why there should be. I haven't used every Linux distro going but to me in my opinion from what I have used, the intricacies of using it and getting stuff working everyday are a bit too esoteric still. Maybe the day of Linux will come,but it hasn't yet. This really isn't a fight, it's just another Windows/Mac scenario playing out. At least there's choice now and that's the real winner for everyone.
You can't understand the Windows hate?! Funny 'cause you touched on sever points of why I disliked Windows 8.x for instance.... Things I hate (or at least on paper dislike), are enforced Driver / UI Updates with little to no say in the matter of what gets installed... The p2p sharing of the aforementioned updates at MY EXPENSE! Sure uncle Google can tell you how to turn this one off. But, why is it even on to start with?!
I'm sure the allusion of having to shellout for things like the standard DirectX Updates will also go down well, as well. There are plenty of reasond to dislike where MicroSoft are taking Windows. Its one thing to move Office online... It will not be as simple for them to do this with Windows which is on a far more personal level. While the exit en-mass to Linux may not happen. It will happen with other non PC style equipment, and I think MicroSoft have their finger on this pulse. But, they're making this a self fulfilling prophecy with Windows 10 as it is. When what every one wants is the LTSB (5+ year version).
To add to this... DirectX shall never be the noose with which they'll hang me with... I could care lees if DX12 is ONLY for Windows X! I'm sure the PC Master Race will swallow it But, PC gaming has never appealed to me in the post MS-DOS era. But, MicroSoft will end up finding its market this way. But, I wonder how paying for something that was essentially an OS Patch will eventually play down.
But, whats sadder in this post Windows X launch, is the lack of heart felt motivation to step away from Windows 7. Like I said... It probably is very well a godsend for those on Windows 8.x. I have NO problems in believing that! But, this is in-and-of-itself is NOT enough motivation for me a Windows 7 user to want to pack it all up and, call it a day. And, its only just shy a slap in the face that only the Bankster Classes will be granted the LTSB (Ultimate) Branch of W10.
I have very little interest in being just a bit further up the chain then a bleeding-edge alpha Insider Tester. So that they can be in turn spared. And, then there are other problems with this OS like the p2p update system... Yeah... I'm sure thats gonna last the lifetime of the OS without ever getting p0wned once.
Suddenly Windows (H)8 is becoming itself more, and more attractive... This can't be good for MicroSoft.....
But, what I'd like to know is how it fairs against say a real OS like Windows 7 x64 Ultimate...
That I'm still waiting for an answer to this... Apparently the MicroShrills must be too?! 'Cause apparently saying that its the most wonderful thing since ever... Isn't going to cut it this time...
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Sounds more like a Journalists "Liquid Lunch" followed by a "Martin Summers Is Unwell"....
I upgraded today from a fully updated Windows 7 Pro and it took about 4 hours - without touching it - until the disk activity light, and my router light stopped being permanently on. Even now, 10 hours later I can occasionally type a sentence and have time to roll a cigarette before the text appears.
Dual-core, 2GB ram*, Win-10 Pro 32-bit, only Edge open with 2 tabs, fan roaring its head off continually, disk light duty cycle > 90%
*Suspect this might be the culprit. Reminiscent of how slow my first Windows-3 machine was. It had 1/1000th of the RAM, 2MB. Nothing really changes.
Yup, I set it upgrading before I went to lunch. By the time I came back it was pretty much finished. That was an i3 with 8GB RAM (you have 2? Ouch!) and yes I really was using it pretty much straight away. I didn't include download time in that as I was presented with the you're ready to upgrade message straight away as my machine is always on. Weirdly it took ages on my home machine (i5 8GB) tonight and that was using the media creation kit method after getting sick of waiting for the invite.
" it took about 4 hours - without touching it - until the disk activity light, and my router light stopped being permanently on. Even now, 10 hours later I can occasionally type a sentence and have time to roll a cigarette before the text appears."
This is going to cause problems because your system configuration seems to be typical of many consumer machines. From my experience having their computer out of action for a few hours with lots of activity will be sufficient for many to regard it as having got stuck (or been infested with malware) and hence will turn the power off... Likewise the seemingly random hangs in the hours following will not assist in creating a good impression. In conclusion, I suspect that the initial user experience will be determined by the speed and QoS of their broadband and the physical hardware of their system. Hence the experience will be highly variable, just we are seeing in the comments to many El Reg articles.
Sure, Windows 10 is an improvement over Windows 8.x, but so is Windows 95, 98, NT, XP, 7. Ok, that is a stretch, but the one thing Microsoft did improve over Windows 7 is the speed of detecting, downloading, and installing updates. On the flip side - there is little control over timing of updates -- I'm tired of attempting to install new software and have to deal with updates installing while performing a mandatory reboot as part of a new software package install.
"Wow, not sure if it was just my phone screen but Steve looked as if he'd been tango'd.
As for Windows subscription, an OS is one thing I won't pay for monthly. I want to own it and upgrade when I'm ready. I suspect they're about to shoot themselves in the foot if they think people are going to swallow this."
Two things that I remembered as I read your comments; 1) I dislike Steve Ballmer, and not just because he screwed up Windows even more than previous mistakes 2) WINE is not an emulator. I think that I will in the long run plan on migrating everything to Linux, whilst cursing sourceforge.net. Bah.
I have used MS Windows since 2 x. I tried GeoWorks with DR DOS (hmm) and a variety of other things on the way. I am impressed with the way that Knoppix transformed itself, having first used it about 12 years ago. I can remember the thrill of learning DOS switches and using MS DOS alongside WFW, which was a thrill. I had it all sorted; editing the .ini files, backing stuff up on to a Jumbo streamer. The lot. I wanted Windows NT, but what has happened has taken the fun out of it all.
It's no longer a game. It's a grown up thing now. :-(
@Rumournz: Thanks, I didn't know that. I'll definitely have to look into this!
@Paul Crawford: Thank you, that's certainly sound advice for a fresh install - but as it it, my HDD is already full partitioned into NTFS drives for Windows use (which I expect to mount under Linux), except for a ~50GB slot I reserved for a Linux system drive. Splitting that up yet again seems a bit much trouble if possible at all without upsetting the existing partition table (non-GPT); I guess "home" will have to stay on the same drive until the next PC upgrade (probably quite a few LTSs away - I'm a highly-averse-to-change kinda guy, it always takes too much effort for nothing).
If it is not a laptop, get an additional 60Gb SSD, install Linux on it, and with symbolic links you can even use your Windows Home folder as your Linux one, all your data in one folder hierarchy .... AND, when you want to hose linux, all you have to do is wipe the SSD and, after install, re-create the symlinks ... ;-)
When you install Linux go to the advanced options for disk partitioning and set up something like this:
/ ext4 (~30GB if you have enough space)
/home ext4 (most of the rest of the disk)
And leave about 30GB if you can (say on a 1TB HDD or similar so its no big deal). That way you can nuke your OS installation without losing your own data, and if you prefer install a later version in the unused space and also have it mounting your home partition later. Then the grub boot menu will give you the chance to boot in to old or new versions.
Its just as easy on Windows, simply have one partition (or an SSD) for Windows and a second partition (or HDD) for user data. Simply click on the user folder after install and choose "move" and move it to the drive where the data is stored on the HDD...tada!
And I'll get hate for saying it but truth is truth...all those guys singing Linux praises? WinME was a bomb...you gained nothing. Vista was a bomb...you gained nothing. Windows 8 was a bomb...starting to sense a pattern here? To steal a line from a former US presidential election ITS THE PROGRAMS STUPID and I'm sorry but in 2015 Linux programs simply cannot compete with commercial software from a decade ago, they just can't. You know the obvious ones, Gimp and Inkscape can't touch Photoshop or even PaintShop Pro from 2005, Audacity can't touch Sonor or Acid Pro from a decade ago, I could go on all day. You wanna know what somebody used to using good commercial software thinks when they try Linux? You know those Chinese knock offs sold on sites like Chinabuye, like those MP5 players made to look like the Vita or cheap Android "consoles" with names like Polystation 4 and Wii U2? Using Linux software feels like that, its all a bunch of bad ersatz knock offs that only look like the real deal in the most superficial ways and once you use it? It compares about as well as that Polystation 4 does to the PS4.
So as long as Linux is openly hostile to commercial software, the kind the vast majority of the planet has literally invested billions of dollars in purchasing? Then MSFT could change the name of Win 10 to "Big Brother Edition" and put the Eye of Sauron as a desktop wallpaper, they will still get more users in 22 days than Linux desktops have gained in 22 years. People simply aren't gonna give up all that software for bad ersatz knock offs or worse be told they need to buy Windows just to run it in a VM, to which I always reply "If I still have to buy Windows, what do I need your OS for?"
BTW before anybody chimes in with Android/ChromeOS? That is a proprietary OS owned by Google which phones home just as much if not more than anything MSFT puts out and which in the case of Android we are seeing more and more taken proprietary thanks to the Google Playwall and in the case of ChromeOS we are seeing bog standard X86 hardware so locked down with DRM that it takes a page of CLI simply to get it to run a handful of special distros with approved bootloaders, you might as well claim TiVos and routers as desktops if you are gonna count those.
I seriously could not resist having a pop @ this one because in so many ways its no more than the simple truth though overly harsh towards Linux software's.
Para 2 is where in my view you run off the rails and suffer a major crash, you not I state, "WinME was a bomb...you gained nothing. Vista was a bomb...you gained nothing. Windows 8 was a bomb.." etc.
How much did those systems cost you? I assume you did buy them and not knock them off - as against the cost of Linux systems over the same period. Answer umpety £ as against SFA. How many options did you have within those systems, nada versus infinity? Are you, "starting to sense a pattern here?"
Many of the admittedly excellent packages you quote, (And their more modern successors) actually do run pretty well under Linux via Wine & its derivatives while all and virtually everything else you might fancy run on virtual machines.
"I always reply "If I still have to buy Windows, what do I need your OS for?" to which I might answer "To stop MS from stuffing my box with malware I didn't ask for or want". In the past I've used every MS product from Dos 3.1, (Which was the first remotely reliable version) to Win 10 and ripe Gorgonzola most were.
With the release of Win 10 MS plumbed new depths however, I'd long been accustomed to coping with outside threats against generations of poorly programmed operating systems but now MS themselves have now riddled all their current operating systems with, "Tell me your inmost secrets" write home "Features" to the point where the only really safe option is to deny them internet access. Which of course renders those same operating systems useless unless you are prepared to lie back and think of England while MS rapes your machine or restrict access to a parent Linux system.
"So as long as Linux is openly hostile to commercial software, the kind the vast majority of the planet has literally invested billions of dollars in purchasing?". Which planet do you call home anyway?
Linux as an entity just doesn't exist in the sense you use it, every user has his or her own take on what is or is not acceptable. Mine incidentally is to use the handiest and best tool for the specific job a view with which most users would I believe agree. Choice is not just key here its the entire point of buying a computer.
After a particularly annoying evening trying to simply get into safe mode and do a system restore after a dodgy install borked my Win8.1 system, I am going to finally install Linux Mint Mate edition and give it a proper trial as my main day to day system.
Apparently my OS drive was "locked" which meant the recovery usb couldn't do either a system restore or repair and didn't tell me how to unlock it either. Eventually I found the command to re-enable the F8 menu on boot and got it done (FYI it's "bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy" from an elevated command prompt).
The above kerfuffle has just added weight to my concerns abouts Win 10's Cortana, the mandatory auto-updates, the pushing towards a Microsoft account and OneDrive and mostly the fact there's no straight answer on whether this will change my retail Win 7/8.1 keys into OEM ones yet.
Win 10 makes me uneasy, Linux deserves a shot.
I have been using Ubuntu as my primary OS for a little over 5 years on desktops and laptops. Is also use it on servers. I recently started using Lubuntu on servers because of better support of video cards found on older servers (yes, I use the gui interface, rather than the default text screens in the server editions).
There are plenty of flavors of Linux out there are geared to various groups of people (students, engineers, musicians, etc). There are only 2 flavors of Win 10, both seem to be geared to people who like to bang their heads against a brick wall.
I'm quite happy with the stock install of debian I did recently on my ancient netbook.
I do like to shop around when it comes to applications though, so I don't like the ubuntu/mint way of forcing the defaults (yeah I know I can uninstall them) so prefer a blank canvas that I can install stuff on. Debian supported everything out the box (which i've had problems with in the past) and was surprisingly user friendly.
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