back to article Windows 10 out, users happy, PCs upgraded, my work here is done – says Microsoft OS chief

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's head of operating systems, is going to take a year-long leave of absence from the biz once Windows 10 has rolled out. By November, Microsoft should have finished emitting Windows 10 to smartphones, completing the play Redmond is making for a single operating system to cover all possible computers and …

Page:

  1. Andy Non Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Light fuse and

    retire to a safe distance.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Light fuse and

      I was thinking "he tossed the grenade and ducked"... But hey, if he's not there when the crap really hits the fan, his stock options are safe. And being far away from the designated target area is a good plan.

    2. Someone Else Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Light fuse and

      Isn't that what Sinofsky did?

      1. jason 7

        Re: Light fuse and

        Sinofsky bolted about a week after launch. At least this time he waited 10 weeks!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Goes into hiding before he's lynched.

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      I feel sorry for his kids, they're stuck with him now.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disappearing after a Windows rollout..

    ... it's becoming a tradition in Redmond. Why? <G>

    1. P. Lee
      Coat

      Re: Disappearing after a Windows rollout..

      Some cruel people might suggest that they are all at sea already.

      1. Mark 85
        Devil

        Re: Disappearing after a Windows rollout..

        Some cruel people might suggest that they are all at sea already.

        Put there by MS or by a bunch of pitchfork and torch wielding users???

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Disappearing after a Windows rollout..

      @LDS

      Redmond? I thought this was SOP in all Corporate ecosystems? Land a good job, fuck it up royally for a few years, get a big bag of cash, move to the competitor and run them into the ground, rinse, repeat until you have enough cash...

  4. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    Snapping more family pics

    Thank goodness for iPhoto.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Snapping more family pics

      Presumably he won't be using a Lumia phone as they've just nobbled the Lumia Camera app on Windows Phone 10 or whatever it's called these days.

      1. Michael B.

        Re: Snapping more family pics

        Er, no they haven't. The Windows Phone 10 camera is the same as the Lumia Camera.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: Snapping more family pics

          My mistake, they got rid of the rest of the Lumia apps...

          http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/07/ms_farewells_more_of_nokias_legacy/

  5. ma1010
    Linux

    Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

    Yes, I threw Windows 10 out, and now I'm quite happy with my Linux Mint Rafaela installation.

    1. Novex

      Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

      I never even started with it. With all the retrocompromises being applied to Windows 7, I'm also jumping the MS ship to Linux Mint. Am I happy with Mint? Yes, but there are some teething troubles which really shouldn't be there (Bluetooth problems, hibernation problems, WINE problems) but I'm willing to stick it out for a while. If they can't get sorted, I can always try a different, non-Ubuntu derived distro. The only thing left with Linux is the lack of higher grade commercial software for it, like Adobe products, and other specialist music and graphics stuff which I use some of. But I can keep a restricted install of W7 for those I suppose, and a VM for non-hardware related software.

      1. Whistlerspa
        Unhappy

        Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

        "Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

        " Yes, but there are some teething troubles which really shouldn't be there (Bluetooth problems, hibernation problems, WINE problems) but I'm willing to stick it out for a while. If they can't get sorted, I can always try a different, non-Ubuntu derived distro. "

        Unfortunately they are not teething problems but ongoing limitations. I used to be a full time Linux user but with the advent of laptops replacing desktops I've found that hardware incompatibility has become more of a problem with Linux Distros. Hibernation issues , video card issues and wifi issues typify this.

        1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

          This post has been deleted by a moderator

          "This post has been deleted by a moderator "

          what is this? IMDB? that must have been a pretty offensive post!

          Penguin related I suspect

          1. chivo243 Silver badge
            Devil

            Re: This post has been deleted by a moderator

            one of my posts was deleted by moderator. I changed the wording of the title, and the next time my post got many happy upvotes...

        2. Stuart 22

          Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

          Easy one first - WINE. Yep, and usually caused by badly coded apps that don't stick to the API or require odd libraries. Thankfully I found alternate and sometimes better solutions. My really old and good Windows apps run beautifully in a Win2k VM. No activation issues, its small, its swift despite being 32bit. Better than Wine?

          Bluetooth. I've always found it a pain no matter what the device and whether Linux was even involved. LAN is the way to go. Good cameras do it that way, the rest will follow. Indeed if you have KDE Connect why on earth would you even think of using Bluetooth?

          Hibernation? Nope installed on three netbooks without issue. Maybe its my distro or my hardware but it isn't inevitable.

          YMMV

          1. wdmot

            Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

            Hibernation? Nope installed on three netbooks without issue. Maybe its my distro or my hardware but it isn't inevitable.

            The problem here is that if hibernation doesn't work with Linux on his laptop, there's generally no one on the forums who knows how to get it to work. Not necessarily that there isn't someone out there who knows, you just have no access to them. Same really goes for other hardware issues. I guess the fix is to buy a laptop with Linux pre-installed, which presumably means the manufacturer has gotten everything working correctly under Linux.

        3. JakeMS
          Linux

          Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

          Sometimes Hibernation issues where you are unable to boot back up after are actually due to the way the user set up the OS..

          "What! That's preposterous! How dare you! It can't be my fault!"

          So let's break down how Hibernation GNU/Linux actually works:

          Dumps entire contents of RAM into SWAP, on boot tries to read that swap and put it back into RAM, then boots up.

          Now herein lies the problem.. If like most people you have 64GB or more RAM chances are you either didn't create a SWAP partition (Who needs it anyway when you got 64GB or more ram right?) or you created a SWAP partition that doesn't match your ram. For example you have 64GB of ram but only created a 2GB "emergency" swap partition.

          So here's what happens if you only have 2GB of SWAP, but 64GB of RAM:

          Prior to going into hibernation you may be actively using say, 4GB of ram. No problem, you got 64GB why worry about a measly 4GB?

          Well when you go into hibernation it's going to try to put that 4GB into your 2GB SWAP partition. That's not going to work and some RAM data will simply not fit.

          So now when you try to boot back up your system reads the swap, restores the 2GB that was successfully saved.. but this isn't enough you need the other 2GB that was lost. Thus your system simply doesn't restore correctly or at all.

          This is usually most noticeable when the following happens:

          - Suspend to RAM works.

          - Hibernation fails.

          So yeah.. if your having issues booting back up after attempting hibernation.. check your SWAP. I've found when helping people with Hibernation issues this is the most common reason for it not working.

          If it still doesn't work after checking SWAP, you may have hardware incompatibility issues.

          Have fun!

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

            " If like most people you have 64GB or more RAM "

            WHAT !

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Windows 10 Out, Users Happy...

        The only thing left with Linux is the lack of higher grade commercial software for it, like Adobe products

        No, that's a feature!!

  6. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Warning! Incoming

    Big globs of Horse Poo detected heading for Redmond.

    If MS thinks that it is 'Job Done' then I'd really like to have some of what they are smoking.

    IMHO, they are living in a bubble of denial. A bubble created by their natural instinct to stick fingers in their ears and shout Na na na na na na I can't hear you.

    Being serious for a moment.

    No one I know will move to Windows 10. These are not IT experts but ordinary people who just don't want everything they do slurped and sent to MS (and god knows who else). Most are moving towards Mac's becasue they need to run tools like Photoshop.

    This is all of MS's own doing. They don't seem to be inclined to even recognise that some people have issues with W10.

    1. The Original Steve

      Re: Warning! Incoming

      "Ordinary people" are aware of the telemetary in Windows 10 but aren't IT experts or work in IT...? Jog on. Most "IT experts" I come across don't even know about it, let alone the great unwashed!

      And most people you know "are moving towards Mac's because they need to run tools like Photoshop"... Really? Are you from the 90's? Every major desktop platform, including Linux has a plethora of excellent, best of breed photo editing packages. Photoshop is identical on OS X or Windows, and Linux has dozens of tools that can do the job too. Nobody, truthfully, as opted for OS X because of Photoshop for about 15 years. If anything there are more photo editng applications for Windows than Mac, and none of the platforms has some magical edge when it come to heavy photo editing.

      The fact you believe this questions why on earth you are even visiting El Reg. Computer Active forums down or something?

      1. Martin an gof Silver badge

        Re: Warning! Incoming

        Re: The Original Steve

        Interesting argument you have there:

        1: users, even technically literate ones are unintelligent and unaware of W10's telemetry

        2: users are intelligent enough to realise that there's more to image manipulation than Photoshop on a Mac.

        No. Your average "arty" type will almost always choose a Mac for one or more of these reasons:

        a: that is what they have always used

        b: that is what they used in college

        c: all their arty mates use Macs or

        d: it still has a better "image" (i.e. it's a fashion thing).

        No matter that Photoshop works the same on a PC, "real creatives use Macs".

        It's pretty much the same mindset as that which has made Office (and in particular Word) the dominant system despite some quite excellent alternatives, and it's the same mindset that really wouldn't consider buying a Mac for general office work, even though Office is available for OSX.

        I'm sure we'd all like to think Windows 10 will be the point at which the average PC user will realise there are good - nay better - alternatives available, but we all hoped (expected?) that when Windows ME came out, when Vista came out, and again when Windows 8 came out, and were proved wrong.

        Unless you count the fact that people are buying tablets in preference to a PC, I suppose.

        :-)

        M.

        1. JimS

          Re: Warning! Incoming

          -No matter that Photoshop works the same on a PC, "real creatives use Macs".

          I worked in the print trade for over 10 years and was staggered at how attached some people were to their Macs. We had an in house repro studio and they never quite forgave me for upgrading them to PC's that enabled them to work faster for a fraction of the price of Mac based products. They didn't have an argument beyond "but it's a Mac", because the PC's did exactly the same job, some of them even looked pretty.

          I was also trained as a chippy when I left school. Had I walked in to the local builders merchant and been presented with the choice of a hammer with glitter on it or the same one without, I'd have taken the one without, especially if it was a third of the price.

          Right tool for the right job every time and unfortunately, since apple moved to Intel, Macs just don't offer anything above the "Ooh, I saw that on TV" appeal any more.

          I also no longer like their OS, it's clunky, full of IAP and just feels wrong to me, fine if you just want to browse the web and get your email. Which is probably why their popularity has grown with the masses.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

            Cool story bro.

            Your hammer analogy is fucking stupid though.

            And printer driver issues continue to be a massive pain in the ass on Windows.

            And graphics performance on OS X is better than PC because of the way the OS handles images, especially PDF.

            Lets just ignore facts and base your entire point of fatuous statements about 'glittery hammers' and 'cheap is best'.

            1. MrXavia

              Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

              "And printer driver issues continue to be a massive pain in the ass on Windows."

              I would say opposite, I find mac drivers are always inferior to windows ones, usually if you need to use a 'special' function of a printer (such as a flip/book/etc) the mac driver can't do it but the windows one can...

              1. John P

                Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

                We've got a few MFPs and an ancient HP LaserJet 2300, which just works and is still going strong.

                Windows 7 dealt with all of these pretty well once you found the right drivers. Windows 8 was a massive ball-ache to get set up for all of them, lots of patching inf files and trying 17 different ways to use a driver it really didn't want to use. Windows 10 however, upon being told to look for printers on the network, found all of them almost instantly and set itself up with absolutely no intervention from me.

                I had to send a test page to each one as I thought it was lying to me. No OS will ever be perfect but, from my personal experience, Windows 10 has made massive improvements in both the upgrade and peripheral experience.

                1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

                  Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

                  "Windows 10 however, upon being told to look for printers on the network, found all of them almost instantly and set itself up with absolutely no intervention from me."

                  Quite the contrary to my experience with the brief insider test. Firstly it confined itself to a subset of my LAN & would never have found the printer. Secondly, once some fixes had been rolled out to change subnet masks it still didn't help because it didn't have a driver for the printer, HP2030. I went to the HP site & downloaded the W8 version which worked OK. Maybe they ported more drivers later but this was getting close to release date.

            2. JimS

              Re: Warning! Incoming - Anonymous Coward

              Thanks bro,

              Never had issues with printer drivers, but then we weren't really running any old kit, I remember there being an issue with one of the scanners, but that was soon sorted with a call to the manufacturers.

              -And graphics performance on OS X is better than PC because of the way the OS handles images, especially PDF.

              Never seen any real proof of this, and I've worked side by side with Macs / Linux / Windows machines for years. You'd have had a point if we're talking Power-PC, now though if there is a difference, it's imperceptible on modern machines.

              No where did I mention cheap is best, just that the similar powered machines were far cheaper.

              It's just opinion ya know, no need to have a fit.

            3. This post has been deleted by its author

              1. JimS

                Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

                Isn't it just. Today's Macs are great if you don't need to do much beyond looking at pictures, maybe make a YouTube movie or check your email, for everything else it's clunky as hell. It's like they've gone backwards if you're a professional try to get a job of work done.

                Give me OS 9 over X any day.

                1. chivo243 Silver badge
                  Joke

                  Re: Warning! Incoming - JimS

                  @JimS

                  Bite your tongue man! Take the chooser and that atrocity that was the finder(still is btw) and leave them in the past where they belong. There was some other system thingamobob that drove me crazy too, I guess I have blocked it out ;-}

          2. HausWolf
            Meh

            Re: Warning! Incoming

            We just had a "real creative" join our company and he is upset with his brand new 16G, SSD Precision Laptop and insists his 4 year old macbook is faster and we should let it on our network.

            That and he insisted I install Safari for him as a web browser, because it's better.

        2. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

          mac vs pc

          "real creatives use Macs".

          ..and people with jobs use PC!

      2. Captain DaFt

        Re: Warning! Incoming

        -"Ordinary people" are aware of the telemetary in Windows 10 but aren't IT experts or work in IT...? Jog on. Most "IT experts" I come across don't even know about it, let alone the great unwashed!-

        Are you trying to tell me that artists are more informed than "IT experts"? Because on most of the art sites I frequent, they are howling over that little thing called Win10!

        -And most people you know "are moving towards Mac's because they need to run tools like Photoshop"... Really?-

        Yes, really. Many are edging away from Photoshop to other software since the subscription model, but most depend on Photoshop.

        -Linux has dozens of tools that can do the job too.-

        True. But for people that've used Photoshop for years, and know nothing else, they're better equipped to climb the North face of Everest than tackle the steep learning curve of most free offerings.

        -none of the platforms has some magical edge when it come to heavy photo editing.-

        No, but people are familiar with Windows, and OSX isn't so different, plus most major commercial art software is supported on both, so it's easier for them to jump ship to OSX, than jump into Linux Distros, None of which support the software that they're familiar with.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Warning! Incoming

      "These are not IT experts but ordinary people who just don't want everything they do slurped and sent to MS"

      Would these be the same people running an Android phone?

      Sigh...nothing like MS hatred to distort reality.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Warning! Incoming

        @ Lost all faith - not at all - fact is, it appears that more non-tecchies are aware of the bad sides of Windows 10 than are aware of the bad sides of Android (although some do seem to be getting a bit jumpy over recent security problems with Android). Why? No idea. as yet, but if I were to guess it'd be a combination of (a) because Windows has changed its behaviour and Android hasn't, and people tend to notice change, and (b) form-factor. Most people nowadays seem used to their pocket computers otherwise known as phones behaving as they do rather than like desktop computers. With desktop computers, there's always been the expectation that your data is in your PC. With phones that's not the case, as time has passed, folk have become gradually used to more and more of their phone experience being rather 'cloudy'.

        The fact that you and I can see the illogic of the situation is neither here nor there, and nor does it imply that all non IT-tecchies are stupid overall - most, if not all of us have areas in which we're not strictly rational or hold apparently contradictory beliefs/wishes. The thing about IT is that the threat isn't as obviously visible as a gang walking down the street intent on mugging, and the bait is a shiny bit of tech that appears to do very useful and/or fun things.

        Besides, what's amiss with hating a company that has behaved in an extremely underhanded, ant-competetive manner, forcing its product on people that dont want it (and making them pay for it whether wanted or not in the past too)? I find it hard to credit that anyone with a decent grasp of the word 'ethics' could fail to see how worthy of hate MS is.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Happy

          @Esme - Re: Warning! Incoming

          I find it hard to credit that anyone with a decent grasp of the word 'ethics' could fail to see how worthy of hate MS is.

          Thanks for that.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Warning! Incoming

      "No one I know will move to Windows 10."

      I hate to say this, but milions upon milions of others will move to Windows 10. Sad, maybe, but true. As long as it's not worse than Windows 8, or Vista (and it doesn't appear this way), it will become "THE" OS. Not for you, or me, or maybe hundreds of thousands of people following the penguin, not for milions of i-os-whatever fans, but for overwhelming majority of "computer" users on this planet - absolutely. (I'm not counting Androids, because they're not the main OS for their user base).

  7. pewpie
    Flame

    Get back here, fucko - you ain't done yet.

    Your job will be done when you are nailed to the prow of the good ship windoze, as it sinks into the sea of eternal stink, for betraying the trust of all windoze users, regardless of whether they wanted to swallow your malware laden excuse of an OS update or not.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Is it just me?

    Or does the Windows logo on that shirt looks like barred as if it were on a jail?

    1. bobgameon

      Re: Is it just me?

      It's not barred its made up of 1's and 0's. It's a binary coded message.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Is it just me?

        Indeed, it reads, "All your data belongs to us".

        1. omnicent

          Re: Is it just me?

          Shouldn't that be "all your data are belong to us"...?

          1. Chika

            Re: Is it just me?

            We get signal.

    2. harmjschoonhoven
      Thumb Up

      Re: Is it just me?

      BTW the bridge in the background was probably designed with a slide rule.

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like