Ask Paul: December 29 (Premium)

Happy New Year to everyone! And welcome to the final installment of “Ask Paul” for 2017.

Overwatch

jimchamplin asks:

Do you play Overwatch on PC? If so how good are you?

I do not. My son does, however, and it is one of his favorite games by far (the others being Rocket League and PUBG). But he is a PC gamer primarily these days, and I’m an Xbox gamer.

“Real” Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi?

jimchamplin also asks:

Re: Windows 10 ARM builds. Is there any possibility of retail copies for Raspberry Pi?

In case it’s not obvious what he’s referring to, the version of Windows 10 that Microsoft provides for Raspberry Pi is not a mainstream OS with an interactive desktop, etc. Instead, this product—called Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi—is designed for embedded devices, or what we now call “Internet of Things” devices.

Or, as Microsoft says:

“Windows 10 IoT Core is a version of Windows 10 that is optimized for smaller devices with or without a display, and that runs on both ARM and x86/x64 devices. Windows 10 IoT Core utilizes the rich, extensible Universal Windows Platform (UWP) API for building great solutions.”

The idea behind Windows 10 IoT Core (which runs on Raspberry Pi and several other IoT “board computers”) is that developers can create an app that will be all that runs on that device, sort of like a kiosk. It’s also aimed at the “maker,” educational, and enthusiast markets.

What Jim is asking, then, is whether we’ll ever see Windows 10 S or Windows 10 Home, or whatever, on Raspberry Pi. My gut says no: While the low-cost nature of these devices is appealing on a number of levels, they’re not really good as general purpose computers, and even the version of Linux that the Raspberry Pi Foundation supplies, called Raspian, is pretty stripped down.

The latest hardware, the Raspberry Pi 3, has just 1 GB of RAM, which does meet the minimum requirements for mainstream Windows 10 versions. But come on, no one is running Windows 10 in 1 GB of RAM; 4 GB is a reasonable minimum. And I suspect that the Pi 3’s Broadcom BCM2837 CPU is woefully inadequate as well.

Short version, no. I don’t expect to see this.

Christmas gifts

Polycrastinator asks:

Did you get (or give) any really great Christmas gifts?

No. But that was by design.

I have worked for years—and I mean years—to remove gift-giving from the Christmas equation. I hate the stress that gift-buying entails, and I think it ruins the holidays for everyone.

So I worked on my friends, and my brother and sisters, who eventually came around to the notion that just spending time together is the best gift of all.

In past years, my wife and I have limited the amount of money we spent on each other to $100. But this year, we talked it over and decided to not give any gifts at all to each other. We spend a lot of time together, we go out a lot, and we travel a lot. We are much more interested in these experiences than in getting more things. And these are experiences we enjoy all year, not just on some “special” day.

Also, I don’t need anything. And I mean that literally. If anything, I have too much. The very notion of someone giving me a gift is kind of hilarious. Think about all the tech you know about that comes through my home. And try to understand that you don’t even know the half of it.

The exception, of course, is kids: To me, Christmas is about and for children. So we do buy presents for our nieces and nephews, and for our own kids. And our kids get to benefit from our love of travel too. I enjoy Christmas on that level quite a bit, and I miss having younger kids for this reason. If you do have young kids, cherish these moments. They pass quickly.

Anyway, last night, my wife and I went out for dinner, using, in part, gift certificates that our kids bought for us. (They insisted. I’ll keep working on this.) And I asked my wife, because I am sensitive to this, whether not getting even a single gift from me was problematic. She was more worried about me than her and said, no, it was great. And here we go. This is the way it should be, I think.

I don’t mean to preach here. But it’s something I feel very strongly about. We are slaves to our stuff. And to a manufactured need to spend money on stuff for ourselves, and for others. Getting away from that is very freeing. And it helps us, I think, to focus on what is really important: Our family and friends. The time we spend together. And how we spend that time. These are the things we will always remember.

Yubikey + Microsoft

Polycrastinator also asks:

So I just received a Yubikey for Christmas (I’d asked you about the subject earlier in the year). I’m rather surprised and disappointed to discover that Microsoft doesn’t support the FICO U2F standard that Google, Facebook, DropBox et al do, especially having now discovered how easy and seamless it is to use. Does Microsoft have any plans to support this in the future?

I apologize for not having an answer for this one: Microsoft won’t respond to this question until after the holidays. I will try to find out.

Windows as a Disservice

JaseCutler asks:

I keep hearing among IT professionals how frustrated they are with Windows 10 and it’s update cycles, and the constant buggy releases. Things like management tools for servers tend to show up after major releases, and it feels like the team is trying to run faster than their legs can go. Some IT forums talk of businesses adopting LTSB of Windows 10 to avoid these things, which from my understanding Microsoft discourages. Knowing how it appears to me and others, I’m curious if you have heard grumblings from inside Microsoft through your sources that they feel this way? Or is this just curmudgeon IT guys struggling with change?

Here is the paradox.

On the one hand, Microsoft is updating Windows 10 with new versions—what it calls Feature Updates—twice a year. This is twice the rate at which mobile OSes like iOS and Android are updated, and those systems are much more lean, modern, and designed for this kind of updating. It’s crazy, and I feel that this system is unsustainable for legacy code like Windows.

On the other hand, the past two Feature Updates, the Creators Update and the Fall Creators Update, have rolled out without any major issues. One might argue, as Microsoft will, that they’ve cracked this nut. That, despite any concerns about Windows as a Service (Waas), the system is working.

But the issue you raise is, I think, core to this whole thing. Businesses, which represent over two-thirds of Microsoft’s customer base, are not interested in upgrading at this speed. They were not interested in upgrading every three years, either, which was the previous system. And I think we’re going to see a further widening of the gap between the way that individuals are updated and the way that businesses are, as we move forward.

Today, Individuals with Windows 10 Home can do little to delay Windows 10 updates. Windows 10 Pro is a bit better, but you will still be taking Feature Updates in time, whether you want to or not.

Businesses have all kinds of options. But Microsoft has tried, and failed, to institute a system by which some number of Windows 10 versions (Feature Updates) appear and then those on older versions must upgrade. It has already extended support for older versions. And it will do so again.

I don’t think that larger businesses, in particular, will ever embrace WaaS. And this division in support will make Windows 10 more complex for Microsoft to manage than was the case with the previous system. Which is ironic, since WaaS was supposed to fix the issues with supporting multiple Windows versions. As I’ve said, however, WaaS is unsustainable.

The fix, I guess, is to make Windows simpler. That’s what Windows 10 S is all about, and this broader issue probably helps explain why Microsoft is so tone-deaf about 10 S. Getting from here to there, though, will be painful. It may never work. We will be dealing with this, and discussing it, for years.

Smartphone photography

wright_is asks:

Why are iPhones and Android smartphones so poor at photography? I had a couple of iPhones and several Android devices and they all suck at photography. They are great when new, but after a few months, you just can’t use them.

I’m kind of surprised by this: As I’ve demonstrated repeatedly ever since the Lumia 1020 came out several years ago, smartphones are capable of wonderful photography, with great bokeh effects, simple panoramas, crazy AR capabilities, various portrait mode features, and even true optical zoom in some cases.

No, smartphones will never equal the quality of DSLRs, or even of good point and click cameras. But they are in your pocket all the time, and I’ve been using smartphones for my vacation photos ever since mid-2013. The photos I’ve taken on these trips are better than most of the photos I’ve ever taken in my life.

If you’re serious about photography and/or a professional, yes, you will need to use a “real” camera. But these are a niche purchase now. Most people will be very satisfied with a good smartphone camera.

Google Wifi stealth ports

jwpear asks:

Does Google WiFi stealth closed WAN ports? Is this still a best practice for routers?

I’m not a networking expert, but in my home network, I believe the RCN router provides this functionality, not my Google Wifi mesh network. And in checking Steve Gibson’s Shields Up service, I see that my own home network achieves a perfect score with no issues across the board.

I could be wrong about which device is doing this, I guess: This page lists Google Wifi’s security features, which include a stateful firewall.

Dreaming of Andromeda

Dan1986ist asks:

Is there a realistic chance that touchscreen-based handheld PC-like devices, if Microsoft themselves or other OEMs make and bring them to market, could make get somewhat decent market share compared to existing touchscreen-based devices currently on the market?

As you know, Microsoft is working on a hardware device, code-named Andromeda, that will bridge the gap between traditional portable PCs and smartphones. I do have internal information that the project is real, so it’s not a rumor. And there have been many leaked patent applications and other details that suggest Andromeda could actually come to market, most certainly as a Surface-branded device.

From an enthusiast perspective, there is also some demand for two canceled products from the past: A Surface mini and a Microsoft Courier-type device, meaning a tablet-like device with two displays. And it looks like Andromeda will please fans of those devices, given the patent applications we’ve seen. Further, it looks like this device might be based on Windows 10 for Snapdragon. That makes sense to me for 2018.

So, yes, I do expect Microsoft to release a Surface-branded Andromeda device this year.

Do I expect this device to be successful? Perhaps not in a mainstream way: Even Microsoft’s most successful Surface PCs barely register in usage or market share metrics. But the success of Surface, I think, has more to do with Microsoft inspiring bigger PC makers to make better PCs, or even PCs that closely mimic some Surface designs, like Surface Pro.

The thing is, PC makers have already been experimenting with this kind of device. Case in point, the Lenovo Yoga Book, which is quite innovative for sure, but not necessarily very successful.

Can Microsoft improve on this design? I think we’re going to find out this coming year.

Thanks, everyone. And Happy New Year!