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from the does-it-have-funny-toy-story-names? dept.
From an essay at howtogeek.com:
Did you know there's a version of Windows 10 that doesn't get big feature updates, and doesn't even have the Windows Store or Microsoft Edge browser? It's called Windows 10 LTSB, short for Long Term Servicing Branch.
There are several "branches" of Windows 10. The most unstable branch is the Insider Preview version of Windows 10. Most Windows PCs are on the "Current Branch", which is considered the stable branch. Windows 10 Professional users have the option to "Defer Upgrades", which puts them on the "Current Branch for Business". This branch will only get new builds of Windows 10, like the Anniversary Preview, a few months after they've been tested on the "Current Branch". It's like the stable, consumer branch–but slower moving.
But businesses don't want all their PCs to constantly get big updates, even if they are delayed a few months. Critical infrastructure like ATMs, medical equipment, and PCs that control machines on a factory floor don't need whizbang features, they need long term stability and few updates that will potentially break things. A PC operating medical equipment in a hospital room doesn't need new Cortana updates. That's what Windows 10 LTSB–the "Long Term Servicing Branch"–is for, and it's only available for the Enterprise edition of Windows 10.
While this is a branch of Windows 10, you can only get it by installing Windows from Windows 10 LTSB installation media. You can get other branches of Windows simply by changing an option within Windows 10 itself, but that isn't the case here.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Virindi on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:30PM (16 children)
Sounds like just what I would want, if I ran Windows. Why is it that what sounds like the most useful version has to be locked away and only available to special customers?
Are there no regular users who value stability over "whizbang" features? That seems unlikely. It seems like maybe Microsoft only wants to cater to "whizbang" people, though, and everyone else can pound sand. This seems like a losing strategy, especially when combined with a "no new Windows versions" strategy...the biggest reason to have to constantly shift the floor under people's feet no longer exists. They seem to want to force continuous changes on everyone merely for the sake of having people always having to change. This angers and alienates a lot of users, who just want to "learn how a system works" once and then be done with it, because they don't want to have to dedicate continuous mental energy to figuring out whatever is new this week.
On the other hand, such users can buy a tablet...and the tablet will probably never change. Even if they get an OS update (eventually), the ways they interact with the system will probably be entirely unchanged.
It seems like Microsoft is absolutely dedicated to destroying the PC. Because they think the PC is not cool anymore I guess? They are just killing themselves, causing the very exodus they are trying to prevent.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:33PM (1 child)
If the PC is destroyed, then using what device will people develop applications for whatever comes after the PC?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:19PM
They will use Rust on their iPhones, of course.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:40PM (2 children)
https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-makes-money-revenues-broken-product-line [onmsft.com]
Office and servers, now 1 and 2
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday December 14 2017, @10:54PM (1 child)
Interesting... It as if Microsoft doesn't care if Windows is on every PC in the future. So, if Microsoft allows the Windows product line to die, will Microsoft still be as evil as it was in the 90s?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by tftp on Friday December 15 2017, @12:44AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:44PM
They're probably all happily using something like Slackware, Debian (or Devuan) or FreeBSD.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:49PM (1 child)
Cater? I think you mean control. This isn't about catering. This is Microsoft in a downward spiral; desperate to hold on to a fading market. Every day more and more devs are moving to cloud and web platforms. Microsoft cant control them (they tried and failed: Java fuckery, IE6+IIS6+Activex, etc.) so they have to lock people in NOW before it's too late.
The only area where they are still dug in deep is Windows as a business productivity platform. Anything which is complex and CPU/GPU heavy is not yet able to move to the cloud or browser so software such as CAD, 3D design, Audio and Video, simulation, and other business software is propping up MS on the business desktop. Linux tried and failed to gain this market back in the 00's. There were CAD packages available for Linux but no one took it seriously as a platform because point and click MS administration was 1000x easier and cheaper, and proven to to run.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @04:30AM
software such as CAD, 3D design, Audio and Video, simulation, and other business software is propping up MS
This sounds like sloth on the part of users to me: unwillingness to try something new.
Whenever I encounter this sort of claim, I think back several years to when I first encountered an architect (now retired) in the Linux Mint forum.
He would note that he was using FOSS exclusively. [google.com]
Going back years before that, in sci.electronics.design|sci.electronics.cad, Terry Porter would link to images of the PCBs he had created for customers' jobs using FOSS exclusively.
The developers of gEDA [google.com] were also frequent posters and they were eating their own dog food and making good money from using that.
When Ernie Ball, Inc. got raided by the Business Software Alliance in 2000, he told his IT guys he wanted the proprietary stuff gone by the end of the year.
They had Fedora/FOSS in place before the deadline and the company adapted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_computer-aided_design_editors#firstHeading [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_editing_software#firstHeading [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_digital_audio_editors#firstHeading [wikipedia.org]
Plenty of *n?x-compatible stuff and blue rectangles (FOSS) in those.
site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/+intitle:Comparison.of+simulation [google.com]
I checked several of those pages and they also shape up pretty well *n?x-|FOSS-wise.
Sure you aren't working from and old/limited data set?
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Friday December 15 2017, @12:37AM (2 children)
We had that. It was called Windows XP, and it took a decade to get rid of it from the work place, but it is STILL at the root of all big Point of Sale hacks you read about, in almost every Cash machine and still buggy as hell.
Why do we have to re-learn that lesson yet again?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday December 15 2017, @03:09AM (1 child)
Whats the alternative? Decade old Linux installs? Would that be any better?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday December 15 2017, @12:36PM
Probably!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Friday December 15 2017, @02:47AM
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Friday December 15 2017, @03:13AM (3 children)
You probably don't want to run LTSB, as it feature lags normal windows releases dramatically.
Case in point is screen scaling. Some apps don't scale right when you move them from one monitor to another with different DPI settings. Microsoft fixed that in a monthly update for systems in the semi-annual channel, but LTSB won't see that update for a long time. Why? Because it's a feature update, not a security fix. LTSB doesn't get those.
I saw this onsite two weeks ago.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Friday December 15 2017, @06:08AM
I wouldn't mind. I run linux, and all my computers still have Debian Jessie on them. I haven't bothered to upgrade yet, because things work "fine". Maybe there are a few annoyances that could be fixed, but I learned long ago that software updates usually cause more problems than they solve. And if some individual component has a particularly annoying bug or missing feature, I update just that one component (too bad MS has worked hard to make sure people can't do that with Win10).
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Friday December 15 2017, @06:10AM (1 child)
I'm guessing it's impossible (perhaps incompatible) to access the specific update and install it manually?
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Friday December 15 2017, @07:52PM
> I'm guessing it's impossible (perhaps incompatible) to access the specific update and install it manually?
Windows 10 does Cumulative Updates so it would be nontrivial to hack it out. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it wouldn't be supported.