So this is how it's going to work
All Windows 10 will be 10 S, unless a) the OEM has paid MS to remove the S and passed the extra cost onto you or b) you pay.
Welcome to Windows as a Service. Frog boiling level ++.
When Microsoft launched Windows 10 S in May 2017, the company pitched it as a stripped-back version of Windows that would both run on hardware cheap enough for students around the world and make life easy for time-poor, cash-strapped school sysadmins. Now the company has signalled that Windows 10 S will become a "mode" of …
It'll be the "year of Linux on the desktop" any day now.
It is on my desktop, thanks to Microsoft. They've made Windows 10 so disgustingly bad that I feel dirty just using other, better versions of it. I used to be a Windows defender (no, not the chronically underperforming antimalware or antispyware; note the lower case 'd') when some would say that no one actually uses Windows because they like it; I'd offer that yeah, some of us do.
By the way, did you hear about how Windows 10 is ignoring the "defer feature updates up to one year" setting and force-installing 1709 even on PCs with 11 months or more left on the deferral? Turns out that those controls over updates are really more like suggestions. Even disabling the services associated with updating doesn't work... it just turns them all right back on whenever it wants to.
Can you believe people actually use this shite?
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Look, I prefer BSD over GPL myself, but no need to get all pernicikity and finicky about open source definitions. It's annoying when the RMS crowd does it, but your hair splitting is hardly a great improvement.
Besides, since this is about desktop OSs, Linux 1-2% market share, such as it is, greatly beats BSDs consumer/ end-user desktops (unless you want to draft in macOS in the FOSS camp somehow).
Let me guess, you're a developer/entrepreneur who'd love to make lots of dollars pilfering other developers code and GPL prevents you. Well, tough luck! GPL has been designed like that on purpose, for people like you. Just use BSD, MIT and other free software instead and stop complaining.
Me as an end user, I feel quite comfortable with GPL restrictions.
Not at all, I am a hobby developer who makes no money from programming, has no intention to make money from programming, well, maybe some from the games I make one day, but all source code that I release is released under the MIT license, because I don't care if someone makes money off my software, it means the code is worth something to someone, it is sure as hell not worth anything to me, that is why I released it as free software in the first place.
I have no problem with people using restrictive licences, I just have a problem with people using restrictive licences claiming it to be 'Free' software.
I'd upvote this a hundred times if I could: the first comment on the actual merits and failings of the product.
Edge isn't actually that bad a browser these days, but I agree 100% that you should be allowed to install something else in its place.
Also, while I think this is (stupidly) disabled in "S", you can change the default search provider in the regular Edge browser: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4028574/windows-10-change-the-default-search-engine-in-microsoft-edge
"Citrix receiver is a remoting tool. The app would be running on a Citrix server, not the Windows 10 S machine."
Yes of course. Nobody has ever uploaded malware to a server and attacked a remote client from there.
Mind you, it's a bit academic if both S customers decide not to go the Citrix route.
We use Win10S as an option for schools or businesses that want the 'low-hassle'/ guaranteed performance version. Next year 10S will be a "mode" of existing versions, not a distinct version. SO … I think it's totally fine/good that it's not mentioned.
...translated...
You should use Linux as an option for schools or businesses or indeed anyone that wants the 'low-hassle'/ guaranteed performance version. Next year 10S will be a "irrelevance", as we'll have come up with some other obvious way to milk you dry. SO … I think it's totally fine/good that it's not mentioned.
There are schools and even entire LEAs who provide every pupil with Chromebooks or iPads, both of which are *nix-like for those who look and are definitely not Windows. They usually have Windows PCs as well so the kids are getting a more rounded IT experience than in some places. These are the targets for Windows 10S. Both Google and Apple have decently good management systems in place. Don't know if MS have anything comparable or if they are still in the starting blocks.
You say Chromebooks and iPads are *nix-like and I have to take your word on that because you can't look under the hood. From this point of view they identical to Windows S.
As for what you call rounded IT experience with these devices, you must be joking.
"As for what you call rounded IT experience with these devices, you must be joking."
this is my point, regardless of how bad something is \ you may think it is, kids should be exposed to the whole range of computing experiences (my only caveat there is the price of Apple products and the limited budgets of many schools) .
My main issue with these forums is that the (currently) most ubiquitous platform (namely any Microsoft platform) is frequently derided here and according to a lot of the whiners should be eradicated.
There is a frequent cry that business etc. should be allowed to choose something other than Microsoft, and you know what - they have chosen. You may not like their choice but they have the right to make it, you may say its putting money into the pockets of the behemoth that Microsoft became, but they chose it - the simple thing is the vast majority of people don't want a kit of parts they have to sling together themselves, they want a pc they can switch on, do what they need to do and in that process never once resort to having to type unless its a message to someone or a line in a search engine.
There is a place for all O\S's out there, when you call for people to choose and they choose the one you don't like, respect their decision - and stop whining.
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Actually, you don't get it. The complaint is not about Linux. It's about the attitude here that anyone who chooses to use an alternative to Linux does so solely because they're an idiot who didn't know about Linux.
Whether he likes Linux or not doesn't stop this being a valid criticism.
I do a lot of Linux development, but I'm not blind to the platform's strengths and weaknesses. There are much better alternatives for certain application areas (desktop apps, small-footprint embedded, realtime), where Linux is often chosen for the mistaken belief that it's cheaper (no, there's really no such thing as a free lunch.. try hiring competent Linux developers and see most of those savings evaporate). If Linux is the best fit for the problem, price is a bonus; if it isn't, you're just doing the commercial equivalent of trying to optimise a bad algorithm. No tool, no OS can fit every possible usage scenario. Anyone who claims it can is only showing how narrow their view of the computing industry is.
Win10S (or 'S' Mode) exsits for two reasons only, and neither of them are really about security;
1. It pushes users towards Microsoft's store, because they'll have no other choice, and because everything will be UWP, anything not Edge won't work unless competitors browsers adopt UWP. MS hope this will generate way more store revenue, and make finally make developers take notice
2. In relation to (1), it will mean MS hope to bury win32 six feet under, as that's their ultimate goal to start building a walled garden ecosystem around Windows, get people using their services and finally become what they've wanted to be for ages now - Apple v2.
Any other 'reason' MS come up with is pure horsesh*t.
> Any other 'reason' MS come up with is pure horsesh*t.
3. It steals revenue from OEMs and retail. At present OEMs install Windows 10 and, probably, Office and add these to the computer price plus some markup for profit. With 'S mode' loaded and locked the computers will be cheaper because there will be no, or much less, software revenue for the OEM or retailer and thus no, or less, markup. They won't sell add-ons because those must be installed with the end-user's account. Microsoft will get revenue directly from the user for upgrading to full Windows and for selling Office and other software from the store.
This is probably why 10S is no longer a thing - OEMs and retailers don't want it, and nor do normal users.
Schools may have been sucked in by the lower initial prices, but they will suffer later from the restrictions and lack of software and/or extra costs to go full 10 so they can use real software.
I've got tooling here that comes in for thousands of dollars per seat . I sure as hell can't see any way I could afford buying new on Linux, or any other OS for that matter. And that's if the application exist on that OS. Many do not.
Almost worth contemplating going back to school to take advantage of academic discounts. Maybe pick up a degree in what they are calling "data science," which in any way looks different to this econometrician. Just under one house I bet. I had to raid other departments way back when to learn their experimental designs, models (implicit or explicit), and tooling.