Category: Windows

i liked windows 8

whbeebe2 Comments

There’s a new article at Ars Technica talking about Windows 8. They interviewed Steven Sinofsky, who was the time president of Microsoft’s Windows Division. He oversaw the launch of Windows 7, then the launch of Windows 8 in 2012. He left shortly after the later’s launch.

My experience with Windows 8 started in 2013, when I purchased a Samsung 17 inch Series 7 Chronos notebook “monstrosity” with Windows 8 preinstalled. In short order I learned how to use and to like Windows 8. It became a powerful tool for my professional and personal life. The Samsung had a large (for the time) and accurate (for a Windows portable) touchpad at the front which made working with Windows 8’s UI quick and easy. I read the fine manual on Windows 8 and quickly organized the tiles on Windows 8 start screen. For example I moved had the desktop tile into the upper left so that as soon as my notebook booted into Windows 8, a simple enter opened up the notebook. From there everything was available. The whole system performed very well, and continued to do so as long as it was installed on my notebook.

From my perspective the best aspect of Windows 8 was the design language, Metro. Windows 8 ditched Windows 7’s Aero interface, which was an evolution of Windows XP’s Luna interface. I never cared for either, considering them Microsoft’s poor attempt to imitate Apple’s Mac OS X Aqua interface. Apple’s interface looked much better, but I wasn’t a total fan of that interface either. Unfortunately Microsoft took some considerable heat over Windows 8’s radical interface departure, primarily from old-school Windows stans who basically lied about the supposed problems with Windows 8. Microsoft tried to appease some of them with the release Windows 8.1, which returned the classic start menu that we’d been living with since Windows 95.. Microsoft would later release Windows 10 as a free update, and I would install that over my Windows 8. Windows 10 was an attempt, in part, to shut everybody up over Windows 8.

Windows 8 with its flat Metro interface was so much cleaner and uncluttered than Windows 7’s Aero interface. As I said I fell in love with it (if anyone could fall in love with a windowing desktop), preferring to work in it over anything else out there, including Mac OS X and any Linux desktop. The notebook was rugged enough that I traveled with it overseas on business trips. I still have that notebook, it still runs, only it has Windows 10 installed. It will never run Windows 11 because Microsoft’s requirements won’t allow it to run on that hardware.

These days I’ve migrated from Windows to macOS and Linux on all my systems. I only run Windows these days because I have to. For example, to support some development work on Windows I’ve now got a Windows 11 VM running under Parallels on my 2019 MacBook Pro. The little Minis Forum PC I do a lot of development on is now running Linux. It came with Windows 10 Pro installed, but as soon as it was practical, I swapped in another SSD and started down the long path of running nothing but Linux. As I get older I may migrate all my Mac systems over to Linux as well as Apple drops macOS support on my aging hardware. I only hope that nothing happens to Linux along the way, as it’s slowly becoming my only choice for an operating system.

Article link: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/too-much-and-too-soon-steven-sinofsky-looks-back-at-windows-8-10-years-later/

my little pc isn’t worthy enough to run windows 11

whbeebe1 Comment

It turns out I had to briefly switch the UM250 back to Windows 10 in order to copy some data I’d left on the older SSD when I switched. So while I was here I thought I’d grab an interesting screen capture.

You can see in the screen capture that Microsoft is telling me my system isn’t worthy enough to run the latest version of Windows, version 11. That’s because this particular AMD-based system doesn’t have TPM. History lesson: When Microsof first released Windows 10, we were told the fairy tale that Windows 10 was the last version they were going to release. Microsoft intended to have a six month release cadence in which new features would be dropped. Microsoft got considerable blowback from businesses about the cadence frequency and how you couldn’t control it and how business IT departments wanted to test those releases before having to roll them out. Microsoft relented with a seperate release channel with a different cadence and the ability for those business users to control releases. Once the dust settled Microsoft stayed with those cadences.

Then Microsoft gave us all a Halloween Surprise last year with the release of Windows 11 October 2021. As far as I’m concerned it wasn’t a treat, it was more a trick, with many regressions, particularly the demand that a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) be in place for the OS to be installable. I know you can sidestep this issue thorugh extraordinary means, but that doesn’t mean you will always be able to sidestep the issue. Based on what I’ve read, up to 60% of existing x86-64 systems are ineligible to run Windows 11, which presents alternative operating systems capable of providing a secure OS without TPM a golden opportunity. The UM250, which has an AMD processor, runs Linux just fine, thank you very much. Interestingly, Lenovo introduced a series of ThinkPads built around AMD processors that contain an implementation of Microsoft’s Pluton security processor. According to Lenovo even though those ThinkPads will have Windows 11 preinstalled, they won’t be locked down to the Pluton security processor. ThinkPad users will in fact be able to completely disable Pluton in the BIOS, as well as install Linux. Sounds great, until the time when Microsoft release an update to Windows 11 that will require those Plutons be enabled and active.

Pluton isn’t new, it was introduced with the last release of Microsoft’s XBox gaming systems. And it is AMD that supplies the processors for those game machines. Which means that Pluton isn’t to make the system secure against hackers, but to allow all those rights holders to fully implement the final step towards total DMCA control on your machine, against you. Another brutal blow to choice.

My little PC might not be worthy enough to run Windows 11, but it’s more than worthy and capable of running Linux. And so here we are…

Notes

For those worried about Microsoft’s Pluton TPM chip: Lenovo won’t even switch it on by default in latest ThinkPads – https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/microsoft_amd_pluton_lenovo/