Windows fails to reach the Finnish line as Helsinki signage pleads for help
- Reference: 1592901006
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/23/bork/
- Source link:
Spotted by Register reader Erkki, Windows 10 has been shoved into an advertising board overlooking the city's delightful harbour. (Quite why something the size of Windows 10 should be required to spend its days flipping through ads is anyone's guess and shoving hardware capable of running it into a sign smacks a little of overkill.)
"I'm always reminded," said Erkki, "of [1]Marvin the Paranoid Android , complaining [of] being asked to do simple tasks, despite having a brain the size of a planet."
To be honest, it's the more blancmange-like stability of Windows 10 that we'd be worried about, and it seems that the effort of running a glorified slideshow requires an update. The OS "is a service" after all. Although we imagine that the only servicing the billboards of old required was the tender attention of a worker with a brush and a tub of paste.
Progress, eh?
Sadly, Erkki was unable to put the poor thing out of its misery as a keyboard or mouse were nowhere to be seen.
Helsinki is a lovely place, and the borkage has also captured the reflection of what we think might be a food hall located on the edge of the harbour. Certainly, it was a lovely day in Helsinki a few weekends ago, unless the blue of the sky is more a representation of what Windows likes to be best of all rather than the Finnish climate.
And as [2]Monty Python memorably told us, Finland is the place to be. Even for bork.
Finland, Finland, Finland
The country where I want to be
Your Windows so borky
Your signage so stalled
Finland, Finland, Finland
Finland has it all... ®
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-W8QDVA9s
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHsoEAAMZU
[3] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8470/taking-the-cloud-native-approach-with-microservices?td=wptl1956
Alternatively, you could try
actioning it going forward but you'd probably just end up with a nasty bruise on your forehead.
Re: Let's cross this one off the list?
My God, make the corporate-matey bollocks speak stop.
Hardly a surprise when they even lie about the name. It's not Windows 10, it's Windows NEIN!
Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Why on earth do people insist on putting a heavyweight OS behind something that's just showing a few pictures?
Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Because if you have limited skill sets and resources in your organisation its a lot easier and cheaper to go with a platform you already have staff trained in and understand than it is to introduce a new one. In this sort of context the cost of the processor and OS is a trivial part of the TCO.
Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Yeah, but it would be just as easy these days to drop a cheap android tablet in the cabinet, hook up the display, and run an app instead.
That said, it's really trivial to pause Windows updates indefinitely. If no-one on your staff can figure that out, maybe even the above is too much to ask.
Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Really? Trivial as in something your granny can do?
Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Trivial as in something your granny can do?
Grannies running a digital signage firm??
Sounds like another Monty Python reference (but probably not edgy enough, would need to be a Granny hacking collective).
Re: Sledgehammer, meet nut.
Windows 10 is not a heavyweight OS , it's just a massive sized app, far larger than any functional OS. And as for all these borking messages, remember the days of Vista? Windows 10 is worse then Vista, it's user fiendly (sic).
Disruptive service
I always find it amusing how these dialogs talk about how "Windows is a service" as if that is a positive thing - at the same time telling you that this means some annoying disruption. All these dialogs do is confirm that "Windows as a service" means additional disruption, rather than anything positive.
Of course, quite why the hell they're running the normal, full-fat Windows 10 is a mystery. If they *have* to run Windows 10 (and I highly doubt this), at least bung the LTSC version on there...
How condescending
That message makes me want to punch something, and I am not violent.
It is such middle management speak.
Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is Finland part of Russia?
It's unpatriotic not to use Linux.
Re: Is Finland part of Russia?
Linux, like Communism fails on the fact only a small number of ideologues believe and spread it while the masses wonder what kind of stupid sheiit this is.
(PS. Consoles are for nerds hence only a fraction of all people will ever use Linux)
Re: Is Finland part of Russia?
A router in every house, an Android phone in every hand. How's that for your failing communism?
Re: Is Finland part of Russia?
Consoles are for nerds
And yet, MS are frantically trying to up their Shell game.
I'm confused. As I've posted many times before, one possible reason for using Windows in a situation like this is that while it can be a massive pain in the arse, System Center Configuration manager makes it almost as easy to manage a fleet of 1,000,000 Windows devices as it is to manage 1. This certainly includes distributing updates in a timely, and usually non-obtrusive way. Any decent MDM solution should do that. As I've stated before (and seemingly got downvoted for it), I am genuinely interested to find a decent MDM solution for Linux. I have a nice little project that I could do using PIs for work, but would need to show it's under some sort of MDM solution before they'll even look at it.
I do agree that there is no reason any advertising screen couldn't just be powered by some sort of single board computer (not necessarily a Pi, but can be), probably running some flavour of Linux.
Beyond the MDM problem above, I think in some IT departments, non Windows OSes still get some prejudice. A lot of IT technicians and system admins dismiss Linux, macOS and other OSes because they aren't Windows. Certain System Admins where I work (and these are very highly qualified people) almost seem like they would back into a corner, hissing and scratch at you like an animal if you dare suggest any OS other than Windows. This is despite the fact that both Linux and MacOS have a far superior lineage to Windows, either being a clone of (in the case of Linux) or derived from (in the case of macOS) variants of Unix.
Note: I am not knocking Windows. I primarily support macOS at work (and am thus sometime dismissed as a wierdo at work), but I also support Windows (primarily 10). I have a PC that I use at home primarily for gaming, but also some remote working, and I have a Mac Laptop that I also use for remote working, but also general messing around. I have various Pis, all running Raspbian, and I'd like to see greater use of the Pis at work, particularly for digital signage, for which we are currently using (I believe) low end Windows PCs..
Sure, Windows 10 is great when it works - until it doesn't.
Remember Vista? A great secure OS - until you tried to use it.
Let's cross this one off the list?
My God, make the corporate-matey bollocks speak stop.
But someone tell me how to get Windows 10 to at least wait instead of popping up the "Windows will restart" in a dialog box while you're typing, in the hope that you're going to hit a key which causes it to restart anyway.