Ask Paul: April 26 (Premium)

April winds down with a mammoth installment of Ask Paul. Happy Friday everyone.

Note: Since I didn’t see any contrary votes on my question about whether only Thurrott Premium members should be able to ask questions in Ask Paul, I’ll start enforcing that next week and will make a note to that effect in each week’s forum post going forward. Thanks, everyone. —Paul

Big tech, social media, and journalism

Jchampeau asks:

I would be interested to hear your take on the role “big tech,” social media platforms, and traditional media outlets should be playing, if any, in restoring trust and integrity in journalism in this age of click-bait, deception, and putting ratings and profit over accuracy and trustworthiness. 

In my supposedly ‘curated’ Apple Newsfeed, I see headlines like “Shamari DeVoe Gives Eva Marcille a $70 Gift Card to Pay for the Shoes She Puked On.” In USA Today’s tech section I see articles of interest to me alongside headlines like “Anthropologie’s huge sale-on-sale is here–and these are our top picks.” And my favorite of the morning comes from Business Insider: “People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco.” Articles like those, while obnoxious, are but a small part of the larger problem: the erosion of trust in the critically-important fourth estate. NPR ran a story on 4/18 about how the US now ranks as a “problematic” place for journalists and that threats against those journalists are “becoming standard.”

I realize the business of journalism is different now than it used to be, and that it continues to (d)evolve. I’m curious what thoughts you have about this since you’ve been in the business for a long time.

This is obviously a big topic, and, yes, it’s a bit personal for me as well. For whatever it’s worth, I was an early, even prototypical, blogger, and my first public works in writing were self-published.

If you’ve not heard the story, the short version is that I was working in a college computer lab in 1994 and started an email newsletter called WinInfo for the CS and CIS instructors. They found it valuable enough that they asked me to open it up to their students. And those students found it valuable enough that they asked me to open it up to their friends and family; essentially to anyone. Which I did. Concurrent to this, one of the professors there asked me to help him edit a Visual Basic book he was writing. That turned into helping write it, becoming a full co-author, and then actually becoming the primary author. At the time I intended to become a developer, but these two things, together, put me down the career path that I’m still on.

Point being, the forces that are now destroying journalism are the same forces that allowed me entry into a world that, to that point, was a lot more formal and professional. But by 1998, I had been hired by Duke Publishing, the makers of Windows NT Magazine, and I spent the next 15 years there, enduring a very formal and professional publishing process—with multiple editors attacking each print magazine article I wrote and at least two editors looking over anything for their email newsletters. And so even though I slid into this world like today’s bloggers and gadget reviewers do—informally, as non-journalists—I also have many years of formal journalistic experience, too. So, I sort of see both sides of it.

Some of the ongoing trends are inevitable: News will keep declining and print, especially, will basically disappear. Quality will continue going down, and that includes everything: Writing quality, fact-checking, journalistic standards, the works.

The cynical part of me wants to write something about how I’ll just ride this out until I retire. But I’m a consumer of news as well, and I’d like to think there is a solution that can maintain the benefits of electronic news (speed, ubiquity) while reducing the downsides. Apple’s News+ service is not that thing, by the way. That plus sign really just means “magazines,” and only some of them are news-focused. Plus, Apple News/News+ is Apple-only. Which makes it a lot less interesting.

On a personal level, I do pay for content I value, and that’s true of news, too, though I’m down to only a single (digital) newspaper subscription, for The New York Times. And I certainly have my down moments with that publication and its views. (I dropped The Wall Street Journal primarily because they’re even worse.)

This is almost too big of a topic to address, sorry. It’s depressing as well.

Google v. Edge

jbinaz asks:

What do you think Google’s plans are to counter new Edge, if it should start to gain market share at the expense of Chrome? Will things start to mysteriously “break” in new Edge? Stop accepting MS commits to Chromium? Fork Chromium, making it their own, and not push breaking changes back to Chromium? Or have they envisioned the next step beyond the browser? If, and it is a big if (or at least an unknown), whether new Edge will win back users, I can’t believe Google doesn’t have some sort of plan.

I do worry about this. But in the theme of “it’s easier to give advice than take it,” I will point out that it’s really early still, and that so far, things seem to be working out fine. (This forum post may be an early peek at this kind of issue, but I bet this is innocuous.)

Looking at this logically, Google created Chrome so that its business would function correctly: It didn’t want to be beholden to third-party browser makers that stood between it and its online services (and the ads that drive most of its revenues). If the new Edge essentially delivers the same browsing experience, from a technical perspective, Google may not actually see it as a threat. In fact, it may see the new Edge as a partnering effort from Microsoft and at least treat it without malice. We’ll see.

But this assumes that the new Edge even finds an audience. That’s not a given.

Obviously, a lot of us will be watching for any sign that Google is working to undermine the new Edge.

Will the new Edge change the Windows Insider program?

will asks:

With the recent launch of the Edge Insider program and the various evaluation options of Canary, Dev, and Beta it got me thinking if Microsoft should take some cues from this program for the Windows Insider program? With Skip Ahead, Fast, Slow, and Release Preview in many ways overlapping or sometimes not getting builds for months should Microsoft follow a simplified program for Windows Insiders; Canary – Weekly Builds, Dev – Monthly builds, and Beta – Every 6-8 weeks? Curious your thoughts?

The Chromium-style development schedules make sense for the new Edge because web browsers need to be updated frequently, and the roughly six-week release cadence for Chrome/Chromium (and now the new Edge, presumably) seems to work. When Edge was tied to Windows 10, the update schedule was too slow (twice per year). Even though that schedule is much too fast for Windows. Different products.

That said, I do think the Windows Insider Program is changing; the recent weirdness with Insiders testing 20H1 instead of 19H2 hints at this. I’m not sure this has anything to do with the Chromium-based Edge per se. But if the plan is for the Slow ring to test 19H2 and for those H2 releases to be smaller from a new features perspective and/or just quality-focused, that seems like a positive step to me.

Perhaps they will explain what’s happening at Build.

Second question, if it may please the court, have you purchased your Avengers tickets yet? 🙂

I won’t be seeing this movie in the theaters. (But then I don’t see many movies that way.) I feel like there are far too many comic book movies these days and that most of them are nonsense. I did finally see the first part of this concluding movie, and I will eventually see this new one too. But not anytime soon.

My books

helix2301 asks:

On an Ask Paul a while back I asked for a list of books you had written in the past you said would be something for a premium post down the road just wondering if you have time could we get a list I was just interested. If not no big deal.

Sorry, I’ve not compiled this yet. I will try to do so soon.

Game of Thrones

StevenLayton asks:

Not a tech question, but who do you think will survive until the end of the last episode of Game of Thrones?

This next episode could be a major turning point for that. I suspect that some huge percentage of the remaining cast will be eliminated.

Who will finally sit on that Throne?

My bet is on Daenerys Targaryen, for a number of reasons. First, that history is cyclical, and that the Games of Thrones storyline is really about everything that’s happened since her father, the Mad King, was assassinated. And because she will clearly continue in the same vein (has, in fact, already slept with her nephew). It’s also kind of interesting how many primary characters have ties back to her father and that story.

Anyway, she’ll be a terrible ruler. And I think that’s the point.

Who has been your favorite character?

So many. Arya, Tywin, Jaime, Samwell, Petyr, Varys, Brienne, and many others are all up there.

How do you manage to keep the storyline and characters relationships clear in your head?

For much of it, I don’t. But I’ve surprised myself a few times remembering obscure ties from the past. I did read most of the books (the newest ones are terrible).

Crapware

eeisner asks:

I hate bloatware and spam as much as just about everyone else and uninstall all of that unnecessary crap I can when setting up a new PC, but realistically, what’s the difference between Microsoft bundling Solitare, Hearts, Minesweeper, and 3D Pinball in Windows Past vs bundling Candy Crush etc in Windows 10? Is it file size? Or the fact that Candy Crush is a third party game? Or that Microsoft pins the game to the start menu by default? Something else?

3D Pinball was a third-party game too. I don’t mind that there are a few diversionary games in Windows, especially if they can be uninstalled. But Candy Crush and the other games like it are just crass and crap, and have no place in Windows. Especially in business versions of the product. That it was added to Windows 10 after its time had come and gone in mobile was embarrassing. That Microsoft has continued adding more Candy Crush and similar games since then is tone deaf.

New Microsoft hardware in 2019

North of 49th asks:

I know this is a periodic question: Do you have any insight or have you heard any whispers about new Microsoft hardware peripheral releases for 2019? I’m more interested in webcams Microsoft eluded to, but I’ll take any news.

No, nothing new, sorry.

The last version of Windows

harmjr asks:

What do you think today of the “This is the last version of Windows” statement from years ago. Do you think that since they are moving away from WaaS that we may see some kind of Windows 11. Is the don’t call it Windows “Lite” or that OS they are working on now that Brad posted some articles on month ago about could that be it. Do you think they have a end Windows 10 on their road maps? I know its super early compared to the life span of W7. This has been on my mind lately.

I could see Microsoft using just Windows, as opposed to Windows 10.

I don’t see Microsoft moving away from WaaS. I just think they’re being smarter about it: The schedule is far too aggressive, and not allowing Home users to defer/delay updates was criminal.

But when you think about a Lite OS, which I believe to be like Chrome OS, that WaaS-style updating system might make more sense. Chrome OS is updated every six weeks, for example.

Microsoft has been trying to replace Windows with something simpler for many years. Lite OS is the latest attempt. But even if they are hugely successful—that is, Lite OS usage surpasses Windows usage—Windows would still be an ongoing concern. Just like the Mac is for Apple. So, I don’t see it going away even in the most extreme scenario. And that would still need many years to occur, if it ever does.

Short version: There’s no need to worry about this right now.

Corporate needs vs. customer needs

Vladimir asks:

Why do you think Microsoft is so sloppy at times and doesn’t listen to customer feedback? Everyone seems to dislike WaaS but they keep it going. Even if this might be due to some obscure agenda we don’t know about, why don’t they fix the inconsistencies in design in windows? With billions in profit every quarter I doubt they don’t have money to hire a few designers and fix the icons.

It’s easy (for me) to get cynical about this kind of thing.

In a Microsoft that only talks about the cloud to please investors, Windows isn’t just in the back seat, it’s in the trunk. So the A-teamers are abandoning that product in droves and finding more high-profile jobs elsewhere in the company. Windows is the past. It’s not where the innovative new work is happening.

Adding to that, Microsoft, culturally, rewards new ideas and products. It does not reward anyone for maintaining old code or improving it.

And would better consistency actually improve the lives of customers in a meaningful way? Would most even notice this effort, or appreciate it? Probably not.

As a Windows enthusiast, I want Windows to be as good as it can be. From Microsoft’s perspective, Windows needs to be only as good as it needs to be, if that makes sense. It may be there right now already.

Dark mode for Thurrott.com?

Kevin_Costa asks:

Do you intend to implement a dark mode for Thurrott.com? It would be interesting to match with dark Chrome/Edgium and Windows 10, and of course easier on the eyes. It could be configured per device or per user account.

Yes, but it’s just not a priority in the scope of other work we’ve been doing between Petri and Thurrott. Petri needs a lot more help right now, technically, and that work has been underway over the past few months. It will be a while before we can make major changes to Thurrott. But they are on the drawing board for the future, yes.

Tabs in Windows

hrlngrv asks:

Now that Sets is dead, how long will it take for File Explorer and the console for character mode software to get application tabs? Never?

Tabs are definitely coming to both. I expect that within a year, for sure. And these two implementations will probably satisfy the majority of the need.

Chrome vs. new Edge

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

One of the best features of Edge/Chromium, is that I am no longer pestered by Google to install Chrome, for faster and safer browsing, every time I visit a Google web property. I think this could actually eat into Chrome’s share of browser usage. The majority of normal users, I believe, install Chrome in the same way they installed four of five toolbars in IE. Enthusiasts may obsess over the choice of browser; but the majority of normal people do not really care about which browser they use, only that it lets them browse the sites they want to visit. Do you believe that Google is going to change the testing it does to detect Chrome, in order to keep the normal folk switching, and continuing to use Chrome? As a company, Google needs that digital exhaust.

This is tied to a question above, but I don’t think this will ever change. The new Edge is essentially masquerading as Chrome from a browser identification perspective because Microsoft knows that it can now offer much better compatibility with Chrome and that (most) sites will just work.

We’ll see how this develops, of course. But I bet the new Edge and Chrome can coexist peacefully.

Targeted advertising

wright_is asks:

Does targeted advertising ever work? I’ve very rarely had “targeted” ads that were relevant. For instance, our dishwasher broke a few weeks back. I bought a new one through Amazon. Ever since, on a daily basis, Amazon is suggesting other dishwashers to me! How many kitchens do they think I have in my house? The same was true the last time I bought a smartphone, for a couple of months after I purchased it through Amazon, I got daily recommendations for a new smartphone – I’m not going to hand over 600€+ every day for a new phone, so stop it already! General web advertising is no better. In the end, I installed a Pihole at home and blocked the useless the tracking and ad domains at the DNS level.

Oddly enough, many people prefer targeted ads over random ads. I guess I personally prefer no ads, and no tracking across sites, which is the real issue. I would say that the ad type you reference is targeted but dumb. They can be smarter, I hope.

But I bet online ads—targeted or not—can make sense in the same way that phone scams or bulk snail mail campaigns “make sense”: They’re inexpensive to make and only need a tiny hit rate to be profitable. The problem for advertisers is that the ubiquity of ads has trained a generation of users to ignore them, just like we ignore most phone calls now because of all the robocall spam.

Microsoft Store changes

chrishilton1 asks:

One of your articles this past week described how the store was changing and how you could now get desktop apps in the store as well. I don’t recall any reference to this, or see it in reality, could you explain? The store is still lacking any quality apps, a problem that Microsoft has had since, well, forever. How does this affect S-Mode?

When the Microsoft Store first launched (as the Windows Store, in Windows 8), Store apps were a new kind of mobile app that’s now called Universal Windows Platform (UWP). But this apps platform has failed. So, Microsoft has expanded Store apps to include other kinds of apps, too. These include web apps (Hosted Web Apps at first and Progressive Web Apps more recently) and desktop applications. Developers can’t just put any desktop application in the Store, however. They need to use Microsoft’s Desktop Bridge technologies to wrap the apps in a container, which gives them some of the simplicity of true UWP apps (single-click uninstall, a virtual file system and registry, and more).

But you have definitely seen desktop apps in the Store. It’s just that Microsoft doesn’t denote them in any special way. The Store versions of Apple iTunes, Spotify, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and the Microsoft Office apps are all desktop apps, for example.

And Microsoft will continue evolving this platform. At Build this year, UWP will be deemphasized, as will Store deployment of PWAs (thanks to the Chromium-based Edge, which makes installing PWAs seamless). Microsoft is bringing most, if not all, UWP functionality down-market to previous .NET-based developer platforms like WinForms and Windows Presentation Foundation.

Put another way, the primary focus of the Microsoft Store, going forward from an apps perspective, will be desktop apps. That’s a complete 180 from the situation in Windows 8 from 2012.