On 08/01/2018 06:48 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Paul" wrote

| But that won't change Windows users. They will take it.
|
| You don't seem to have thought this through.
|
| 1) Microsoft cannot afford to start putting a rental OS
| on OEM computers. This will free the OEMs to put a
| fully functional unconstrained OS on the machine instead.
| A hardware manufacturer cannot ship a product with
| a rental OS on it. That would be "bonkers".

And if the system on that computer is not named
Windows who would bother with it? Windows is rotten to
the core with spyware and many years of neglect of the
users privacy and security.

|
| 2) Microsoft cannot change the terms of any existing product.
| The supported life of Windows 7 or Windows 8, will last
| to the end of the stated date in the Life Cycle table.
| If they do not live up to their end of the contract,
| there will be a class action suit.
|

Your points make sense, but there are probably
all sorts of ways that they could do whatever they
decide is best. For instance, each version of Win10
is only supported for 1 year. They could announce
that everyone is free to stick with an unsupported
version or join the subscription plan.

I'm not saying that will happen. MS have been
trying to turn Windows into adware ever since
Active Desktop in '98 and it hasn't gone over well.
But there are differences today: 1) Most people
want devices for entertainment and don't want to
have to understand them. 2) Internet speeds have
caught up, so that software masquerading as
webpages is now possible.

I wouldn't have predicted that so many people
would lie down for Win10 spyware and
undependability. But they have. Most people don't
see a choice. (Look at all the people who get
duped by scammers who call and say they're
Microsoft, demanding an overdue license fee.)


Well it sounds like no one writing has
any understanding of the GNU/Linux system and
its several Desktop Environments. Of course no
one mentions AmigaOS which was superior to the
the Windows system even at its end of life of
the original Commodore Business Machines.
Before Linux I had several other
GUI machines using GEOS on the Commodore 128
and AmigaOS,then XP and finally KDE on Mandriva
Linux. The DEs have changed a lot since then
but I still use KDE's current Plasma 5 DE.
I still tried out Gnome 3.2x, Trinity DE,
XFCE, LXQT and a few others. Terminals are
for people who already know more Linux commands
than I do but I still use terminals for specific
operations such as changing ownership of files
and doing checksums on downloaded ISOs.
Everyone seems to think that the version
of Linux they downloaded or otherwise obtained
is just like every other distribution.

They are not. Each has its strengths
and weaknesses. Ubuntu was promoted as a system
to move from Windows to Linux easily but it did
so by obscurantist measures. It still even with
Gnome would make a good cellphone DE but surprise
nearly every major DE I have encounted can do the
same sort of truncated applications list displayed
as a border-less window full of icons which is
really a pain on a small laptop/notebook screen.

Lots of distributions make good straight-
forward desktop computing possibly if you know
something and have some experience with different
systems. And aside from Canonical's Ubuntu you
only have to worry about the spyware you might
download. And I am not about to trust any creative
work I may be about to a Cloud or Windows.

bliss

--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com