One Mainstream Media Take on Window 10

Conversation 10 comments

  • 5615

    01 February, 2017 - 6:26 am

    <p>It’d be interesting to see the specifics of the Softchoice study. If accurate, their finding of less than 1% corporate uptake of Windows 10 is astounding and would help explain Microsoft’s recent scaremongering of&nbsp;Windows 7 to the corporate world.</p>
    <p>The last sentence, "Despite their idiosyncrasies, Macintosh and Linux have never looked so attractive," rings true for us. Several years ago, we began weaning ourselves off of proprietary software (stuff like MATLAB, SAS and Stata) and now use open-source software (stuff like R, Python and MongoDB) exclusively in our research and production processes. Every time Microsoft changes Windows in a way that breaks our processes or hinders our productivity, we take another look at Linux. We’ve been piloting Linux on a small scale since Windows 10 came out and it has been mostly successful, so far.</p>
    <p>As long-time users of Windows, it is what we know best and have preferred (for both the familiarity and the availability of required software). However, issues with Windows 10 prompted us to look around at other more stable options and, combined with our switch to mostly open source,&nbsp;we’re finding Linux to be a perfectly acceptable alternative.</p>

    • 1377

      Premium Member
      01 February, 2017 - 4:02 pm

      <p><em><a href="#39730">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/offTheRecord">offTheRecord</a><a href="#39730">:</a></em></p>
      <p>Disclaimer: I don’t use Adobe anything, so my OS choice is free from needing to consider whether Adobe has a version for each OS or could run via emulation on other OSes.</p>
      <p>As soon as Crossover is able to run Office 2010 with no more than 1 glitch/month, I won’t have any further need for Windows. The database, stats package, browser, technical editor and e-mail client I already use run under multiple OSes. MSFT Office, specifically Excel, is the only piece of software I need to run under Windows.</p>
      <p>My needs may be very light, but I’ve fewer problems updating Linux than Windows 10 over the last 2 years since I began participating in the Windows 10 Insider Program and year and a half since updating Windows 7 to 1507 (and all subsequent mainstream upgrades).</p>

  • 223

    Premium Member
    01 February, 2017 - 9:28 am

    <p>Question – how does a 1% corporate update translate into a topic with the name "why so many PC users are refusing to upgrade"? It seems to me a more accurate heading would be "Why so many businesses have not yet upgraded."<br /><br />For myself – I have found Windows 10 to be excellent in my home and at my work. It’s the best iteration of Windows and works incredibly well. I ran the in-place upgrade from a machine running Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 to Windows 10 Anniversary Update and haven’t had to do a reinstall at any point in that process.&nbsp;<br /><br />Now – I realize that my experience is anecdotal, but so is yours as to why some may not be upgrading. But I’ve had nothing but a positive experience with Windows 10.</p>

    • 5615

      01 February, 2017 - 9:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#39743">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/vernonlvincent">vernonlvincent</a><a href="#39743">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Outside of the the changes to Windows Update, I haven’t really found Windows 10 to be significantly better or worse than previous versions. Some things are different, naturally, but not necessarily better or worse, imo.</p>
      <p>The update process, however, is what really sullies it for us. In the home environment (with the Home version), it has proven to be a stream-killing bandwidth hog and in the business environment it can break things (and has broken things, even with the Pro version; although, it has gotten a bit better since the initial release). Both of these issues have been described in excruciating detail here and other places. Definitely, negative experiences all around with Windows Update.</p>

      • 5664

        Premium Member
        01 February, 2017 - 2:47 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#39784">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/offTheRecord">offTheRecord</a><a href="#39784">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>I’ve seen this. If Windows is pulling an update down, my roomie can’t play Overwatch and Netflix quality suffers.&nbsp;</p>
        <p>Sucks because we use a Windows 10 PC for home theater duty!</p>

    • 1377

      Premium Member
      01 February, 2017 - 4:20 pm

      <p><em><a href="#39743">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/vernonlvincent">vernonlvincent</a><a href="#39743">:</a></em></p>
      <blockquote><em>. . . so is yours . . .</em></blockquote>
      <p>Just to be clear, I don’t work for The Economist, and I didn’t write the linked article. Perhaps you meant <em>so is theirs</em>.</p>
      <p>I’ve never found satisfactory estimates of the breakdown of Windows PCs between home/consumer and enterprise/SMB/workplace, possibly because it’d be impossible to tell whether a Windows # Pro PC were for home use, home office use, or small business use. If it’s 50-50, then Windows 10 at almost 25% of total would mean Windows 10 were close to 50% in consumer space. Maybe.</p>
      <p>If so, how would ISVs view that? MSFT itself makes a lot more money from its enterprise customers than from consumers. I figure the larger ISVs, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Siemens, etc, probably make 90% or more from enterprise customers than from home AND SMB customers. If so, would any of those ISVs care about Windows 10 and UWP?</p>
      <p>Then there are smaller, non-game ISVs who’ve been in business for a decade or longer, e.g., many programmers editors vendors, some utility vendors. If they’re still in business, I figure they’ve figured out a way to thrive or at least survive which doesn’t require selling through the Windows Store. Would any of those ISVs care about UWP?</p>
      <p>TBH, I don’t mind Windows 10, but I have VMs with 10, 8.1, 7 and XP (the last doesn’t have a virtual network connection and exists to run old pre-XP and 16-bit programs). I use all of them at least a few times a week. I’ve come to the opinion that 8.1 with Classic Shell is the best of the lot: UI I want, faster and I’ll stipulate more secure than Windows 7, fewer issues than Windows 10 not to mention 8.1 uses fewer system resources and runs faster than 10 on the same virtual hardware. For me the one useful feature 10 has which the older versions lack are workspaces/virtual desktops.</p>

  • 5496

    01 February, 2017 - 4:17 pm

    <p>People have to realize, people are going to upgrade when their pc stops working.</p>

  • 5038

    01 February, 2017 - 4:36 pm

    <p>1% LOL! &nbsp;I believe that’s what’s referred to as "alternative facts" these days. &nbsp;Or, in laymen’s terms, total hogwash. &nbsp;If that is actually their premise, that article has no merit whatsoever, I will not even click on it as it does not deserve another hit. &nbsp;Whoever wrote that rubbish obviously has an agenda, and that agenda is not the truth, or anything close to it. &nbsp;</p>

  • 5842

    01 February, 2017 - 5:06 pm

    <p>Apparently article written by Linux fanboy. Some anecdote about guy upgrading to Linux Mint and to top it off the dumbest conclusion at the end "Macintosh and Linux have never looked so attractive." Also why would non-technical person upgrade their PC? Non-technical people easily freak out if icon moves by a few pixels. Upgrading OS can cause serious stroke.</p>

  • 5615

    02 February, 2017 - 3:37 am

    <p>I found a press release put out by Softchoice that discusses their "1% corporate uptake" findings.</p>
    <p><a href="http://www.softchoice.com/about/press/2016/212&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Softchoice Analysis Finds Few North American Businesses Taking Advantage of Windows 10</a></p>
    <p>I won’t go into details, since you can get them at the link. I will say the results come from a study of U.S. and Canadian companies conducted between Jan and May 2016, so it’s not current and, obviously, percentages could be much higher (or lower) now.</p>
    <p>As for their agenda, they’re apparently IT consultants and integrators; so, it seems their motive would be to sell IT solutions to companies. They claim: "We are Microsoft&rsquo;s #1 business partner in Canada, and one of its top five in the U.S." Looking around their site, they’re clearly fans of Windows 10 (<a href="http://www.softchoice.com/m/windows10&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The best Windows ever</a>), so no doubt they view their findings as a huge opportunity to sell their services helping more companies upgrade to Windows 10. I didn’t see any evidence that they’re Linux "fanboys."</p>

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