Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#41

Post by bentcorner » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:35 PM UTC

daeken wrote: post #32

markbnj wrote: post #28

I like a lot of what I'm seeing and hearing, but unless I can find a good replacement for Media Center on the desktop I might still be using Windows 7 for a few more years.

I really recommend Kodi (previously XBMC). It's open source, the ecosystem is vibrant, and pretty much everything plugs into it. http://kodi.tv/

Alternatively, also check out Plex (http://plex.tv). IIRC it's a fork of XBMC, but in my opinion is more polished and the non-free price is fair for that polish. If you're just using it on one PC you should be able to do that for free.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#42

Post by mynameisvlad » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

bentcorner wrote: post #41

daeken wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really recommend Kodi (previously XBMC). It's open source, the ecosystem is vibrant, and pretty much everything plugs into it. http://kodi.tv/

Alternatively, also check out Plex ( http://plex.tv ). IIRC it's a fork of XBMC, but in my opinion is more polished and the non-free price is fair for that polish. If you're just using it on one PC you should be able to do that for free.

I think it was originally a fork of XBMC, but they rewrote from scratch with their new "Plex Home Theater" application.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#43

Post by chdir » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:37 PM UTC

My primary devices are an Ubuntu laptop + an Android phone. Both are very flexible for my needs. I'm scratching my head to figure out why should I be excited about all that integration, perhaps I'm not their customer. Don't get me wrong, I love & own Windows laptop too, but my Android phone does almost everything that Cortana is supposed to do, Dropbox gets me the files I need, I've moved away from MS Office...

It's just that the stuff mentioned in the blog isn't as magical as they are trying to project.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#44

Post by ebbv » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:38 PM UTC

oldmanjay wrote: post #40

ebbv wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web developer community is well known to have a massive Apple bias. I'm not surprised by Apple stuff going to the top quickly, usually. But this post in particular is suspect because it is totally devoid of content. Look at the comments so far, the most discussion has been prompted by the lack of content resulting in wondering how on earth this got to the top so quickly. I'd bet dollars to donuts there was coordi…

Accusations of shilling without evidence are typically boring. This post is not an exception.

You know what's even more boring? Someone replying with "This is boring." without contributing anything.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#45

Post by Frondo » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:40 PM UTC

gr3yh47 wrote: post #38

daeken wrote: post #11

I just installed the latest Windows 10 build in a VM, and I'm remarkably impressed. Cortana is working much better than expected, and I'm loving the new start menu. I'm planning on switching to Win10 full time for at least 6 months or so after release; been on OS X for many years, but I much prefer the direction MS is going, these days. It looks like they're going to be the first folks to really get a universal ecosy…

>I just installed the latest Windows 10 build in a VM, and I'm remarkably impressed wat. > Cortana is working much better than expected, wat. >and I'm loving the new start menu. waaaaaaat. > been on OS X for many years oh. now it makes sense.

Actually, I'd like to second how impressed I am with Cortana. I got a windows phone a little while ago (really cheap, no contract, no love for the Android interface, etc) and was a bit skeptical of how useful it'd be at first.

After trying to ask it more and more natural-language questions, and having it speak useful answers back to me, it feels more and more like I'm in Star Trek.

I'm not usually that impressed by technology anymore (i.e. I still think lots of things are cool, but seldom do they surprise me), after being in the field for 30 years, but Cortana impresses the heck out of me.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#46

Post by TTPrograms » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:41 PM UTC

markbnj wrote: post #28

I like a lot of what I'm seeing and hearing, but unless I can find a good replacement for Media Center on the desktop I might still be using Windows 7 for a few more years.

I still use winamp, but I may be a madman.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#47

Post by titanix2 » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:44 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #26

So, rather than a way to sync with your phone or setup stuff like calendar, contacts, photos or music sharing, they have just made a thing telling you to install Microsoft's cloud apps? Disappointing. Apple has a great iOS/OS X experience because the integration is deeper than just "install Apple's apps on your iPhone".

I don't use it because I don't like Metro UI apps but a large part of the list you give is already supported in Windows 8: calendar, contacts, photos (thru OneDrive). Some are available in a cross-platform fashion (calendar, contacts via MS account) others require a Windows Phone (IE opened tabs sharing, some systems settings). So I don't see them being removed from Windows 10 and don't really understand what you are exactly disappointed about.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#48

Post by georgemcbay » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:52 PM UTC

JTon wrote: post #27

avolcano wrote: post #10

Outside of some stability/compatibility issues that I hope are ironed out before release, I've been pretty impressed with Windows 10 preview so far. I only use Windows for games these days, so I can't really speak to it from a productivity standpoint, but the interface is much more intuitive than Windows 8's while still keeping the handful of things I liked. Ironically, there were a couple of Windows 8 behaviors I ha…

> there's no longer the super strange "hot corners" that were the only way to access the shutdown menu I'm not a fan of the hot corners. If you use a keyboard, you can use the following shortcut to shutdown your PC WIN KEY + X, U, U

> WIN KEY + X, U, U

Windows Key + X is pretty much the one thing that makes Windows 8 tolerable on the desktop and the one thing I would recommend everyone having trouble with Windows 8 learn even if they aren't generally keyboard shortcut users and navigate the resulting menu (the WinKey+X menu) via mouse. I've been using Windows 8 since release and never use the hot corners stuff at all thanks to this menu.

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#49

Post by JTon » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

georgemcbay wrote: post #48

JTon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's no longer the super strange "hot corners" that were the only way to access the shutdown menu I'm not a fan of the hot corners. If you use a keyboard, you can use the following shortcut to shutdown your PC WIN KEY + X, U, U

> WIN KEY + X, U, U Windows Key + X is pretty much the one thing that makes Windows 8 tolerable on the desktop and the one thing I would recommend everyone having trouble with Windows 8 learn even if they aren't generally keyboard shortcut users and navigate the resulting menu (the WinKey+X menu) via mouse. I've been using Windows 8 since release and never use the hot corners stuff at all thanks to this menu.

Agreed 100%

Re: Windows 10: Designed for All Your Devices

#50

Post by Yabood » Tue, May 26, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

markbnj wrote: post #28

I like a lot of what I'm seeing and hearing, but unless I can find a good replacement for Media Center on the desktop I might still be using Windows 7 for a few more years.

I've been using Plex for a few years now, and have nothing but good things to say about it. Everything is accessible from anywhere and everywhere.