Windows 10

[Ricoh]

I've just received an email to say Windows 10 is on its way, being offered as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1.
Have I been asleep, what happened to Windows 9? Why have they skipped 9.

Anyone know anything about W10, is it worth upgrading, or do you run the risk as an early adopter of technology, especially software?

[Wally]

Re: Windows 10

I don't think the full story is known... if interested - this link is just a few day's old - you can find out some of the story here -> M$10

They bombed W9 as W8 and W8.1 never really hit the spot. Jumping to W10 is their attempt to put all that behind them. The Full Monty, if there is such a thing in S/W is probably some months off.

As a 'freebie' it's probably worth dipping your toes in the water. It may be free to start with but, quite possibly, you might have to pay out for updates?

As the saying goes, 'if it seems too good to be true...'

[Ricoh]

Re: Windows 10

I'm not sure I'll be first in the water, no knowing how deep it is!
I'll follow the link and have a read, thank you.
To be honest I was a reluctant W8 user, but it was almost impossible to buy one with W7 unless I bought one meant for a business.

[al_kaholik]

Re: Windows 10

I won't be an early adopter on this. We've finally just got Windows 7 working and migrated at work. Its traditional and works in the office environment. My experience with Win 8.1 is that the desktop part of it wasn't up to much and the tablet bit worked well. Switching between the two was disappointing too.

We shall see what happens.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: Windows 10

My No1 concern is the continued running of my existing programs.

Having invested in several photographic tools, I need these to work as well if not better in any new system.

I have some software that still runs in an XP environment. I'd be more than a bit miffed if these stopped working.

May the time has come to jump to a MAC

[StephenL]

Re: Windows 10

My son is a senior developer with a large software company and has been running beta versions of W10 for many months. It seems to be heavily biased to so-called "cloud" computing. Used to be known as Thin Client in the olden days.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Windows 10

My son is a senior developer with a large software company and has been running beta versions of W10 for many months. It seems to be heavily biased to so-called "cloud" computing. Used to be known as Thin Client in the olden days.

I don't know what happened to W9 either, but numbers are often more about marketing than incremental upgrades. For example, what ever happened to the Canon PowerShot G1, G2, G4, G8, G13, and G14? (I think these numbers are right.)

(Of course some numbers are considered unlucky in some cultures. Anyone who made the mistake of installing Sage Accounts V13 will probably agree with that principle!

Some other permutations, such as G8, are also associated with political riots, so I can understand why Canon might have wanted to drop that one.)

Back to Windows, my son has been running a Beta of W10 for a couple of weeks and likes it a lot. He also has a MacBook for comparison.

I am using W8 on my laptop, and have to say it is one of my favourite OS's(along with W7). It is fast, stable, power efficient and does everything that I want and need. My only complaint is that it keeps nagging me to upgrade to W8.1, which I am avoiding as I have heard that getting certain HP print drivers to work can be problematic.

My son is an Apple Acolyte, and is constantly telling me how wonderful his MacBook is. (I would admit to owning an iPad mini 2, although that is a different kettle of fish.)

Whilst I like the Apple system, I find it far too restrictive for my needs. For me, it is rather like a long distance train ride; it is fast, safe, smooth and comfortable; but the nearest station is ten miles away from my destination! So I still need a car (or Windows) to finish the job.

Apart from the lack of support for mainstream business apps, (such as accounting and my need to download and analyse data from test equipment), I would be frustrated by the inability to add expansion cards, to add memory and hard drives.

Even my humble iPad is restrictive. I bought a third-part USB to Lightning cable for it, (rather than paying Apple £25 for a simple cable, albeit a white one), but when I plugged it in there was a message warning that some functions were not supported. True to their word, it refused to charge so it looks like I will have to pay the control freaks for a genuine lead. This would never happen with Windows though.

[Wally]

Re: Windows 10

I'm running W7 only because I got a chirpy cheep cheep purchase of the genuine article. W8, I found to be a nightmare possibly for the same reason I have problems with tablets / smart phones - unless I dampen my fingers... they almost always don't respond. ATBH, after a week or so, I just couldn't be bovvered.

The way thinga are going - cloud based or App Shopping, I suspect the free OS (read control freaks) is the beginning to an end to empty your wallet. Only time will tell.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Windows 10

The way thinga are going - cloud based or App Shopping, I suspect the free OS (read control freaks) is the beginning to an end to empty your wallet. Only time wil tell.

I think you could be right. The entire industry seems to be moving to subscription based rental; which is why I am sticking with Office 2007, Acrobat 10 and Photoshop 6 for as long as I can!

Cloud computing does offer many advantages, but only if you have good internet access. Many of us have no option but to work whilst travelling, and whilst 3G and 4G services are much improved, they are my no means universal.

Government is keen to move all of its services online, which I broadly support, but I feel it is scandalous that internet access in some locations (hotels in particular) is extortionate.

However, it does seem rather ironic that when I signed up to Durham County Council's online services (for Council Tax and so forth) I received a letter through the post confirming my registration!

[yorky]

Re: Windows 10

Well windows 8 is a load of rubish I'll be sticking to 7. I can't get my head round 8 and I cant imagine 10 will be any better.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Windows 10

Well windows 8 is a load of rubish I'll be sticking to 7. I can't get my head round 8 and I cant imagine 10 will be any better.

Windows 8 is good, but the interface takes a little getting used to.

Presumably the interface is one of the easier aspects of an OS to design, so why don't the software developers make a variety of interfaces available to uses, including 'traditional' Windows, and even a Mac like interface?

Come to that, I believe unlocked versions of the Mac OS work perfectly well on Windows PC's. (Apple Mac's are not quite as magical as the genii would have us believe!) That being the case, why doesn't Apple Corporation make its OS available to the great unwashed; at a price of course?

[StephenL]

Re: Windows 10

Come to that, I believe unlocked versions of the Mac OS work perfectly well on Windows PC's. (Apple Mac's are not quite as magical as the genii would have us believe!) That being the case, why doesn't Apple Corporation make its OS available to the great unwashed; at a price of course?

Because they can't guarantee it would work on any joe bloggs hardware.

(BTW my iPads and Iphone work with 3rd party charger cables just fine. And Apple stores, as well as Currys, sell 3rd party ones as well as genuine ones, which I agree are a rip-off)

[timg]

Re: Windows 10

I believe skipping 9 is just a marketing thing to distance themselves from Windows 8... not that 8.1 was bad, just took a bit of getting used to. People always complain about the start menu being shown as the whole screen but I've got all my apps pinned to the taskbar and have to use the start menu perhaps once a day if that...

Well windows 8 is a load of rubish I'll be sticking to 7. I can't get my head round 8 and I cant imagine 10 will be any better.

I've been using the Windows 10 Technical Preview for a few months and it's all been pretty smooth so far (I'm writing this comment on it right now). The good news is the 'traditional' start menu is back...

The even better news is that it's now going to be one code base that covers phones, tablets and PCs, the idea being that they will start offering 'universal' apps that can be used across all devices.

Wally, I always find it amusing when people write M$ when Apple are the richest company in the world!

[Wally]

Re: Windows 10

Wally, I always find it amusing when people write M$ when Apple are the richest company in the world!

I'm just a lazy typist, plus, if you were to put MS people might confuse it with MD, MS or PHD. = More Dosh, More of the Same and Piled Higher and Deeper.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: Windows 10

Because they can't guarantee it would work on any joe bloggs hardware.

Which is a fair point, but there are many devices which are Apple certified (because they are used by Apple), and I am sure that HP, Dell, Toshiba et al would be happy to get their hardware certified, just as they do for Windows, Unix and so forth.

(BTW my iPads and Iphone work with 3rd party charger cables just fine. And Apple stores, as well as Currys, sell 3rd party ones as well as genuine ones, which I agree are a rip-off)

It seems to be the newer Lightning connectors that cause the problem. I have never experienced any difficulty with the old 30 pin connectors.