Windows 10

[Sorus]

It actually was. I had him for about 11 years. He was estimated to have been 5-6 when I got him, so not a bad run. But I brought him to the vet as a TNR (trap-neuter-release) cat. And then the vet said, matter-of-factly, "You aren't going to keep him, of course." Then added some remarks about how he was unsuitable as a pet. That triggered some illogical defense, and I suddenly wanted him.

[Sorus]

Anyway, back on topic. I was talking about browser ads earlier - don't think I've ever had one that came directly from Windows. (But I don't use any of the apps.)

[Vraith]

Anyway, back on topic. I was talking about browser ads earlier - don't think I've ever had one that came directly from Windows. (But I don't use any of the apps.)

Me neither. The closest I've gotten is a notification whenever Windows updates asking if I want to make Edge my browser, or a sentence about the new cool thing Cortana can do if I turn it on...which aren't ads, exactly...
I keep my history/browsing as clean as possible, sometimes clearing it in the middle of sessions. Pretty much only Facebook targets me in obvious/accurate ways [and not all that accurately]---though I'm positive with all the different folk tracking everyone there's a lot I don't see or stop.

I've been doing basically what WF said for every new computer/OS since Windows 95. First thing I do is uninstall at least 90% of the crap that comes pre-loaded and set start-up so only anti-virus, word processor and browser run.

[Avatar]

Yeah, stuff is loaded with so much bloat-ware these days...

--A

[High Lord Tolkien]

Yeah, stuff is loaded with so much bloat-ware these days...

--A

2 years later it still sucks with that.
Even Server 2016 is polluted.
Not sure about Server 2019 though, Haven't seen it yet.

Windows Updates with Win10 is a nightmare too.
In Corporate there are solutions to manage and schedule Windows updates that have for the most part it's worked out ok.
Not Win10 though, that f#ck randomly bypasses everything setup and updates itself sometimes.
Absolutely crazy.

[Sorus]

I am very sad that they're discontinuing support of 7 as of next month. 7 was the best.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I am very sad that they're discontinuing support of 7 as of next month. 7 was the best.

Me too.


Support is available for some under certain licensing for $$$.
https://www.howtogeek.com/443573/how-wi ... will-work/

[Rigel]

Eh, I'm fine with the move to OneCore. Prior to 10, they had separate code branches for Windows Desktop, Windows Server, Windows Enterprise, Windows Mobile, and XBox (which was running Windows with a different shell).

They all had different code bases. They all had different implementations. They all had different quirks and bugs.

And APIs across the systems were all developed independently, too. DirectX was the most visible but hardly the only culprit here: Even though the DX API on desktop & xbox looked similar, they had small differences because they were developed independently. Office on Windows and Mac had even more pronounced differences.

Under Satya Nadella, they did two things that really helped: OneCore, which was an initiative to consolidate all code bases across all platforms. Anything that used the Windows kernel used the same Windows kernel, not independently developed versions of it. This was started with Windows 8 but not completed until Windows 10.

Secondly, they dedicated a lot of staff to helping develop Git (and also bought Github) so it could handle 300GB codebases.

The first let them focus development and quash bugs faster. The second let them... well... quash bugs faster. Reports I saw indicated they went from something like 10 full builds of Windows a week to around a hundred a day.

Of course, being Microsoft, they still have a middle management problem. The recent OneDrive issue where it deleted some users' files is indicative of that... it turns out that middle managers were literally turning off tests so those tests wouldn't fail so they'd have a better pass/fail ratio and be able to hit their targets.

But over all, the pace of refinement and innovation in Windows 10 is far beyond any version before. If you're happy with the version of software - any software - you have right now, what you're really saying is you're happy with all the bugs and vulnerabilities that are going to be used against you tomorrow. There's no such thing as secure or finished software, so I'm happy to take the updates in the new versions.