Blah, blah.

Another weak slap on the wrist while praising the offender at the same time.

This stuff merely emphasizes the truth behind the saying that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to receive permission.

Pretty good article overall, but I don’t agree with him that Microsoft is pushing Win10 so aggressively because it’s a better operating system. Oh I agree it *is* a better operating system for many or most users who can run it and who set Win10 to delay forced monthly updates once it’s installed and disable some key privacy invasions (which he neglacts to mention).

No the reason Microsoft is pushing upgrades so hard is money and stockholder (executive) expectations. No tech corporation would give away such a key product they used to charge for at no charge because it’s in the public interest. They are doing this so they can monetize Windows in ways that earlier versions don’t allow. Note where he speaks of the promise to developers: one billion users within two to three years. Win10 is gaining steam but not as fast as Microsoft would like. That’s why they’re getting pushier.

I can verify that the update was offered to a PC that was not really ready because or driver issues and the manufacture (Dell) will not support Windows 10 on this machine (Alienware M17xr4).

Gregg Keizer has an article today too
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3081401/microsoft-windows/microsoft-takes-windows-10-upgrade-near-nuclear-line.html

Gregg Keizer at Computerworld has also weighed in with another recap of this situation here:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3081401/microsoft-windows/microsoft-takes-windows-10-upgrade-near-nuclear-line.html

Windows 10 is a better OS = empty puffery. Prove it.

Peter wrote…

“…the usual chicken-and-egg situation surrounding new Windows releases: developers never use the latest and greatest features, because there’s nobody using the latest-and-greatest operating system; there’s no reason to use the latest-and-greatest operating system, because software runs just fine on the current one.”

The trouble with that whole concept is that Windows 10 really ISN’T greatest. It’s really not better than its predecessor. The UWP doesn’t provide any obvious advantages that would make both users and developers flock to it.

They kind of needed to make it great as well as new. Sure, that’s no small feat, but Microsoft could have done it if they’d had a visionary who could have laid out what was needed then saw to it that a good plan was executed. It’s been done before (e.g., by Dave Cutler).

As it is, we pretty much just got mediocre junkware.

Don’t agree? Please show me an App that eclipses what was done before.

Big-font, self-reorganizing displays have already been done (web browser anyone?).

We SURE didn’t need an App environment that’s so tremendously inefficient that it bogs a modern PC (which, by definition, is a supercomputer).

-Noel

Quite spot on Noel. I tried hard for one year plus the previous half year in preview to use Windows 10 for my main laptop. Few days ago, after having more and more problems with the Universal Apps, I decided that I had enough and rolled-back to Windows 7. At least for now. For me Windows 10 was working as well as Windows 7 for desktop applications, but it was a huge waste of time due to the things that very few users want from a desktop OS. And those things, Windows Apps mainly, were hardly functional. I went beyond the Edge hype and now I think IE is far better and at the same level with Firefox. For me Chrome browser is something which tries to create its own standards (better many times but still non-compliant) like IE6 back in its days and as such I try to ignore it, although I use it now and then. It was probably started by some kids as a hobby and now that it took off in mainstream has legacy which is hard to change.

I would be very interested to hear what people who tried would think about either the LTSB or Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise with all Universal Apps uninstalled with PowerShell. I am mostly interested if Windows 10 in such a configuration is still usable. When I tried before, it looked to be like it is no longer usable, something like what Windows 7 with IE uninstalled would be. That was few months ago though.

Typical ArseTechnica/Peter Bright article. Says nothing that hasn’t been said 1000 times before, and still ends up promoting Windows 10.

It’s very very debatable whether Windows 10 is a better OS than Windows 7 or 8. There are clear pros and cons to both.

If it all “depends,” then any writer who wades into this now long-running controversy with a claim that Windows 10 is “better” should be expected to state his assumptions, conditions, and qualifiers.

After having read Peter’s article I took the time to read the comments. The impression I got from the tone of the responses is that this issue is primarily about the deterioration of trust between a company and it’s customers. W10 (the product) is not the issue.

The consensus I came to from the vast majority of the responses is that Microsoft is essentially behaving like a bully. Microsoft has used its superior strength to influence and intimidate their customers to force ( browbeat, harass, torment, strong-arm) them to do what Microsoft wants and only what Microsoft wants.

Customers with Home and Pro are those responding to articles like this and they are well aware that there is a separate class of customer that is not being treated with the same disdain. This has intensified their anger with Microsoft.

We all know that ‘Bullies’ intend to dominate and they never apologize for their actions.

Get rid of the privacy problems (all of them — I do accept program crash report submission), bring back the Windows 7 interface, banish the windows 8/10 tiles to somewhere other than the start menu, and give me control of my windows updates without workaround and I will start considering windows 10 on any system that has UEFI/secure boot and full driver support from the manufacturer.