
Microsoft makes its case for Windows 10 - filet
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Article.aspx?id=296420&link=Life/SciandTech/2015/May-01/296420-microsoft-makes-its-case-for-windows-10.ashx
======
taylorlapeyre
Until Windows supports and supplies bash + the gnu core utils by default, they
will have a hard time getting me to switch.

~~~
YorkianTones
Bash scripts run in Powershell. We have hundreds of bash scripts for
infrastructure build/deploy/etc. and they are cross-platform. On windows we
execute them in Powershell. Powershell's been around for a decade and runs on
XP and above (edit: and ships with Windows, I think Win7 and above).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_PowerShell)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1098786/run-bash-
script-f...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1098786/run-bash-script-from-
windows-powershell)

~~~
taspeotis
> Bash scripts run in Powershell

...if you install Bash [1] so PowerShell can execute it. In much the same way
that batch files can call Bash, or Windows Explorer can if you double click on
it.

> A caveat to the accepted answer is that sh is not included in vanilla
> Powershell. I had to install Git, which optionally adds some UNIX tools to
> the PATH in Powershell, sh.exe being one of them.

> Note: sh.exe or another *nix shell must be associated with the .sh
> extension.

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1098786/run-bash-
script-f...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1098786/run-bash-script-from-
windows-powershell)

------
clumsysmurf
I'm worried they will inadvertently pollute their store with garbage from
Google Play. Most people use just a handful of quality apps.

From my corner I hear a lot of grumbling from devs about Google's terrible
Android SDK, poor documentation, buggy releases, flaky and buggy tools.

"“Our goal is to make Windows 10 the most attractive development platform
ever,” Microsoft executive Terry Myerson told an audience"

I never felt that was Google's priority with Android. Its just that terrible.

Developers not strictly of the F/OSS mindset would probably try Windows
development just for some new scenery, if their tooling was that great and
they had more market share.

~~~
bad_user
I'm an Android user and I don't feel that Google Play is in the bad shape that
you're describing. Quite the contrary, I believe that it's the best app store
right now. And I also own a Nokia Lumia, an iPhone and an iPad, so I could
make lots of comparisons.

Android as a platform is also the best. Maybe I'm biased, Android being the
first platform I tried my hand at - but that's also because Android's SDK is
the only one available on Linux and that's what I was using back then. And
that's a virtue.

> _Developers not strictly of the F /OSS mindset would probably try Windows
> development..._

Well, that's one thing that makes Android great - the availability of great
open-source apps for it, like Firefox or VLC. That's one thing setting it
apart from iOS. Microsoft copied iOS, but that was a terribly bad decision,
because introducing a tightly controlled proprietary platform as a third
choice is never going to fly in a market in which Android is number 1.

~~~
mkr-hn
I can't find anything I don't already know the name of on Google Play due to
all the me-too apps. They need to either fix discovery or cull the garbage.

------
ams6110
I just can't imagine ever going back to Windows.

~~~
BF179580656B
I guess you lack imagination.

~~~
jay_kyburz
A few months ago I bought a surface 3 pro for testing. For the first week or
so I was quite impressed by the metro stuff. Looks nice, works well with
touch.

I was very disappointed that there are no metro interfaces for browsing files
or basic things like looking at a text file.

Its really disappointing to have to drop down into the old, messy, ugly
windows.

Metro is just not finished and its a shame.

------
shmerl
MS grip on the desktop market needs to be weakened. So far they still enjoy
barely disputed control over common manufacturers who enforce Windows tax and
don't let users buy computers with other operating systems.

------
Animats
From the article: _" Microsoft hopes to lure more people to use its new
Windows 10 software on a variety of computers and gadgets by making it easy to
use many of the same apps they’re already using on Apple or Android phones."_

That's a problem. I don't want to run phone apps on my desktop machine. I
might want to be able to sync some things with my phone, but I have bigger
jobs to do on the desktop machine than on the phone. If I didn't, why would I
have a desktop machine?

~~~
craigvn
Windows 10 will also run on phones and tablets so I think that is the audience
for the apps, not the desktop.

~~~
higherpurpose
Microsoft tend to make a lot of bold claims, but they rarely follow through or
in the same way they _promised_. We'll see how that bold plan actually fleshes
out in reality.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
Hmm I'm trying to think of the last claim I've heard Microsoft made that they
didn't follow through on. They've been actually really great especially in the
past few years. Care to elaborate?

~~~
Artemis2
They may not always deliver in time, but they are coming through.

------
zaroth
Every time I sit down in front of Win8 I feel like my head is going to
explode. Earlier this evening I was on the phone trying to walk a tech-
challenged colleague through removing an existing account in 'Mail'. He had
switched mail clients, and the new client would work once and then fail for
hours, and then work once, etc. It hit me that Windows 'Mail' was trying to
login with an old password, and must be causing his account to lock out. Of
course he didn't know his current mail password either, so the best option was
to just delete the account from Windows Mail.

It took several minutes just to explain how to get into 'Settings'. Then after
finally selecting an account, he couldn't figure out that the right-hand panel
with the settings actually _scrolled_. Then when he clicked 'Remove Account'
and it gave a cryptic error about how the account couldn't be deleted, because
it was his "Microsoft Login" account even though it looked like the work email
account. Finally we found the right account and removed it. Almost 30 minutes
of my life lost to something which should been about 5 clicks max.

I feel like literally everything about Win8 was designed as the complete
opposite to how I would want my computer to actually function. First, the idea
that Microsoft is sync'ing settings between machines in ways that is extremely
difficult or impossible to turn off is worse than creepy, it feels like a back
door. Then every time an app comes up as "Metro" styled or whatever, it seems
incredibly wasteful, out-of-place and practically ridiculous looking. No,
thank you, I don't want my 4K monitor taken over by a full screen of purple
and a tiny bit of text at the top. Then there are things like 'Camera' app
which when it fails simply says 'Camera cannot start' and give you absolutely
nothing to do about it (all the while Skype video-conferencing is working
perfectly).

It's like Microsoft thought, well most of our users don't even know how to use
a computer, so lets make an operating system for them! I must have some sort
of PTSD from it because I often end up loudly cursing Microsoft's existence
any time I need to even approach a Win8 machine.

In short, if Microsoft is making a "case" for Windows 10 to anyone like me, it
better look fuck all like Win8.

Yet I am convinced Microsoft still completely does not get it. My desktop is
not my phone, and I don't want to run smartphone apps on my desktop. There are
incredible opportunities for tying together the computing experience between
desktops and phones, but unifying the user interface is just dead wrong. It's
like the whole thing is just completely lost in translation. A unified
experience does not mean a unified GUI! How can they get this so wrong even
after 5 years of staring their failure in the face?

~~~
WalterGR

         Every time I sit down in front of Win8 I feel like my head is going to explode.
    

I use Windows 8 at work. I power it on, dismiss the new 'start screen', and
from that point on it's almost EXACTLY like every version of Windows that came
before it.

Look: you don't like Metro apps? Then don't use them.

As it stands, your problems - and the problems described by every other person
on HN who has had their good sense similarly assaulted by Windows 8 - are
entirely self-inflicted.

You have a choice and you choose to stick with what brings you displeasure.

~~~
zaroth
For now I just avoid it. I don't use a Win8 machine myself, so I have never
had the cause to modify one back to Win7 behavior. But the Win8 machines I
have had to use seem to push you back into Metro no matter how often you try
to Win-D out of it, e.g. like the Network Settings example I got down-voted
for below.

~~~
WalterGR

       I don't use a Win8 machine myself, so I have never had the cause to modify one back to Win7 behavior.
    

You don't need to "modify it back to Win7 behavior." Dismiss the Windows 8
'start screen' then don't use Metro apps. Magic.

    
    
        But the Win8 machines I have had to use seem to 
        push you back into Metro no matter how often you
        try to Win-D out of it, e.g. like the Network
        Settings example I got down-voted for below.
    

You're doing something to cause the behavior you don't like.

Were this any other platform, the advice on HN would be: 1. Figure out what
you're doing to cause the behavior you don't like. 2. Stop doing it.

~~~
zaroth
> You're doing something to cause the behavior you don't like

You mean, like clicking the Start button? Clicking the 'Start' button in Win8
brings up a metro-style screen which annoys me every time I see it. You can
pin as many programs on the taskbar as possible, but if you want to run a one-
off program, the only alternative is Win-R and knowing the name of the
executable. Can you get back the standard Win7 start menu? Possibly, but like
I said, I don't use Win8 enough to bother trying to modify it back to Win7.

------
jamessteininger
What was wrong with the name Spartan for their new browser? I'm not sure how I
feel about Edge...

~~~
mburns
Edge starts with an 'e' so it can still use a similar logo to Internet
Explorer, which is significant.

------
616c
How the hell did the Daily Star make it to the front page of HN?

