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Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

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Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#291

Post by castell »

bitJericho wrote: post #231
antod wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Linux Desktop has many problems, but I'm not sure stagnation is one of them. If anything things are churning a little too much, and this is before the Wayland/Mir transitions have started to kick off yet.

Yeah all Linux offers us is more libraries and more APIs. Where are the applications? Why are there so many cli tools with no GUI interface. Desktop Linux is so far behind. I used Linux for about a year primarily and when I finally got frustrated enough I switched to windows 8 and realized that the Linux desktop experience is garbage in comparison. As a server os I have no complaints though.

KDE 1-3 and Gnome 2 were great. But then something went horrible wrong in their UX- and UI-designer-mindset. Similar to Windows 95-Vista/7 had a really nice UX and UI, but the Metro/Modern-UI (WinPhone7+ and Win8+) is just tasteless, awful and with crazy color choices.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#292

Post by microtonal »

72deluxe wrote: post #286
microtonal wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which vulnerability? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201222 I was under the impression that they are currently updating 10.8 to 10.0 (if it affects all these releases).

Specifically, OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 and Security Update 2015-004 Admin Framework Available for: OS X Yosemite v10.10 to v10.10.2 CVE-2015-1130 : Emil Kvarnhammar at TrueSec https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204659 https://truesecdev.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/hidden-backdoor-... Are they backporting this?

Thanks!

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#294

Post by frik »

toddan wrote: post #289
castell wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ReactOS re-implements the WinNT series (XP+) OS kernel (you can compare it with UNIX vs. Linux) and WINE provides the user mode layer. Visual Studio 2010 and the dotNet Framework work fine in WINE: https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=applicatio... . VS run as early as 2003 in ReactOS: http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/wordpress/wp-con... As ReactOS also supports the Windows graphic card driver…

Visual studio 2010 and dotNet surely works fine under wine. But there are lots of small cornerstones in the tools and software companies use that does not work so great. If there was an real free alternative to windows where all the specialized software worked i am dead sure companies would start to use it. But at this moment there is no such alternative.

Ask yourself, what's better to have: a showstopper bug in a closed software or in a free open source software?

Bugs are often easy to locate and fix, if one can reproduce it. A small donation usually helps open projects.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#295

Post by godzilla82 »

castell wrote: post #257
Redoubts wrote: post #45

This was news around January, I thought. Why are all the tech sites playing this up now? I feel like i could reply to half the top level posts with this link: http://blogs.windows.com/business/2015/01/30/windows-10-for-... >January 30, 2015 > this is much more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current via Windows Update for the supported lifetime of…

There are alternatives to "Windows 10 as a service" - WINE on Mac/Linux and ReactOS. ReactOS is an attempt to build an open source version of Windows XP/7. It uses source code from WINE and it aims for better compatibility with legacy apps and drivers by developing a WinNT-like OS-Kernel: http://www.reactos.org/screenshots

What about drivers for new devices? Even current hardware manufacturers dont provide XP drivers anymore.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#296

Post by gambiting »

frik wrote: post #294
toddan wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual studio 2010 and dotNet surely works fine under wine. But there are lots of small cornerstones in the tools and software companies use that does not work so great. If there was an real free alternative to windows where all the specialized software worked i am dead sure companies would start to use it. But at this moment there is no such alternative.

Ask yourself, what's better to have: a showstopper bug in a closed software or in a free open source software? Bugs are often easy to locate and fix, if one can reproduce it. A small donation usually helps open projects.

If I am working with a latest, super secret revision of PS4 sdk that I can't even legally talk about, how would I ask developers of Wine for help if that SDK doesn't work with their software? I can't.

But Microsoft and Sony will be both legally bound to help, in certain cases they could even pay for delays if their software is at fault. I would much prefer to have a showstopper bug in closed software, thank you.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#297

Post by godzilla82 »

digdigdag wrote: post #56
Sir_Substance wrote: post #5

I'm not happy with this. I waited on XP until they got over vista, and I'm still on 7 while I watch in bemusement at the windows 8.1 nonsense. Now, with windows 10, my security updates will come bundled with my unwanted OS changes. I doubt microsoft will let people opt out of unwanted cloud-based security risks or crazy interface experiments.

Care to tell me what your issue is with Windows 8.1? I've been using 8/8.1 for well over a year now, and it has been, perhaps, one of the best installments of the Windows line of operating systems I have ever used. There are a variety of third party applications and workarounds that can effectively re-patch explorer.exe to completely disable Modern UI and bring back the old start menu (think Start Is Back).

You use third party applications to re-patch the operating system shell (explorer.exe) ? Are you serious ?

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#298

Post by ascagnel_ »

velodrome wrote: post #88
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…

Agreed. Arch requires a lot of maintenance. Ubuntu, just click update and you don't have to worry about it (until the next LTS). Personally, I like the rolling model. Chromebook is probably best example for regular users.

If your IT organization is transitioning to or running web apps, Chrome OS just became a lot more interesting compared to the new MS browser, especially when you consider that ActiveX is finally being put out to pasture.

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#299

Post by ascagnel_ »

Luyt wrote: post #285
fiatjaf wrote: post #164

They will abandon Windows and work on a new operating system based on Linux.

I don't think they will do that, since the Linux kernel is GPLed.

The kernel is GPLv2 -- they can rewrite big portions of it to fit their needs and push as little code back out to the community as possible.

That said, this "new" MS is focusing more on cloud than anything else, so a MSLinux is probably more a question of "when" than "if".

Re: Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

#300

Post by castell »

pizza234 wrote: post #279
castell wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are alternatives to "Windows 10 as a service" - WINE on Mac/Linux and ReactOS. ReactOS is an attempt to build an open source version of Windows XP/7. It uses source code from WINE and it aims for better compatibility with legacy apps and drivers by developing a WinNT-like OS-Kernel: http://www.reactos.org/screenshots

WINE and Reactos are a bit more complicated than an alternative. ReactOS is nothing more than (arguably pre-)alpha software. It's not possible, at this stage, to predict when and if it will ever reach sufficient stability and security. If you follow the project closely, you will realize how complex an O/S is, and how fundamentally it needs big backing (which it doesn't have) to reach maturity. WINE is not an alternat…

It all will depend on the dissatisfaction with "Windows as a service".

If there is a real benefit for companies, things can change fast ... see the history of UNIX and Linux. ReactOS is where Linux was in 1996.

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