My thoughts on the Win. 10 release and new Privacy Policy



Best use of Windows.....
gbbdidhc.jpg
 
I installed it yesterday on a laptop that I bought on Day 1 of the Win 7 release, so its about 6 years old now. My first impressions are pretty good, actually. Boot/shut down times are much improved. It has a lot of configuration options to tweak. Solitaire is back! (But you'll have to find it!)

The biggest downside so far is the way that it takes control of your BIOS/UEFI boot options. Uh, you have no boot options anymore! This began with Win 8, but Win 8 required UEFI systems. My 6-yr old laptop is totally legacy BIOS, not UEFI, but Win 10 has still locked it up so that there is no option to enter "Setup" or change "Boot order" except by jumping through specific M$ hoops before rebooting. Here are the hoops to jump:

Settings -> Update and Recovery -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup/Restart Now

and then

Option/Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Startup Repair

Then it will finally reboot. Be quick to hit F1, F2, Del, or whatever you need to use! When you're finally finished and go back to Win 10, you will have to navigate the "Startup Repair" app that you told it you wanted to use. Of course, there is nothing to repair, but it will be a further delay to getting back to a normal operating state.

So, you think you want to go through this every time you want to try out the latest distro on a live DVD? It may be time to get a little more familiar with VirtualBox!

Cheers!
 
I certainly won't be installing W10 on any of my personal machines. But at some point in the not too distant future I'll be forced to 'upgrade' to it at work....

Ugh, the very thought of it nauseates me!
 
This laptop is too old to handle 10, so I will have no choice but to stick with Linux :D.
 
Well.... I'm dual booting with it. I caved in to use Windows for more access to games, but I'm still glad to have Linux as a stable fallback.

Also, like BlackNeos, I've decided to tackle programming, so Linux will be my Python environment. I'm signing up for a college Software Developer program, so Windows may be unavoidable for .NET or Java.
 
Obviously, W10 is just a W8 mod hehe. Oh, the dull start menu cravings finally fulfilled!!11! When you think it can't get stiffer, here you go some more MS love. The big focus is on new APIs and drivers though.

Anyway... May the high expectations for DX12 performance finally come true. AMD practically gave Mantle to M$ as a gift in the horrible form of a brand new DX oligopoly.

Well, judging from Sniper Elite 3 and BF4 (butter-smooth on Mantle API), I guess things will improve for 3D applications.

But what I truly wish is decent DX support on Linux. Let's hope some AMD rogue currently working with M$ has the decency to leak it and make AAA gaming mainstream on Linux :D

Videodrome said:
I'm signing up for a college Software Developer program, so Windows may be unavoidable for .NET or Java.
Click to expand...
for .NET probably, but Java is completely covered by Linux :)
 
I just made a clean W10 install and was digging up obscure settings. Looks like MS is saving bandwidth with some wild P2P updates.

It takes some messing around to actually get to this menu. It's like a sub-subpage (subpage of advanced update settings, a subpage in itself).

Receiving updates from "PCs on my local network and PCs on the internet" option is ON by default. I just turned the whole thing off:
Y0kYCtx.png

___________


Videodrome said:
Thought so, but wasn't sure.
Click to expand...
Yes... You should be fine with NetBeans/Eclipse when learning Java.
 
Another bad thing, worse even than the removal of BIOS boot options: PRIVACY. If you expand all the "Learn More" boxes on their Privacy Statement, you will find over 40 pages of Micro$oft legalese to wade through. I'm sure all that describes how they will "protect" me and my data.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx

Of course, all of the default settings are set to give them permission to collect all the info they can about you. It will be well worth anyone's time to go through the settings carefully and decide which things might be better disabled instead.
 
Videodrome said:
Well.... I'm dual booting with it. I caved in to use Windows for more access to games, but I'm still glad to have Linux as a stable fallback.
Click to expand...


Are you using a UEFI system? I'm thinking my BIOS may not support dual-booting with the changes they have made, but I haven't tried it yet. Since there is no Secure Boot, I'm suspicious that they will not allow any bootloader besides their own.
 
Videodrome said:
Well.... I'm dual booting with it. I caved in to use Windows for more access to games, but I'm still glad to have Linux as a stable fallback.

Also, like BlackNeos, I've decided to tackle programming, so Linux will be my Python environment. I'm signing up for a college Software Developer program, so Windows may be unavoidable for .NET or Java.
Click to expand...
How is dual booting going? We have a Lenovo All-in-one which still hasn't gotten the upgrade but I am afraid to upgrade because it is dual booting with Ubuntu. Will the upgrade wipe out the current grub setup?
 
This is an old eMachine. I don't think it has UEFI.

So far, it still dual boots fine. The GRUB menu still has it labeled as Windows 7 but it goes to Win10.
 
Well, I have been using Win. 10 for some time today and have come up with my conclusion.
Yes it is faster, yes it has some interesting features. BUT, at least on my system, those features are not working properly. The Windows apps (Store, weather, mail, Xbox, etc) are not starting. They just stopped working after upgrading.

Moving on to what was going to be my favorite feature Cortana. In order to use Cortana you have to provide MS with access to everything you type, access to the microfone, access to the webcam(if you have one), and possibly the worst of all your Location. Why is access to these thins Mandatory? I understand the microfone at times. And I also understand location AT TIMES but constantly? I don't like it.

My overall conclusion is simple. Too much hype and expectations for a piece of software with features that existed in other platforms already with features that do not work properly. 4/10 at this point. Not upgrading my Win. 7 install until these issues are resolved. GNOME provides all the features I need until then.
 
Just hoping for good game performance.


But yeah getting asked to create an account to access more functionality like Cortana is annoying.
 
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