Please open source Cortana
I imagine open-sourcing something that's both cloud-based and tightly integrated into the operating system would require a complete rewrite.
Farewell, Cortana
101–110 of 120 posts
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use Google assistant to set reminders. It's so much more convenient than clicking through and typing the same thing on my phone especially or even my laptop. Literally works in 3 seconds. It's great!
I don't think that is worth the privacy lost by having Google parse voice commands. 15-30 seconds inputting data versus privacy lost by having a profile generated on me by Google. A Google VP literally said that you should warn guests if you have voice assistants in your home.
I think it should be federal law that devices like these that are always listening come with stickers for purchasers to put on the front door warning guests that they are being recorded. Of course no one is going to use those stickers, but it will remind everyone of how big of a privacy violation these things are.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
We run hundreds of GUI-less Windows Servers at our company. Works really well. On Azure.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
We run hundreds of GUI-less Windows Servers at our company. Works really well. On Azure.
Yep, likewise. I think the only thing that required the Desktop Experience off the top of my head was WSUS, but we have all sorts of other roles running on Server Core without any issues at all.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Remember, this is the same Microsoft where people are frowned upon for merging fixes and optimizations to the Windows kernel instead of implementing new-and-shiny features [0].
[0]: http://blog.zorinaq.com/i-contribute-to-the-windows-kernel-w...
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
We run hundreds of GUI-less Windows Servers at our company. Works really well. On Azure.
Sure you can, and what's the value added compared to any Linux? The joy of having to deal with CALs and licensing audits? If you just like writing cheques, RedHat is an option.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#107I would have been fine using Cortana in Windows 10, but unfortunately, it slowed down the Windows key search UI just enough to be frustrating and worth the time to disable in settings. I don’t at all mind its existence but it really needs to add functionality without introducing new drawbacks, especially for frequently used areas of the OS. (MacOS was little better as it didn’t even try to integrate Siri with Spotlig…
Microsoft now believes I have a deranged crush on some 1800s Canadian named Ostman because it takes just long enough to eat the first character when I press the windows key and start typing in 'postman'.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.
I actually used Cortana on my Android phone. (Disclaimer - I work for MSFT). The main reason why I don't use Google assistant instead is the total unease with having Google listen to me 24/7. Cortana's not too bad for the simple stuff like getting the outlook of the day or setting up geofenced reminders (remind me to unload the washing machine when I come back home). Anything more complex absolutely fails 100% of the…
For something hosted on a phone, I think they could improve the feel of privacy just by discarding the wake-word concept. This also allows them to cut out the passive listening hardware (saving money) or software load (saving battery life and CPU overhead)
If you have the phone in your hands anyway, it's not that outlandish to have a button you press to engage Siri/Cortana/etc. This also avoids annoying/embarrassing accidental triggers.
The only thing I ever used Cortana for (back in the Windows Phone 8 days) was the geofenced stuff-- "take the perishable items out of the car when you get home".
Absurd thought: With enough data mining, not having the assistant's features discoverable could become itself a feature: Sifting through a billion requests and where it falls back to web requests could expose "desire paths"-- the specific functionality consumers expect a voice-assistant to provide but wouldn't necessarily know to ask for on a marketing survey.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#109Shabby journalism again by Gizmodo.
Cortana isn't removed, MS only removed it from the core Windows feature set.
When the 19H2 is released Cortana will still be around, but not as part of Windows but as a separate app.
People who update their Windows to the Fast Ring can even play with the new Cortana app right now.
Microsoft also have plans to deeply integrate it into its 365 line of productivity apps, so it isn't going anywhere in that area too.
And given that Siri and Google Assistant both dominate the Assistant area on the smartphones due to the fact that they are both preinstalled makes discontinuing the standalone smartphone apps and putting the money and resources involved to good use elsewhere is actually a good move business wise.
Re: Farewell, Cortana
#110The 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…
Running with no gui cripples the majority of roles. It's easier to list the roles and features that work than those that don't