Since we keep talking Win 10 in the Win 8 topic, thought maybe it deserved a topic of its own…
Windows 10:
http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2014/09/30/announcing-windows-10/
The tech preview released on Oct. 2014 focuses on enterprise features, with more new stuff to come next year, whether or not Stusser believes it:
A lot of us enterprise people really hated the Metro UI foisted on Server 2012. I haven’t kept track lately but what’s the upcoming server equivalent?
You expected them to talk about Windows Server in the “enterprise” announcement? Silly goose. No, that was all about rolling back win8 UI fumbles.
MS marketing failed again. They delivered a confused and abruptly incomplete/premature message. You don’t hold a presentation telling everybody it’s about the “enterprise” then proceed to exclusively discuss UI changes. It’s just plain inept marketing.
Again, I liked win10, it will be a nice little upgrade. But so far, it feels like a +0.1 release, not a +2.0. Looking forward to seeing some actual features.
If MS was really smart, they would put some real effort into openly integrating with android (and winphone/xbone/tablet, obviously) and offer to do the same with OSX and iOS if Apple lets them. Making phonecalls, SMS messages, emails, picking up tabs and logins from your browser, transferring skype calls, screen mirroring, remote audio, etc. That stuff is actually useful. Offer open APIs so 3rd party programs can get in on the action too.
And I’m still waiting for them to add windows desktop programs to the windows store for automatic updates. Why is that still not happening? Why are we still running filehippo and secunia psi to update our programs manually like animals while OSX users just click the update button in the mac store?
Oh, and on the hardware side, I want a 12" 16:10 Surface laptop with Surface build quality and Lenovo Yoga-style flexibility, and I want it to cost $100 more than the current non-retina Macbook Air (and the same as the retina one due out shortly).
I like that Microsoft has decided to pay attention to what people want and its giving them that. Its a big change… some of these features, like being able to copy and paste from a console, are 20+years old. Some people have born, grown, studied at the university, made a family and grown their own kinds, faster than Microsoft has need to notice these request.
I am Ok with a new version that is tryiing to be “the windows people ask for”. The next may break barriers and introduce new concepts, one version of windows that is just feels good to use will be great.
And it will be the first step for redemption for Microsoft, the first step in a very long path to redemption.
Heh, they removed the useful Skype API’s. And then killed off the old versions so many people were still using, and…
(I moved my outgoing calls to Vyke. It’s cheaper and they bill VAT on buying credit, not per call (so silly!))
That was the old Microsoft. The new one is all about interoperability. Or so they say, at any rate. But they did release office for iOS, that was huge.
Did I mention they killed the old versions like…5 weeks ago. Yea.
(I’m still not sure what the heck they bought Skype for, they kinda continued the downwards trajectory it’d already embarked on)
I love what I’m reading so far for Windows 10 and think MS is on the right track.
I installed the technical preview. I did an upgrade from Windows 7 (which was upgraded from Vista, which was upgraded from XP) and all my stuff came across really well. Impressive for a single install and account to survive across 4 generations of Windows upgrades.
Since all my pins and settings came across I’ve barely noticed a difference from Win 7. I had to turn off taskbars on every monitor (I have 3), and the Aero Glass is gone, but that’s pretty much it. The biggest improvement I’ve encountered it the ability to snap apps to half the screen at any monitor edge. In Win 7 you could only do that on the right edge of your rightmost screen or the left of your leftmost. That meant you couldn’t easily have two apps side by side on multi-monitor setups without manually resizing the windows. Since I like having Twitter and iTunes both open on my right monitor the new app snapping is actually helpful.
The fact that all my file associations have been preserved means I’ve mostly avoided all the built in metro apps. And not having the start button take over your whole screen seems like a nice improvement. But overall not a big difference in my day to day use. Hopefully I’m just benefiting from the performance improvements and other under the hood upgrades.
Hmm, Win7 allows snapping on multiple monitors just fine for me? I use it all the time. Use Window+arrow keys.
I don’t learn or use the keyboard shortcuts very often. You can’t mouse drag a window to an interior edge to make it go half screen on 7. That’s there in 10.
My new pet peeve about 10 is I can’t click on the volume icon in the system tray and adjust the volume with the mouse wheel like I did in 7. Not sure if they changed that or if it’s something being gummed up by the Logitech drivers I have installed.
What the? How come this ain’t published somewhere.
Windows 8.1 Keyboard Shortcuts! You can also select Windows 7 and Vista from the drop-down box on the right.
I was sort of joking. Obviously it’s documented, but you wouldn’t guess it was there and would only find it if you were just browsing this list. I’m sure there’s lots of other precious jems in there.
I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. It seems like MS really is investing in desktop windows again. Not just for show, MS loves to spout bullshit that everybody knows will die an ignominious death like GFWL. They’re, like, emotionally invested in desktop windows now.
This is awesome (and astonishing) news, but why in the world wouldn’t MS integrate this into the windows store for windows desktop programs? There was supposedly a deleted blog saying they would sell desktop windows programs on the store, but that was never confirmed.
What I’d really like to see is something like debian’s apt-get system used as the backend, with multiple sources. The windows store would act as an attractive front-end. Win10 would come with the windows store as the only source, but users would be free to add their own sources. And finally, applications would be delivered like OSX in self-contained packages rather than using setup.exe installers. That would be amazing.
All I got from that article was some guy chirping “package package package package package!”, whilst making a weak case for how this is any better than the Windows installers we’ve been using for decades.
It’s better not for the users, but for developers, as in the future their installers surely will use this in the background. The article is written for people who already know what’s a package manager, so it isn’t their mission to sell you on it.
Though there is a notable improvement for users: centralized update system for software.
I can’t put in words how good will be a command line package manager for windows.
Specially if is true to the promise, and after uninstalling any package, no files or registry keys are left behind.
This is a motherfucking Holy Grail of a OS.
I will be able to tell somebody by phone “Open a ms-dos window and type oneget install malwarebytes” and thats what will be installed, and not some random spyware that inpersonate has malwarebytes. Even better, I will type “oneget uninstall malwarebytes” to get rid of it.
Imagine somebody that is starting to develop PHP on windows 10, he can type “oneget install xampp netbeans-php scite” to get 5 programs installed quickly and painless.
It also will make supersmooth to return to a working system from a format. “oneget install <the apps you normally use>” will re-install everything you need in record time.
Of course, they will have to allow the inclusion of third party channels, and some collision tecnique.
But if this is done well, It can look like “oneget addchannel https://oneget.vmware.org 4AB41DE”
Yep, super promising. Windows is faaaaar behind on this. OSX doesn’t support external repositories, but at least it has a store for desktop apps. Windows has nothing.
How about “choco install malwarebytes” and “choco uninstall malwarebytes”?
I haven’t installed Chocolately yet, but a bunch of Microsoft web developers I follow on Twitter seem to swear by it.