A few thoughts on WW458, about halfway through it

[G+_Ronald Stepp]

A few thoughts on WW458, about halfway through it...

 

On Windows 10 working better because it's an all new codebase...  how's that working for your USB3 stuff Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ?

 

On not supporting Windows 7 because it's an "old" OS... okayyy, so in a few years Win10 will be "old" too.. and they've told us they're never doing a "new" version of Windows after 10, they're just "updating" it.  So why couldn't they "update" Windows 7?

 

On Windows 7 being less secure than 10... maybe Windows 7,8,and 10 wouldn't be so insecure if they didn't keep "building in" features that connect you to the internet 100 different ways from Sunday.

 

My view on Windows.  I just want it to do 2 things.  Connect me to the internet, and run my programs.  Connecting to the internet is just to back things up and get on the Web.  If Microsoft wants to turn my computer into a media hub, here's a little suggestion for MS.  You don't put anything on my OS that isn't in the App store, just like everyone else who wants to "add" functionality to my computer.

 

You want to add tweeting to the OS?  Add Social Networking?  Write and App for that and I'll decide if I want to install it and add new vectors into my OS for hackers.

 

Just a few thoughts.

[G+_Steve Martin]

So many issues, so little time.

 

"So why couldn't they 'update' Windows 7?"

 

Because the code base has changed enough that they would have to keep a separate set of Engineers on the project to do the updates. And before you say, well Microsoft has billions of dollars and thousands of Engineers, remember that they aren't going to make any more revenue off of Windows 7, so justifying the man-power isn't an option. And how do you convince a programmer to stick around and work on seven year old technology?

 

"if they didn't keep 'building in' features."

 

Yes, the Microsoft way has always been to embed features deeply into Windows. It meant that users came to rely on these features and developers used the features in their apps. Making it harder for users and developers to switch platforms.

 

"here's a little suggestion for MS. You don't put anything on my OS that isn't in the App store..."

 

This is essentially "The Unix Way" You don't build a monolithic system that has deeply embedded features. What you do in Unix is build an app that "does one thing, does it well, and provides a way for other apps to utilize those features." That way if an app or library crashes, the entire OS doesn't go with it. You just restart that app and move on. Of course, this doesn't bind users to the OS as strongly as the "Microsoft way." Microsoft's business strategy has always been about tying users to using their products...

 

Adding features is never going away, however, by putting a flag in the sand and saying that they will maintain Windows 10 going forward, they are taking the first steps to really just making the system more stable and more secure. 

 

We can argue all day about why they didn't do that with XP/Vista/7/8, but they didn't. Now that selling an OS seems unlikely to be a big revenue stream, making a stable OS is the priority.

 

Apple took this course with OS/X years ago, and it has paid off dividends as they deliver more stable releases with tiny changes to the actual functionality.