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Farewell, Cortana

gizmodo.com

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Re: Farewell, Cortana

#91

Post by fortran77 »

ToFab123 wrote: post #65
kabdib wrote: post #42

The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Look: I'm not really happy running Windows Server to begin with [HN crowd: a decision that was not mine, by the way], so why do you have to have this stupid thing downloading and running all kinds of random executables that I have no idea what they do in my bloody server farm ? And yup, I have logs off all those things, and pager tr…

>The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Cortana is not running as part of Windows Server 2016 by default . The default install option is no GUI and that option does not install Cortana. You will explicit have to choose that you want to install the "Desktop experience" in order to get Cortana. If you select to add an optional feature named "Desktop experience" it is fair…

Yes. As a very happy Windows user, both server and desktop, I'm always scratching my head about the FUD comments I see here about Windows. Most are simply untrue, else they're vast distortions. It makes me wonder whose behind them and why. Is it just ultra-fandom, or is someone trying an orgranized attempt to manipulate markets through mis-information?

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#92

Post by jotm »

Bjartr wrote: post #84
jotm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played with it when you could replace the godawful "OK Google" phrase with your own. It was pretty useless. I'm never saying "OK Google". Siri, Cortana, etc are a bit better but why not let people personalize that? Gotta remind people who owns them?

"hotword" detection is done in special recognition hardware so as to not incur latency to the cloud, which is where the rest of the voice recognition gets done. You can't change the hotword, or can only choose between a few, because that's what's baked into the chip on the device.

Yeah, only problem is you could in fact, change it.

And then they removed that feature, long before it ran on a separate low power IC.

That's for Android phones. I'm actually not sure they run it from a separate IC anyway, like the iPhones.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#93

Post by fortran77 »

js4ever wrote: post #2

I don't know a single person using Cortana, so it's not a surprise I guess. At least the push to use it in Windows will finally go away... A bit too late I have migrated to Ubuntu earlier this year... Puting an end to 20 years of Windows on my computer. Farewell Microsoft.

Hello! I use Cortana. Nice to meet you!

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#94

Post by himinlomax »

goatinaboat wrote: post #87
himinlomax wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be fair here. Apart from AD and Exchange, the only Windows-only server programs you may need to install are likely to be legacy domain specific, professional kind of stuff. I've seen tax-filing stuff, finance regulation compliance, medical or judicial "solutions" that would only run (poorly) on Windows, usually with mind-boggling requirements (run as domain admin! Server 2003 only!) and they simply won't run wi…

usually, if you need Windows server, you're going to need the GUI. This absolutely is not true and is a bizarre assertion to start with “Let’s be fair here”.

Look, as far as I'm concerned and as an SRE, server-side Windows is legacy. (With the only already mentioned exceptions being AD and Exchange.) And client-side Windows is ... well something I don't use personally anyways.

Bottom line is, legacy stuff gonna legacy.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#95

Post by marcosdumay »

bayindirh wrote: post #88
Lewton wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be a lot of macs or linux machines in the department responsible for the search because there's no way any developer is dogfooding that user hostile mess

IIRC the conversation I've had with a former Microsoft employee, some features are developed as mini competitions. Requirements are sent to the group(s) and first acceptable implementation gets merged. e.g. for the Ribbon-UI in Office, there was 3-4 implementations until one was selected as final. So the Windows search UI is the fastest developed one with acceptable features.

Ouch.

If I wanted to create a process with the goal of generating technical debt, I wouldn't get something that effective. It's even beaultiful how it leverages all the competition flaws to get this result.

I imagine the result is reflected on the employees productivity assessment and the worst performers fired, so it can exploit evolutionary dynamics to create the highest possible amount of debit.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#96

Post by TeMPOraL »

bayindirh wrote: post #88
Lewton wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be a lot of macs or linux machines in the department responsible for the search because there's no way any developer is dogfooding that user hostile mess

IIRC the conversation I've had with a former Microsoft employee, some features are developed as mini competitions. Requirements are sent to the group(s) and first acceptable implementation gets merged. e.g. for the Ribbon-UI in Office, there was 3-4 implementations until one was selected as final. So the Windows search UI is the fastest developed one with acceptable features.

I wonder who had such a brilliant idea. Merging in competing whichever variant got to meet the spec the fastest? It's setting yourself to fail.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#97

Post by muststopmyths »

fortran77 wrote: post #91
ToFab123 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Cortana is not running as part of Windows Server 2016 by default . The default install option is no GUI and that option does not install Cortana. You will explicit have to choose that you want to install the "Desktop experience" in order to get Cortana. If you select to add an optional feature named "Desktop experience" it is fair…

Yes. As a very happy Windows user, both server and desktop, I'm always scratching my head about the FUD comments I see here about Windows. Most are simply untrue, else they're vast distortions. It makes me wonder whose behind them and why. Is it just ultra-fandom, or is someone trying an orgranized attempt to manipulate markets through mis-information?

Actually it gives one a very easy filter to spot the people whose opinion is based on actual experience vs something in their fertile imagination.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#98

Post by cesarb »

fortran77 wrote: post #91
ToFab123 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The big howler for me was Cortana running as part of Windows Server 2016, by default. Cortana is not running as part of Windows Server 2016 by default . The default install option is no GUI and that option does not install Cortana. You will explicit have to choose that you want to install the "Desktop experience" in order to get Cortana. If you select to add an optional feature named "Desktop experience" it is fair…

Yes. As a very happy Windows user, both server and desktop, I'm always scratching my head about the FUD comments I see here about Windows. Most are simply untrue, else they're vast distortions. It makes me wonder whose behind them and why. Is it just ultra-fandom, or is someone trying an orgranized attempt to manipulate markets through mis-information?

> I'm always scratching my head about the FUD comments I see here about Windows. Most are simply untrue, else they're vast distortions.

Were they always untrue, or were they true for some older version of Windows? Many non-Windows users here have used Windows some time in the past, and their views on Windows are based on that experience.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#99

Post by VistaBrokeMyPC »

dest wrote: post #79
jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #37

Does an offline voice assistant fit on a watch or a smart phone? Is it possible to open source one?

Have a look at https://snips.ai/

That site has the most GDPR compliant, transparent, easy to configure cookie settings I've ever seen.

I've got my eyes on that dev kit for sure. Having an offline voice assistant is something I've wanted for a while, privacy is much more important to me than the hardware support that echo and Google home have. Thanks for dropping that link!

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#100

Post by VistaBrokeMyPC »

jobigoud wrote: post #90
basicplus2 wrote: post #57

“To make your personal digital assistant as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps,” Doesn't sound like its farewell at all... just possibly giving Cortana direct access to everything you type in email, documents, excel.. the list goes on

The return of clippy?

As irritating as clippy was, I actually miss the little guy. Always so enthusiastic about formatting my essays into letters!
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