Windows 11: Meet the new OS, same as the old OS (or close enough)
- Reference: 1624264298
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/21/windows_11_column/
- Source link:
That hasn't been true for more than a decade. What has been true for years is that we no longer need "new" Windows. Windows 10 is so much better than its antecedents that it has stopped being a problem.
Not being a problem is the highest accolade an operating system should aim for. An OS exists to let other things do their jobs reliably, swiftly and painlessly. Even the bits the user has to frob with – sound, video, filing systems, network config – should be the minimal necessary. And compared to Windows 7 and 8, let alone Vista, Windows 10 has won hearts – well, grudging acceptance – for not breaking.
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As a result, the rules for updates now are: "Don't tell me you're updating" and "Don't break anything when you're done."
[2]
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As users, we're long past the point where basic OS functionality needed improving. Driver architectures are stable and mature. Memory management, file systems, connectivity, all sorted. So what in the name of Bill Gates' divorce attorney's second yacht justifies a [4]new number for Windows ?
While the platonic computer science OS is an invisible facilitator, to Microsoft's marketing department it is a Channel to Encourage Users to Enjoy New Experiences
Almost nothing. A [5]grab-bag of randomness – taskbar tweaks, a faint murmur of new window management functions, and some UI mucking about – including one new feature, curved corners, that was forcibly hammered by Steve Jobs into the original Macintosh [6]40 years ago . This is surely some sort of record for sulky idea appropriation?
In the pre-Windows 10 era, this kind of bland bundle of meh would come from some unknown company headquartered in their moms' basements in Stinking Creek, Wyoming. It would sell for $25 as a utility package for six months before ending up on a CD-ROM cover disk. Yet here it is, as a flagship upgrade from Seattle. This in an operating system that lately managed to [7]absorb an entire Linux subsystem without needing to burp out even a tiny version uptick.
For developers, of course, the OS looks very different. Windows 10 has sprouted new APIs and services like a post-monsoon forest coming into bloom. Since its launch in 2015, it has had to keep pace with Microsoft's ever-evolving Azure strategy, or, if you prefer, fads and fashions. Most Windows users, of course, aren't developers. They don't need to know this stuff, in fact they bloody well shouldn't. Imagine living in a world where you got pestered at parties to explain WSL and whether it was worth upgrading to get it?
Why?
So if feature changes and seismic evolution aren't enough to make a 10 into an 11, what's going on? Marketing. Of course it's marketing. Wholly marketing and nothing but marketing. While the platonic computer science OS is an invisible facilitator, to Microsoft's marketing department it is a Channel to Encourage Users to Enjoy New Experiences.
You'll have spotted that Windows 10 loves doing that, with plenty of unexpected surprises after each incremental upgrade, like Bing search options and the task bar growing a news feed. You'll have hated those, as everyone in the sanity community does, because they get in the way. They became a problem, the polar opposite to how an OS should behave.
[8]We've been shown time and again that strong encryption puts crims behind bars, so why do politicos hate it?
[9]When the chips are down, Intel's biggest gamble isn't what to do – it's whom to do it with
[10]Apple is happy to diss the desktop – it knows who's got the most to lose
[11]Ethics isn't a county east of London, but it's the only way to look at security
[12]Palantir and UK policy: Public health, public IT, and – say it with me – open public contracts
[13]Showering malware-laced laptops on UK schools is the wrong way to teach them about cybersecurity
But like spam, begging letters and political Facebook ads, you aren't the target audience. The few per cent of users who click are worth the small cost of deployment, and the anguish and frustration of the rest of us don't matter - because we can't escape. Windows remains the capitalist world's favourite OS, so if you're an enterprise dev you will salute, soldier.
Hence Windows 11, which will be pushed as a must-have, because for consumers there is New and for the enterprise - oh look, here's an EOL for Windows 10 after which hackers will get you.
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The fact that the difference between 10 and 11 is going to be functionally less than what's happened under the bonnet every year of Windows 10's life is irrelevant.
There's not much we can do, except decline the hype. Windows 11 signals the end of that brief period of sanity in Microsoft where it acknowledged that software these days isn't upgraded by shipping tonnes of magnetic domains or optical pits once every three years. The fruits of that are too sweet to pass up, even if the flavour's entirely artificial these days.
Get angry if you must at the rolling back of reality. Utilise weary disdain by all means, it helps. And if you must look on the bright side, at least we're rid of [15]Skype . ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YNBjRWFnq@FaPBkS8FR23wAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YNBjRWFnq@FaPBkS8FR23wAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/microsoft_windows_10_end_support_date/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/15/windows_11_leak_microsoft/
[6] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by+Date&topic=Software+Design
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/19/windows_linux_5_10/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/kiloscrote_nab_strong_encryption/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/17/intels_chip/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/24/desktop_os/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/26/column_security_ethics/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/01/palantir/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/25/lesson_in_cybersecurity_the_wrong_way/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNBjRWFnq@FaPBkS8FR23wAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/microsoft_patch_tuesday_exchange_hyperv/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What is an OS for?
And preferably allow a choice of window managers... not every workflow looks the same - the OS doesn't need to be the window manager as well.
Re: What is an OS for?
Category error. Post unbundling and third party OS suppliers the point isn't software - it's revenue. The assumption is the software differences are small. Hence many have jumped to the conclusion it's a cosmetic marketing exercise. Really?
What's the difference then to Microsoft whether you use 10 or 11? If it's based on the same T&Cs then the answer is hard to fathom.
No - when it comes to the announcement - forget the features (or lack of them). Listen for the commercial terms. Will they provided free upgrades back to all the original Windows 7 users (plus the 'unactivated'?). Will the versions be similar (S, Home, Pro etc) or will they find an interesting way to suck revenue from the user rather than the PC supplier or corporate licence?
That's why I think we should be relieved if its simply a cosmetic marketing version and not something more serious. Like the current CEO has become envious of how Oracle's CEO paycheck is derived. Otherwise it may be your licence, not the software, that is being EOL-ed in 2025.
Going back in time
In the "olden days" this would simply have been called a Service Pack.
W10 SP1? or given all the [1]4-digit builds and Hx releases , SP12?
Footnote: given that this version will be EOL'd at the end of next year, it's hardly worth the bother of installing. What will come after it?
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/release-information
Re: Going back in time
Or W10 R2.
I don't really care what they do. I'll use what I need to do the job, the whole thing has lost its old novelty appeal of new things being offered. I don't spend time playing with an OS, I launch my applications and forget the OS and whatever it is doing behind.
"Windows 10 is so much better than its antecedents that it has stopped being a problem."
But for some reason every few weeks I have to break my workflow while an enforced reboot is put on me.
Windows 10 is better than its antecedents, but we are left with the historical poor design decisions going back to windows 3.1, while more modern OS's such as ChromeOS are far less painful, its just that we have become so used to it, people thinks its normal to have to restart your whole hardware to fix bugs
The thing is, in many ways Windows 10 is not better than its predecessors, and after 6 years of updates, Windows 10 is still very rough and messy in many areas. Windows 7 was a far more polished and consistent OS to use - and even then it was far from perfect.
Rather than continued gimmicks and useless "features" that are brought in with a big fanfare before quietly sinking, I'd like MS to spend some time focusing purely on the user experience for once and making it look pleasing and consistent.
Tidy up the UI and make it look pleasant, user-friendly, consistent and customisable - Windows 10 currently looks flat, bland, dull, lifeless and inconsistent. The constant monochrome icons are also not user friendly. Sort out the "Settings & Control Panel" mess once and for all. Improve the update process so that I don't have to reboot after every single little update. Fix the "busy" logo as well so that it's a continuous loop, rather than one that keeps stopping and starting like some cheap, temporary placeholder. Some new sounds that don't sound as if they were knocked out in half an hour by an intern with a cheap keyboard would also not go amiss.
As it currently stands, Windows 10 is not a nice OS to use and many areas feel half-finished. Question is, will Windows 11 address any of this, or will it just be another ugly, inconsistent and half-baked mess I wonder?
Here here
10 is not a step forward, or a pleasure. Take my morning. A CCTV system that breaks so often due to updates screwing with stuff that it's on a reboot schedule and I'm typing this reply at cost to my customer while I babysit it doing 21Hwhatever. Pre win10 reboots on this system were measured in months and were only maintainance.
And the outlook issue this morning. Fixed by creating a new profile and then deleting it, the mere act fixing the broken one.
Or the CNC machine that randomly goes to a "public" profile and locks itself away behind its firewall away from. The CAM system.
Or the user that randomly has edge override defaults and mangle PDF files. It's a freaking Web browser.
Make 11 a version of 10 that is as stable, reliable and easy to maintain as 7 was.
Was going to be Windows 10 forever?
They skipped Windows 9, to get to Windows 10, and then it was going to be ten - forever? No more upgrade cycles, just a continuous gradual improvement? Didn't last so long, it seems.
And by the way, Windows 10 might not break, as such, but its far, far from nice. How about collecting all the scattered control options back into the Control Panel, mmmm? And maybe a consistent skinning? Its fun to see those old style (but to me, nice) dialog boxes and panels pop up from time to time. Windows 7 is not dead, its still in there, somewhere.....
With Windows 10 and it's Successors in Title
You are the Product. You and your PC with all it's secrets are all owned by M$.
Re: With Windows 10 and it's Successors in Title
Nice edgy mask profile pic! Have you considered moving out of 1990's era Slashdot?
Re: With Windows 10 and it's Successors in Title
That happens when you check the "Post anonymously ?" box.
Marketing and Licencing Depts
Tech Peeps -> Marketing Peeps -> You can have another number/name/rounded rectangular windows - no go away
Tech Peeps -> LIcencing Peeps -> You can have a switch to disable a feature based on licence key -> no go away...
Guess that's another benefit for Open Source - no Marketing Dept, and no Licencing Dept!
Not all is well
As a developer, Windows 10 still has one major defect. The simple operation of opening a file (CreateFile API) is excruciatingly slow. Even when all antivirus functionally is disabled, it is nowhere near Linux or BSD.
A concrete example: a large Java project takes about 25 minutes to compile on Windows. The same project takes about 3 minutes to compile on same machine on Linux that is running as a VirtualBox guest under Windows. The build all happens in a single process, the problem is not CreateProcess (which also would be slow).
The same problem was evident when Phoronix ran various benchmarks on Windows LInux subsystem (the first iteration). On many benchmarks the Linux-inside-Windows managed to be faster than real Linux. But any file activity, and Windows was several times slower.
Why do they not fix CreateFile?
Keeping up with the Jone ... er Jobs
Of course MacOS has gone to 11, and quite rightly so seeing as a huge amount of breaking stuff came in, not to mention a whole new CPU family. So Windows has to go to 11 too. But will the promo video feature Spinal Tap?
Eh?
“Windows 10 is so much better than its antecedents that it has stopped being a problem.”
I’m sorry - are we thinking of the _same_ Windows 10? The MS one, yes?
Re: Eh?
Was wondering much the same.
OTOH it does provide tech journalists with at least one guaranteed column per month: "How to fix this month's 'Patch Tuesday' screw-ups'"
Re: Eh?
Drugs. The story author is on some really strong drugs. I'm not sure what the Kool Aid is spiked with, but it makes dried frog pills look tame in comparison. Massively tame. Patheticly so. Like LSD compared to plain aspirin.
Not completely
"Get angry if you must at the rolling back of reality. Utilise weary disdain by all means, it helps. And if you must look on the bright side, at least we're rid of Skype."
There is a user at work, and I've still not worked out why, where Skype keeps fucking reinstalling itselfs. Pretty sure its one of those apps that gets installed where you can use the powershell command to uninstall, but sure enough a few days later, the fucker reinstalls itself ):o(
LSW
Personally, I completely lost interest in Windows after 7 —having started with 3.1. The best of the bunch, IMHO, has been XP x64 edition, which actually was a Windows Server 2003 with XP written on it in crayon.
I have the feeling that, when MS Office will work decently on Wine (or whatever future Linux Subsystem for Windows), there will be very little point left in having a Windows OS anyway…
Re: LSW
So many games don't work on Linux so we're stuck with it for a while. Unless you're not a gamer then its fine or enjoy a console instead. I prefer gaming on PC to console.
What's the point?
Marketing of course, as the article says. Could this also be the point where they move to a subscription model for the OS?
Bloatware
If MS stops to ship its Professional version with nonsense like the XBox game bar, that would deserve a new version number by itself!
I nonetheless believe that we'll still need the decrapifier script to get rid of all the MS bloatware
What is an OS for?
This nearly hits the nail on the head
An OS exists to let other things do their jobs reliably, swiftly and painlessly.
What IMHO is missing is "And gets out of the way of the user ASAP"
I was on holiday in Iceland when W95 was released. Even the normally placid Icelanders went mad over it. There were lines at the Computer Shop on the day of release. Was that an Apple release by mistake? (only joking)
As someone who started studying Operating Systems in 1974, I have to say that since then the more popular the OS is, the more in the face it is and then tries to mould you into doing things the way the owners of the OS deems. Windows and to a lesser extent macOS is just like that. Linux without a windowing system is the best we have at the moment for getting out of the way.
Since the marketing A-holes took over in Redmond, Windows has got more in your face and more restrictive. Some of the reasons for the restrictions are well-founded but many are because the marketing gods have gone overboard with 'make it so' conditions.
To many, W11 is a pointless upgrade to W10 but I'm sure like everything else these days, a [cough][cough] subscription can't be far behind.
Like W10, I'm gonna pass on W11.
Have a happy Monday people,
Your friendly GOM