back to article First it came for your desktop, now Windows 10 1809 is coming for your Things

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update is heading thingwards, Windows RS5 is dead (long live 19H1), and trolls are banished (kinda) in this week's Microsoft roundup. Windows 10 IoT gets its very own October 2018 Update Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Windows Internet of Things (IoT) team announced its own version of the Windows …

  1. onefang
    Coat

    I think I read that too quickly. Microsoft has unleashed IoT, the Internet of Trolls?

    1. Waseem Alkurdi

      Microsoft has unleashed IoT, the Internet of Trolls?

      No, that was the Russians.

  2. IGnatius T Foobar !

    Is anyone actually using this?

    IoT is characterized by a lot of things but ... Windows? Small, fast, compact, embeddable ... all the things Windows is *not* unless you really jump through hoops to get there. I can't imagine anyone is building Windows into their "things" unless those "things" resemble a desktop.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is anyone actually using this?

      Much as I enjoy a good MS bashing, the .Net Core is actually pretty good, open source and on point. And I'd much rather neophyte IoT developers use a framework than reroll security defences ad nauseam, because otherwise we end up with, well, the sh** we have now.

      1. JohnFen

        Re: Is anyone actually using this?

        "I'd much rather neophyte IoT developers use a framework"

        I'd rather not use IoT devices that were developed by neophyte devs at all, and especially those that blindly rely on a framework to take care of these issues. I'm not saying that there's something wrong with using a framework, but I am saying that there's something wrong with using a framework as a substitute for competence.

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Is anyone actually using this?

        "the .Net Core is actually pretty good, open source and on point"

        /me falls out of chair. What... the... *FEEL*????????

        If your code actually includes ".Not core" you need to SERIOUSLY RE-THINK your engineering strategy...

        Better idea: use an RTOS or Linux and _NO_ ".Not" CRAPware.

    2. stephanh

      Re: Is anyone actually using this?

      I understand it is indeed widely used, and so was its predecessor Windows CE.

      Obviously it doesn't include the Windows desktop so typically you don't notice as an end user.

      1. vtcodger Silver badge

        Re: Is anyone actually using this?

        "I understand it is indeed widely used, and so was its predecessor Windows CE."

        Windows CE was a complete and utter failure in the mobile market. When last seen its mobile market share was said to be way less than 1% Why would one expect it and its progeny to do better in the embedded junk market where presumably even less is demanded of the OS?

        1. tiggity Silver badge

          Re: Is anyone actually using this?

          CE did well in niche commercial applications (warehousing, logistics etc.). MS shot thesleves in foot as although CE was compatible with newer Win Mobile 6.x, there was breaking change to Win 7 - essentially needed full on code rewrite, put off lots of companies who, with rewrite needed, investigated other options such as android, IOS and embedded device oriented linuxes ... unsurprisingly lots of companies moved to a different platform. MS kept on doing the same thing - not providing an easy upgrade of legacy code to its "latest and greatest" , and even if they do, no guarantee product will not be killed a bit further down the line... Hands up who remembers when according to MS, we would all be coding Silverlight?

      2. JohnFen

        Re: Is anyone actually using this?

        "so was its predecessor Windows CE."

        Windows CE fully earned its market failure, being that was complete shit. It's not for nothing that devs referred to it widely as "wince".

    3. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: Is anyone actually using this?

      "Windows? Small, fast, compact, embeddable ..."

      Windows 3 maybe. Three decade downhill slope from there on the simple elegance front. But I suppose elegance isn't everything.

  3. DJV Silver badge

    Machine Learning

    Looks like it's learning very fast about how to delete your documents!

  4. NanoMeter

    Oh, no! Not my "things"!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Licensing v. Litigation

    For those who think such patent trolls are merely suit-wearing under-bridge inhabitants found in kids' books, they are much, much worse. These trolls obtain the rights to patents and then profit through licensing and litigation rather than actually making stuff.

    Personally I don't really see why it's worse that a non-producing company buys IP from a producer and licenses it, rather than a producer (like Microsoft) doing exactly the same thing. For me the issue with patent trolls is that, rather than simply license IP, instead they ambush small companies with claims that they're infringing and then effectively blackmail them with threats of litigation that a small company can't afford to defend.

    1. Spazturtle Silver badge

      Re: Licensing v. Litigation

      And once the small company has collapsed they buy it's patent portfolio and do the same thing to another company.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: Licensing v. Litigation

        "And once the small company has collapsed they buy it's patent portfolio and do the same thing to another company."

        Beware of 'The Blob',

        It creeps, and leaps, and glides, and slides across the floor,

        (etc. - Burt Bacharach from the late 1950's as I recall)

        'The Blob' - patent troll companies in general

    2. jelabarre59

      Re: Licensing v. Litigation

      Personally I don't really see why it's worse that a non-producing company buys IP from a producer and licenses it, rather than a producer (like Microsoft) doing exactly the same thing.

      "...and Microsoft sued itself, accidentally. It was the beginning of a golden era for lawyers..."

    3. JohnFen

      Re: Licensing v. Litigation

      This. The rampant abuse of patent law has done nothing but harm across the board.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    An OS that randomly deletes files...

    ... it's the best for most IoT devices...

  7. Spazturtle Silver badge

    They should just get rid of the current 'penalties' for using an unregistered copy on Windows and just make it so that unregistered copies are automatically enrolled into the windows insider update rings. That would give them a much larger testing surface so that the people who actually paid would get a smoother experience.

    1. David 132 Silver badge
      Happy

      Spazturtle They should just get rid of the current 'penalties' for using an unregistered copy on Windows and just make it so that unregistered copies are automatically enrolled into the windows insider update rings.

      Ah, you're of the "hanging's too good for 'em, the Taliban were too liberal" persuasion, I see.

  8. Snowy Silver badge
    Facepalm

    The next story is....

    How they have pulled the said build so very much a none!

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/08/microsoft_windows_10_pulled/

  9. thexfile
    Facepalm

    Windows 10 is all beta.

  10. bombastic bob Silver badge
    FAIL

    pleased(?) to see Ethernet settings make an appearance in the Settings [CR]app

    *cough* yeah THAT fixes it... [NOT]

    So, NOW, I bet you can see multiple layers of 'bright blue on blinding white' "UWP" Settings screens instead. wheeee.

    Multiple layers of UWP 'settings' screens WILL be needed, without crippling the ability to change your 'settings' that is, because the nature of UWP prevents you from putting more than 2 or 3 things on a single screen. Otherwise, it just won't have all of that wasted "fat finger friendly" (eye blinding) white space if you put too many things on it... or use a readable 'windows 7 looking' control panel tab dialog instead.

    How come they can't just go back to control panel with a windows 7 appearance? It works FINE in windows 7 that way! Oh, I forgot - millenial "it's our turn now" children and/or their enablers running the show!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Microsoft has announced it was joining the LOT Network as part of its ongoing efforts to combat patent trolls."

    FU Microsoft, we'll never forget SCO.

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