Windows 10 is getting some good reviews

[mooninite]

As a Linux developer with over 15 years of experience, I can wholeheartedly say that OS X is a far superior operating system compared to both Linux distributions and Windows.

I could give a multitude of reasons why but it seems like those of you that think OS X is a "toy OS" have made up your minds.

 

[macrem]

How do you reconcile this (bold comments) with modern versions of Windows running reasonably well on low spec hardware such as tablets with only 1GB RAM and 16GB HDD? Furthermore, in my experience running old hardware, I find that modern Windows runs far better on old PC hardware than modern OS X on old Mac hardware.

I haven't had any performance or stability issues with Windows since XP & Vista. Seems to me something a lot more than slapping lipstick on a pig must have happened.

I do agree, the need for more frequent reboots, compared to OS X, can be a bit annoying. But it's not like it's every week.

As an example if you run Windows 8 on a Mac, you get about an hour less battery life vs. OS X Yosemite on the same machine. Yosemite was a feature release, the new El Capitan release will focus on performance. Btw I was referring to *nix in general. If you really want to breathe new life into an old pc, try Linux (or BSD), the undisputed king of scalability powering tiny embedded devices (& probably your router, GPS, etc.) & systems like the $35 Raspberry Pi up to dominating the list of the world's most powerful super computers.

 

[tkermit]

Grateful that it exists? I could care less about either company since in reality they care less about me. I just think Microsoft makes an overall better OS, and the PC side is better for non-mobile computing.

OS X has been copying just as many features from Windows for years.

Competition is good for consumers. By saying that Apple also copies successful UI innovations from other companies you're just proving that point. It's perfectly fine to like Windows over OS X. We all have different priorities. But OS X is pretty much the only notable competition Microsoft has in the Desktop space besides Linux which I'm also glad exists but clearly doesn't have the same mainstream appeal and is much less of a threat to Microsoft in that regard.

 

[Michael Goff]

As an example if you run Windows 8 on a Mac, you get about an hour less battery life vs. OS X Yosemite on the same machine. Yosemite was a feature release, the new El Capitan release will focus on performance. Btw I was referring to *nix in general. If you really want to breathe new life into an old pc, try Linux (or BSD), the undisputed king of scalability powering tiny embedded devices (& probably your router, GPS, etc.) & systems like the $35 Raspberry Pi up to dominating the list of the world's most powerful super computers.

Yeah, that has more to do with Bootcamp being crap than Windows being crap.

 

[MRU]

Installed it over my Win 8.1 Parallels VM and everything went fine. Only issue was initial download took 15 hours!!!! But works way perfectly in a VM on my MacPro. Though sadly as a VM it won't seemingly work with Xbox One for streaming content back to the VM.

 

[spriter]

Hmm my Win 7 Pro VM isn't upgrading... I'm getting a 'Something happened' error. Is this the new BSOD?

 

[nickchallis92]

Quite a lot of people are reporting that windows 10 runs better than Yosemite on their macbooks.

I can't comment, I don't own a mac.

 

[gotluck]

Ive had a couple of issues to far, but I was pleased enough to update all my windows 7 machines to 10 at home.

These were all 'dirty upgrades' keeping all settings and apps

touchpad didnt work after driver software booted on my wifes asus laptop, would work for a few moments after boot until the gesture software loaded. needed to remove such driver and update it manually from asus.com

my desktop with nvidia gpu (gtx 550ti) was having display artifacts. My old driver from windows 7 seemed to be interfering with the new automatically installed windows 10 driver. Manually uninstalled the older graphics driver (because both were on my app list) and it is mostly fixed. I feel like this is a geforce driver problem, still perhaps i need to remove the hd audio through hdmi drivers and all the other remnants. It is idling well and that is mostly all I care about

hp elitebook updated without a hitch (even with an nvidia quadro discrete card) aside from having difficulties getting windows to work with the camera in the settings app. Also having issues getting the fingerprint scanner to work with windows hello. Windows hello simply wont show up in the menu for me.

maybe when my desktop from '07 or laptop from '10 start slowing down I can finally justify getting a macbook air, but these machines are running as strong as ever. If only android devices got this kind of support

it also appears the box I was testing the insider previews on has been granted a windows pro license. interesting..

 

[MRU]

Hmm my Win 7 Pro VM isn't upgrading... I'm getting a 'Something happened' error. Is this the new BSOD?

What VM software are you running ?

Could be a messed up download ? I had to follow instructions on parallels to upgrade my VM as windows itself reported the parallels WDDM driver not compatible as it wasn't signed. Followed instruction and it installed http://kb.parallels.com/en/123053

 

[Renzatic]

Windows hello simply wont show up in the menu for me.

I think (but don't know for a fact) that Windows Hello only supports the latest and greatest biometric devices. I know using your face or iris as your password only works with cameras that can sense depth, for instance. It might be the same for fingerprint scanners.

 

[gotluck]

I think (but don't know for a fact) that Windows Hello only supports the latest and greatest biometric devices. I know using your face or iris as your password only works with cameras that can sense depth, for instance. It might be the same for fingerprint scanners.

fair enough! its a elitebook 8740w, i believe from 2010 or '11. It is a shame that I can continue to use the fingerprint scanner with the hp software to login via a local account, but when I use a microsoft account, windows hello becomes the only way. A bit of a downgrade there. Not a dealbreaker for me though

surely the camera is not supported security wise, never expected that, cant explain why it doesnt work for the 'take photo' option in settings, cheers

 

[xraydoc]

I am using Windows 10 on a Surface 3, and it's pretty awesome. Much better than expected as I didn't really have any expectations. I actually liked Windows 8.1 especially on a tablet, but I can see why people had issues. And now that I am using Windows 10, the bad parts of Windows 8.1 become more accentuated.

I just installed Windows 10 on my SP3. While the desktop & start menu is a huge improvement over Win 8.1, the "finger friendliness" of Win 10 in tablet mode isn't really all that improved. OneNote is a significant step backwards (the app store version, not the full Office version of OneNote 2013). Edge browser doesn't have any swipe shortcuts for back/forward. And, perhaps it's just learning curve issues, but I'm having trouble finding easy ways to quickly get to things like split-screen apps in tablet mode. And even in tablet mode, icons are too small to tap with fingertips.

Win 10 fixes a lot of what was wrong with the Windows desktop, but tablet mode still hugely sucks.

 

[macrem]

Yeah, that has more to do with Bootcamp being crap than Windows being crap.

Bootcamp is a boot utility that helps users to repartition disks and to boot other OSes. How does it interfere with Windows??

 

[MRU]

Bootcamp is a boot utility that helps users to repartition disks and to boot other OSes. How does it interfere with Windows??

The actual Bootcamp drivers once Windows is installed are not optimised resulting in greater hit to battery ....

 

[Michael Goff]

Bootcamp is a boot utility that helps users to repartition disks and to boot other OSes. How does it interfere with Windows??

MRU responded better than I ever could.

The actual Bootcamp drivers once Windows is installed are not optimised resulting in greater hit to battery ....

 

[Frisco]

People are always saying Macs work better because Apple makes both the hardware and the software, but it's hypocritical that Windows runs better than Yosemite on Macs.

People are always condemning Microsoft, but imagine if Apple had to make an OS work for the myriad of PC configurations out there It would be a nightmare!

 

[mrex]

Will it be possible after upgrading my 8.1 system to make a bootable usb drive with 10 to do fresh installs?

why would you do that? remember also, ms is only providing a free upgrade not the whole product (license).

if you are going to try a clean install, you need to dig up the product key at first. there are instructions to do this, keywords : media creation tool, clean install, product key. you also need to ensure bios settings, if you are running an old computer. so, before upgrading to win10 and then doing a clean install, you really should make good backups/recovery/image.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/soft...de-to-windows-10-and-get-your-new-licence-key

one thing i dont understand it is that huge talk about the start-menu. i dont have win10 yet, so how does it differ from the start-menu in win8.1?

 

[spinedoc77]

I just installed Windows 10 on my SP3. While the desktop & start menu is a huge improvement over Win 8.1, the "finger friendliness" of Win 10 in tablet mode isn't really all that improved. OneNote is a significant step backwards (the app store version, not the full Office version of OneNote 2013). Edge browser doesn't have any swipe shortcuts for back/forward. And, perhaps it's just learning curve issues, but I'm having trouble finding easy ways to quickly get to things like split-screen apps in tablet mode. And even in tablet mode, icons are too small to tap with fingertips.

Win 10 fixes a lot of what was wrong with the Windows desktop, but tablet mode still hugely sucks.

Yep, Win10 actually goes backwards significantly in tablet use. All they had to do was leave tablet functionality alone, it was almost perfect in 8.1.

 

[spinedoc77]

why would you do that? remember also, ms is only providing a free upgrade not the whole product (license).

if you are going to try a clean install, you need to dig up the product key at first. there are instructions to do this, keywords : media creation tool, clean install, product key. you also need to ensure bios settings, if you are running an old computer. so, before upgrading to win10 and then doing a clean install, you really should make good backups/recovery/image.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/soft...de-to-windows-10-and-get-your-new-licence-key

one thing i dont understand it is that huge talk about the start-menu. i dont have win10 yet, so how does it differ from the start-menu in win8.1?

Win 10 start menu is like win 8.1 start page. Personally I don't see what all the hoopla is about, it's still nowhere nearly as functional as the Win7 start menu. I use Classic Shell to replicate win 7 start menu on my win 8.1 PC's and I'm sure I'll use it on Win10 as well. What baffles me is that all MS needed to do to fix 8.1 was simply put the Win7 start menu back, that's it, I'm not seeing why Win10 was even needed.

 

[spinedoc77]

it also appears the box I was testing the insider previews on has been granted a windows pro license. interesting..

Did the previous windows install have a pro license?

 

[gotluck]

Did the previous windows install have a pro license?

No windows was never installed on it afaik, it is a older dell power edge server. It ran Linux but I suppose it may have been purchased with an oem license. I don't see any stickers.

 

[MRU]

People are always saying Macs work better because Apple makes both the hardware and the software, but it's hypocritical that Windows runs better than Yosemite on Macs.

Yosemite runs perfectly on all my macs. MacPro 2008, iMac 27" 2011, MacBook Air 11.6" 2011, MacBook Pro 15.4" 2015

I've ran windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 and now 10 via bootcamp direct & parallels - but it doesn't run any better on my own Mac hardware than Yosemite.

 

[mrex]

Win 10 start menu is like win 8.1 start page. Personally I don't see what all the hoopla is about, it's still nowhere nearly as functional as the Win7 start menu. I use Classic Shell to replicate win 7 start menu on my win 8.1 PC's and I'm sure I'll use it on Win10 as well. What baffles me is that all MS needed to do to fix 8.1 was simply put the Win7 start menu back, that's it, I'm not seeing why Win10 was even needed.

yeh, i boot it to the desktop with the start-menu, and never use the metro style.

 

[sracer]

Yosemite runs perfectly on all my macs. MacPro 2008, iMac 27" 2011, MacBook Air 11.6" 2011, MacBook Pro 15.4" 2015

I've ran windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 and now 10 via bootcamp direct & parallels - but it doesn't run any better on my own Mac hardware than Yosemite.

There are many who wish that they could have your experiences with Yosemite... Apple themselves included. There's a reason that OSX Eric Clapton is focusing on cleanup and stability.

 

[ozaz]

People are always saying Macs work better because Apple makes both the hardware and the software, but it's hypocritical that Windows runs better than Yosemite on Macs.

People are always condemning Microsoft, but imagine if Apple had to make an OS work for the myriad of PC configurations out there It would be a nightmare!

Whilst I wouldn't say that Macs run any better than equivalently specced Windows computers (since Windows 7 onwards), it is much easier to troubleshoot and resolve problems with Macs than Windows computers, and this is a function of both the hardware and software being made by Apple.

The technical accomplishment of Windows also seems to me far greater than OS X for the reason you mention. But from the perspective of an individual user, if a difficult-to-resolve problem occurs in Windows, it's hard to care about the big picture.

Win 10 start menu is like win 8.1 start page. Personally I don't see what all the hoopla is about, it's still nowhere nearly as functional as the Win7 start menu. I use Classic Shell to replicate win 7 start menu on my win 8.1 PC's and I'm sure I'll use it on Win10 as well. What baffles me is that all MS needed to do to fix 8.1 was simply put the Win7 start menu back, that's it, I'm not seeing why Win10 was even needed.

What's more functional about the Windows 7 start menu?