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posted by martyb on Thursday May 11 2017, @12:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-security-issue? dept.

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."


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  • (Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday May 11 2017, @04:45PM (5 children)

    by Dunbal (3515) on Thursday May 11 2017, @04:45PM (#508170)

    You're going to buy and use Windows S whether you like it or not.

    The salesman is having a hard time selling Windows 10. Which EVEN GIVEN AWAY FREE for well over a year,as well as force-installed on every new computer OEM, not to mention all the DIRTY TRICKS Microsoft used to SWINDLE people into installing it - has barely reached 28% market share. No don't fucking kid yourself that suddenly they're going to be able to convince IT departments to buy their shitware which has zero support for legacy apps and probably even less than zero support for specialized apps and hardware.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Thursday May 11 2017, @07:41PM (1 child)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday May 11 2017, @07:41PM (#508273) Journal

    You're fooling yourself. IT departments have this little problem of inertia called software. We can all think we have absolute control over our networks but the software which does the actual work dictates the platform. I'd love to switch my shop to linux, BUT: our ERP is windows only, CAD software windows only, and machine specific software windows only. Not to mention the fact that everyone NEEDS office because that fucking salesforce plugin for outlook is absolutely necessary.

    We can pretend we can shed the chains of MS but the inertia behind the platform is so great that it's cheaper and easier to bend over for redmond. The golden age of computing is dead and the open computer platform in its death throes. I weep for our children. "Dad is it true you were once allowed to run any computer program you wanted to and freely create your own?" "Yes, my son. The good ol days they were. Compilers as far as the eye could see."

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 12 2017, @05:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 12 2017, @05:42AM (#508500)

      "What are you talking about? I can still run any software I want. I just go into the store, pick something I like, and click install?"

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 11 2017, @09:26PM (2 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday May 11 2017, @09:26PM (#508330)

    There's a big difference between home/personal computing and business computing, and this divide seems to be growing. As LordTAW elaborates here, businesses are sticking with Windows because of enormous inertia (and also laziness IMO; they should be pushing their vendors to make Linux versions and having experiments to try switching some functions to it, but that decreases short-term profit so they don't). But on the consumer side, there's now several choices: Windows, Mac, Linux, tablets, and cellphones. Consumers are moving more and more to the latter two exclusively. Those that still want a more serious computer for various reasons (screen size, ability to do "real work", etc.) are basically stuck with Windows or Mac. They're not using Linux except for people like the ones on this forum. Macs are expensive as hell; you can get a Windows laptop for $200 or so now, and you'll never see a Mac that cheap ($1k minimum I think). So some of the richer people might get a Mac, but everyone else is going to get Windows. No one's getting Linux; several companies tried marketing desktop Linux directly to consumers years ago and they all failed unfortunately: Lindows/Linspire, gOS, etc. So basically, MS can do whatever it wants here, because while the market seems smaller (due to some people dumping PCs and just using tablets), they have a lock on the portion of the market that wants a "real computer" and either can't afford or don't want a Mac. So adopting the walled-garden approach actually makes sense here, even if a bunch of people complain; what are they going to do, switch to Macs (which is largely the same, just more expensive)? They're not going to switch to tablets because they just can't do the stuff PCs do (and they're limited the same with with app stores). And they're not going to switch to Linux because.... well for the same reasons they haven't switched before now, whatever those reasons are (it's for "geeks", it's not mainstream, they never heard of it, it's not advertised/marketed to them, everyone else uses Microsoft so I should too, "it's too hard", "who do I call if I have a problem?", "I can't buy it at Walmart", etc.).

    Now of course, getting a bigger share of a shrinking market is generally seen by MBAs as a bad thing, but the market isn't going to shrink that much: almost everyone needs a computer, and many of those aren't going to be satisfied with a phone/tablet, and Apples aren't going to ever have low-end offerings. And by adopting the walled-garden app store model and preventing software outside this venue, they'll get a huge cut of all software sold for that platform, just as Apple does with their iTunes store, which is much more than the cut they were getting before, which was 0%. They weren't making much money on consumers before anyway just with Windows licenses. Even if this move alienates some users, they'll be making far, far more from the ones who remain so it should be much more profitable overall. Plus they can increase revenues even more by forcing ever-more adware on these machines, to sell users more crapware, and also selling their private information to other companies thanks to the spyware baked-in.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 12 2017, @04:54AM (1 child)

      by mhajicek (51) on Friday May 12 2017, @04:54AM (#508477)

      I've been using Microsoft os's since I was six. I would like to try a Linux, but there are so many to choose from and they all have different problems. Also from what I can find out, none of them will run any of my CADCAM software, the using of which is pretty much what​I do. So really, unless I change careers I'm stuck with Microsoft.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 03 2017, @06:12AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Saturday June 03 2017, @06:12AM (#519752) Journal

        There are some CAD software used on IRIX, HPUX, SunOS etc.. old but it was the best at the time. Maybe you can get it running using emulation (because computers can do that really good now).

        And there's some BSD/Linux versions.

        I think it boils down to how professional it needs to be and the exchange of files.