Ever consider dropping back to the LTSB/LTSC version of Win10?

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It ain’t easy. Gregg Keizer explains everything you need to know about LTSC. Well, almost everything.
[See the full post at: Ever consider dropping back to the LTSB/LTSC version of Win10?]

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GreatAndPowerfulTech, Elly, PhotM

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Leading question:

What would Win 10 bring to the party that would make it attractive enough to adopt, but not attractive enough to keep up with the ongoing builds – especially after waiting ~6 months from initial release for all the public testing?

-Noel

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lurks about, Microfix, PhotM

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In short; No more this, less of that, a lot of what if’s, why are we being treated like this, extended feature timescales etc..actually, come to think of it, W10 would not be invited to the party, full stop!

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Noel Carboni

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Leading question: What would Win 10 bring to the party that would make it attractive enough to adopt, but not attractive enough to keep up with the ongoing builds – especially after waiting ~6 months from initial release for all the public testing? -Noel

10 years ago, you were the guy that refused to move on from Windows 2000 because Windows 7 has too many pointless animations, the Control Panel is too complicated, the OS install is too large, it doesn’t look “Professional”, “hey my system works just fine and I still will get security updates for another year!”…..

20 years ago, you were the guy that stuck with MS-DOS because Windows offers nothing of value, and is slower, and WordPerfect 5.1 is better than Word for Windows, and a lot of DOS games don’t run…. or maybe you were an OS/2 truther like me……

30 years ago, you were the guy that held on tight to your useful but aged Apple ][e system while everyone around you switched to Macs.  Maybe you bought a snazzy new Apple ][gs to delay the inevitable.

Hey man, it’s your choice to be that guy, but eventually you -will- be left behind and you -will- have a longer road ahead of you when it becomes necessary to catch up.

For me personally, the vast, vast improvements to the Console in Windows 10 is a good enough reason to upgrade all by itself.  Stuff like being able to do multi-line select/copy like on a Unix console, without getting new lines inserted into the copied content.  Stuff like being able run a console window full-screen (like you could in the pre-Vista days) by hitting Alt+Enter.  Stuff like being able to resize or maximize console windows without having to fiddle with buffer settings.

Whenever I’m on a Server 2012 R2 or older system, the console’s limitations drive me nuts.

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ch100, Noel Carboni

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As it turns out I’m actually both an early adopter AND a conservative upgrader.

For my hardware systems, on which I base my business and manage my valuable data, I prefer to run a very stable operating system. At the moment those are still on Win 8.1 and 7.

As a techmology fan, I also run virtual machines on which I keep up with what’s going on with the latest releases. This is also necessary to know what my software customers are seeing when they choose to run the latest OS.

Shortly I’ll be getting a brand new workstation on which Windows 10 for Workstations will be pre-installed. I presume it’ll be either v1803 or v1809 – whatever Dell chooses to ship on their Precision line. I don’t want to downgrade it to Windows 8.1, since there are already software packages that provide more functionality with Windows 10.

Now, about how I will choose to manage that system afterward… I’m imagining I will continue to try new builds in VMs as I have been, and only choose to bring my hardware up to a newer Win 10 build at the time when that newer version is very well debugged and stable. I may even choose to skip some Windows 10 versions.

I don’t believe I’ll be seeking to run it on the LTSB branch ever.

-Noel

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Stable and well debugged Windows 10? When and if you can still do your aftermarket tweaking, you will probably almost never update that new computer. 🙂

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But LTSB is the well debugged and stable version. IMHO. We have no more issues with them than the Windows 7 machines (and I can count the 8.1s on one hand although folks could have it if they knew enough to ask).

The current versions never will be, they aren’t around long enough.

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Not the brightest examples, you are mentioning changes to completely different architectures. Windows isn’t a completely different architecture since 7 (or even Vista in a sense). So if a user choses to use an older version, he or she can run most of their daily software unaltered.

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To let the bosses think they have the latest and greatest, without IT having to constantly deal with problems related to upgrading in place.

As I’ve mentioned before, we went LTSB in a medium sized organization and I have zero regrets.

Are we going to apply the 2019 upgrade when it comes out? Ha! No time soon, and not until someone has a good reason.

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AlexEiffel, Noel Carboni

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Microsoft’s twice year feature update makes the LTSB a problem for Microsoft. If feature updates were spread out over 12 to 18 months like probably they should to maintain stability. Then LTSB would probably fit in better with that update cycle. I would assume LTSB was more for tasks that required absolute stability and didn’t require much more then that.

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Chronocidal Guy

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Heaven forbid home users should actually want a stable OS.  Frankly, that’s all I want out of my computer.  I don’t give two shakes about the Windows “experience”… I just want it to run my software reliably.  The one and only reason I’m still on Windows is that a vast majority of the software I own requires it, and there aren’t any alternatives.  No, I don’t run life support software on my computer, and I won’t die if does an unwanted update at a bad time.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t expect to be able to depend on it to run my software in a stable and predictable manner.

There seems to be a rapidly widening gulf between the views of home users and Microsoft, in terms of what a computer is, and what it should do.  Me?  I view my computer as an appliance.  I purchase it to do certain tasks, and it needs to do those tasks reliably.

If I buy a microwave oven, I expect it to be able to cook a variety of food.  It needs to have the settings to heat frozen things, re-heat leftovers, and a few specific things like cooking popcorn.  I don’t need it to be voice command activated.  I don’t need it to be suggesting recipes.  I don’t need it to display the news, weather, or offer games for me to play on the keypad while my food cooks.  I just want it to cook my food.  If it can’t do that reliably, it’s not fit for purpose.

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johnf, Elly, AlexEiffel, mindwarp, Karlston, David F, Noel Carboni, Cybertooth, lurks about, Bill C., DAVe3283, wdburt1, MikeFromMarkham

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Semi-annual updates wouldn’t be such a pain in the *** if it didn’t cause Outlook to have to re-index emails. That **** drives everyone at my office bananas.

Thankfully since we rolled out 2016 it only downloads and indexes the past year. Still a pain though, most of my users have a 10GB OST just from the last year.

MVP Edit: please refer to Lounge rules regarding language.

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Normally, only companies and professionals with Win 10 Volume Licensing(= minimum 5 licenses) can get their hands on the LTSB edition through a M$ reseller. Seems, there is a workaround for home-users or Small-Business-owners to just get ONE or two Win 10 Ent LTSB license that costs about US$300 each, as an upgrade to an OEM Win 10 Pro licensed computer. …
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2167558-explicit-instructions-for-purchasing-a-windows-10-ltsc-license – Oct 9, 2018

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Win 10 Ent LTSC is about the same as Win 7 Ent, ie companies with Volume Licensing could buy and run both for up to 10 years.

Win 10 Ent is a different beast from Win 7 Ent, ie “fiercer” or more predatory pricing/cost$ from M$.

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LTSB / LTSC is the ONLY version of Windows 10 I would consider using if I were forced to use it in the future. No every-6-month-update **** for me.

I only want to use a stable, not always changing OS (Windows or others) for my work. But it is obvious Microsoft has no inclination anymore to produce a product for users like me.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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johnf, Karlston, David F, Noel Carboni, Adul

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I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Yet somehow, for Microsoft, the fact, that regular user would want a stable, non-ever-changing operating system, is unthinkable.

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johnf

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At work we’re running LTSB 1607 on about 400 PCs out of 2200 (with Office 2013 due to business software prerequisites).

In 2019, we will replace the remaining ones (Windows 7 and 8.1) with either LTSB 1607 or 1809. The PCs are managed by SCCM Current Branch without any problem.

We know MS changed the rules regarding Office support on LTSB/LTSC but there’s no reason to worry as long as they continue to release on-premise version.

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ch100

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