94 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
94 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
Windows
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#### My opinions of Windows
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Many in the free software community regard Windows as a pile of garbage. While
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it does have it's flaws, I think many of these conclusions fail to see the
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case for Windows.
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I've read the [book][1] 'Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows
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NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft', and there are a few other [posts][2]
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around the internet about the [troubled][3] history of Windows development.
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Even with all of the beuracracy that has burdened it's development, it feels
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like MS have really turned a corner with Windows 10.
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#### The good
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Here are some of the less commonly appreciated aspects of Windows:
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* Runs on extrodinarily varied hardware
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* NTFS Volume Shadow Copies (Like free snapshots in btrfs and zfs)
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* Can take on any number of personalities (like [WSL][6] and 32bit windows on 64bit)
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* Can boot from a filesystem in a file (vhd)
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* Deeply scriptable (I've seen many say Windows is GUI only. Fallacy)
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* Out-of-band data deduplication. (Amazing feature that I haven't seen
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replicated as well on Linux)
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* Highly customizable for business use cases
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* Strong sleep / power saving support
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* Robust remote desktop solution (No other OS has this implemented as well)
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* Great built-in virutalization
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* [Windows Subsystem for Linux][6]
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* Ability to refresh the PC with the click of a button
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I'm also writing this article from a Windows command prompt on a Microsoft
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Surface Pro 3. By the way, did you know openssh comes built-in to Windows since
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the April 2018 release?
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#### The bad
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Some of these items are not the fault of Windows directly, but indirectly due
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to being the most popular desktop operating system. In these cases a diligent
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systems administrator can overcome these negative aspects of running Windows.
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* Horrible console (Improvements coming with [ConPTY][4])
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* No developer culture - Many developers have created user hostile apps
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(ie, apps that consume too many resources, start on boot, are kinda like
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malware)
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* The need to run Anti-Virus software. (Seriously annoying as often the AV
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software consumes as many resources as the apps you are running, effectivly
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halving the performance of your PC)
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* Third-party application install experience. (This problem is slowly going away as
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more Win32 apps enter the store via [Project Centenial][5])
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Also of note is that now that Microsoft is starting to push [S mode][7], some
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of these issues may go away. Running a PC lean on third-party apps really makes
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it a dream to use. Super long battery life, quiet, cool, bug-free. If you can
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live with the built-in apps, I highly recommend giving it a go.
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---
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#### My history with Windows
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My usage of windows has it's origins in MS-DOS, as it would for many who used
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computers in the late 80's or earlie 90's.
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Having used PC's since then, I've always had, either through work or home a PC
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running a version of Windows covering most of the major releases.
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* Windows 3.11 (at home on the parents PC)
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* Windows 95 (on my own PC, also began running Linux around this time)
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* Windows 98 (again on my own PC)
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* Windows 2000 Server (home PC)
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* Windows XP (Home and Work)
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* Windows 7 (Home and Work)
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* Windows 8.1 (Work, testing Surface hardware)
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* Windows 10 (Work)
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A keen windows user may notice I skipped Milenium edition, Vista, and Windows
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8. I did use them, but never ran them for any significant amount of time. I also
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haven't listed any of the Server editions that I regularly used at work.
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This list is just those used as a desktop operating system.
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Since Windows XP, I've also been responsible for developing an [MOE][8], and
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repackaging software for use at work.
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[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1416925.Show_Stopper_
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[2]: https://medium.com/@benbob/what-really-happened-with-vista-an-insiders-retrospective-f713ee77c239
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[3]: https://hackernoon.com/what-really-happened-with-vista-4ca7ffb5a1a
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[4]: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/08/02/windows-command-line-introducing-the-windows-pseudo-console-conpty/
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[5]: https://www.onmsft.com/news/what-is-project-centennial
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[6]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about
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[7]: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-in-s-mode-faq
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[8]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Operating_Environment
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