Ask Paul: May 29 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s another round of questions and answers to kick off the weekend as we bid adieu to May.

Pixel imperfect

wolters asks:

Paul…given the recent news on the Pixel 4 sales, key Pixel executives leaving and the delayed 4a, how do feel about the future of Pixel phones? Do you think we’ll get a 5XL this October? Should we camera enthusiasts be looking for a new “preferred” phone?

Based on all the current rumors, it looks like the Pixel 4a, which will not be provided in a larger XL version, has been delayed yet again, possibly to July now, and that the Pixel 5 will ship in both normal and XL models. (I can’t explain why there’s not going to be a 4a XL beyond maybe Google wanting to simply offer the lowest possible price point.)

If the Pixel 5 ships with basically the Pixel 4 camera plus an ultra-wide lens, they’ll be in good shape. But Google, like OnePlus, always makes some quirky decisions—Motion Sense, seriously?—so you never know. I’m always interested in what they do, and I’ve really liked the Pixel (and before that, Nexus) camera experience overall and over time. But the defections are definitely a worry. If they give up their computational photography advantages, I won’t be getting a Pixel 5 XL.

Short takes

lenh51 asks:

Paul – have you abandoned “Short Takes”? The last one was in late March and there have been only 5 posted this year. I can’t say it is a big deal, but I have always enjoyed them as they are usually lighter and somewhat irreverent compared to the normal day to day pieces. So, I am asking in Microsoft language if this feature is being deprecated? Thanks.

No, I just haven’t felt very irreverent this year, mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But I did post one today and will try to keep it going in the future.

Programming series

bschnatt asks:

Paul, I’m a recent Premium initiate, and have enjoyed reading your programming series. Are you going to do a web programming series? I’ve spent a lot of time recently learning how to do this myself, so if you do, you’re in for some fun 😉

Yes, but I’ll be working with Xamarin.Forms, which is a mobile framework, first. I’ve mostly written but have yet to publish an early peek at my work with that. If I can complete something useful, I’ll document it in a series here as I did with the WinForms, WPF, and UWP versions of .NETpad.

After that, yeah, I’ll be moving to the web at some point. I’m not sure exactly what form that will take—JavaScript/TypeScript with some framework, Electron, Blazor Web Assembly, or whatever—-but I’ve been reading up on this to figure out which direction to take. I did so web development, with the original pre-.NET version of Active Server Pages (ASP) in the late 1990s, but it’s been a while.

I have a long history of Win32 development (I practically worship Delphi), and found that getting into web programming was like walking into the ocean and getting carried away by a very strong riptide. It’s a car that can be steered by a thousand steering wheels, and you don’t know which one is best, LOL

Yep. The sheer number of choices here is overwhelming, for sure.

I recommend Frontend Masters for formal training if you do decide to get into it (although I’m not happy that they don’t seem to give out certificates of completion).

Nice, thanks. I will check that out today.

What would you do?

StevenLayton asks:

If you had about £1200 to spend on a laptop, what would you buy? I’m drawn to the 8Gb/256GB sandstone coloured Surface Laptop 3, but there seems to be plenty of other great options. Looking for a balance between power and style.

I would consider Surface Laptop 3, but only the Intel versions, the HP Spectre x360 13, and the Lenovo ThinkBook 14. I tend to like bigger displays, so Surface Laptop 3 and the ThinkBook are perhaps the most interesting.

Future of Windows 10X

jimchamplin asks:

While Windows 10 X may never be sold to end-users, there are two important questions about things moving forward.

1) Do you think an OEM pack will be available through resellers such as Newegg?

2) Will the more modern Composable Shell finally replace the Explorer.exe shell in Windows 10 non-X?

I feel like everything about Windows 10X is up in the air at this moment and that the entire range of possible outcomes, from this replacing mainstream Windows to it just being canceled, are all on the table right now.

What I’d like to see happen is for Microsoft to first make Windows 10X available to Insiders for testing on normal PCs. This would let us experience and provide feedback on its two core innovations—container-based isolation of Win32 apps and the new UI—outside of the more mainstream Windows 10 desktop versions.

Assuming both of these “work,” Microsoft could then decide how to proceed. If it does work well, why not make it available to consumers/system builders in whatever form?

If not, perhaps one or both could simply be tested with Windows 10 desktop versions via the Insider program. I feel like that’s the ultimate goal anyway, to get these two changes into mainstream Windows 10.

Not sure what to say about replacing the Explorer shell. The issue there seems to be handling shell extensions, but if 10X remains a separate “thing,” then maybe that’s less of an issue there.

Microsoft Company Store discount for Build registrants

Zinger Alpha asks:

Any word on the Build Microsoft Company Store discount? I received the same teaser email that prompted your Twitter comment — but no promised separate email with login credentials. Anybody get that?

No, nothing yet, and this seems to come up on Twitter every couple of days. My guess is that this was intended only for U.S. users, but that once word got out that only some people were getting it, they had to do some rethinking.

Enhanced for Xbox Series X

madthinus asks:

With the added POWER of Xbox Series X (Can we call this thing Xbox X or XXX?), which older game are you interested to boot up and experience at better frame rates more fidelity?

I’ve always been amazed, in a bad way, by how slowly some non-game activities unfold on modern consoles. I spend a lot of time mashing controller buttons trying to get past introductory screens whenever I load a new game. Given that I mostly play Call of Duty games online, better frame rates are always appreciated. But some of the logjams in these titles are more about poor UX design, where you have to navigate correctly through multiple displays to get into a game and then repeat it each time; the Xbox Series X won’t help with that.

This kind of fan service is nothing but excellent. But I’m mostly looking forward to new games.

Windows 10 version 2004: Hot or not?

madthinus asks:

You joke about [Windows 10 2004 deployment] yesterday on Twitter, if we should praise them or criticize them for the know issues that was pushed out as part of the release of this version of Windows 10. If you look at the list, two of those are software related. The rest is drivers. Drivers from Realtek and Connexant. Two companies whose chips are widely used but their drivers have been spotty for years and for the most part, the native class drivers in Windows is better.

It wasn’t really a joke, in the sense that I see both sides of it.

On the one hand, Microsoft tested this version for an unprecedented 15 months and is still rolling it out slowly and deliberately in order to ensure that everyone has a good experience. That’s laudable.

On the other hand, Microsoft suddenly revealed several known issues that will block deployment, and not one of them ever came up during that entire 15 month period. That’s nuts. Even weirder, many of Microsoft’s Surface PCs are on the blocked list right now. What the heck is that?

There are all kinds of ways to have this conversation.

One might argue that the system is working. No typical users care about this update or when they get it. Those technical users who “need” it now can get it. And as blockers are removed and Microsoft gathers more feedback, more systems will start getting it.

Not divulging these blockers until now is a communications issue. You know how I feel about that.

But here is the issue, as a tech news reader, OMG! “Big problems with the latest Windows 10 update” I have seen so many versions of the same story, Windows 10 2004 have issues!

Yes, Forbes and its ilk are having a field day with this. Which, by the way, is on Microsoft: That’s why communications are so important, and it’s why I harp on it all the time. We all know Forbes is going to pull this nonsense, regardless. But why give them ammo?

How do we get past this bull? To me the system worked this time. They are going slow, none of my three PC’s have been offered it. They have these blockers in place. They have the posts up to let you know about them. Where do we draw the line between transparent and freak out? Or are we past that point where any storm in a tea cup is worth a headline and crappy news story.

Well, we didn’t write a story like that, and I don’t see any reason to invent drama where there is none.

The two legit complaints that I do see here are that Microsoft has once again bungled communications, and that Surface owners understandably expect to get updates on day one, and aren’t. I made this comparison somewhere, but imagine if Google released Android 11 and its own Pixel handsets didn’t get it on day one while other smartphones did. That’s what Microsoft is doing right now.

Overall, I agree with you: The system seems to be working. But Microsoft could also stop shooting itself in the foot and us all a lot of trouble.