Very valid issues here. Although it has improved, Windows Update is still shockingly bad compared to any decent package manager used on Linux in the past 10+ years.
Recently I've upgraded 2 machines from 1903 to 1909 (aka the "semi-annual update"). Both times the process took less than 10 minutes.
Going from 1903 to 1909 is only a ~1mb enablement package [1]. It essentially changes the version number in the registry and enables several existing features.
It's honestly not that bad in my opinion. Most apps work fine, and those that don't are usually old games or something like that. I've found an easy fix for them: Right click the executable and click "Properties" then go to the "Compatibility" tab you click the checkbox next to "Override high DPI scaling behavior". Then select the "System" option. This way Windows 10 does the scaling itself. The app will just look a…
Tried that, found the result gross to look at.
It’s sad when a 5k monitor works flawlessly under macOS and then you fire up a windows VM with the latest version of SQL Server Management Studio and then needing to squint at the text
I actually really like Windows 10, a huge portion of this list could easily apply to any modern operating system that isn't Linux, and even there some of it applies. So OSX, Android, iOS, etc. The section "Now the second kind of issues is intrinsic to Windows 10 only" is full of things that are literally applicable to all the OSes I listed above. I had some laugh out loud moments reading it. Are people just blinded b…
> The section "Now the second kind of issues is intrinsic to Windows 10 only" is full of things that are literally applicable to [OSX, Android, iOS, etc]
Yes, unfortunately, turning the OS into locked-down spyware is an industry trend that Microsoft just joined but did not start. That doesn't make the trend any better though.
> Why are people using more than one machine? Ever been in a meeting room? Most companies have shared PCs for meeting rooms. Logging in gives you access to your documents so you can hold your meeting and take your notes back to your workstation. I'm really surprised you worked in a large business and haven't experienced any of this or the need for standardisation. We use a bunch of systems that all work with AD, it's…
Most companies have shared PCs for meeting rooms. Are you sure that's not overgeneralising from your own experience? After all, most companies don't even have dedicated meeting rooms, because they aren't big enough. Of the ones that do, I have rarely seen a dedicated PC in there, and that spans the full range of businesses from five guys in a single office through 200+ person medium enterprises right up to some of th…
The OP mentioned working in one of the largest companies in the world I find it hard to believe they have no conference and meeting rooms. I think you are over-generalizing using startups as a prototype; the enterprise world is a different beast.
If at all possible, use Windows 10 LTSC/LTSB. LTSC was exactly what I wanted from a Windows OS. No Windows Store, no Candy Crush, and—most importantly by far—only security updates. It's the Debian model. Your OS stays secure, but the software will never change in a user visible way, unless/until you specifically choose to install a new LTSC release, which comes out around once every two years. It's perfect.
LTSC sounds nice, but licensing it is not simple or inexpensive if you're just a normal person with a few computers at home.
If you're "just a normal person with a few computers at home", it is VERY easy to obtain secure copies of LTSC for free if you look in the right places.
And I can attest to how pleasant LTSC is to use as an everyday consumer desktop - I'm using Linux now, but I never had problems with drivers/hibernation/multihead/administration/updates/etc. (some common complaints people have with Linux and Win10 Pro/Home) on LTSC. It's especially good if you need big proprietary software packages, of course.
What fiddling do you think is involved in running a typical Ubuntu desktop these days? Hardware mostly just works. Plug in a USB stick or a camera or phone, see your files, like any other desktop. You've got web browsers and basic office software and communications tools and all the rest. The OS can automatically update for security issues, and that takes care of much of your installed software as well if you're just…
Ubuntu is a controversial example. Probably better usability than most linux distros, but it collects a lot of data (lots of telemetry, amazon app, etc)
10 is the most usable version of Windows, hands down, and it's where you go if you have even remotely modern hardware. Why are people still arguing that it's bad?
Check out https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup-Script/...
Sure, but for professional use I'm not very interested in unsupported hacks that are liable to break things and/or be overridden and reverted by Microsoft in some future update. We deal with various kinds of sensitive and confidential information, and we have legal and contractual obligations to protect it, and so we need the ability to control where it goes on our terms. It's really as simple as that. If Microsoft w…
If it's for professional use, then you can use the official non-hacky method of disabling telemetry with the group policy editor available in Win10 Enterprise, server, and education versions.
Most companies have shared PCs for meeting rooms. Are you sure that's not overgeneralising from your own experience? After all, most companies don't even have dedicated meeting rooms, because they aren't big enough. Of the ones that do, I have rarely seen a dedicated PC in there, and that spans the full range of businesses from five guys in a single office through 200+ person medium enterprises right up to some of th…
The OP mentioned working in one of the largest companies in the world I find it hard to believe they have no conference and meeting rooms. I think you are over-generalizing using startups as a prototype; the enterprise world is a different beast.
As I wrote before, I've also worked in some of the largest companies in the world. Obviously those do have meeting rooms in their offices, but IME people typically just bring their own laptops/devices to a meeting. I can't remember the last time I saw a dedicated PC that stayed in a meeting room, other than maybe ones used to run projectors and such in a conference centre that was hired out.