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Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

philipbohun.com

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Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#101

Post by pipes »

haunter wrote: post #89
pipes wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question , what does that mean, stuck on what from 2021? Compared to? Thanks :)

Will never get the final feature update (22H2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Ver... Technically it can break some apps if they are hard coded to only work with 22H2. Probably happens with some video games and anti cheat software ("always needs the latest update") There is a Windows 11 LTSC version which works the same.

Thanks. Did some googling too and it makes sense just one thing, what does "There is a Windows 11 LTSC version which works the same." Mean?

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#102

Post by Night_Thastus »

No they don't. Why should they bother?

* Costs them money to make

* Costs them money to maintain

* Will only be used by a TINY subset of ultra-enthusiasts (no, neither HN or Reddit are majorities)

* Every user on it is less telemetry and less advertisement

The reality is that most users don't care, and will just use whatever seems to work fine. Finding out that 'oh yeah, feature/software X does not work on Windows Lite" will inevitably mean that almost everyone stays on mainline.

I don't get why people bother making these wish fulfillment posts regarding Windows. It is what it is, either get used to it or use something else. MS hasn't been listening and they aren't going to start. Your wallet and mine don't make even the tiniest dent in their bottom line.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#103

Post by haunter »

pipes wrote: post #101
haunter wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will never get the final feature update (22H2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Ver... Technically it can break some apps if they are hard coded to only work with 22H2. Probably happens with some video games and anti cheat software ("always needs the latest update") There is a Windows 11 LTSC version which works the same.

Thanks. Did some googling too and it makes sense just one thing, what does "There is a Windows 11 LTSC version which works the same." Mean?

No bloat, no preinstalled apps, not getting feature updates.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#104

Post by Tarsul »

pipes wrote: post #92
haunter wrote: post #5

LTSC, surprised the post doesn't mention that. No forced feature updates, no unnecessary preinstalled apps. I'm using them for years without any problems. There was only one extreme edge case where an app didn't work because it was hard coded to only work on Windows 10 Pro and couldn't do anything with the LTSC version. Yes you can't get it legally as a regular end user but MSFT also doesn't care about piracy either.…

I'm using ltsc windows 11 and yes it is much better than one of my other pcs which has pro on it. However I did use windows 10 ltsc for quite a few years until I hit a dll issue with an old game that turned out to be unresolvable as far as I could tell at the time. So much so I switched to pro (I have a work visual studio subscription so I have access to all versions of windows for free). I can't for the life of me r…

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer stopped working once I updated my Win10 to Win10 LTSC. (have enough games that do work, so I will not change again until 2032 or rather until Steam discontinues Win10 support)

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#105

Post by thesuitonym »

WillAdams wrote: post #4
Rotundo wrote: post #2

The blog post sums up why users of Windows might want this. However, this is not what Microsoft wants or needs. Microsoft is doing just fine by providing businesses what they need: a platform that can be tightly controlled and is easy to administer for large user counts.

I dunno that it's that easy to administer --- time was, one of the concerns about NeXTstep was that it was so easy to setup/administer and so reliable that there was so little work involved, IT departments had to be downsized --- say rather that administering Windows is in-line w/ current budget projections/expectations.

It is easy to administer. Nothing come close to Active Directory + Group Policy, not even Entra ID + Intune. Windows in the enterprise is just a completely different beast to what you see in the home, or even small businesses.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#106

Post by kristianp »

maxrmk wrote: post #49
chris_money202 wrote: post #6

OP says Windows needs builders to make applications and that is what Windows Lite would enable (or expand) but then says Windows Lite shouldn't include .NET one of the primary frameworks to build applications on Windows.

Right! Everything from word to the calculator app uses .NET these days. Even many games!

If you're talking about the Word in Microsoft Office, I believe it doesn't require .Net. Office add-ins can be built with .Net though.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#107

Post by lowbloodsugar »

Why not DOS? Why not windows 3.1? Well they are too old. win32? Also too old. This is what the .NET complaint is disguising. It's not DOS->3.1->3.11->win32->.NET and so lets just go back one place. It's DOS->3.1->3.11->win32->.NET 1.0->.NET 2.0->.NET 3.0? WPF->.NET 5...->WinUI. Along the way there's COM, DCOM, ActiveX, all sorts of terrible things!

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#109

Post by jmmv »

Two years ago, I spent time studying the Windows NT kernel internals and ended up writing a comparison against Unix here: https://blogsystem5.substack.com/p/windows-nt-vs-unix-design . What I came out of that exercise with is that NT is actually well-made and was very ambitious and advanced at the time it was designed (although free systems have caught up by now).

But what I also came out thinking was: none of that shows. The kernel is great, sure, but all of the crap that has been built on top doesn't let it shine, and that's what people interact with. Take Windows 11 with is dog-slow file manager and the overall feeling that everything is bloated and designed to annoy you. I wish there was a simpler edition... but it ain't gonna happen.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#110

Post by tom_ »

Slightly struck by the term "builders" here. What is this trying to say, that, say, "developers" wouldn't?

("build" does seem to have been settled on as the word for the thing you do when you have the LLM write your code for you, but I'd have thought that "developer" is vague enough to cover both that and also doing it the old-fashioned way?)

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