Hi all,
Well I think it's been a decade or more since I used anything from the storm-troopers that are Microsoft. Last was Win XP Pro, SP 3. I didn't go with Vista, Windows 7, or 8. Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to give Darth Vader & Windows 10 another try, and see what's up with the Death Star.
Hardware installed on: first, I tried Win 10 Enterprise Edition in Virtualbox inside Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS. It ran pretty good, so I decided to install the
Windows 10 Enterprise Edition 90-day Free Trial to an 120GB SSD. Did this on an Core i3, 8GB laptop. All went smoothly---I can tell Microsoft has worked on their installer & installing process over the years. Much clearer, more concise, and got rid a lot of the stupid crap they used to ask users.
So, I've been using this
Windows 10 Enterprise 90-day Free Trial Edition on & off now for the past 24 days, and here's my take so far:
1) Well, as much as I hate to say it, I cannot believe how fast "Startup" boot time is with Win10. I am surprised how it rivals and even beats a lot of my many different frugal-installed pups. Even once booted into the DE, response times for launching programs and apps is surprisingly quick. And never once I have yet seen the old-days BSOD. That's a big improvement right there, lol.
2) Desktop is clean, as is the home button & what it brings up. Graphics/GUIs for everything, which makes things easier to understand. Visual ease and cues are a necessity nowadays, especially with the young FB-TWTR-SNAP generation soon to be our masters.
3) The Windows Security Center has seen noticeable changes....it's actually easy and somewhat pleasant to use it now, though MSFT still can't get it through their head that a "Quick Security Scan", especially on pristine installs, should be "quick"----and not over 15 mins. Listen MSFT, only scan files that are new and/or have changed! How hard is that to understand??
4) The integration of Paint and picture manipulation functions into Win10 is/was an absolute joy. We in Linux have nothing over Windows in this regard anymore.
5) The Edge browser lives up to its billing. Despite me taxing it with ~15 open tabs, speed-wise it blows Chrome, Firefox, Palemoon, Vivaldi & all out of the water. The downside? And it is significant---you can't customize Edge to the degree we can other browsers, and I don't mean just topical stuff, but "under-the-hood" stuff---which in seriousness means no stopping HTML5 media autoplay, which we all know there is no better way to kill one's browsing experience. WAKE UP, REDMOND! Otherwise Edge will deservedly end up in the dustbin browsers of the past.
6) The most eye-opening thing was the Virtual Reality Portal & Viewer. There is little in the consumer-end-user-oriented DE Linux world (
and I am a user of 3D and virtual-live world programs) that can compare to what Microsoft has done here. It's ease of use, seamlessness into the DE, & other things is just top-notch, imho. Fascinating to see where we are headed as a "silicon-bio-computing" sentient species, and this provides a glimpse. So, MSFT-gearheads, you deserve kudos here and take a momentary bow. And know that if you are able to tie in Cortana (which isn't bad by itself at the moment), but if you can tie Cortana into the Virtual Reality Portal & Viewer worlds, suddenly the whole game changes.
7) And, the last thing, which is huge in my opinion: Microsoft finally saw fit to include a Nightshifting blue Redshift-like program into Windows 10. First time ever for a Windows operating system. Nightshift is nice and easy to setup, even if it doesn't quite approach the ease of use of how we've integrated redshiftgui into our pups & ddogs. Still, it is very close, and a much needed & welcome addition.
Below are some pics, hope you enjoy. After 10+ years away, I am actually thinking of once again shuttling a Benjamin Franklin ($100) towards Seattle to have Windows rejoin my stable as an operating-system option. Well, at the least to be able to run things like Garmin Express, which cannot run anywhere in Linux (Wine or otherwise) to update my GPS and bicycle and fitness-other devices. Garmin, shame on you for continually ignoring the Linux world.