Windows 10 - my 2 cents

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Windows 10 - my 2 cents 6th July 2020

I am a 60 yo IT support guy working in a University. I've been working with Windows since, well, even before Windows back to the latest, greatest DOS 5.0 (remember HIMEM.SYS memory management – what a breakthrough, UMA and HMA, together at last) and monochrome screen days. I have working with W10 since the 1507 release 5 years ago.

W10 gets a lot of grief on forums, and some of it is justified and some is not. Personally I've decided it's not for me as a core OS. I run Linux Mint as a base with W10 LTSC in a VBox for ADS management. Active Directory Services is really the only reason I need to run Windows at all. All other functions like RDP, drive mapping etc., work fine in Linux.

I can say in W10's favour:

It's simple and quick to install, we always clean install an Enterprise version in place of what comes with the machine. People forget how tedious it was to install Windows XP.

It has excellent accessibility features, disadvantaged users can be up and working in no time flat.

Students seem to like it. They are generally competent users and appear mostly unperturbed by the push notifications and constant updates. We use domain GP to control this but there’s always something from somewhere (usually MS) that pops up when you’re least interested.

It is universally recognisable and usable to students from just about anywhere, they usually know how to adjust the language settings.

Easy connectivity, especially compared to W7. Just make sure you’ve got an Ethernet port and cable handy if it updates a laptop. (A wired mouse is useful too, as touchpads are a common failure on updates).

My dissatisfaction stems from:

Advertising, ie: app notifications, entirely unprofessional and seriously garbage. I know how to switch them off but lots of people don’t and I get service calls about it.

Loss of control of my computer, with telemetry, unwanted apps and resetting my defaults.

Can't clone a profile without getting into DISM and all its tedious minutia, fine for 3000 corporate PCs but difficult if you're using a widely varied fleet for multiple user groups and multiple purposes.

Start Menu. Install a full suite of Labview and/or ANSYS and see what happens to your Start Menu then (Hint: every single .exe).

New days, new systems

Bottom line is 'Get with the program or get Linux'
 
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Hi. Welcome to the forum. Your opinion is, of course, welcome - its free speech. Rember this is a Windows forum and replies could be rather critical of your fair comments.
If , like me, you live in Forums, in my case, particular Windows forums you can get an impression that Windows has many problems and faults. Keep in mind, though, that apart from those who just wish to "mingle" with the Windows brethren, the majority are only on forms such a this, because they have a complaint and, subsequently , need help. This can give a bad overall impression of Windows.
It would really a really quirky nature to come on a forum such as this, only to remark how you just adore MS and W Windows ;)
 
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Get with the program or get Linux
Hi,

I have used Linux for many years and it also has its problems, many of the Linux distro's are much more troublesome than what the different Windows variants suffer!. That aside, the market share of Linux is very low and I have only ever be able to convert a handful of people to use Linux over the years, many people have no clue as to what it is about!. :)
 

Trouble

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the market share of Linux is very low
Unless of course you consider that a very big portion of the planet uses a Linux variant everyday and doesn't give it a second thought.
Android which is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel is reportedly powering 2.5 billion devices world wide.

By comparison
MS announced back in March of this year that they had met and surpassed their 1 billion Windows 10 milestone
AND
Apples lays claim to 1.4 billion devices.

So, I guess, as with many things, it depends on how you want to look at a topic and what numbers and statistic you choose to support your argument.

When it comes to tech and the devices using it, it's a pretty big pie and all the big contenders have managed to carve out a respectable sized slice
AND
All are likely equally deserving of their respective criticisms and accolades
AND
That's my 2 cents.
 
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Indeed Trouble but i was thinking more along the lines of the desktop variants of Linux!. True that Android is used by millions worldwide on a range of devices, however as a desktop variant, I would think that figure is quite low?.

Linux runs most of the servers in world too, I guess the point that I wanted to make is that Linux has its share of problems too and just like Windows, it can throw a spanner in the works!. :)
 
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Indeed Trouble but i was thinking more along the lines of the desktop variants of Linux!. True that Android is used by millions worldwide on a range of devices, however as a desktop variant, I would think that figure is quite low?.

Linux runs most of the servers in world too, I guess the point that I wanted to make is that Linux has its share of problems too and just like Windows, it can throw a spanner in the works!. :)
So does Macintosh but not heard about as much. My 2010 MacBook Pro went belly-up last year when the drive controller on the motherboard failed, not cost-effective to have Apple repair it and couldn't get a new board anyway.
 
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So does Macintosh but not heard about as much
I have never used MAC OS which is Unix based, as Apple like to keep hush hush about their OS, I don't follow any of their news except what gets on the mainstream news outlets!. I really know very little about it. :)
 

bassfisher6522

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MAC OS which is Unix based
Is that accurate and true. I remember when Jobs was there he went with complete new OS done by his developers. So, was that Unix? If not what was it then versus what it is now?
 
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It won't matter as updates end for earlier versions of the OS.

What I did was install Open Shell to make it look like Win 7 and used programs like ShutUp to disable notifications, telemetry, etc.
 

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