Ask Paul: October 18 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s a new installment of Ask Paul covering Windows 10, Ignite, the Google event, xCloud, and much more.
Windows 10 version 1909 on ISO?
dmos01 asks:

Will 1809 release with an ISO, as normal?

I don’t see why not. That said, Microsoft is unpredictable and often behaves illogically. The good news is that getting from 1903 to 1909 is just a cumulative update away.
Windows 10 annoyances
madthinus asks:

What in Windows 10 annoys you the most?

My biggest annoyance, of course, is Windows as a Service (WaaS). Anyone, or any business, should be able to install a version of Windows 10 and then use it for 10 years without having to upgrade to a new version. WaaS is a lie: It is promoted as a way to keep us all safe, but I feel like its true purpose is to dramatically lessen Microsoft’s support requirements.

The second biggest problem, of course, is the “finish the job” issue: Microsoft is terrible at fit and finish and will leave things hanging for years instead of making the system consistent. Just look at how terrible and inconsistent both Dark mode and the implementation of Fluent still are.

The next three key areas I always cite are the bundled crapware (which can easily be removed), in-box advertising (which is inexcusable), and always-on data collection (which you should be able to disable). These are bad to innocuous, I guess, depending on how you feel about such things.

And there are smaller issues. Windows 10 has settings sync, but it’s only some settings and you never really know which ones, so you have to manually recreate your configuration when you bring a new PC up. (This is related to “finish the job.”) It’s not always configurable enough (I can’t center taskbar icons, for example). Stuff like that.
Microsoft Ignite
will asks:

With Ignite just around the corner, anything you will be looking for news on?

Two areas will be key for me: Windows 10 and developer. It looks like both will be amply represented, so I’m looking forward to the show.

Do they let you and Brad go to the Universal Studio's party?

I assume this is the attendee party? If so, yes, but we’re not going. I assume it’s Thursday night, and we go home that morning.
Google’s hardware business
beckerrt asks:

Quick follow-up to your What Exactly is Google Selling post from Thursday - I'm staring to wonder what the endgame is for their Pixel line of smartphones. I'm not saying Google shouldn't be making handsets, but I always see those phones as niche, as the phone that serious camera enthusiasts must have, or the phone to get if you want pure Android and timely updates. Exactly how big is this market? Here in the states, it's an Apple and Samsung duopoly for the most part, and those cameras are more than enough for the everyday person. I don't see many people switching. In the rest of the world, there's Huawei too, which can also stand toe-to-toe with the Pixel lineup. I just don't see a pat...

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