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Microsoft's only choice to move forward is to throw the Win32 baby out with the bathwater. And that brings us to the introduction of Windows 10 S.
Windows 10 S is just like the Windows 10 you use now, but the main difference is it can only run apps that have been whitelisted to run in the Windows Store. That means, by and large, existing Win32-based stuff cannot run in Windows 10 S for security reasons.
To bridge the app gap, Microsoft is allowing certain kinds of desktop apps to be "packaged" for use in the Windows Store through a tooling process known as Desktop Bridge or Project Centennial.
The good news is that with Project Centennial, many Desktop Win32 apps can be re-purposed and packaged to take advantage of Windows 10's improved security. However, there are apps that will inevitably be left behind because they violate the sandboxing rules that are needed to make the technology work in a secure fashion.
"A casualty of those sandboxing rules is Google's Chrome browser. For security reasons, Microsoft is not permitting desktop browsers to be ported to the Store."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 11 2017, @04:47PM (4 children)
*sigh* typo
"It evolved with service packs up to SP2, then became Longhorn."
That should have been SP3, not SP2. SP2, in it's first iteration, was the one that screwed many AMD machines. The AthlonXP, especially, was sent into an endless reboot cycle if you installed the first version of SP2.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 11 2017, @05:55PM (3 children)
Concerning Win10, people have no choice, because they're not even basically competent with computers. Have you watched the average user? They are clueless; they are as lost, if not more lost, on Windows as on a decently set-up Linux. I have my father on a simple Xfce desktop--think "Ubuntu 7.04 style Gnome 2.x setup" here--and he's able to function well enough, but he's completely out to lunch on Windows 8 and 10, and has difficulty with 7.
Most people can't operate their way out of a paper bag. My first job involves a lot of tech support, and I cannot tell you how many people don't know what the start menu is. Or that the internet does not live on their computer. Or that the browser is not the OS, and the desktop is a separate thing and is not, itself, on the internet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 11 2017, @09:33PM (2 children)
I set up an elderly (over 75yo) family friend with an older Laptop running Mint KDE (17.3, I'll eventually upgrade it to 18.x but 17.3 is working fine now with KDE4.10). He used to use Windows at home and work, probably XP and 7, respectively. I took 30 minutes to give him an orientation course, and everything's been working out great for him except a weird issue with it forgetting his WiFi password which I finally fixed thanks to a little googling. Since then, I haven't heard from him about it in many months. It "just works". And with KDE, the learning curve from WinXP/7 to that was very, very low. In its default configuration, it's like a more-sensible version of the classic Windows interface, without all the stupidities that Windows has, especially the horrid organization of programs in the Start menu. I don't even want to think about how it would have been trying to get him running with Windows 8/10.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday May 12 2017, @03:24AM
Yeah Plasma has really been impressing me as of 5.9 (and 4.10, on Debian Jessie). The defaults are still garish and ugly, but it's the most Windows-like desktop environment and the only one besides Xfce that doesn't treat you like an idiot. Gnome feels like what I imagine trying to whack off with oven mitts on is like.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday May 13 2017, @03:41AM
Since then, I haven't heard from him about it in many months.
Check and be sure that's true, and he's not just not mentioning it because he doesn't want to bother you anymore.
He's in the age range where he's got a dwindling number of contemporaries to monopolize his time, so a visit would probably not be amiss, regardless of reason or excuse.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something