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Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

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Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#181

Post by kijin »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #132
bad_user wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an Ubuntu Linux and OS X user and have been trying to like Windows 8.1 in the last weeks. The problems I have in no particular order ... - network management in Windows 7 was usable, whereas in 8.1 it is totally fucked - Microsoft accounts are on their way to become mandatory, as creating a regular account is not user friendly and there's a big and scary warning when you go that route; they are basically trying t…

Thank you! That was a good answer. Just one thing: OneDrive works well, if I may, I suggest giving it a try. Re: software development: I just live inIntelliJ for Clojure, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Typescript, Clojurescript, and Python. IntelliJ runs about the same on every platform. I write my books now with markdown and leanpub, so for writing also operating system choice does not matter. True confession: I tend to cy…

Does OneDrive work well with half a million files taking up half a TB of space across multiple devices?

Last time I tried it, I could never be sure when my files had synched. OneDrive would just spin in the background, not even using much CPU or network bandwidth, and with no indication of what the hell it was doing, while the file I just edited remained unsynched for hours.

For a product that wanted people to give it the entire content of their hard drives, OneDrive was woefully inadequate at handling large amounts of data. I ended up copying files manually to the device where I needed them to be, relegating OneDrive to the role of an eventually consistent backup.

When my (paid) subscription was up, I canceled it and never used it again. Now I'm much happier with a 1TB plan at SpiderOak.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#182

Post by gnopgnip »

patrickmclaren wrote: post #39

Off-topic rant: I used to live in a remote area, with very little connectivity. Upgrading tech used to involve traveling to a retailer, and buying the latest version off the shelf. More recently, it involes traveling to a solid internet connection, downloading incremental updates and distributing them on location. In Australia, satellite internet was subsidized in the 2000s (and easily eligible). Now, although still…

You can download WSUS updates "offline" and send them via tape or other media to remote locations.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#184

Post by lotu »

zouhair wrote: post #157
swalsh wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your monthly subscription payments will come in the form of monthly Azure payments. People will accept that. This isn't 1996 anymore. People don't buy desktops, and laptops will soon be obsolete too. When your phone has a processor powerful enough to do all the work a consumer could ever want, there will be 3 main markets. Mobile, Server, and Gaming. Now they probably could keep charging for the OS for the gaming PC'…

Piracy will come back with a vengeance. I don't know how they'll tell people who go buy their laptops that they have to pay a monthly subscription if they want to keep using it.

No, you are going to pay all the monthly subscriptions at once up front before you buy the laptop. It will work like this average laptop life span is say 42 months, and the monthly fee is $1.50. So the cost of a windows license is 42 * $1.50 = $66 which is baked into the price of the laptop. Microsoft will use more accurate numbers but the concept is unchanged.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#187

Post by kaybe »

aylons wrote: post #158
kaybe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We dropped MATLAB because the communal version refuses to work without internet connection (standard in the field) and we cannot afford a licence for all field laptops, where they will be used very little (but still to do things that need to be done).

So, what did you put in place? GNU Octave?

Python, mainly. Some people still use older R scripts. It's kind of hard to make people stick to the same language when there is no real common code base (we're scientists).

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#188

Post by neuronic »

vruiz wrote: post #10

I see 2 possible scenarios. 1) as others are suggesting, they'll adopt Apple's versioning model putting everything under the windows 10 umbrella. 2) they are setting the table for a rebranding/replacement of Windows in the same fashion as they are doing with IE.

Your comment made me think that the branding of Windows 10 happened because they are in fact adopting this model and do not want to "sound worse/ lower" in version number than OS X which of course is MacOS 10.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#189

Post by swasheck »

cptn_brittish wrote: post #180
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big reason why rolling release works so well on Arch is the assumption that the user is smart, so there are several difficult tasks which are pushed over onto the user (like handling non-trivial conflicts of software that the user may not have directly installed, e.g. libgl, handling exceptional circumstances, being able to recover after a failed update, ensuring the system is updated regularly, knowing when a re…

Aside from initially installing Arch and the major programs I know I am going to use I have never had a major problem with Arch which required extensive knowlege of linux to fix. All in all I'd say I have about the same number of issues with Arch as a normal Windows install.

the great python migration of 2010 broke a few things for folks who didnt read the announcements that `python` was going to point to python3.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#190

Post by eitally »

adventured wrote: post #156
filereaper wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to how much revenue/profit Microsoft still makes from the desktop line of Windows. Would setting desktop Windows free really hurt revenues at Microsoft that much? I'm not denying that each release of Windows requires engineering effort. I figured most of Microsoft's profits come from software and services running on-top Windows, so SQL Server, Office, etc... Perhaps still charge for Windows Server, but…

They still make a lot of money off of Windows desktop. In 2014 they changed how they report segment revenue, but as of 2013 the Windows division (non server) had $19 billion in sales for that fiscal year. Revenue for Windows desktop is down a bit from there (perhaps 8%-10%) according to reports throughout 2014. The operating income on that $19 billion was $9.5 billion. Needless to say it's still a wildly profitable c…

The vast majority of that is businesses paying ~$140/copy for the enterprise edition. In fact, if you are under an EA, it's in violation of the agreement to use any version but Enterprise.
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