16 ms·
Microsoft leak reveals new Windows 10 Workstation edition for power users
- rl3 9y agoHopefully they disabled all the telemetry and advertising crap.
- userbinator 9y agoDon't bet on it.
- richardwhiuk 9y agoHopefully all of the websites I visit have disabled all of their telemetry as well, but I doubt it.
- 8draco8 9y agoOperating system is not website. I don't want my system to be sanding any data anywhere without my knowledge. Currently operating systems are used for handling various of very sensitive and potentially dangerous information (credit card details, bank accounts, SSNs, tax returns etc). There is tons of informations on computers that can cause a lot of problems if used by bad people. Blocking unknown and unnecessary traffic and strong encryption is our best bet against cyber criminals.
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoI keep seeing this nonsense about how operating systems and web services are different as a way of suggesting Google's behavior is okay but Microsoft's is not. Almost all of the data you deal with on your computer in the modern era eventually ends up traversing the Internet. You enter your SSNs into forms to pay bills and the like, your credit card details are entered into your browser to buy stuff online. All of this can potentially be inspected by Google if you use their platforms or services. There's really no difference here. Condemn Microsoft, condemn Google. Be upset both have defined your privacy as unimportant.
- MereInterest 9y agoI'm frustrated and angered at both, but I have more solutions when dealing with one than the other. If a website is tracking me, I can minimize the amount of exposure, randomize aspects of my browsing, send out false information, etc. If my operating system is spying on me, then the only thing to do is use it in a VM, or avoid using it altogether.
- oculusthrift 9y agothe double standard is simply better PR by one company. Not to mention half of HN either works at goog or wants to. Add in the historical hate for MS and it really starts to make sense. Apple or google could literally start forcing users to give blood samples and you wouldn't hear a peep.
- skummetmaelk 9y agoBut they optimize my experience for my blood type! Oh god I'm giving them ideas...
- Can_Not 9y agoNo it's not simply better PR. That's completely absurd. One of them is a website I optionally go-to occasionally, the other is unremovable shitware on _my personal computer_.
- 8draco8 9y agoIt's not the same. Take for example companies that are working in PCI DSS environment (credit card companies, payment gateways etc). They handle very sensitive data on their computers, not even getting close to any Google services. Because of that lack of security in OS, Windows shouldn't be used in PCI DSS environment because user can not control where it's data is going to.
- faragon 9y agoHow billing for socket/CPU could matter anymore with 16 core CPUs (32 SMT) with many DDR4 memory channels going to hit the market during this summer [1]? [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2017/05/17/amd-announces-16-core-threadripper-desktop-cpus-to-do-battle-with-intel-x299-and-skylake-x/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2017/05/17/amd-an...
- Already__Taken 9y agoMS need to drop the crazy minimum requirement for licences of 8 * 2 core packs per server. Otherwise the pricing seems to work. It feels like they're forcing smaller customers to buy Azure instead of paying a fair price for the software.
- digi_owl 9y agoThat is basically what is going on. MS i getting out of the shrink-wrapped software market, and trying to push everyone towards SAAS. This by either crippling local software or putting nagware everywhere.
- Already__Taken 9y agoReFS as a boot drive file system? That'll be the proofing for it by default from server 2019 onwards. Every three years is LTS/Server cut from current branch I thought I read.
- 43224gg252 9y agoAs a power user, I hope this doesn't ship with ads and telemetry enabled. It's things like that that pushed me away from windows and towards Linux. If Microsoft had never participated in the NSA PRISM program I would have never decided to "just try this Linux thing out" and I'd probably still be a windows user. I think at this point they'll have to do more than get rid of ads and telemetry to get me (and others) to switch back. Linux turned out to be much more stable than Windows for me, and after experiencing package management and sane update policies I can't go back to an OS that won't even let me use it while it's installing updates. When I sit and try to make a list of reasons to use Windows it seems to come down to program compatibility and not operating system quality. Instead of trapping people on an OS because of vendor lock-in, try improving core parts of the OS to make it worth using.
- userbinator 9y agoWhat "power user" means today seems to be something different than before --- essentially, users who just use more of the features of the OS, in the way these companies want them to; notice that "more configurability/customisation" is not mentioned at all, whereas that would be what I expect as a "power user" (the old type) myself.
- Can_Not 9y agoThe new definition of "power user" is probably going to be a user that runs applications acquired outside of the app store.
- nailer 9y agoNot wanting Ads I can understand - you've paid for Windows (and in some cases Surface hardware) and you don't want to be the product - but why do you dislike telemetry? I'd rather Microsoft know what crashes the OS (and why apps die) in the real world and fix it.
- userbinator 9y agoDo you want potentially sensitive information leaving your machine? That's basically the counterargument. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Error_Reporting#Privacy_concerns_and_use_by_the_NSA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Error_Reporting#Privac...
- marklyon 9y agoThey really need to fire their VP of SKUs. Creating that role has resulted in far too much unnecessary fragmentation. At this point, it's like she's just trying to justify her position.
- mtgx 9y agoMission creep. "Maybe if I invent more Windows editions my salary will also increase because of the increase in responsibility as well as the higher revenue from the nickle and diming customers?" I imagine that would be her line of thought.
- kawsper 9y agoI dare you to go explore their ERP offerings. It is impossible to grasp, and if you ask for help, your support request will be redirected to one of your local third-party Microsoft partners.
- drzaiusapelord 9y agoThis is a feature, not a bug. The idea is to continue to devalue the Pro version of Windows so that business has to pay for the more expensive Enterprise to get rid of all the crapware via LTSB or just being able to use a version that will respect the 'disable store' GPO setting. Worse, there's no upgrade path from OEM Pro to Enterprise Volume. So you're paying for Windows twice, once via the OEM Pro license you'll never use and another by buying Enterprise. This product is a another way to devalue the old SKUs by introducing yet another premium priced product. Cant reply below so adding my comment here: That path doesn't exist for volume. There is no OEM to Volume path and guess what every business uses: Volume. > Dell and Lenovo and HP have standard agreements to put Home on every PC, youre not paying for an individual OEM license. The cost per OEM license of windows was reported to be $40-$80 depending on edition. That is baked into the cost of the computer you buy from them. You're not getting it for 'free' the same way you aren't getting leather seats for free because you bought the LT model of a car. You're paying for that too.
- mtgx 9y agoDoes ReFS support native encryption like Apple's new filesystem does? What's keeping Microsoft from enabling encryption for all Windows users by default, other than nickle and diming them for it by forcing them to choose more expensive versions of Windows if they want full disk encryption? Windows is pretty much the only OS left that doesn't support encryption by default.
- nkvoll 9y agoIsn't BitLocker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitLocker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitLocker) how Windows supports full disk encryption by default (shipped with Vista and later)? From an end-user perspective it seems to behave very transparent as well. In what way does it come up short?
- jpalomaki 9y agoYes. And with suitable hardware Bitlocker actually uses the SSD encryption which is anyways enabled, so there's zero performance hit. The drawback is that not all modern hardware supports it [1,2]. For example the Samsung 960 series do not support this. Since Apple controls the whole stack, I would assume they are also doing this, but I'm not sure. [1] https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831627(v=ws.11).aspx https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831627(v=ws.11... [2]https://helgeklein.com/blog/2015/01/how-to-enable-bitlocker-hardware-encryption-with-ssd/ https://helgeklein.com/blog/2015/01/how-to-enable-bitlocker-...
- kefka 9y ago> BitLocker.... In what way does it come up short? By forcing an escrow key linked to Microsoft and whomever owns the TPM on your computer. By definition, backdoor keys and hidden users who can access encrypted content is just absolutely, horribly wrong. And there's no way to turn it off... Well, I'm sure someone will say there's 10 regkeys to change that might fix it on a specific version. Still does nothing regarding the "trust" with the TPM.
- Karunamon 9y ago
- ericfrederich 9y agoHaha... "workstation mode". Didn't everyone who tested "Game Mode" on Windows 10 creators update come to the conclusion that it didn't do anything?
- kawsper 9y agoIs it the "Game Mode" that enables the Xbox DVR by default? If so, it did do something, it locked my FPS at 30. It is such a big problem that Valve had to build in detection into their game where they warn you about it. And in order to turn it off, you either have to login to their Xbox App, or play around with regedit, Valve have documented it here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6239-DZCB-8600 https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6239-DZC... And it seems like updates are enabling it again automatically, because I have had to do it twice.
- toxican 9y agoLTT did a review and for at least one game the result was worse performance in game mode. It was minutely worse and probably within margin of error for something as fickle as hardware, but still. Not an improvement.
- artimaeis 9y agoOne of the features of the Windows 10 Game Mode is that it raises the thread priority of the application. This proved incredibly useful for me in some games - most notably GTA 5 - and in a lot of other games it didn't seem to do anything at all. I'm pretty thankful for the feature - because manually raising the thread priority every time I open the application was a very unnecessary pain.
- revelation 9y agoWindows has raised the thread priority of the foreground program since at least 95...
- vonmoltke 9y ago
- ericfrederich 9y ago"Resilient file system"... sorry, if you want professionals to use and trust your new filesystem you should give it to end users first; wider audience. Then the pros will pick it up.
- Aoyagi 9y agoThe only version of Windows 10 I'm interested in is the one where it is I who is mostly in control, or, you know, be the power user, not just some power sheep.
- Sir_Substance 9y agoThe notion of "Developer editions" and "Power User editions" of windows really bothers me. I discovered a love of computers and IT from having my own computer with windows 98 and just fucking around on it. I destroyed the OS on that computer at least twice by doing stupid things like deleting DLL's in the windows folder because 8 year old me decided he "didn't need them" and bypassed the system file protection, but apparently that's part of learning to use and understand computers. Certainly it taught me how to install a new OS, which opened up a world of new OS's to me, which brought me to VM's, which inexorably lead to experimenting with hosting services, which lead to sysadmin skills, and so on. Considering Microsoft is operating in and even leading an industry that alleges it is slowly starving to death from lack of new talent, creating versions of the OS with anything less than 100% control seems like a really stupid long term move. How are people supposed to form an intuitive grasp of the potential of general purpose computers if they grow up with machines that say "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"?
- monochromatic 9y agoAn administrator account can still do all that.
- HelloNurse 9y agoI understand you stopped using Windows several versions ago.
- monochromatic 9y agoNope. I'm on 10. What are you not able to do as an administrator?
- HelloNurse 9y agoWindows 7 is already full of magical folders and processes that an administrator is supposed to leave alone.
- quickben 9y agoIs this why my win 7 ultimate, got upgraded to 'pro'? MS is really outdoing themself lately.
- appleflaxen 9y agoAdding SKUs to a product line that is already confusing to non-windows users is not going to help them win back market share. it might help them wring more cash out of already-windows-users who need these new features. but those users will be glancing to the side and noticing all the features packed in for free by OSX and linux, and without a malignant upgrade process.
- dzdt 9y agoEverything I know about business I learned from Joel on Software. This sounds to me like trying to sell (essentially) the same product at a higher price point to users who are willing to pay more, to maximize profits. See Joel's "Camels and Rubber Duckies": https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-duckies/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-...
- marcosdumay 9y agoIt's called market segmentation. MS does this to windows since... I'd say since Windows was a thing, but I don't know how they sold versions 1 and 2. So, since Windows 3. Yet, if you segment your market too much, people stop knowing the segment they belong, and stop playing the game.
- dmead 9y agothey spent the early years (including 3.x) competing with ibm. note the "power windows" language on the side pic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0
- 15charlimit 9y agoStill no actual control over what data they suck up and keep for who-knows how long and sell to anyone who asks? Still no actual control over what updates happen, when? Still don't care about W10.
- SippinLean 9y agoThe same telemetry is in 7, and you can Defer Feature Updates in 10.
- Tiki 9y agoWhat's the difference between Windows 10 and the spyware we've all spent years removing from the devices we support? My apologies for the rhetorical question, because I'm certain that anyone who isn't a paid shill cannot answer this question with a straight face.
- valarauca1 9y agoThis sound a bit like horseshit. Win10 Pro supports 2 CPU sockets and all cores within them. Expanding this up to 4 sockets seems to undercut their server market as past 2 sockets Win10 Server charges per socket.
- technofiend 9y agoIt's not perfect but the tron script will turn off a lot of the more objectionable MS services. https://www.reddit.com/r/TronScript/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TronScript/ Personally I just boot into Linux unless I'm streaming (Netflix 720p on Linux, boo), playing Civilization or doing my taxes.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- epalmer 9y ago> Workstation mode: Microsoft plans to optimize the OS by identifying “typical compute and graphics intensive workloads” to provide peak performance and reliability when Workstation mode is enabled. Shouldn't reliability always be as high as possible? Why would workstation users get more reliable operation than anyone else?
- Joeri 9y agoReliability could also mean reliable performance, where the power saving functionality gets dialed down. But probably this was written by some marketing guy with only half a clue.
- youdontknowtho 9y agoThe features that they mention...SMB Direct, large memory, more sockets, REFS...are great, but I think that they should only have one client SKU. Also, it should have a telemetry manager that applications have to use for sending telemetry data to Microsoft. It should have UI and PowerShell cmdlets that help people see the data that's being collected. It should have a global off switch for people that are concerned about it. I tend to think that things like telemetry or "swarm" downloading of updates and patches are good things. I know that's not popular. I think that they need to be far more transparent about that stuff to make privacy concerned people happy. Also, there are some people that are never going to like Microsoft, Windows, or anything that they do. I kind of wish those people were less involved in the conversation. If you aren't going to use their stuff, why should they listen to your feedback?
- 1024core 9y agoWhy does Microsoft have to waste so many resources coming up with a dozen different "editions" ? I remember (back in the day) Windows NT came in "desktop" and "server" editions. Someone did some digging, and it turned out the difference was 2 registry keys, whose settings were checked at boot time, and depending on the settings, the "server" or "desktop" editions were created. Times have changed; Microsoft needs to change too.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bborud 9y agoFrom time to time (every 2 years or so) I make an attempt at buying a Windows license in order to run some program that only runs on windows. In 10 years (5 or so attempts) I have yet to figure out what edition of Windows I want, how to buy it and how to download an ISO image of it so I can load it into a VMWare image. Every time I realize that the effort just isn't worth it so I give up. I just want an OS that works. So I use OSX and I use Linux. Where I don't have to care much about what I'm running. At most I have to occasionally care about the revision I'm running being a bit old. But there's no nonsense with different editions that I need to waste time on.
- vesak 9y agoIn 2017, a piece of software is decidedly not for power users unless it's open source.
- SN76477 9y ago10 is garbage. The start button doesn't even do what it should most of the time. I feel tricked into using the worlds worst OS.
- nippples 9y agoIt's not an actual leak, this is just native advertisement.
- dcdevito 9y agoNo reason Windows 10 "Pro" shouldn't have had this all along, or Enterprise Edition at the very least. This is a marketing decision to upsell an expensive SKU to Enterprises.