Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#211

Post by smitherfield » Mon, May 11, 2015, 2:45 AM UTC

Mahn wrote: post #55

nathanaldensr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with #2. I think Microsoft is likely producing a new operating system as we speak--one that hopefully is focused on security first. Perhaps a realization of the Singularity OS is coming. OS APIs running managed code, perhaps? The future will certainly be interesting for the Windows ecosystem.

Windows as a brand is still way too big, and unlike IE its reputation is okay and its market share huge, Microsoft has more to lose than to win rebranding Windows. I don't see it happening, but IMO there's no reason why Windows can't be the new Windows eventually.

Vista and 8 did do a great deal of damage to Windows' reputation. (I'd say somewhat undeserved in the former case, and there are plenty of people who will defend the latter. I'm sure it's great on the Surface).

That said, I'd agree that it'd be a bad move to rebrand Windows just yet. Then again, DOS was a well-known and well-liked brand too.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#212

Post by bjwbell » Mon, May 11, 2015, 2:45 AM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #203

someear wrote: post #191

Entirely an enterprise play - gone are those firms that essentially say "we'll stick with XP". They'll either be forced into a subscription model or will switch off to another platform. This is also a huge win for not having the need to support super old OSes, which is a huge tax in not just support cost, but also testing and designing for backward compatibility.

This is also a significant driver development cost increase for OEMs.

I'm not so sure. The changes on the graphics side from say Windows 8 to 8.1 were minor, leaving out new features such as directx tiled resources.

The windows driver model had its last major revision in XP -> Vista.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#213

Post by nly » Mon, May 11, 2015, 2:46 AM UTC

silverbax88 wrote: post #192

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'…

I always get such a kick out of how silly this is. There is no reason people won't continue to have both mobile and desktop. When 'mobile' reaches the computer power of desktop, and screen size, and input, then it will be a desktop. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Future: Walk in to your home office, drop phone on desk, it connects wirelessly to your mouse, keyboard, monitor and home network.

This was the original vision for Ubuntu Phone

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#214

Post by rhengles » Mon, May 11, 2015, 2:47 AM UTC

bunderbunder wrote: post #127

beloch wrote: post #76

The obvious question is, how are we going to pay for this? With no periodic releases of new versions, it seems that Windows 10 will either be a subscription based service or, in all likelihood, a collection of subscription based services and extra features with a free, but spartan, core. It's an interesting move, but I suspect MS is severely underestimating the backlash that will exist against monthly OS subscription…

I don't think Microsoft makes much money off of shrinkwrap copies of Windows. Almost everyone I know just sticks with the version of Windows that came with the computer, and when they switch to a newer version it's because they bought a new computer that comes with it preinstalled. The probable advantage to Microsoft is that they have a less disjointed platform to support. For example apps released for the app store…

> and apps that work on Windows 7 and earlier can't be put on the app store.

They announced that win32 based apps will have the possibility to be on the store - in one of the videos from build they even used Photoshop as an example.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#215

Post by seanp2k2 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:06 AM UTC

kijin wrote: post #181

mark_l_watson wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

I've tried BTSync, Syncthing, Dropbox, and rsync -avuz. The only thing which works consistently and doesn't take up 100% CPU for hours when working with many small files is rsync. Hopefully Syncthing will get there, but I wasn't impressed initially.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#216

Post by yyhhsj0521 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:07 AM UTC

idlewords wrote: post #52

fizixer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

GOOD HUMOR

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#217

Post by akoeplinger » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:08 AM UTC

speeder wrote: post #138

YorkianTones wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't all Windows Update packages optional? This is what I see when I look at Windows update on 8.1 (I think 7 had similar options): http://imgur.com/MxRVZ94 As someone else mentioned, to support the enterprise Microsoft makes updates piecemeal and optional.

I had Windows 8 here, Windows 8.1 force-installed itself, I found no way to opt out, or even to control when to update, I was working one day and it suddenly decided to shut me out and update itself to 8.1, there was no "cancel" or "wait" button. So, MS already pulled a stunt like that recently, why they would not do it again, specially if they want people to use some shiny new tech part of their 3e strategy?

No, the upgrade to 8.1 needs to be explicitly kicked off through the Store: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/update-from-win...

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#218

Post by seanp2k2 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:16 AM UTC

kijin wrote: post #177

hirsin wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If retaining data like that would land you in jail, you shouldn't be using cloud storage in the first place. Likely you'd be (rightfully) fired for doing so. Cortana can be disabled, or never turned on even.

The point is that all those cloud features are enabled by default and difficult to opt out of. I for one will not upgrade to Windows 10 until other people have identified all of the crappy cloud-based features (Microsoft Account, OneDrive/SkyDrive, Cortana, etc.) and written blogs on how to disable them permanently. Then I will do a clean install, disable all the crap, and only then connect the external drive that co…

But I'm sure it'll do wonders for their cloud service user engagement metrics. look how many people are using Bing / OneDrive / whatever

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#219

Post by Karunamon » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:19 AM UTC

Another unanswered question is how the "supported lifetime of the device" is going to work for people who build their own systems. Is the freebie license that people are going to get for upgrading only going to be good on that one machine?

If that's truly the case, I'm not at all looking forward to having to re-buy a license for a different machine when the one I'm on finally lets out the magic smoke, moreso given Microsoft's previous arbitrary activation rules on what constitutes a "different machine".

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#220

Post by seanp2k2 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 3:33 AM UTC

peter303 wrote: post #116

You should rename software before it reaches a double digit version. Otherwise it's too stale.

Or start prefixing the versions with something and start the numbering back at 1, like Adobe did with Photoshop CS :) (I know, Creative Suite contains a lot more than Photoshop, but still).