Jump to content

Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions


xper

Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, jaclaz said:

To be fair, the 3Tb backup drive will NOT send you a notice saying "I'm gonna brick myself next month" BUT it will become a 0 Gb drive nonetheless. 
In other words with greater power come greater responsibilities...

That's fine with me. Those are random events -- accidents, if you will -- and I can buy more drives to make redundant backups. But if Microsoft won't let my account have more than a certain amount, it is no accident, and I have no control over it. What would one do, open a new separate Microsoft account? That would be an administrative nightmare, having to keep track of which account you're signed into and when.

--JorgeA

Windows 10 market share breaks 20 percent, but pace of growth still slowing

That "20 percent" means 20 percent of users of Windows, but despite the needless confusion there the writer makes an interesting observation about the impact of Win10 on gamers and of gamers on Win10:

Quote

    Gamers are, in absolute terms, only a fraction of Windows 10’s install base, but they tend to be a noisy and important fraction. Converting these users into Windows Store buyers has to be a huge goal for Microsoft, since it allows the company to tap purchases that would ordinarily flow to platforms like Steam. This was the fear that drove Gabe Newell to create Steam OS, and it’s still a potential threat to the Valve empire. Today, UWP applications like Gears of War have an exceptionally poor reputation, but Steam itself was widely loathed at launch. Over time, Valve turned its initially despised platform into practically the only digital distribution point for PC titles. Microsoft could theoretically do something similar, but only if it starts offering PC gamers the kinds of choices and options they are used to. The tight sandboxing model doesn’t just preclude modding, it prevents the kinds of common INI tweaks that PC gamers have used for decades when dealing with slipshod software or poor console ports.

    [...]

    As ComputerWorld points out, whether or not Microsoft continues its free upgrade policy past July 29 will have trickle-down effects on device sales and overall W10 uptake, yes — but whether or not the company changes its UWP and privacy policies to allow users to change some of these settings could have an impact, too. If Microsoft is truly serious about pushing its adoption rate towards that one billion threshold, it may need to take actions that hold-out groups want to see. If it doesn’t, it risks creating the same situation on Windows 7 that bedeviled it with Windows XP — a large chunk of users who simply won’t update, and drag down the movement of the overall Windows ecosystem as a result.

--JorgeA

On Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 0:37 AM, dencorso said:

That's because Win 10 actually *is* slower and more bloated than anything that has come before... :yes:

Yeah, it's mind-boggling that anybody would think otherwise at this stage.

--JorgeA

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Just now, JorgeA said:

That's fine with me. Those are random events -- accidents, if you will -- and I can buy more drives to make redundant backups. But if Microsoft won't let my account have more than a certain amount, it is no accident, and I have no control over it. What would one do, open a new separate Microsoft account? That would be an administrative nightmare, having to keep track of which account you're signed into and when.

--JorgeA

Naah, you must have missed the part where if you actually PAY for the storage they will be very happy to give some to you, proportional to how much you pay, of course this is more comparable to your "local" solution, unless you can get those extra drives for free :w00t:.

However it is not at all clear (to me at least) how (as a numbered list):

Quote

If you have a free OneDrive plan and will be over your storage quota as a result of these changes:

1) If you are a free user and have over 5 GB of content in your OneDrive, you will receive an email with an offer to claim a free 1-year subscription to Office 365 Personal*, which includes 1 TB of storage. 
2) If you do not claim this offer, you will need to purchase additional storage or remove some of your files. Otherwise, 90 days after you receive your first notice, your account will become read-only.
3) If you are over quota after the 90 days, you will still have access to your files for 9 months. You can view and download them. However, you will not be able to add new content. 
4) If after 9 months you are still over quota, your account will be locked. That means that you will not be able to access the content in your OneDrive until you take action.
5)If after 6 more months you fail to take action, your content may be deleted.

can anyone possibly (IF the account becomes read-only at point #2)  be able to delete some files to fit into the quota before step #3, #4 or #5, and more generally what is the actual difference in access between #2 and #3.

A corporation that cannot even word decently a set of policies ...

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, jaclaz said:

However it is not at all clear (to me at least) how (as a numbered list):

can anyone possibly (IF the account becomes read-only at point #2)  be able to delete some files to fit into the quota before step #3, #4 or #5, and more generally what is the actual difference in access between #2 and #3.

A corporation that cannot even word decently a set of policies ...

jaclaz

(OT) Comment on the new board software: notice how it deletes the items that you had quoted, so that the context is lost. Consider the first and second paragraphs in the above quote: a reader of my present post will end up reading the next (now disconnected) line and wondering what the heck.

Looks like embedded quotes are now verboten.

--JorgeA

Also verboten, apparently, is posting consecutively on different subjects within the same thread, as seen three posts upthread and now here. The new material that follows this paragraph has nothing to do with my reply to jaclaz above, and yet it is now the new policy to fuse it together with that reply. The only ways to avoid this absurdity are to either wait for somebody else to post something, or wait three hours. Totally artificial -- when I sit down to create and submit posts, I'm ready to do it then because that and not three hours later is when I have the chunk of time to do it. What is the sense of making the user wait an amount of time before he may post in a logical manner again?

Crapware Continues to Ruin the Windows Experience
 

Quote

I used to believe that PC makers were the worst thing that ever happened to the PC, but Microsoft is making a strong case for lumping them in the same category. Here we have a company that has righted some many wrongs from the Windows 8 days. But it’s undercutting the experience with in-OS crapware, in-OS advertising, and an overly-aggressive free upgrade that is turning away former fans. Tack on the FUD-based claims of privacy invasion that Microsoft has ineffectually addresses, and you have the makings of a platform exodus.

This is all avoidable. All Microsoft and its partners need to do is look beyond the short term and understand that their behavior today is planting the seed of discontent in customer minds. And when it comes time to upgrade that crapware- and advertising-laden OS, they’re going to start looking around. At Mac. At iPad. At Android. Or at Chromebook.

No, none of those systems is better, let alone perfect. But the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. And Microsoft and its PC maker partners are making it look a lot greener.

Paul Thurrott's broken clock matches the actual time of day once again, for a brief moment.

--JorgeA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm... :dubbio: <thinking>

...how about "worsebettering"? It hews more literally to the German, but OTOH it doesn't sound nearly as natural. Nobody can compete with German for the ability to glue words together.

I'll go with your choice. To bring us back on-topic, it also happens to describe well what's been going on with Windows since Win8. :)

--JorgeA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, JorgeA said:

To bring us back on-topic, it also happens to describe well what's been going on with Windows since Win8. :)

--JorgeA

Not really, it started with Vista :angel :

 

And, for the record, there is disimprovement:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Verschlimmbesserung

and, Windows is used as an actual example on the Free Dictionary:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Disimprovement

jaclaz

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, mikedigitize said:

Windows update has been trying real hard to install this (see pic) driver on my laptop, but no success. Wondering why?

A very good question. Win10 has been trying to install an Intel graphics driver on my test laptop for months unless I use the update hiding tool.

--JorgeA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

News from Build 2016:

Microsoft: If you wanted to reach a lot of phone customers, Windows Phone isn't the way to do it

Quote

Today at Build, Terry Myerson admitted that Microsoft's mobile platform has failed to set the world on fire, going on to say that the company's focus is very much on Windows 10 for non-mobile platforms. This means Windows 10 for the desktop, Windows 10 for Xbox One, and Windows 10 for HoloLens and the Internet of Things. He acknowledges that mobile is "the wrong place for us to lead".

Myerson is quoted as saying:

Quote

We're fully committed to that 4-inch screen, there will be a time for it to be our focus, but right now it's part of the family but it's not the core of where I hope to generate developer interest over the next year. There's no lack of recognition to realize how important that form factor is, but for Microsoft with Windows and for our platform it's the wrong place for us to lead.

One has to wonder if Microsoft even has a strategy at all, for right now they certainly seem to be flailing. Let's see: so you're letting the phone angle -- for the sake of which you wrecked the desktop UI -- suffer in neglect for a further unspecified amount of time while you continue to -- to do what, exactly? Wasn't the whole point of Windows 10 to go mobile?

Here's a brilliant idea: instead of alienating major chunks of your user base with the phone UI which you admit you'll be ignoring anyway, how about restoring the Windows that we know and love. Ditch the mobile aspects of Windows 10 -- the flat, dull visual design; the telemetry; the forced updates -- and rebuild your standing among the hundreds of millions who made your company a success in its first thirty years.

--JorgeA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, JorgeA said:

Here's a brilliant idea: instead of alienating major chunks of your user base with the phone UI which you admit you'll be ignoring anyway, how about restoring the Windows that we know and love. Ditch the mobile aspects of Windows 10 -- the flat, dull visual design; the telemetry; the forced updates -- and rebuild your standing among the hundreds of millions who made your company a success in its first thirty years.

There's the thing... From what I've seen of Build 2016, M$ thinks people use computers as phones, and like to always be connected with Facebook, Twitter, ... Heck, their major focus on stage was Cortana, and the bot network they are trying to build, based off Cortana, along with some other AI related APIs. The only mention of Windows 10 was porting the Linux Bash and the Anniversary Update (which, BTW, doesn't seem to have any improvements overall, in terms of UI or usability). I think at this point in time, I do believe Windows is only a small portion of M$, a part of their business that they really don't care/don't want to care. They only see Windows as a platform to leverage their other platforms. That's why we are seeing all these bul***** apps and services bundled with Nagware 10. That's why we aren't seeing any Kernel or performance improvements.

What we will see in the future is... more of Cortana, more of the Windows Store, more of Edge, more apps...

Productivity? What's that? :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, greenhillmaniac said:

What we will see in the future is... more of Cortana, more of the Windows Store, more of Edge, more apps...

Productivity? What's that? :unsure:

Well, seemingly one breakthrough new technology is the possibility to "convert" plain programs to "apps":

http://recode.net/2016/03/30/microsoft-planning-windows-10-anniversary-update-this-summer/

Quote


The company also introduced a tool that will let developers easily convert older Windows programs into the “modern” app style introduced with Windows 8. That will let app makers sell through Windows 10’s built-in store, among other things. (This is a big deal, as Microsoft estimates there are 16 million older Windows programs out there.)

which nicely answers the question:

HOW can I convert my program to an app for the Windows Store?

the remaining questions being of course :whistle::

WHY would I convert my program to an app for the Windows Store?

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...