Microsoft previews bevy of new features coming to Windows 10

[DanceswithUnix]

But then the guy with the custom car can choose to customise it, and pay the bill.

So how do you deal with Linux updates? My current Linux install was Fedora 16, but has been rolling upgraded to F25. That's half a decade of updates which include support for the CPU, motherboard and graphics card which all got changed along the way. I expect the machine would run F16, but would be a bit of a dog. It spans changes from init to systemd, from X server to Wayland compositor, the boot loader changed from grub to grub2. These are fundamental architecture changes which make a few Start menu changes look like minor fiddling about.

On top of that, Ubuntu doesn't have the cleanest record on privacy: https://fixubuntu.com/

[shaithis]

I have had many problems with Ubuntu upgrades in the past....either networking stops working or a number of things break during a dist upgrade.

Luckily, it's always been within a VM with a snapshot, you don't get that kind of safety net with a physical machine.

But I guess it's great that we (to some degree) have a choice. Obviously if your using Photoshop or Cubase, your not going to run Linux, if you have "invested" in the Apple ecosystem your unlikely to use anything else and if you game regularly, then your not going to look at much but Windows.....so there are still tasks that carry an OS as a requirement but with cloud becoming the IT buzzword of the decade, I can see that getting smaller and smaller.

[Ttaskmaster]

But how would you like it if you bought an automatic car, perhaps because you have a disability and can't drive manual gear cars, but then took it in for a service and it came back out with a manual gearbox because the makers decided it's easier to not support autos any more, and BTW, the better fuel consumption is hood for the environment and their marketing guy is on a green kick right now?

You mean how would I like it if I bought a Mac and it came back as a PC?

I've had similar things, actually, where I've taken something in for some reason and been told they don't support it any more, but have been kind enough to replace it with something of 'similar' or 'better' spec... which matched absolutely none of my needs, but the rest of the world was already decades past being done and dusted with the old tech I was still favouring.
No choice but to join the modern world, really.

It's more like them selling you a five-speed car, then deciding a coukd of years later you need to do evetything in third, so they disable the other four gears during a service.

Depends on whether you actually do need to do everything in third now, I suppose... Kinda like how we couldn't open many websites at work because we're on v10 of a browser that should be on v43 for even the most basic of modern websites to support it.

Oh, and they grabbed the car one night to do the setvice the next day, without adking you if it was convenient, unaware (or not caring) that without your car, you can't work and earn a living.

Can you not set up when Windows does the updates, now?
I seem to recall seeing that in my settings somewhere...

Yes it's a good thing but personally i would say those people should buy a Mac, unfortunately people want Mac standards but aren't willing to pay Mac prices.

I'd have said they all want Titan X as standard, but go with what they can afford...

Personally I've always thought people should undergo a test so they can best be matched to a suitable device, sort of like taking a driving test for automatics or manuals, although that's just my authoritarian side coming out.

But if more advanced things are available, you will at least get some people who are inspired to learn a bit about how it works, if only when theirs goes wrong.

[DaMoot]

and to turn off telemetry

So turn it off. Been many ways to do so for a long time.

[DaMoot]

Best feature would be to remove the garbage that is Edge! If people are desperate enough to use IE, let them use IE11 that's still built in to 10. I do that for all my clients; remove Edge shortcuts and just pin IE everywhere.

[TheAnimus]

Why would your clients want to use IE?!

Edge is getting better, I reckon in a year it might be good. A lot better battery life than Chrome, but a lot slower too. Already prefer it to FireFox.

[Corky34]

I'd have said they all want Titan X as standard, but go with what they can afford...

I'd say most people go for the cheapest.

But if more advanced things are available, you will at least get some people who are inspired to learn a bit about how it works, if only when theirs goes wrong.

You mean like people are compelled to learn about how their car works, sadly the majority of people just want something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible.

[DanceswithUnix]

... sadly the majority of people just want something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible.

Like the Raspberry Pi?

[me-yeah]

I have had many problems with Ubuntu upgrades in the past....either networking stops working or a number of things break during a dist upgrade.

Luckily, it's always been within a VM with a snapshot, you don't get that kind of safety net with a physical machine.

But I guess it's great that we (to some degree) have a choice. Obviously if your using Photoshop or Cubase, your not going to run Linux, if you have "invested" in the Apple ecosystem your unlikely to use anything else and if you game regularly, then your not going to look at much but Windows.....so there are still tasks that carry an OS as a requirement but with cloud becoming the IT buzzword of the decade, I can see that getting smaller and smaller.

you have plenty of security if you wish, there is terrabyte disk image, which can install to your boot partition, so you just have to press f8 and choose repair on the boot menu

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm

there is also time freeze sandbox, which is free http://www.toolwiz.com/products/toolwiz-time-freeze/

[Lord Midas]

I've had Windows 10 installed from day 1. Not had a single problem with it. Boots in seconds and does everything I need it to do. I can browse the web, sell rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish on ebay and play games via steam and gog. The 'settings' for the new style windows app is a bit crap though. Just lacking in options.
Win10 seems fine to me

[ik9000]

So turn it off. Been many ways to do so for a long time.

No, that isn't true. Various hacks have been suggested, but none that actually work. The most effective used to be a way to route the sending to 127.0.0.1 but MS have blocked that now, and it still doesn't prevent system resources being wasted on the exercise. Better to be able to TURN IT OFF without having to resort to hacks.

[Ttaskmaster]

Why would your clients want to use IE?!

We have a number of regulator-requirement apps and things in-house at work that won't run on anything else.
NO idea why and it's a pain in the bum, as we get emails with links in that auto-open in Firefox, but there ya go...

I'd say most people go for the cheapest.

Cheapest of the best, perhaps. If they went for just what is the cheapest, we'd mostly be gaming on 4850s and the like.

You mean like people are compelled to learn about how their car works,

I said some... and there are people who are interested, which is why Haynes and Clymer manuals still sell.
Many seem happy to drive 40 miles and pay £30 to have someone change their wiper blades, which just means more fuel money for me, but when they find out how easy this stuff is, they get all interested again.

sadly the majority of people just want something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible.

Until it goes wrong and they either get raped by dealers who want £380, or I show them how to do it themselves for £2.

[badass]

You mean like people are compelled to learn about how their car works, sadly the majority of people just want something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible.

Sadly? Just because a forum of computer geeks likes to tinker and understand "what's under the bonnet" does not mean it's unfortunate that the rest of the public do not. Don't fall into that trap.

Otherwise, it's pretty sad that all Londoners do not know the inner workings of TFL, their Busses, trains, how maintenance is authorised so they can better understand why it appears to be at the mercy of a bunch of self serving union member s

It's pretty sad that the general public do not understand how our power infrastructure works


etc
etc
etc

It is absolutely right for members of the public to want something to "just work" and not care about how it works. It's a shame that many IT professionals and software developers don't understand that.

[Corky34]

Cheapest of the best, perhaps. If they went for just what is the cheapest, we'd mostly be gaming on 4850s and the like.

You seem to be assuming most people know what makes one thing better than another, not only is that mostly subjective it also means you need some knowledge of that thing to know what makes one thing better than another, knowledge that like i said most computer users don't care to know.

I said some... and there are people who are interested, which is why Haynes and Clymer manuals still sell.
Many seem happy to drive 40 miles and pay £30 to have someone change their wiper blades, which just means more fuel money for me, but when they find out how easy this stuff is, they get all interested again.

Yes and that's my point, that the "some" people who want to do that make up a tiny minority of users nowdays, unlike 20 odd years ago where computers were mainly seen as a thing for geeks.

Until it goes wrong and they either get raped by dealers who want £380, or I show them how to do it themselves for £2.

Indeed but that's the price people pay for wanting something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible, the real cost don't present themselves until later down the line.

Sadly? Just because a forum of computer geeks likes to tinker and understand "what's under the bonnet" does not mean it's unfortunate that the rest of the public do not. Don't fall into that trap.

No it doesn't, and that's not what i said, i said it's sad that people don't want to understand "what's under the bonnet" while at the same time expecting something to be cheap, big difference there.

[Ttaskmaster]

It is absolutely right for members of the public to want something to "just work" and not care about how it works.

If we're talking cars, then no it's not.
That degree of ignorance is what has people blinding me at night with their improperly set headlights and has me crashing to my death when they don't understand why the diesel pump tries to cut out and not overfil your tank...

You seem to be assuming most people know what makes one thing better than another,

They usually know enough to read the minimum and recommended spec requirements on the back of a game...

Yes and that's my point, that the "some" people who want to do that make up a tiny minority of users nowdays, unlike 20 odd years ago where computers were mainly seen as a thing for geeks.

Most people will know/learn enough to achieve what suits their needs, especially as the information is more readily available and even system building is almost completely plug & play nowadays...

Indeed but that's the price people pay for wanting something that works, gets the job done, and is as cheap as possible, the real cost don't present themselves until later down the line.

So you're telling me the majority of people are paying £380 for dealers to replace a headlight bulb, that costs £2 and which the procedure for changing is detailed in the owners manual?
Most people are THAT retarded, are they?
They can't even Google it?

I agree that is what people may want... but most people are not that stupid, either. Not even our accountants.

No it doesn't, and that's not what i said, i said it's sad that people don't want to understand "what's under the bonnet" while at the same time expecting something to be cheap, big difference there.

Actually, I'd say people at least know things can be cheaper, which is why they pay people like me to know what they don't and do what they either can't, won't or didn't know they could do until I show them.
More of them take an interest once they have a reason to. Kinda like cooking, really.

[DanceswithUnix]

Knowing how a car works doesn't really help much these days If something goes wrong with my car, then chances are it will go to a specialist garage without me even trying to do a repair myself. I did replace the EGR valve on my daily driver after a lot of googling, but that is a bit of a rarity. There's just too much going on with a modern engine what with swirl flaps and variable geometry turbos etc, and the ECU diagnostics codes aren't always obvious. Parts are often so expensive that cost of a misdiagnosis can buy you a lot mechanic's time (even at £70 per hour).

Computers aren't much better, but you can at least replace large parts of them easily. In the 80's I was given a broken Dragon 64, I diagnosed the fault down to a dodgy crystal and floppy disk controller chip and soldered in the replacement parts. These days you just rip entire boards out until it works with the help of some educated guesswork.