Note: This post has been moved from Latest Picks due to length of extended updates.
Now the free upgrade period is over and that it still hasn’t made much of a dent in the armour familiarity of those holding to Windows 7 who likely still have wistful wet dreams about those rolling green hills of XP too:
Windows 10 anniversary update keeps breaking PCs (telegraph.co.uk).
“Microsoft has once again been criticised for breaking customers’ computers with the latest version of its flagship operating system. The Windows 10 anniversary update, released at the beginning of this month, has caused some customers’ computers to completely freeze, to the point that the devices are left unusable.
Users have also found that plugging a Kindle into a computer running the updated software breaks the PC.
The apparent flaws in the update is worrisome for Microsoft, given its plans for Windows 10 to be the last major Windows release, with all updates from here being issued as regular installments. Users whose computers broke after installing the anniversary update took to social media to complain about their unworkable PCs.”
To which they also likely take to vitriolically—but socially—whinge about the Kardashians, young people, social media itself, Brexit and HP sauce (Latest Picks 13th Aug. 2016), seemingly affirming that it is indeed social media purpose for those not posting nude mirror selfies. Other than the Kindle the other piece of kit many if not all whinge about by proxy, their’s itself not likely affected, is the camera.
“Customers have also complained that the anniversary update has stopped their webcams from working. Due to an update in the way that the updated Windows 10 processes video streams from webcams, any camera that encodes video an MJEG or H264 format is incompatible with PCs running the upgraded software. Microsoft didn’t sufficiently warn users about this flaw, which has left many customers wondering why their webcams have broken.”
Which, unless it is built into portible device is likely old kit that could likely be replaced with a spanking new one available at the local PoundShop unless that may stop their cry for everyone to port to Linux—a cry that is getting pretty old and never took off too—and spend the next week looking for supported drivers and compromise for the rest of their old kit while fevourishly and elitistly muttering grep, bash and shell while ending up using an emulator or not-emulator but still duplicating the functions of (Wikipedia) to run the same things as everyone else or open source equivalents reminiscent of what was using half a decade ago: Why didn’t Linux win on the desktop? (zdnet.com, Jan. 2014).
And besides, no matter what those aging techie evangelists of Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Fedora or the dozens of other distributions —invariably slinging “Micro$oft” in every discussion but their selective morality seeming excusing the $ part in discussion of Google because, well Android is Linux and Sergie Brin wears Crocs (dailymail.co.uk, Nov. 2014), you may know the types, they are likely the ones giving you cold $houlder and passive aggression if you did not instantly see things their way—have opportunely jumped on the issue yet again, the reasons for the slow uptake of Windows 10 have more to do with the same familiarity armour reasons why some are still running XP if not Windows 7:
For sure, having seen the puzzled face of home users confronted with evangelically installed Linux on their desktop asking if it would be possible to “change it back to Windows”, I’d have to agree; DS9 was by far the best Star Trek series ever.
And for many Android, based on the Linux kernel, does not fare much better:
I Hate Android: Why It Sucks (techshift.net, Apr. 2012).
“To put it bluntly, I hate Android. I tried to support it and I actually liked it for a while. Over the years, I got tired of nearly everything about it. I have used Linux for a few years since Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and fell in love with the open source movement. I’ve come to realize that all the hype about being ‘open’ and portraying Apple and RIM as the evil ‘closed’ platform was all a deception.”
“All a deception” inconsistent UI, bundled crapware (remember when it was just the PC accused of that?), software bugs, and—I’ll just add my own—downloaded apps that are often clunky if working at all and a constant feeling of underpower circa of something a decade or so old.
Hmm. But what might really make those purely seeing 10s hiccups as time for more door step evangelising to give chap not quick sure if the problem is Windows or him the “good news” is that, seriously, if want Linux—drum roll please—Windows 10 includes it:
Why Microsoft needed to make Windows run Linux software—And how it could leapfrog Apple as the dev platform of choice (arstechnica.com, Jun. 2016).
“Perhaps the biggest surprise to come from Microsoft's Build developer conference last week was the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The system will ship as part of this summer's Anniversary Update for Windows 10. WSL has two parts; there’s the core subsystem, which is already included in Insider Preview builds of the operating system, and then a package of software that Canonical will provide. The core subsystem is what provides the Linux API on Windows, including the ability to natively load Linux executables and libraries. Canonical will provide bash and all the other command-line tools that are expected in a Linux environment. … ”
Why? Well, it seems a mix of pacifying developers who may have enjoyed Apple but who were not as anti-Microsoft as the evangelically Linux brigade and it seems effort is being made to make Windows the developers choice, whichever their particular flavour—hmmm, memories of first Visual Studios release circa 98 coming back when it even Visual J++ was included and developers straight outta school or in early years of college could get those cheap cheap Student License for a very expensive software product while in academia.
“WSL turns Windows into a remarkably strong development platform. The recent Xamarin acquisition and the announcement last week that Xamarin would be free with Visual Studio and released as open source to boot makes Windows a strong candidate for all kinds of software development. Visual Studio includes a high quality Android emulator and all the tools for developing on Android. … Microsoft’s eye may be on Web developers right now. But what it’s building won't just appeal to Web developers. It should make Windows into the developer platform for everyone.”
“WSL turns Windows into a remarkably strong development platform. The recent Xamarin acquisition and the announcement last week that Xamarin would be free with Visual Studio and released as open source to boot makes Windows a strong candidate for all kinds of software development. Visual Studio includes a high quality Android emulator and all the tools for developing on Android. … Microsoft’s eye may be on Web developers right now. But what it's building won't just appeal to Web developers. It should make Windows into the developer platform for everyone.”
Next page: Windows 10 condemned by Which, but hasn’t Apple had similar serious updating issues too, and what exactly does the anniversary update bring?