Ask Paul: July 27 (Premium)

We just returned from Berlin, so greetings from heat wave-soaked Stockholm! Here’s another round of Q & A to end the week.

A lightweight Windows alternative to Chrome

christian.hvid asks:

Given the success of Chromebooks, there’s obviously a market for light-weight, zero-maintenance operating systems that are basically there just to get you online. Needless to say, it would be the easiest thing in the world for Microsoft to follow in Google’s footsteps and whip up a Windows version consisting of just a minimal core and Edge. It would run PWA and pure UWP apps of course, since the APIs would be there anyway, but the browser would be front and center … Of course, Microsoft must already have pondered this a hundred times and dismissed the idea for whatever reason. Why is it, in your opinion, that Microsoft rejects a model that has already proven its appeal among consumers, small businesses and schools – the very markets that Microsoft now stands to lose?

One of my favorite lines of all time is Donald Rumsfeld’s “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” That sort of explains what’s happening here.

Which is, the platform that Microsoft made and rode to great success is a complex legacy product that has, in recent years, been largely supplanted by simpler, more modern mobile platforms. And as I’ve noted in the past, taking something complex like Windows and making it simpler is hard, whereas taking something simple (like Android, Chrome OS, or iOS) and making it more sophisticated is, if not “easy,” at least easier.

In the past, Microsoft was able to thwart existential threats to Windows like OS/2 (mid-1990s), Netscape/the web (late 1990’s) and Linux on netbooks (late 2000s) for a variety of reasons, of course. But it’s fair to say that Microsoft was able to leverage various advantages in each case and emerge victorious. But today’s mobile/web platforms represent a new kind of challenge. And with people’s usage requirements evolving, classic desktop systems like Windows (and the Mac) are less necessary for most people.

Microsoft has been working to simplify Windows for decades, and in a variety of ways. And componentization is one of the core repeated efforts along those lines: NT was designed to be more componentized than classic Windows on DOS, and there have been many, many efforts over the years to further componentize the NT-based versions of Windows we’ve been using since XP. (Most recently, you’ve heard of the latest go-round in the form of things like Windows Core and Polaris.)

Microsoft idea is that you can build a scalable platform that will run on anything from small embedded device to datacenter servers, and everything in between. It’s the “One Windows” thing. And it works, sort of. Windows 10 is the basis for a wide range of non-PC platforms today, from the Xbox One to Surface Hub.

But it also doesn’t work in some key ways. For example, Microsoft had to turn to any even more scalable platform, Linux, when it came to Azure Sphere, which runs on the tiniest hardware platform that Microsoft has ever targeted.

More to the point of this conversation, however, is the question, “what is Windows?” That is, what expectations do customers have when it comes to Windows. And there’s a simple answer: They expect everything to work. All their apps. All their hardware. It all has to work.

And when Microsoft has made versions of Windows, like Windows RT, or Windows 10 S, that do not work with everything, and are limited only to these things—Edge, Store apps, that no one cares about, they fail. Those things, arguably are not Windows. Not to the people who matter most, Microsoft’s customers.

They have a plan, of course, and want to get to this point where the Win32 underpinnings of Windows are no longer directly needed by apps, which will make the system more secure, more reliable, and more performant. (Win32 can never really be removed. From a technical perspective, Win32 is as innate to Windows as blood is to a human.) Windows phone, which failed, was a push towards that goal. Windows 10 S, or S mode, is a more recent step towards that same goal.

Getting there is problematic. And putting out a lightweight, S mode-based Windows 10 alternative to Chrome today would simply fail. The ecosystem isn’t there yet and customers would reject it. Here is a thing that looks like Windows, is called Windows, and cannot run Windows apps. This thing is not Windows.

We should also point out that the thing we’re trying to replace here—Chrome and web apps—are both popular and well-liked, and actually meet customers’ needs. For schools and businesses, the management of these systems is inexpensive and less complex than Microsoft’s offerings.

So Microsoft is doing what they can now. And pushing towards some future that may or may not work out as they hope. It is literally all they can do.

Premium Windows 10 on ARM devices

Simard57 asks:

When might we see the 1st Premium device with an ARM processor? HP introduced the Envy X2 but their premium line is the Spectre line. Microsoft introduced the Surface Go on Intel vice arm.

Will the Qualcomm 1000 be the processor to support a premium experience or will ARM forever be a lower tier choice for a highly efficient portable with exceptional battery life as a trade for cutting edge performance.

I will argue that the HP Envy x2 is a premium device from a hardware perspective, and certainly within the confines of available WOA PCs today. I get that there are some cost-cutting bits, but overall this device is gorgeous and professional looking. It’s only let down by the software. Not HP’s fault.

Microsoft is using Intel on Surface Go because Qualcomm doesn’t yet provide the reliable performance customers will expect, and because WOA likewise still has massive compatibility issues, thanks to its inability to run x64 apps in an age when most apps, frankly, are 64-bit.

So, yes, I do think we will see continued improvements from Qualcomm over subsequent generations of its chipsets for PCs. And as that happens, the availability of different classes of PCs based on the platform will expand. Including true premium PCs.

Microsoft’s Modern Life strategy

Daekar asks:

Regarding the discussion about the new Modern Life direction Microsoft is taking, what is a “professional consumer,” exactly?

I have this editorial called “Microsoft’s Consumer Play” that will probably never be published now. But the opening line reads, “If Microsoft’s plan for consumers amounts to ‘business users are consumers too’ then they’ve already lost.” It’s funny to me that, months after I wrote that, Microsoft seems to be essentially saying just that.

Back in the early 2000s, I helped launch a print magazine and website called “Connected Home” that was based on the same premise. We, at Windows 2000 Magazine at the time, served an audience of IT pros and businesses, and the feeling was that all these people who read our content go home each night and do things with consumer technologies. Clearly, we should be covering that too.

Connected Home Magazine/Connected Home failed because it’s not that easy, and because Microsoft, even back then, didn’t have a big hold over normal people like it did with IT pros and businesses. That is even truer today.

If you haven’t, check out my article Microsoft’s Cross-Device Plans are Already Feeling the Squeeze(Premium), which explain why I think the bar is so high for Microsoft to win over consumers who have flocked to rival consumer platforms.

Outlook mobile limitations

StudBen asks:

The Outlook app calendar on iOS and Android is limiting in regards to views it really only gives you at most a 3 day view, then using either google calendar or apple calendar almost always have sync issues with the Outlook account. Do you know any good third party calendar apps that work almost all the time with outlook/o365 calendar syncing? Something that would preferably be on both Android and iOS. It would be nice if Microsoft would just realease a stand alone calendar app on both iOS and Android. The main issue is this is an o365 calendar so I have to USE it from o365 just using a google or icloud account is not an option, and yes I am aware of IFTTT and Microsoft Flow and that can work but I’d rather not have to setup work flows to sync events between multiple calendars I just want everything on the o365 calendar to just work and show up everywhere.

I use Google Calendar on mobile and web. Granted, I use this with a Google (G Suite) account, and I don’t believe that you can add an Office 365 calendar to either, at least not easily. (This is weird to me, as you can access Outlook 365 email from the Gmail mobile app.) So I don’t really have anything good to recommend, sorry.

Perhaps someone reading this has a good recommendation?

Windows 10 … 1H19?

hrlngrv asks:

I figure the change in version tagging from, e.g., 1803 to 19H1 was due to 1803 being released in late April. Is MSFT really that thin-skinned? Or do Windows upgrades for all users require 6 month release targets? Actually, this is dancing around something more fundamental: are twice yearly upgrades really working for MSFT?

To be clear, he is referring to a not-so-subtle naming convention change for Windows 10 here. In the past few years, each new version has been named 04YY and 10YY (where YY is the year), but Microsoft just changed the name of RS6 (or whatever they’ll call it) from 1903 to 1H19 (where 1H means “first half of” and 19 is “2019”).

Microsoft was stupid to ever use specific months in its version numbers. It commits them to an artificial date and it makes them look bad when they miss the date, as they did, badly, with RS4 (Windows 10 version 1803). Using 1H, 2H works fine.

With regards to whether this is working, opinions vary. Mary Jo Foley has said that one release each (maybe 1H now) could be a major one and that one (2H now) could be a minor, or R2-style release. I think every Windows 10 version going forward should be minor from a major new features perspective. Twice a year is too much.

Beginning Windows development

Yman71 asks:

Hello Paul. I am someone who has had a long-standing interest in computer science, but until recently have had little time to explore programming in depth. Could you recommend some good resources someone like myself might use to get started with programming? My goal is to be able to develop Windows applications with reasonable proficiency. I am also curious to know what you think prospective developers should focus their time on: Win32 or UWP.

If you’re looking at this pragmatically, you wouldn’t focus on either, honestly. The world has gone mobile and web, and technologies like Flutter (mobile) and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs, web) make a lot more sense.

But if you really want to learn Windows-based software development, and are a beginner, I strongly recommend looking up Bob Tabor’s work on both Microsoft’s Channel 9 and his own Developer University website. You should focus on UWP, not Win32. And start with the C# language.

These are a little dated, but check out my past posts A New Year’s Resolution for Aspiring Programmers: Learn C# and UWP Development and The Best Way to Learn Windows 10 Development for more info. Also, I wrote about my own efforts to learn JavaScript, the basis for PWAs and other web apps, this year in Learning JavaScript (Premium).

Windows 10 will not install CU on its own

MartinusV2 asks:

Why does Windows fail to detect cumulative update? I have to manually check for update to install them.

They will install eventually; cumulative updates (CUs) are not critical security fixes, so they aren’t scheduled as aggressively. I’m not sure what the exact schedule is, but I think they’ve been getting more conservative because these updates trigger reboots and users have frequently complained about those reboots happening unexpectedly or even while they are directly working on the PC. Given the recent news of a fix for this problem, perhaps CUs will begin installing more quickly going forward.

Home swap vs. vacation

MartinusV2 asks:

And why on you vacation you still work? Dude take some deserved time off 🙂

First of all, thanks. But broadly speaking, I’m not on a vacation, I’m just swapping homes. So I still work each day.

Of course, it’s a bit more complex than that.

First, these swaps have typically been three weeks in length over the years (though the past two years have been just two weeks for unrelated reasons). I can’t take three weeks off all at once.

The schedule I’ve arrived at is that I will work two of the three weeks normally. And then take one of the weeks off as a sort of vacation. This week usually coincides with a side-trip. For example, in 2015, we were in Lyon and took a side-trip to Venice. (We didn’t take side-trips the past two years because of the shorter duration of each home swap.) Those side-trips have coincided with the week our friends come and stay with us.

This year was a bit more complex. My son could only come for a week, so he’s here now. Our friends are coming next week, and we originally planned to go on a side trip with them (first to St. Petersburg, Russia, and then some combination of Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia), with me taking that time off as is normally the case. But we couldn’t figure it out, the trips were either too expensive, too time-consuming, or both. And we eventually decided that our friends, who love museums, would be better off just sticking to Sweden. So we went on a very short side-trip (Tuesday-Thursday) to Berlin with our son this past week instead.

Sorry you asked yet? 🙂 Anyway, I was basically off for a few days this week. And when our friends are here next week, I’ll take a day or two off as well. We have vague plans to spend one overnight out on an island somewhere.

But two things to the schedule and taking time off.

First of all, even when I’m working on a home swap, it’s not the same all-day schedule I’m on at home. I will usually get up in the morning, clear through email, and see what’s happening. And if I’m lucky, I can get a couple of short posts out. Then we go out in the world, eat lunch out, and see some sights, and I try to be home by 3 pm (Stockholm time, in this case), which is like 9 am ET back home, and the normal start of the work day. I’ll work for three hours or so, and later if there are podcasts to record. It’s like half days, really.

Secondly, and perhaps as important, I feel the need to write every day. This is a bit hard to understand, but it’s not about being a workaholic. I like to write. I kind of need to write. I get antsy when I cannot write. So having even a few hours a day to write something, even on “off” days, feels healthy to me.

Short version: I hope to publish something most days, even when I’m off. (And I’ve even updated my book since I’ve been here.) But have no worries about my well-being: If you follow my Instagram account, you can see I’m out in the world doing things every day that I’m on this home swap. I’m not screwing myself out of a vacation. I’m doing what I want to do.