Shitty proprietary suite running only on shitty proprietary OS is just the tip of the iceberg. Up next: Windows 10 Polaris to ditch Win32 (aka Windows) program support.
Windows 10 is already a fragmented mess. Many devices are stuck on build 1607 with no upgrade path. And given that Microsoft only patches builds for 18 months, there is no stable branch of Windows 10 suited for business.
Most large business already run off terminal servers. Ditching Windows as their desktop OS looks like a smart move.
They have already abandoned their mobile O/S. Been a huge issue for the customers of the company I work for. Think Microsoft wants to get out of the O/S business and Office and get into more backend stuff is my read.
As someone who just got hired and is getting trial by fire training for Azure support. That may be true.
Part of me is okay bad the other part is how long can you as a business keep supporting 32bit sofware/hardware when the future is 64bit. I know where I used to work the guys who managed the desktop image said nope to 32bit back with Vista though by the time it got to the desktops it was Windows 7.
As far as the mobile O/S goes I they just couldn’t make a dent in the existing iOS/Andriod environment despite having a nice product from all that I heard and punted.
Their last desktop OS that wasn’t bloated with unnecessary bullshit was Windows 2000. That was the last time I could look at the Task Manager and tell at a glance if something hinky was going on. Now it’s just all hinkiness all the time.
And when they were trying to get in on the cell phone market, I think the dominant smartphones in the business world were still Blackberries. Those customers were looking around for a third option other than RIM and Apple, but Windows Mobile was not it.
And now Wikipedia is telling me that “Windows Mobile,” “Windows Phone,” and “Windows 10 Mobile” are three completely different things. Silly me for not keeping up.
For a good while, Microsoft’s actions have gone back to showing people exactly why they were the Internet’s bête noire back in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Also, it’s another thing to add to the list of reasons why capitalism and tech really don’t go well together. All this software a a service, forced updating, DRM-pushing and so on all show that the decisions that are made to maximise profit are constantly at odds with the decisions that need to be made to produce something that works and that the public wants.
That was the last time I could set up a new machine and save an image on a DVD.
Exactly.
An industry that started when a guy called Babbage wanted a way to modify his calculator on the fly has ended up as the biggest nickel and dimer in the world.
However - what’s Microsoft Office?
(Being retired I no longer need to know nor care.)
It’s a major issue at my work. Most of the people we work with have these creaky old systems and are married to the Windows O/S. These different mobile versions all have different capabilities. Been trying to convince people to go to Android, but when someone’s been nursing an IBM mainframe along for the past 30 years, it’s hard to get them to see, like, hey, now is the time to get modern.
I knew the head IT guy at a big nonprofit about ten years ago. His bosses wanted company smartphones. My friend recommended Apple. I can see why he did that, and also why they said no, but Microsoft was the “solution” that made EVERYONE unhappy.
I can’t really get into all that feeds into my POV but do not disagree with what you are writing. My main point is that, if you are interested in a system with more privacy, maybe buy from the company whose business model is NOT explicitly about looking at your data.
Citation Please? Outside of one Atom based processor, I don’t know of any hardware that has been orphaned at a build (and they are continuing to supply security patches for that proc)
And they did just throw Enterprise & Education customers a bone with 24 months of support on a W10 release.
But, O365 will soon no longer work on LTSC and Office 2019 won’t have .msi installs anymore (which only people like me care about)
Acer Switch One Ten. Client came in with it; basically, any Windows netbook - sorry, CloudbookTM - with 32GB storage is unable to update to current builds.
So you mean that O365 will run on Chromebooks but not some entry level Windows laptops?
The funny thing is, I’m not really surprised. With Chromebooks, Google have done what they failed to do with Android - there’s little fragmentation - and that makes them attractive to Microsoft.
corrected.