141–150 of 458 posts
Honestly, HN may want to just consider banning any site that runs this news article from being posted on HN, because this claim is basically proof they did not do even cursory research before posting. Here's the 2015 story covering this date announcement, which bears no relation to recent rumors at all: https://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/20/microsoft-to-support-windo...
Pretty sure that article's been out of date for a while.
>> Windows 10 was released in July 2015 and dubbed "Windows as a service" Can we please have 7 back, with its complete lack of built in ads, dark patterns ramming the Microsoft browser down your throat, telemetry everywhere (the calculator, really?), changes for the sake of showing that some manager did something rather than functionality (Rename this PC -> Rename this PC (Advanced))? Windows 10 still regularly shows…
I am personally convinced that the windows developers all use macs and are not bothered by these glaring, in your face quality issues.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They tried that with the App Store stuff. That was supposed to be the new world. But it wasn’t compelling, the store sucked and still does today and it was and still is like wading in excrement working on that side of things.
Then it seems like a problem with execution rather than a fundamental problem with the concept. Especially with Apple as a largely successful counterexample.
To be fair, Linux distros change even faster than that, but it's pretty annoying that neither of them can make a single version that lasts more than a decade. I don't want to keep upgrading software my whole life, as if I need a new hammer every few years because nails keep "innovating"
I wonder if they will force you to have a Microsoft account with the next OS release. So far, you can avoid it (if you try) on windows 10.
Well, we all know the every-other-version-of-Windows-rule: Windows 2000 - Good Windows ME - Bad Windows XP - Good Windows Vista - Bad Windows 7 - Good Windows 8 - Bad Windows 10 - Good Windows 11 - ????
> Windows 11 - Bulk Surveillance
...now I'm wondering how many of the average consumer would even recognize that.
It's an interesting experiment to ask the average Microsoft Windows user to identify - let's say 5 things - in their current workflows, that they couldn't do in Microsoft Windows XP (or 7, etc - pick the subject's age-appropriate release). Similarly for versions of Microsoft Office products.
Hyper-v
Default notepad that understands linux style line endings
Default ISO mounting support without having to download sketchy tools
Default ZIP support without having to download winrar
>> Windows 10 was released in July 2015 and dubbed "Windows as a service" Can we please have 7 back, with its complete lack of built in ads, dark patterns ramming the Microsoft browser down your throat, telemetry everywhere (the calculator, really?), changes for the sake of showing that some manager did something rather than functionality (Rename this PC -> Rename this PC (Advanced))? Windows 10 still regularly shows…
Pass. Windows 10 is just so much better than 7. I still don’t get why people don’t move on. I’m happier having window 10 which has never crashed on me vs 7 which did it weekly.
Two year old Win 10 work PC install committed suicide after updating few months back. Blue screen on boot. Spent more time "troubleshooting" that issue than reinstalling win 10 after giving up.
Microsoft really needs to consider building a completely new OS that doesn’t have the legacy issues that plague Windows 10. It feels like the paint cracks off as you root around each generation of interface. By all means keep a LTS version of Windows, but draw a line.
What do you mean by "a completely new OS"? Do you think the kernel needs to be re-written from scratch? Yeah, the current one has issues, but that seems like an unnecessarily large undertaking, and one that is also not likely to produce bug-free code. I'd have thought some kind of testing/fuzzing/formal analysis would be a better approach. Do you think the Win32/WPF/whatever APIs need to be thrown out and some other…
By all means keep Windows around for enterprise but build a new OS that is forward looking and eschews backwards compatibility when virtualisation can be used instead.
Aggressively simplify the OS. Make it consistent with a UX that keeps the OS out of the users way. Contain software from vomiting itself across your system. Make things discoverable and consistent, don’t impose restrictions such as locking open files.
I’m coming from this as a user not an OS developer. I use a mix of MacOS, Linux and Windows from day to day. Windows is often a dinosaur and constantly gets in the way. Each new version of Windows is another layer of paint over an existing peeling layer. Certainly Windows can be performant and it would be foolish to throw it all out.
I understand a lot of this is hot air, and your question is asking about specifics. I’m coming from this based on my observations on how students and elderly relatives use their computers.
I’ve moved my parents to iPads. They’re simple and they can do whatever they want to get done. They can browse the web, watch video, FaceTime and see photos of their grandkids etc. At the worst I have to run an OS update for them. They always forget the passwords but TouchID takes care of that.
Meanwhile my father in law has his ongoing war on technology with lists of passwords, frequent manual backups, and lists of things that need to be fixed whenever we visit. The computer is a ticking time bomb to be feared.
My students frequently have no idea what a file system is. Files are scattered everywhere on disk and the cloud. They have no idea what a USB drive does and some think simply just plugging one in magically copies the relevant files somewhere.
Usually by the time I’ve finished with them they’re writing code or running WSL or playing with a raspberry pi or whatever.
So we have this gap. There is the older generation where computers are scary and they’re happy with simplified but robust devices. There is the younger generation where most of them live on their phone and have no clue how computers actually work. When they end up in a job they’ll plod along with excel and whatever enterprise software they need. It really doesn’t matter what version of Windows or Office.
In the middle there are some people (of all ages) who actually have some degree of knowledge.
My solution is to make the desktop OS easier to use while still providing the complexity that is required as one gains experience. Right now Windows is intimidating and outdated.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, I wouldn't even mind about telemetry in the calculator if that would have told them that I activate Programmer Mode a whole lot through the Alt+3 shortcut, and that my muscle memory of 20 years was completely ruined by them moving the Programmer Mode to Alt+4 for GUI consistency (after they added a new Graphing Mode that they wanted to stick right next to the Scientific Mode).
Side note about the Alt-1/2/3/4 shortcuts in calculator - does anyone else find that they only work sporadically? I just tried it a bunch of times now and got maybe 50-60% success rate on it actually triggering the mode switch.