Windows 10 is downloadable for testing. It's said to be better than any previous version, perhaps even better than all previous versions combined.



Highlights of fantastic innovations:

- Start menu is back
- Live tiles moved into start menu
- Store apps, irretrievably fullscreen in Win 8, can now be resized
- Multitask app-switcher (like Alt+Tab, but looks now like in Nexus tablet)
- Window snapping/tiling
- Adding a desktop

Of course all this is stuff that either used to be there or have been there in other OS's for a decade or more (the first thing used to be the norm in Windows itself) but I guess it counts as innovation in the world of Microsoft.

The preview is available in the most important languages of the world: English, Chinese, and Portuguese.
Happy trying http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

Odd. It says you need to sign up for Windows Insider, but I can download those ISOs just fine. I guess that product key, NKJFK-GPHP7-G8C3J-P6JXR-HQRJR, will deactivate after a few months or something? I could give it a whirl in a VM, but I doubt I'll bother.

Windows 10 is downloadable for testing.
The preview is available in the most important languages of the world: English, Chinese, and Portuguese.
Happy trying http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

Happy trying 

Microsoft's Windows 10 Preview has permission to watch your every move

The Windows Insider Programme seemed like a gesture of openness and willingness to collaborate with developers on a peer level. But a closer look at the privacy policy of the Windows 10 preview reveals some startling permissions that you grant by installing and using it.

Windows 10 is downloadable for testing. It's said to be better than any previous version, perhaps even better than all previous versions combined.

Don't they say that about every new version, every time?

I could give it a whirl in a VM, but I doubt I'll bother.

If you don't bother, then how am I going to know how it works?

Windows 10 is downloadable for testing. It's said to be better than any previous version, perhaps even better than all previous versions combined.

Don't they say that about every new version, every time?

Weren't they right at least once?

If you don't bother, then how am I going to know how it works?

Eh, if you've ever tried Windows 8 you know how it works based on the description and screenshots. I understand they stripped out those ridiculous "charms" which require you to move and click yourself into an RSI condition for the simplest of tasks. I've also read they got rid of the cretinous concept of fullscreen junk, which made one wonder how they dared call the product Windows. More like Window. Anyway, so it's back to normal except with some of those silly tiles integrated in the start menu, and doubtless Classic Shell will still be better just like it was on Windows Vista and 7.

Things they almost surely won't change: defaulting to sending all kinds of information about you to Microsoft. Debian and Opera can do it too, but they default to not doing it.

What more is there to know?

Windows 10 is downloadable for testing. It's said to be better than any previous version, perhaps even better than all previous versions combined.

Don't they say that about every new version, every time?

Weren't they right at least once?

Depends how you measure 'betterness'

Depends how you measure 'betterness'

How about OS/2 or Windows 3.0?

Depends how you measure 'betterness'

How about OS/2 or Windows 3.0?

I kinda liked Warp 4.
How about NT 3.51? Then there's the whole Windows CE clusterfuck.
Which reminds me, I wonder how ReactOS is doing these days.

I wonder how ReactOS is doing these days.

I don't really understand that project.

Well, here's a review for the rest of us: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-10-preview.html

I wonder how ReactOS is doing these days.

I don't really understand that project.

Isn't that project meant to be like, you can install exe's the same way as in Win, but it's not Win? Doesn't seem a very noble or practical idea to me, but it should be technically possible.

By the time React becomes a workable alternative, I suppose all Win apps and drivers will have some "security" mechanism to annoy those who attempt "unauthorised" use of them. This tendency has already been taken far enough in my opinion.

Doesn't seem a very noble or practical idea to me

Exactly, I don't really see the point. Something like Wine seems more useful to me,* although in practice I tend to prefer the complete isolation (and snapshots!) of VirtualBox. On a CPU with virtualization support it's nice and fast. Then again, I suppose could run ReactOS in a VM without having to go look for disks and serial numbers.

By the time React becomes a workable alternative, I suppose all Win apps and drivers will have some "security" mechanism to annoy those who attempt "unauthorised" use of them. This tendency has already been taken far enough in my opinion.

I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of stuff is among the primary reasons e.g. MS Office 2013 doesn't work in Wine, although I could be mistaken.

* ReactOS actually uses Wine libraries to prevent duplication of effort, so that certainly helps.

GitHub goes Microsoft https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/

Yeah, I'm curious to see where that'll lead. Hopefully not where Skype went... that's much worse than it used to be. I have a LinkedIn account and a GitHub account, but GH is by far my favorite big social network type website.

GitHub's comments are not promising.

When GitHub first launched ten years ago, I could have never imagined this headline.^[1] Git was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, and Microsoft was a very different company. Open source and business, people said at the time, mixed as well as oil and water.

We disagreed. As developers, we knew this was a false dichotomy--we had been using open source software successfully in a business setting for a long time. What we really needed was an easier way to work with others regardless of whether the code was public, private, or something in-between.

Not really. On GitHub, only fully open-source code makes sense, because GitHub is a free and open code-sharing place. If it stops being that, it stops making sense, and the entire community must find another home.

¹ The headline: A bright future for GitHub. The beginning words: I am very excited to announce that Microsoft is acquiring GitHub...↵

Microsoft just made 60,000 of its patents open source

It is something Opera ASA should have done with the browser. The way they left it was burying their own most notable product alive, not letting anyone else keep it alive either.

More browsers, less browsers

Microsoft is building its own Chromium browser to replace the default [browser called Edge] on Windows 10.

On Android, Edge's square-y tile-y tab-switching is comfy. And the reading view is nice - no settings, but no settings needed because the default happens to suit me. Should I avoid updating from now on?