Windows 10 Oct 2018 - After 7 major updates - Windows 10 is still a hot mess
With the Sept 24 release of Windows 10 build 17763 - MS reached the "RTM" milestone for the Redstone 5 branch. This is the 7th major release of Windows - we had Threshold 1 - the initial Windows 10 release in July of 2015, followed by Threshold 2 in November of that year. Since then we've been on the Redstone branch following the twice per year rhythm of releases - typically in April and Oct.
Has Windows 10 improved ? Certainly it has. We've seen continued improvements in areas like Touch, Pen and Windows Hello support as OEMs continued to update their hardware to support it. We've also seen more and more control panel functions move to the new Settings "app".
We've seen some improvements in stability and I argue that most of the performance improvements are the result of better hardware - not the OS.
But to me the overall UX is still a hot mess. Some UI components date all the way back to Windows 2000. MS still bundles Edge and IE - that no one uses.
Windows 10 was to "change the computing paradigm" with its new UI and increased use of touch and pen input as well as improved security with Windows Hello.
So while you can argue that these goals were accomplished - it simply amazes me that MS has committed resources on apps like Sticky Notes and Snip & Sketch and left all of this legacy baggage with what appears to be no sense of urgency to retire these functions.
Maybe they feel that not enough folks still use them to warrant the effort to remove them - but the end result is such a mixed bag that is makes the whole OS appear to be a kludge of add-ons to what is effectively a legacy platform.
Considering that we are over 3 years and 7 releases into the Windows 10 era - it's obvious that MS doesn't really care about Windows anymore. The recent reorg @ MS is evidence of that and I don't expect to see much at all in terms of real improvements in Windows in upcoming releases. We are in full maintenance mode and have been for a year or so now.
I'm going to drop several of my machines from the Insider track as there is no interest in performing weekly updates for this ancient OS.
When I compare my experience today on Windows 10 to what I have with my Pixelbook - it's night and day. It's a real shame.
Via it's failure in the Mobile space and the lack of excitement in the desktop/laptop/tablet space - MS is going to effectively loose the front end and other key money makers like Office will eventually suffer for it.
You can argue all you want about how the Surface line revolutionized the PC and how it's become a $1B business for MS. But let's put that into perspective. Apple sells 5x as many devices as Surface and Apple is only about 7% of the PC market.
Sure the vast majority of Dell, HP & Lenovo devices all run Windows, but we're now starting to see premium ChromeOS devices. And while I certainly don't expect ChromeOS to surpass Windows anytime in the near future - look at what happened to MS's browser share compare to Chrome. This tells me that MS is vulnerable and it might take less then you think to start to tip that scale.
Has Windows 10 improved ? Certainly it has. We've seen continued improvements in areas like Touch, Pen and Windows Hello support as OEMs continued to update their hardware to support it. We've also seen more and more control panel functions move to the new Settings "app".
We've seen some improvements in stability and I argue that most of the performance improvements are the result of better hardware - not the OS.
But to me the overall UX is still a hot mess. Some UI components date all the way back to Windows 2000. MS still bundles Edge and IE - that no one uses.
Windows 10 was to "change the computing paradigm" with its new UI and increased use of touch and pen input as well as improved security with Windows Hello.
So while you can argue that these goals were accomplished - it simply amazes me that MS has committed resources on apps like Sticky Notes and Snip & Sketch and left all of this legacy baggage with what appears to be no sense of urgency to retire these functions.
Maybe they feel that not enough folks still use them to warrant the effort to remove them - but the end result is such a mixed bag that is makes the whole OS appear to be a kludge of add-ons to what is effectively a legacy platform.
Considering that we are over 3 years and 7 releases into the Windows 10 era - it's obvious that MS doesn't really care about Windows anymore. The recent reorg @ MS is evidence of that and I don't expect to see much at all in terms of real improvements in Windows in upcoming releases. We are in full maintenance mode and have been for a year or so now.
I'm going to drop several of my machines from the Insider track as there is no interest in performing weekly updates for this ancient OS.
When I compare my experience today on Windows 10 to what I have with my Pixelbook - it's night and day. It's a real shame.
Via it's failure in the Mobile space and the lack of excitement in the desktop/laptop/tablet space - MS is going to effectively loose the front end and other key money makers like Office will eventually suffer for it.
You can argue all you want about how the Surface line revolutionized the PC and how it's become a $1B business for MS. But let's put that into perspective. Apple sells 5x as many devices as Surface and Apple is only about 7% of the PC market.
Sure the vast majority of Dell, HP & Lenovo devices all run Windows, but we're now starting to see premium ChromeOS devices. And while I certainly don't expect ChromeOS to surpass Windows anytime in the near future - look at what happened to MS's browser share compare to Chrome. This tells me that MS is vulnerable and it might take less then you think to start to tip that scale.
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