Windows 10 upgrade

[CP]

[Tannin]

OMG! Clueless Plus in person.

Apple have had some horrendous flops, by the way. The Apple III stands out amongst them but there were plenty of others. They basically went broke a decade or two ago and were only bailed out with a massive cash infusion from Bill Gates, who needed at least one apparently viable competitor to stave off various anti-trust actions.

These days, Apple are a very minor bit-player in computing, but have a lot of strength in phones and tablets. How long they can hold on to that strength in the face of massive margin pressure as both markets commoditise is an interesting question. They are down to about 20% market share now and still dropping. Margins remain strong but are nevertheless falling. To survive as a major player they need to find a whole new market which they can dominate the way they once dominated the smart phone and tablet markets (and to a lesser extent still do). This is the reasoning behind the Apple Watch. It seems like an odd product to stake the future of a gigantic company on, but they have a reasonably good hit/miss record with this sort of introduction - off the top of my head, around 50/50. For comparison, Microsoft's is more like 80/20 or even 90/10 against, so 50/50 is a decent average.

[stui magpie]

The surface pro is definitely getting traction in medium to large business of which the vast majority use a Windows SOE and apart from the sound glitch, Windows 10 seems pretty damn good.

1 reviewer agrees.

[Tannin]

Stui, my remarks were about the original Surface, which was one of the most spectacular failures in computer history. The product now called "Surface" is a very different (and vastly superior) animal. It's doing OK, and probably making a profit, though it will need to do very well indeed to make up for the fortune they lost on the mountain of unsalable originals they couldn't move for toffee.

This is classic Microsoft, actually. Most of their new products fail horribly. (New products, not revamped existing ones.) As a rule, they take it on the chin and try something else. Sometimes they take it on the chin, and splash even more billions on another go, and another, and another. Sometimes this eventually works: the X-box is a good example. It was a shocking loss-maker for years on end but they just kept on pouring money over it until something happened - in the case of the X-box, they got it half-right and Sony got their product very wrong: suddenly the X-box was the best product on the market and now it makes a profit. (Probably not enough to have paid for their accumulated X-box losses yet, but it will.) The Surface was similar, though the initial failure was even worse and the recovery better. And sometimes they just go on pouring billions into a lost cause for decades on end. The example of this is Bing (and its 17 other names, none of them even remotely successful). Bing still lags as hopelessly behind Google as it always has. They still keep pouring billions into it, and it still rates as a flat fail. Maybe it always will. The thing that makes Microsoft different is that although its new ventures are even less likely to succeed than most high-tech ventures (frankly, their product people stink), unlike nearly all other tech companies, they have a bottomless pit of money from their Windows and Office monopolies that just keeps on paying huge dividends, making it almost impossible for them to make a loss no matter how badly they screw the pooch.

But the Office monopoly is dead in the water, and Windows is suffering badly from reduced PC sales in this phone and tablet world. Microsoft can't just live on its massive monopoly profits anymore, for the first time in 20 years it has to perform or die. The weird Windows 10 gambit is part of that effort. Will it save the company?

Interesting times.

[stui magpie]

Hey i wasn't criticizing your comments about the Surface, just agreeing that the new version is going well.

The Surface can be connected to a docking station and used with a real keyboard, mouse and screen so it can replace a desk PC and/or Laptop in a work environment. They are a nifty little gig, I'm thinking of getting one.

Considering how slow large business is in changing/updating SOE (we still have around 50% on XP) they do have time to get their shit together, but the future is coming.

[Dave The Man]

[Tannin]

It depends, Dave. I think Ubantu is considered a bit on the nose these days - apparently they screwed the UI something chronic. Nix people seem to regard current day Ubantu as a UI dog like Windows 8. Mint is the disto generally recommended for most users now. (I have no opinion of my own here, haven't tried either, I'm just passing on the consensus view.)

If the software you want to run works on Nix, it's a no-brainer. On the other hand, if you want to run Windows-specific stuff (if, for example you are like me and need Photoshop), then the best choice is Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell, or failing that, Windows 7.

[stui magpie]

^

Summary Dave, there isn't a single "best thing to do". There isn't a software out there that does everything for everyone. What is best for you depends on what you want to use it for.

[Dave The Man]

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

I installed it last week and rolled it back a day later. Mistake I made was going for the express install which gave Microsoft cart blanche over default apps, privacy, spyware and generally my whole existence. Worst thing was inadvertently setting the PC to use a microsoft account just to log in. An account with a password I only knew through a Firefox extension that stores all my passwords . Thankfully, I have the same app on my phone so was able access that password

Moving on... I decided to give it another go and reinstalled a couple of nights ago, this time using custom install and unchecking every single default option. Not an easy thing to do if you're not quite computer savvy, but trust me, if you're not sure about something you never had it's highy likely you'll be fine without it. You can always install or change an option later on if you feel you need to. Viva la Liberta! Now running pretty much as it did with Windows 7, although much slicker.

Conclusion. There's a lot of hidden nuisances and sly marketing but most of it can be avoided if you customise your install and don't just assume they have your best interests at heart when going the express or default route.

[Tannin]

Good post Frankie, useful stuff. I have a number of systems running 8.1 which I don't intend to change, and one middle-aged laptop running 7. It would be nice to have the extra speed of 8 or 10 on that machine but I don't want to spend $150 just for that. I haven't decided yet whether I'll do the free W10 upgrade on it or not on that laptop. All the other systems are staying on 8.1 until further notice. (Of course, none of them have ever had a Microsoft Account.)

[pietillidie]

[pietillidie]

[pietillidie]

^Here's an example from the news today of the sort of cool stuff Nadella is doing:

The Verge: Microsoft open sources its tool for porting iOS apps to Windows. http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/6/9109693/microsoft-windows-bridge-for-ios-open-source

This is on top of the serious stuff, such as his greater embrace of open-source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nadella-will-really-change-microsoft-2014-7?IR=T

Of course, time will tell whether it's froth and bubble or not, but he's at least saying the right things, which will in turn attract younger talent, etc. Some habits die hard, though; this certainly pissed me off: http://readwrite.com/2015/07/31/mozilla-chris-beard-satya-nadella-microsoft-firefox-windows-10

At the same time, one wonders if they can stretch their brand beyond corporate lock-in, regardless (gaming is another very old legacy area peculiarly tied into the history of their OS monopoly, BTW, not some cool new love child).

[Joel]

The level of "tin foil hatting" going on around the Windows release is ridiculous. I suppose none of you own Android, Apple or Windows phones?

I've installed it and like it so far. That said, I was in the minority that liked Windows 8 (after I took the time to install a classic menu).