Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[NoelC]

Once every two to three years is more than often enough.

Of course, that implies that Microsoft would actually have to WORK HARD to make it a SYSTEM that all hangs together before release.

For arguably one of the most complex software packages, the "from the engineers' fingertips to you" concept is just a ridiculous idea.

-Noel

[submix8c]

7 hours ago, jaclaz said:

... and on the BBC too:

"Wait, WHAT? NOOOO, I don't WANT that, Johnny-Hacker/NSA/DHS/MS!" You'd think with this "free upgrade" folks would check before they click, just like installing Foreign Virus/Trojan (Win-X).

FTR, My Brother LOVES Win-X (apparently he's got it on one of his PC's now). "It's purty!" (SMDH)

Edited May 24, 2016 by submix8c

[jaclaz]

9 hours ago, JorgeA said:

 

Microsoft has been conning Windows users for two months

 

I wonder why he used "months" instead of the more accurate "decades" .

jaclaz
 

[xpclient]

The "conning" started after Windows XP SP2. With Vista, the "conning" was well underway but Vista and Windows 7 did have a significant number of genuine improvements to offset the "conning".  

[jaclaz]

1 hour ago, xpclient said:

The "conning" started after Windows XP SP2. With Vista, the "conning" was well underway but Vista and Windows 7 did have a significant number of genuine improvements to offset the "conning".

Sure, like sneakingly removing access to more than (roughly) 3.5 Gb of memory (which happened with SP2) was "fair play"  .

... and of course the AARD issue back in the good ol'times was legit ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

jaclaz
 

[JorgeA]

Microsoft continues to get thrashed for its "up"grade tactics:

Even if you like Windows 10, you should be angry at Microsoft
 

Quote

As I’ve said numerous times in the past, I actually like Windows 10. It’s still rough around the edges -- and the Anniversary Update, out in July, won’t fully change that -- but what I don’t like is Microsoft’s aggressive, relentless pushing of the OS on to people who not only don’t want it but have expressly rejected it.

It’s scummy behavior, totally unbefitting of a company of Microsoft’s size and reputation.

The blogger, Wayne Williams, makes an interesting analogy:

Quote

If someone knocked on my door trying to sell me double glazing and I said no, I wouldn’t expect to come home the next day to find them installing new windows, but this is exactly the sh*t Microsoft is pulling.

Well, the window man would of course respond that, by closing your door in his face, you were actually agreeing to the installation. It's all part of his "windows as a service" model.

Microsoft to tweak its sneaky Windows 10 popup, but it's far from a u-turn

Microsoft gives the appearance of giving in to customer demands, but there's less than meets the eye.

--JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

“My hotel can’t check me out because their computer decided to just go for it & is currently in the middle of updating itself to Windows 10,” he said.

http://kotaku.com/spontaneous-windows-10-update-prevents-game-dev-from-ch-1778519338

[JorgeA]

3 hours ago, jaclaz said:

Sure, like sneakingly removing access to more than (roughly) 3.5 Gb of memory (which happened with SP2) was "fair play"  .

... and of course the AARD issue back in the good ol'times was legit ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

jaclaz
 

Wow, reading through that Wikipedia article solved a small three-year-old mystery for me. The "See also" section at the end includes a link to materials that someone who participated for a while in our Windows 8 Deeper Impressions thread had used as part of their MSFN nickname. The name of @HalloweenDocument12 never meant anything or made sense to me, until today when I saw that. Very clever name choice!

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

6 hours ago, jaclaz said:

I wonder why he used "months" instead of the more accurate "decades" .

jaclaz
 

Altogether too many people are overly polite limp noodles and just keep moving the line every time Microsoft steps over it.  They engage in conversation while swimming "Does the water in here feel a little warmer?"

Some say being an optimist is better, but sometimes reality has to win over delusion or the world will just come apart.

-Noel

[submix8c]

8 hours ago, NoelC said:

Altogether too many people are overly polite limp noodles and just keep moving the line every time Microsoft steps over it.  They engage in conversation while swimming "Does the water in here feel a little warmer?"

Washington DC-esque comment right there (the general populace is inherently "Oh, OK, whatevs. It's for my own good, so...").

I can't wait for Win-X to start installing while a diplomatic negotiation agreement is being worked out and the details are on the PC in question.

[Formfiller]

Anyone else feeling sick when they have to buy something from MS?

Despite my many rants about Microsoft in the past, I was never disgusted enough to start a consumer boycott, but the GWX updater, and all their behavior assiocated with it, really did it for me.

That thing is malware, actually it is worse than malware from an sociological point of view. When eastern european hackers want to scam you for a living it's bad, but a 50 billion dollar company doing these stunts makes it a lot more disgusting (and there's nothing free about W10: It is to the brim filled with spyware and phone home functions, and you lose your W7/W8 license in the process). 

There are some purchases (Office licenses) that probably have to be made but I try postpone them as much as I can (LibreOffice is unfortunately still not an viable alternative in lots of cases). Whenever I have to shell out for MS stuff I truly feel uncomfortable nowadays. Even for non tarded stuff like W7 licenses and MS keyboards: Every cent helps MS fund stuff like GWX after all, it affects me directly. I lost more than enough time fighting this thing.

Goob job MS.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Formfiller

[JorgeA]

^^ I've had success (mostly) with Softmaker Office, it's the most MS Office-compatible suite that I've come across. The full-featured suite is s not free (though they do offer a free, slightly limited version), but it does cost a lot less than Office -- and you're not giving your money to Microsoft, but rather helping to keep an alternative alive.

The only compatibility issue I've run into with Softmaker Office has to do with a somewhat obscure function in Word: the formula editor for showing complex mathematical expressions. Even though it has its own formula editor, Textmaker (the Softmaker word processor) doesn't interpret correctly what Word does.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

In her latest post for Windows Secrets, Susan Bradley confirms our worst fears and strikes the hardest blows I've read yet against Microsoft's Win10 dirty tricks:

Getting ready (or not) for Windows 10
 

Quote

Real evidence of forced Windows 10 upgrades

First, an apology to Windows Secrets readers — and especially to my colleague Woody Leonhard. Some months back, he reported a forced Win10 upgrade on one of his own systems.

But I didn’t believe him; I thought he’d missed some confirmation step in the upgrade process. Wearing my rose-colored glasses, I’ve assumed that Microsoft customers would always see the standard end-user license agreement (EULA) before any major upgrade started.

Well, I was wrong; just as I was wrong to doubt that a Windows Secrets reader received a Win10 upgrade without the user’s permission.

On May 12, Microsoft changed its policy on Win10 upgrades. The company now picks a date for your machine’s migration to the new OS. Once that date is set, all users can seemingly do is wait for the upgrade to finish and then decide whether to roll back to Win7 or Win8.1.

The rest of the column sits behind a paywall, but she confirms that one of her Windows 7 systems showed the upgrade notice with no option to cancel and that it began the Win10 installation without her approval.

Later in the piece, much excellent commentary by Susan about the company's seeming lack of concern about breaking people's stuff and about the MSFT developers who approved the new window-closing behavior. She does recommend the GWX Control Panel or Never10 to prevent the nonsense.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

The annoying Windows 10 upgrade offer gets personified in manga form
 

Quote

1. It Starts Off Innocent

[...]

2. Things Start to Get Weird

[...]

3. A Line Has Been Crossed

[...]

4. The Point of No Return

Windows 10-chan: “Don’t worry, master! I scheduled an upgrade for you!”
Me: “What?! What are you doing?! Cancel! Where is the cancel button?!”

[...]

5. Too Late

--JorgeA
 

[jaclaz]

3 hours ago, JorgeA said:

 

The rest of the column sits behind a paywall, ....

All these years thinking that paying to access a news article was to actually get some news, as opposed to some lame late excuses about how she was wrong in a previous non-news article (BTW likely originally also behind a paywall).

She should give back some of the money ;).

jaclaz