Tripredacus Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 How are the OEMs feeling about this? MS is attacking their notebook-market now, the core of any Windows OEM. A tablet was kinda excusable, but this is an outright declaration of war against OEMs. There are multiple levels of notebooks in the market right now. 1 cheapies 2 mid-range 3 designer 4 gaming/engineering 1 and 2 there is not really any money to be had. These are popular products due to their cheap cost, often for people who want to just go online or buy something for their kids. Due to the amount of competition in the market on this end (and adding in Chromebook and tablets) the prices on these are relatively low. This means that the profit per system is quite low and is also why most are bundled with crap/trialware. When an end-user decides to buy after the trial, the OEM gets a royalty payment. Designer notebooks are the ones that fit into the part of the market that Apple has a grip on. This is also where the Surface Book falls. While other OEMs do sell notebooks of this type, they cannot compete with Apple. The gaming/engineering notebooks are the only ones where a good profit is made. These are the $1-3,000 systems with multiple CPUs, tons of RAM and expensive video cards. OEMs make their (notebook) money with these systems. So I do not see the Surface Book as being any sort of competition or war against the OEMs at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Designer notebooks are the ones that fit into the part of the market that Apple has a grip on. This is also where the Surface Book falls. While other OEMs do sell notebooks of this type, they cannot compete with Apple. In your view, does the Surface Book (also) offer no competition for Apple? --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Designer notebooks are the ones that fit into the part of the market that Apple has a grip on. This is also where the Surface Book falls. While other OEMs do sell notebooks of this type, they cannot compete with Apple. In your view, does the Surface Book (also) offer no competition for Apple? --JorgeA I think the Surface Book is intended to be competitive towards Apple notebooks. Whether it ends up being successful is another story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Well, that'll never work. The Apple stuff is vastly superior - just ask any Apple snob user. In all seriousness, my son is still using a 2008 MacBook. It's pretty rare to see a PC notebook last that long. -Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Designer notebooks are the ones that fit into the part of the market that Apple has a grip on. This is also where the Surface Book falls. While other OEMs do sell notebooks of this type, they cannot compete with Apple. In your view, does the Surface Book (also) offer no competition for Apple? --JorgeA I think the Surface Book is intended to be competitive towards Apple notebooks. Whether it ends up being successful is another story. That's pretty much what I think, too. Barring a successful direct competition with Apple, Microsoft's fallback position could be that the hardware they put out is meant merely to "showcase the technology" and "inspire" other manufacturers to follow suit. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 From the trenches, two tales of Windows 10 woes: First one -- Betanews blogger helps his father, over the phone, to install Windows 10. Father hates it, wants to go back (to Win8.1 ). Then... "Do I open the Control Panel?" he asked. It seems like a little thing, but I was quite pleased that he'd thought of this; Dad doesn’t really venture outside of Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Word -- just about anything else needs guidance. Sadly, impressed though I was, his suggestion was wrong. I've guided him through the process of uninstalling software before, and it has usually meant paying a visit to Programs and Features in the Control Panel. It makes sense that uninstalling Windows 10 would be the same. But no. "No, things have changed a bit. You need Settings now." "What did they go and change that for? I can't find my Word and internet either!" Second one -- TWIT.TV host Robert Ballecer, S.J., sets up his mother with a Win10 laptop. Then (starting at 15:14)... I bought my mother a laptop, an Acer, and I had it set so that it went straight to the Desktop. And that's how she used it, and she was freaking out -- she called me up. She said, 'something happened to my computer, I think I have a virus!' And what had happened was she was accidentally hitting the Windows key and it was popping into Tiles, and it freaked her out. [laughter] So I disabled that key on her keyboard, and she uses it just in desktop mode. So I'm thinking, 'Oh! That's just the perfect commentary: tiles = virus.' --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formfiller Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 (edited) Hot news: http://microsoft-news.com/some-android-devices-will-soon-be-able-to-run-windows-apps/ Windows applications (win32!) are coming to Android! And there are already some Android-laptops and even desktop PCs. If Microsoft continues with the dumbing down of Windows (forced updates, data-leaking everywhere, degraded UI), while Android in turns gets the ability to run Windows applications (the real deal win32 ones) you could just as well run an Android-PC soon. What would be the difference given Microsoft's path with Windows so far? It looks as if Android actually gets more customization options each version, while Windows in turn gets more and more dumbed down with every iteration since W8. The more more successful Microsoft is at sabotaging former Windows' core strengths, the more they are asking for developments like these. Edited October 13, 2015 by Formfiller 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Bumped into this GIF on my travels (right click + view image for full satanic splendor): Forget about 'spyware disabling', once you've allowed your comp to be posessed by such evil nothing short of this will save you: It would be very interesting to see a comparable animation for Windows 7, Vista, or XP. Or even for 8, for that matter. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) October's Patch Tuesday didn't seem to bring any Windows Updates that were obviously related to Windows 10 or telemetry, or that rang alarm bells in that respect. What do you think? --JorgeA Edited October 14, 2015 by JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rn10950 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Hot news: http://microsoft-news.com/some-android-devices-will-soon-be-able-to-run-windows-apps/ Windows applications (win32!) are coming to Android! And there are already some Android-laptops and even desktop PCs. If Microsoft continues with the dumbing down of Windows (forced updates, data-leaking everywhere, degraded UI), while Android in turns gets the ability to run Windows applications (the real deal win32 ones) you could just as well run an Android-PC soon. What would be the difference given Microsoft's path with Windows so far? It looks as if Android actually gets more customization options each version, while Windows in turn gets more and more dumbed down with every iteration since W8. The more more successful Microsoft is at sabotaging former Windows' core strengths, the more they are asking for developments like these. From what I gather, this is just a port of WINE. If that's the case, you can just use Linux and get the same win32 compatibility layer. One (of the many) things that MS needs to do is stop calling both win32 and Metro programs "apps". It gets really confusing when you're dealing with something like this. Besides, that word is very derogatory towards the programs that are being called "app" and is a personal pet-peeve of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Here's an intriguing technique that maybe could be used to block connections to Microsoft telemetry servers. I was not aware of these "route add" and "route print" commands. What do you think? --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Here's an intriguing technique that maybe could be used to block connections to Microsoft telemetry servers. What do you think? That could be effective, sure, but... Be aware that taking on IP address management is not to be taken lightly. Just to give you an idea of the addresses I've found that must be whitelisted to succeed in doing a Windows Update (on a Windows 10 system): 8.253.0.x23.1.117.23123.103.189.12523.14.84.x23.202.63.11623.72.225.x23.78.148.9523.78.155.3365.52.108.9065.55.138.11165.55.44.5466.119.144.15893.184.215.20096.16.98.x104.73.38.54134.170.115.62134.170.58.190137.116.64.35157.55.133.204157.56.77.138157.56.77.139157.56.96.123157.56.96.54184.51.150.x And these DO change as Microsoft moves servers around, makes new partnerships with Content Delivery Networks, etc. Every single time I do a Windows Update on my Win 10 test system I have to augment/adjust the above list. I list these to illustrate that taking on IP address management in order to keep a step ahead of Windows is not a trivial task, and it does require ongoing effort. Most importantly, it requires you to be able to monitor the process directly. Using a list from someone else isn't going to work. A problem with using routing to sink particular addresses is that you won't be seeing reports of what application or service tried to access what addresses. Stuff will just fail. Then you'll be faced with the question "what do I do to make this work again?" Unless you're incredibly meticulous in taking notes and do regression testing after every change, the only viable answer may end up being "start over". Not really a viable plan. At least the approach using a "deny-by-default" firewall, assuming you pick a program that gives you good feedback in the form of a log, tells you about the successes and failures, and allows you to manage the configuration. I've set up a "deny-by-default" firewall strategy on all of my systems now (Win 7, 8.1, and 10). It turns out that once the (fairly significant) effort of initially setting everything up is done, it doesn't take that much effort to maintain it. Here's what I suggest, if you want to make sure you're keeping your private data private: Configure all the settings you can find to the most private choices.If on Win 10, run O & O Shut Up 10 to close down most privacy settings.Go through the Task Scheduler and disable the things that you don't want automatically running.Set Windows Update via gpedit.msc to manual mode.Disable the Windows Update service if you REALLY don't want it online without you. -Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Techie007 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I finally got build 10565 earlier today. Ever since I started switching my account back to a local account, Microsoft's been punishing me by delaying my ability to download new builds. I simply don't like typing my long, secure web password to unlock my computer! Anyway, I was looking through some things in this new build, and happened upon this: It turns out that Microsoft renamed the Diagnostics Tracking Service to a more accurate Connected User Experiences and Telemetry, as evidenced by its internal name, DiagTrack, being the same. They also added a more accurate description. Here's a screenshot of what it used to look like (RTM build): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 ^^ That's a more honest name, which is welcome; but do you think that the name change may also serve to trip up people who, wishing to disable the service, might visually scan for "Diagnostics Tracking" nder Services and not find it? It could be a sneaky obstacle to enhancing one's privacy on Windows 10. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Here's an intriguing technique that maybe could be used to block connections to Microsoft telemetry servers. What do you think? That could be effective, sure, but... Be aware that taking on IP address management is not to be taken lightly. Just to give you an idea of the addresses I've found that must be whitelisted to succeed in doing a Windows Update (on a Windows 10 system): 8.253.0.x23.1.117.23123.103.189.12523.14.84.x23.202.63.11623.72.225.x23.78.148.9523.78.155.3365.52.108.9065.55.138.11165.55.44.5466.119.144.15893.184.215.20096.16.98.x104.73.38.54134.170.115.62134.170.58.190137.116.64.35157.55.133.204157.56.77.138157.56.77.139157.56.96.123157.56.96.54184.51.150.x And these DO change as Microsoft moves servers around, makes new partnerships with Content Delivery Networks, etc. Every single time I do a Windows Update on my Win 10 test system I have to augment/adjust the above list. I list these to illustrate that taking on IP address management in order to keep a step ahead of Windows is not a trivial task, and it does require ongoing effort. Most importantly, it requires you to be able to monitor the process directly. Using a list from someone else isn't going to work. A problem with using routing to sink particular addresses is that you won't be seeing reports of what application or service tried to access what addresses. Stuff will just fail. Then you'll be faced with the question "what do I do to make this work again?" Unless you're incredibly meticulous in taking notes and do regression testing after every change, the only viable answer may end up being "start over". Not really a viable plan. At least the approach using a "deny-by-default" firewall, assuming you pick a program that gives you good feedback in the form of a log, tells you about the successes and failures, and allows you to manage the configuration. I've set up a "deny-by-default" firewall strategy on all of my systems now (Win 7, 8.1, and 10). It turns out that once the (fairly significant) effort of initially setting everything up is done, it doesn't take that much effort to maintain it. Here's what I suggest, if you want to make sure you're keeping your private data private: Configure all the settings you can find to the most private choices.If on Win 10, run O & O Shut Up 10 to close down most privacy settings.Go through the Task Scheduler and disable the things that you don't want automatically running.Set Windows Update via gpedit.msc to manual mode.Disable the Windows Update service if you REALLY don't want it online without you. -Noel Certainly it's a massive job to try to keep up with all the shifting IP addresses. Kind of ironic that it's gotten so hard to do that, considering that computers were developed precisely to automate such tedious, labor-intensive work. Still, from a technical standpoint it was neat to learn that there's yet another way (in addition to firewalls and hosts files) to attack the problem of shutting down unwanted traffic into the information superhighway. Excellent list of tips BTW. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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