

Windows 10, the cluelessness continues - andrewstuart
http://fourlightyears.blogspot.com/2015/06/windows-10-cluelessness-at-step-two.html

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viraptor
The article is about windows 10 _insider preview ISO_. It's not meant to be
used by anyone more than crazy techies who are prepared for it to explode at
any point. Not grandmas, like this article would like to imply.

If you can't figure out how to create a bootable USB from ISO, this version is
not for you.

~~~
andrewstuart
We're about five weeks from public launch. It should be close to finished. If
they are planning on making big changes to the install process then it's a
little late to be doing that. It's not a good idea to have a very technical
beta version and say at the last second "righto we're switching to something
easy top use at the last second!".

~~~
viraptor
Why wouldn't they? This is one part which is not related to the system itself.
If they're scheduling changes, then core system stuff definitely goes in
before installers. Who knows, they may even have a better installer ready and
just don't care enough to give it to early access - good way to filter out
non-technical testers.

Basically what I'm saying is - it's closed development with closed invisible
schedule and unknown list of final features and changes. If you're an insider
and think installer can be improved, report a bug. I believe the insider
program exists exactly for that reason.

Also, no "normal person" will install this from an ISO. People will get 10
either preinstalled or as an upgrade. The recovery disks will be more
important for them.

~~~
andrewstuart
I don't agree that a clean Windows installation is a process for experts and
can therefore withstand being overly technical. If anything it should be the
complete opposite - a clean install should be so incredibly smooth that the
most basic of users can do it.

I'm also not convinced that ordinary people will never do a clean Windows
install - unless of course it's so damn hard that they can't.

You also don't have me convinced that five weeks out from release that the
very first step of the installation process should not be finalised - it
should be. If anything this first point of user contact should almost be the
_first_ thing finalised when an operating system like Windows is developed.
This is the point that my blog posts make - Microsoft just doesn't understand
what matters, which in my opinion, is the user experience from step one. What
the heck is being testing in a gigantic public beta test if not the users
first point of contact with the OS?

~~~
DrScump
"a clean install should be so incredibly smooth that the most basic of users
can do it."

That's ridiculous.

A "clean" install (at least one intended for any end-user population) has a
very complex path to traverse. First, it has to check for existing
partitioning, O/S content and version, and the presence of any user data files
so that the installing party has the _option_ of 1) aborting the install, in
case he wasn't aware of legacy content on the drive(s), and 2) whether to do
an update-install (preserving user data files) or a destructive install.

If this install is going on a bare, never-formatted drive, then I think that
hardly applies to the "ordinary (non-computer-savvy) people" case... as I
think such a user would be daunted by having to decide partitioning, boot
record placement, reservations for recovery or other proprietary partitions,
swap space, etc.

Now, an intelligent install can give _suggested_ configurations based on
available space and scope of features being installed, as any good Linux
distro does... but I think a total beginner will be given pause by the prompt
to confirm that they are destroying all existing data... and rightfully so.

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DrScump
He says he used an "old" Windows 7 machine in creating the bootable USB3
stick... but did that old machine and its drivers even properly support USB3?

He then gripes about the relative ease of use of Linux _in contrast to_
Windows 10... but nowhere does he say that he used a USB3 stick with the Linux
prep also. Is he comparing apples to oranges?

Has the author done a Windows 7 or 8 install from scratch to allow a basis for
comparison to Win10-specific complaints? (Frankly, I find Windows 8/8.1
_factory installs_ to be more messed up than any install/upgrade I've done
from scratch... including MSXML missing, and "class not registered" errors on
every first backup attempt.)

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mkesper
Windows 10 fails installation if you use an USB3 key for it.

Installation of Linux distributions should be pretty doable since years, imho.

