So Microsoft announced some new features in Windows 10, and a tech preview.
Source:
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There were some rumours about Windows 9 named as 10 because:
[icode]if(OS == WINDOWS && os_name.contains(“9”) return “Windows 95 and 98”;[/icode]
I’m mainly exited for the Metro apps being managed in the desktop stage. But they also did some cool things with the surface because of it’s seamless Desktop and Metro integration.
F_O-LrGL-YQ
The start-menu is back!! It would be more awesome if it had the transparency like in vista/7
Let’s have a look at some of these “new” features
1. Virtual desktops
Here’s a screenshot of KDE 1.0 (from around 1998).
You’ll notice in the top right corner that there are virtual desktops. I’m amazed it took MS so long.
There are also rumours that their virtual desktops are extremely buggy and consist of opening and closing different windows rather than actually switching desktops.
(And by the way, virtual desktops existed about 5 years earlier in FVWM. That makes MS 20 years behind)
2. The start menu
Um… this isn’t new.
And the new layout looks very similar to KDE.
3. Apps have titlebars and can resize
It’s great to see they fixed this major design flaw.
4. Better tiling
Well, I have to admit it is actually better. Not on par with Linux tiling window managers, but still decent from what I’ve seen.
Overall
Nothing new. Just bug fixes and features that have existed in Linux (or rather the Xorg server) for a long time.
New to Windows 8 that is, not new to the world. Yes it is kinda re-inventing the wheel, but building on an idea shouldn’t be frowned upon. I personally thing its great they’re improving things. Just because things have been around since 1998, doesn’t mean they’re not new when used in another context with a similar concept.
As far as I’m concerned, Linux > Windows. On every single account. The only reason I use windows on my main PC is because games are made for windows almost exclusively.
I’d rather not talk on the things MS copied from others, that list is big. The only reason I use windows is for my father. He just likes it and nothing else, in fact, he was a fan of Windows 3.1. I’m more comfortable with linux and mac.
I prefer windows because you’ll never find software incompatible with it. Also because it was my first OS, and I’m kinda a fan-boy over it.
Windows is slow and freezes a ton. Not to mention it’s expensive and so inflexible. I switched to Ubuntu recently and I can’t tell you how much I love the terminal and all of its mighty power, something you’ll never find on Windows. The only thing I don’t like about Linux is the graphics drivers aren’t that great so gaming is usually a no go, but I guess that’s a good thing because now I’m more productive!
Props to MS for finally including workspaces, but they are so so late on that one and like other people have said, 10 is just a couple of “new” features we should’ve had years ago. 10 is what 8 should have been. Its dissapointing, really.
This.
The desktop in the demo video looked surprisingly good, but I don’t get why it took them so long.
Also linux because repository managment (i.e. apt, pacman, RPM, yum, etc.).
Also AUR on archlinux.
I’ve been using Ubuntu alot last couple of weeks, and it’s indeed incredibly awesomeness from all everything in there. (I mean: sure Ubuntu has it’s flaws, but it’s still awesome). Every OS has it’s pro’s and con’s, but windows has been a dissappointment in a lot of things to me. Instead of making new features, I think they should focus on making a stable OS that actually does what I want, not what it wants itself.
In my experience, Windows has never been slow and rarely freezes. The last time Windows froze was on my older laptop which had a defective motherboard and SSD. Yeah, Windows could be better (which Windows 10 is doing), but it’s not a piece of junk. Windows works perfectly fine for a lot of people, and most get it for free when buying a new computer. Also, most Windows users are not developers. They don’t need the terminal (or even know what it is).
Assuming Windows 10 is a success, this follows Microsoft’s release schedule. Windows XP was great, Vista was horrible. Seven was awesome, Eight is debatable. Just like Windows 7 was what Windows Vista should have been, Windows 10 is what Windows 8 should have been. 
Saying that, I would gladly switch to using Ubuntu, however Toshiba refuses to make drivers for its Dynadocks. 
It’s laughable how being able to move and resize apps is being marketed as a feature.
…and why is the UI still composed of these hideous opaque rectangles?
Is it a case of the lowest common denominator? Microsoft wanting to present a consistent visual style between infinite-resource desktop & constrained-resource laptop/tablet?
If so they should shoot themselves for making such a compromise as it’s uglier than Windows 3.1!
…and why is having search accessible from 2 places that are mere pixels away from one-another good design???
What’s more important is that search ACTUALLY SEARCHES; Windows search hasn’t worked properly since Windows XP.
If I search the root directory of my hard drive for all files containing a particular phrase, that’s precisely what I want it to do - I don’t want to restrict the search to indexed files, nor do I want to restrict the search to only a ‘special’ list of file types or locations.
Sure, use an index & file type priorities to accelerate easy searches, but DON’T lie to me by saying that you’ve finished looking & found nothing; until cancelled, a search should be exhaustive.
Also, why do a few UI tweeks justify:
a) a huge development team
b) a whole new product
Nothing I’ve seen so far justifies more than a simple patch developed by a lone student programmer.
The Windows code base must be so grotesquely bloated that making even the simplest change requires man months of effort.
It’s time to incinerate it & start from scratch.
Have to agree with Screem here. It’s not an OS for developers, but mainly for users and it does it’s job fine for them, by having features.
If we see XP as a fix for wrong design choices in 2000 and 7 for Vista, 10 could be fine.
The only reason we use Windows is games and other software that doesn’t run on Linux like Adobe Suite.
I will never “upgrade” from Windows 7. I will wait until someone else makes something actually good.
[quote]The Windows code base must be so grotesquely bloated that making even the simplest change requires man months of effort.
[/quote]
I can see that.
Yeah well, as far as I know no Apple product ever offered a really “new” feature, yet they sell like crazy. Who cares if something is technically new. Microsoft, for a long time now, has been making an operating system that Just Works.
You don’t need to compile a kernel to get your peripherals working, and you can quite decently use Microsoft windows with devices and software from pretty much all manufacturers. It works very well with the best office suite and it’s the best gaming OS. Its also (still) in use by something like 90% of computer users.
There’s simply nothing like Windows, even though I would not mind having a serious alternative.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Windows. I don’t have an extreme hatred towards them like some people do, I actually like it. However, it does freeze a lot on me and I have to reboot, therefore losing a lot of my work which is very annoying. I’m not saying everyone has that issue, and not everyone would like Linux. However, I like Linux for its minimalism and there’s not a lot of eye candy, which I like. The terminal is very powerful for stuff like installing software and other things.
Its not for everyone, but I’m done with the freezing and the lack of innovation. Linux just works for me, just like Windows works for other people. I would never be one of those people to want to force Linux, I think that’s ridiculous to try to take Windows which is a polished OS compared to Linux.
I feel better now ;D
I just remind a few people here the existence of Wine and PlayOnLinux.
I’m forced to use Windows at work. I spent almost 10 weeks to work around a bug and a known limitation of several Intel OpenGL drivers under Windows. When I install the official Git client, it installs MinGW with Msys, the bash console is fine but still less good than the Terminal. I’m under Mageia Linux at home, I’m very happy with it, I find it more reliable and easier to use than Ubuntu, especially for newcomers. Sorry to contradict some people here but when Windows freezes, it’s not always because of hardware problems. “you’ll never find software incompatible with it” is plain wrong, I’m sure that it’s possible to find softwares not compatible with Windows.
I don’t really care that much… I’m a programmer, our own programs have bugs and problems…
It is not something new and the world isn’t going to end… I just use windows cause of DirectX (which is think is one of the smartest marketing ideas in the world)
Also, HeroesGraveDev, I think the same about the ‘new’ iPhone 6 when half of the features are already on android…
Hopefully this doesn’t start a war ;D