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For experienced IT veterans—and PC enthusiasts—there is a common wisdom about the latency between when a version of Windows is released, and when those releases become reliable. Windows XP is the primary example of this, as the original release of XP lacked a variety of important security protections—a rebuilt firewall enabled by default, support for NX bit, and finally disabling the Windows Messenger service abused by spammers, were added in Service Pack 2, three years and a day after XP was first released.
And so, that leaves us with our present circumstances with Windows 10. Roughly seven weeks ago—on May 21—Version 1903 (or 19H1), otherwise known as the May 2019 Update, was released. This marks three years, nine months, and 22 days since the initial release of Windows 10. Reception has been politely positive, though problems with the launch have prompted Microsoft to require users to remove USB storage devices or SD cards before upgrading; likewise, the update was blocked on the Surface Book 2 because a driver problem renders it incapable of seeing the NVIDIA GPU in the base of the high-end model.
Given the positioning of Windows 10 as being essentially the last version of Windows (similar to the way Mac OS X has been around since 2001), it is potentially unwise to declare this exact point in time "as good as it gets." Microsoft's track record is likely to back up this claim, though—at best, Microsoft can deliver iterative changes on top of Windows 10, but the biannual release cadence does not lend itself to massive changes, and further iterative changes are not going to convince the skeptics. If you don't like Windows 10 now, you're not going to like it in the future.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-three-years-later-why-this-is-as-good-as-it-gets/
(Score: 5, Informative) by ShadowSystems on Tuesday July 16 2019, @11:11PM (2 children)
At Joe, re: a yoke of their own choosing.
I disagree with that *one* part of your post.
Everything else I give a giant ThumbsUp to, but that one part makes me shake my head.
Not *everybody* chooses Windows because they want it, but because we *have* to.
I use a screen reader from Freedom Scientific called Jaws.
If Jaws isn't working then I can't use the computer at all.
Jaws is a Windows product.
I have tried to use Apple & they failed miserably.
I am trying to teach myself Linux on another machine, but Orca isn't entirely there yet.
I'm stuck using Windows until I can get the Linux machine to force Orca to Just F(#*$%ing Work every time, no matter what.
Apple isn't even in the top ten list anymore, not after they failed to send me a working computer for three different trips through Customer Disservice Hell.
For normal, sighted folks that don't need any Accessibility at all, another OS may be a viable option, but if you need any form of Accessibility then you're severely limited in what you can get/do.
Back when I could still see to tinker with my machines, I started using two desktops: one with Linux (Debian) & one with Windows.
Two monitors side by side, two keyboards (one on a keyboard stand above the other), the towers under my desk side by side with large water coolers keeping them nice & frosty.
I'd have them both running simultaneously so I could compare the things I was trying to do on the Debian with what the web pages on the other claimed I should be looking at.
I loved the set up, I could work & do research on how to be productive at the same time, and if one ever started giving me problems I could switch to the other with a simple move of a keyboard.
But it never dawned on me to research using the screen reader, because I never thought I'd have a heart attack & go blind.
In hindsight (Mine's 20/20!) I wish I had, I'd be able to use Linux a hell of a lot better by now.
All my Linux knowledge is so out of date that I've had to chuck it all & start from scratch.
The desktops are different, the underlying code is different, the way it does stuff is different, and none of my keyboard shortcuts work anymore.
It's like getting used to hitting a certain button on the dash of your car to get something to happen, being away from cars for a while, sliding back in behind the wheel after a long abscense, & finding out that none of the controls do the same job anymore.
*Frustrated pulling out of hair*
I like Linux, I'd rather be using it than Win7 like I'm using now, but there's no damned way I'll touch Win10 with a barge poll.
Down that rabbit hole lies madness.
*Hands you a pint & clinks rims*
Cheers!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 17 2019, @01:15AM (1 child)
There are some things that Windows still excels at - one caught me by surprise today: global language support for audio speech synthesis - Microsoft has just crushed that area and the Linux alternatives are far behind.
If I still did serious CAD work, I'd have to use Windows for the CAD software - but lately I just play at 3D modeling, so OpenSCAD is good enough for _my_ purposes.
We have one Windows machine setup at home for the occasional program that wanders through which doesn't work on Linux, but the last one of those we had at home was about 3 years ago.
When I choose games on Steam, I just restrict the list to Linux compatible - it's just a waste of time anyway, why hurt yourself over it?
But, yeah, if you _need_ something like Jaws... sorry, man. See if you can inspire the Linux community to step up and make Orca great!
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 17 2019, @02:07PM
There's still issues with python due to the python 2->3 migration, which has lead to some broken plugins, but it supports Finite Element Analysis and a lot of other cool features, plus has OpenSCAD support for if you prefer that style of programmatic CAD workflow.