123 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
123 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
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<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe to this page..." href="feed.rss" />
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<title>Windows</title>
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</head><body>
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<div id="divbodyholder">
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<div class="headerholder"><div class="header">
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<div id="title">
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<h1 class="nomargin"><a class="ablack" href="http://zigford.org/index.html">zigford.org</a></h1>
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<div id="description"><a href="about.html">About</a><a href="links.html"> | Links</a><a href="scripts.html"> | Scripts</a><br>Sharing linux/windows scripts and tips</br></div>
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</div></div></div>
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<div id="divbody"><div class="content">
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<!-- entry begin -->
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<h3><a class="ablack" href="windows.html">
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Windows
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</a></h3>
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<!-- bashblog_timestamp: #201809042224.22# -->
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<div class="subtitle">September 04, 2018 —
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Jesse Harris
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</div>
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<!-- text begin -->
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<h4>My opinions of Windows</h4>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>I've read the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1416925.Show_Stopper_">book</a> '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 <a href="https://medium.com/@benbob/what-really-happened-with-vista-an-insiders-retrospective-f713ee77c239">posts</a>
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around the internet about the <a href="https://hackernoon.com/what-really-happened-with-vista-4ca7ffb5a1a">troubled</a> history of Windows development.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<h4>The good</h4>
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<p>Here are some of the less commonly appreciated aspects of Windows:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Runs on extrodinarily varied hardware</li>
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<li>NTFS Volume Shadow Copies (Like free snapshots in btrfs and zfs)</li>
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<li>Can take on any number of personalities (like <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about">WSL</a> and 32bit windows on 64bit)</li>
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<li>Can boot from a filesystem in a file (vhd)</li>
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<li>Deeply scriptable (I've seen many say Windows is GUI only. Fallacy)</li>
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<li>Out-of-band data deduplication. (Amazing feature that I haven't seen
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replicated as well on Linux)</li>
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<li>Highly customizable for business use cases</li>
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<li>Strong sleep / power saving support</li>
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<li>Robust remote desktop solution (No other OS has this implemented as well)</li>
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<li>Great built-in virutalization</li>
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<li><a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about">Windows Subsystem for Linux</a></li>
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<li>Ability to refresh the PC with the click of a button</li>
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</ul>
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<p>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?</p>
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<h4>The bad</h4>
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<p>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.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Horrible console (Improvements coming with <a href="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/08/02/windows-command-line-introducing-the-windows-pseudo-console-conpty/">ConPTY</a>)</li>
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<li>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)</li>
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<li>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)</li>
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<li>Third-party application install experience. (This problem is slowly going away as
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more Win32 apps enter the store via <a href="https://www.onmsft.com/news/what-is-project-centennial">Project Centenial</a>)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Also of note is that now that Microsoft is starting to push <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-in-s-mode-faq">S mode</a>, 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.</p>
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<hr />
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<h4>My history with Windows</h4>
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<p>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. </p>
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<p>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.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Windows 3.11 (at home on the parents PC)</li>
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<li>Windows 95 (on my own PC, also began running Linux around this time)</li>
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<li>Windows 98 (again on my own PC)</li>
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<li>Windows 2000 Server (home PC)</li>
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<li>Windows XP (Home and Work)</li>
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<li>Windows 7 (Home and Work)</li>
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<li>Windows 8.1 (Work, testing Surface hardware)</li>
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<li>Windows 10 (Work)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>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.</p>
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<p>Since Windows XP, I've also been responsible for developing an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Operating_Environment">MOE</a>, and
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repackaging software for use at work.</p>
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<!-- text end -->
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<!-- entry end -->
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<div id="footer">© <a href="http://twitter.com/zigford_org">Jesse Harris</a> — <a href="mailto:jesse@zigford.org">jesse@zigford.org</a><br/>
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Generated with <a href="https://github.com/cfenollosa/bashblog">bashblog</a>, a single bash script to easily create blogs like this one</div>
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