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Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

philipbohun.com

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Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#171

Post by mdavid626 »

jmmv wrote: post #109

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 s…

It's also interesting to see that after 30 years Windows NT is still a decent OS/kernel. Of course the rest of Windows is just pure garbage.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#173

Post by runjake »

This is essentially what the IoT Enterprise LTSC edition is.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-...

Aside from that, there are various tools and deployment files to automate a stripped down Windows 11 installation.

I don't really use Windows except on my gaming PC, but I like winutil:

https://github.com/christitustech/winutil

But there are better declarative tools out there that generate a stripped down installation. Despite it's reputation, Windows 11 is fairly modular for a commercial OS.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#174

Post by mdavid626 »

not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #172
mdavid626 wrote: post #170

It's hard to justify to pay for an operating system, when Linux and Mac OS is for free.

I wouldn't call MacOS 'free' given it has very strict requirements for proprietary hardware.

Free in a sense that I don't have to pay extra for it (comes with the machine) and no extra fee for new versions either.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#175

Post by sixothree »

mdavid626 wrote: post #174
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call MacOS 'free' given it has very strict requirements for proprietary hardware.

Free in a sense that I don't have to pay extra for it (comes with the machine) and no extra fee for new versions either.

Windows comes with machines too. Just because it comes with an Apple computer does not mean you aren't paying for it. You certainly are paying for it.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#176

Post by ksec »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #102

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 Li…

I agree. I seriously doubt making that an option would stop people moving to Apple or Linux especially with MacBook Neo and Steam Machine. Windows has much bigger problem than telemetry and advertisement.

But both of these products would only show damage in the very long run, which also means M$ won't react to it until late.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#177

Post by wvbdmp »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #102

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 Li…

Don’t know about tiny subset. Every enterprise workstation in the world would probably be running it.

Also the OP specifically fantasizes about unchanged compatibility.

Really there would be no reason not to use this, so it would likely have to be more expensive than the regular spyware/adware version. Thus it couldn’t get away with the name “Lite” and would end up being called “Professional”.

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#179

Post by movetheworld »

YES! I mean a man can dream... I love windows software like "xyplorer", an ideal explorer replacement, "notepad++" for everything text-related and "FSViewer" for displaying all pictures, all portable, all heavily customizable. But personally, I think microsoft is not interested in it's users. It all about control of it's users and making money off them. MS has no intention of changing that. Please, make the switch to linux and own your OS!

Re: Microsoft Needs Windows Lite

#180

Post by debugnik »

hypercube33 wrote: post #155
debugnik wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The .NET that comes with Windows is the ridiculously outdated .NET Framework 4.8. But most greenfield projects should have been using the newer .NET (previously .NET Core) for several years now, which is installed separately or deployed as self-contained apps.

The majority of software runs on old outdated .net framework and no one is going to take the time to port it to .net 10 even though it only takes a short time to do so itself, but keep in mind a lot of this isn't the porting it's the testing, release which includes 20 year old enterprise clients who are stingy about change and paying for any updated anything.

I know, and those can keep using Framework 4.8, but the topic here is attracting developers to Windows, and the primary toolchain for that today definitely isn't Framework 4.8, so the top comment is moot.
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