What can you do on Windows 10 that you can't do on Windows XP or Windows 7?

In news wrote:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3263...-timeline.html

That's useful? It looks like a file system for
Alzheimers patients. I'd put that in the category
of desperate feature fishing. And most programs,
along with Windows, already have a recent files
list. (Which I don't remember *ever* loooking at.)

I thank mechanic for finding something that Windows 10 does that WinXP and
Win7 can't do - so let's not be too harsh on Timeline.

At least mechanic found something that Win10 has that Win7/XP doesn't.

Like Mayayana, I'm likewise torn with this "timeline" suggestion as, well,
it's not much functionality, as Mayayana says, but it is "something" that
Windows 10 has (as of April 2018) that WinXP & Win7 don't have that 'can'
be useful (so some people).

As for which people, clearly not me, as I turn off all that recent files
garbage whenever I see it, but some people can't find a file they worked on
just five minutes before, so, the "timeline" feature might be useful to
them.

I'm going to add it to the list, simply because there isn't much else that
Windows 10 can do that WinXP & Win7 don't already do - and - I do THANK
mechanic for finding it - since nobody else (including me) can find much
else that Win10 can do that Win7 & WinXP can't do.

1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?

On 05/03/2018 8:44 AM, Bob J Jones wrote:
In news wrote:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3263...-timeline.html

That's useful? It looks like a file system for
Alzheimers patients. I'd put that in the category
of desperate feature fishing. And most programs,
along with Windows, already have a recent files
list. (Which I don't remember *ever* loooking at.)

I thank mechanic for finding something that Windows 10 does that WinXP and
Win7 can't do - so let's not be too harsh on Timeline.

At least mechanic found something that Win10 has that Win7/XP doesn't.

Like Mayayana, I'm likewise torn with this "timeline" suggestion as, well,
it's not much functionality, as Mayayana says, but it is "something" that
Windows 10 has (as of April 2018) that WinXP & Win7 don't have that 'can'
be useful (so some people).

As for which people, clearly not me, as I turn off all that recent files
garbage whenever I see it, but some people can't find a file they worked on
just five minutes before, so, the "timeline" feature might be useful to
them.

I'm going to add it to the list, simply because there isn't much else that
Windows 10 can do that WinXP & Win7 don't already do - and - I do THANK
mechanic for finding it - since nobody else (including me) can find much
else that Win10 can do that Win7 & WinXP can't do.

1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?


What about running Linux in windows?

Rene

In , Rene Lamontagne
wrote:

1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?


What about running Linux in windows?

Thank you Rene Lamontagne for staying on topic and being technical by
explaining what Windows 10 can do that Win7 and WinXP can't do, which is
the Linux bash shell capability.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/use-bash-shell-windows-10

That's a useful find, since it's clearly not well known what Win10 can do
that Win7 and WinXP can't (least of all to me - but it seems others are in
the same situation as I was).

That makes the best we can come up with & agree upon as the following:
1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. Linux Bash shell
9. ?
10. ?

Thank you for adding value to our knowledge and for staying on topic.

On 05/03/2018 11:49 AM, Bob J Jones wrote:
In , Rene Lamontagne
wrote:

1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?


What about running Linux in windows?

Thank you Rene Lamontagne for staying on topic and being technical by
explaining what Windows 10 can do that Win7 and WinXP can't do, which is
the Linux bash shell capability.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/use-bash-shell-windows-10

That's a useful find, since it's clearly not well known what Win10 can do
that Win7 and WinXP can't (least of all to me - but it seems others are in
the same situation as I was).

That makes the best we can come up with & agree upon as the following:
1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of the April 2018 release)
8. Linux Bash shell
9. ?
10. ?

Thank you for adding value to our knowledge and for staying on topic.



Welcome. :-)

Rene

Bob J Jones wrote:
In , Rene Lamontagne
wrote:
[...]
What about running Linux in windows?

Thank you Rene Lamontagne for staying on topic and being technical by
explaining what Windows 10 can do that Win7 and WinXP can't do, which is
the Linux bash shell capability.
https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/use-bash-shell-windows-10

Well, Cygwin only exists for well over two decades, but if you're
happy that yet another flavor of Linux runs (only) on Windows 10, then
go for it. (Cygwin is mostly GNU.)

Oops! Sorry! I accidentily added technical value to the thread and
stayed on topic, but being a troll, I shouldn't do that! Mea culpa, mea
culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Frank Slootweg wrote:

Well, Cygwin only exists for well over two decades, but if you're
happy that yet another flavor of Linux runs (only) on Windows 10, then
go for it. (Cygwin is mostly GNU.)

I suppose cygwin is more posix than linux. NT originally had its own
posix subsystem, I briefly dabbled with the Interix bolt-on (and before
that the MKS toolkit for DOS) then MS bought it and it became SFU, until
that was killed too.

I think technically the WSL method is quite clever (even if it has a
stupid backwards name) just enough shim to make the NT kernel look like
a linux kernel to most of ubuntu.

If it had appeared in Server2016 I might have believed MS had some
commitment to it, perhaps they're worried backend services would run
faster under it than natively?

In news wrote:

Well, Cygwin only exists for well over two decades, but if you're
happy that yet another flavor of Linux runs (only) on Windows 10, then
go for it. (Cygwin is mostly GNU.)

Oops! Sorry! I accidentily added technical value to the thread and
stayed on topic, but being a troll, I shouldn't do that! Mea culpa, mea
culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Frank Slootweg,

That's a valid technical point.

Simple fact.
- I'm a simple straightforward person.
- *When people act like adults act - I treat them as an adult.*

The technical on-topic question is whether Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux
(WSL) and Cywin are appreciably different in what power it gives to the
user that they don't already have in Win7 or WinXP.

Hence, Cygwin is a good on-topic point, where almost all of us have used it
in the past, and where I, personally, having used UNIX for a decade prior
to Linux even existing, found Cygwin too much trouble for just a grep,
diff, and comm on Windows.

NOTE: "Sort" works well on all versions of Windows, e.g., in VIM:
:%!sort
Translates roughly to "sort the entire file".

So, the valid on-topic question is what Windows 10 Linux Bash shell
provides that Cygwin doesn't provide, if anything.

Googling to see if anyone has done a comparison between the two...
https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=review+cygwin+compare+windows+10+linux+bash+sh ell

We 1st find "What are the differences between windows bash and cygwin?"
https://askubuntu.com/questions/813848/what-are-the-differences-between-windows-bash-and-cygwin
Which says:
1. Cygwin is unable to run native, unmodified, Linux ELF64 binaries
2. In FCU, WSL can run more than one Linux distro side-by-side
3. WSL supports USB-serial comms (I'm not sure how important that is)
4. WSL supports mounting of USB-storage and network shares (important?)
5. Cygwin is much faster than WSL (the WSL developers agree)
6. Cygwin works on all 32-bit Windows machines (not just 64-bit Win10)

Given that, I'm personally not sure if we should keep or drop WSL.
What do others think about that technical topic?

Do we keep or remove the last item from the list?
1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of April 2018 release)
8. Linux Bash shell (or is Cygwin functionally equivalent?)
9. ?
10. ?

In , Andy Burns
wrote:

I think technically the WSL method is quite clever (even if it has a
stupid backwards name) just enough shim to make the NT kernel look like
a linux kernel to most of ubuntu.

To test what WSL can do that Cygwin didn't already do, I ran the following
(documented so that others can leverage the effort for themselves)

0. Check the version in Start Cortana version (16200).
1. Navigate to Settings. You can get there by clicking the gear icon on the Start menu.
2. Click Update & security.
3. Select For Developers in the left column.
4. Select Developer Mode under "Use developer features" if it's not already enabled.
This works, but I get the following error, in red:
http://i.cubeupload.com/42V5Ri.jpg
Developer mode is turned on. However, remote deployment and Windows Device Portal couldn't be installed so they're not available. Error code 0x80070422
5. Navigate to the Control Panel (i.e., the old Windows control panel). You can get there by hitting Windows Key + X and selecting Control panel from the pop-up menu that appears.
6. Select Programs and Features. If it's not visible, make sure you select "Large icons" from the "View by" menu.
7. Click "Turn Windows features on or off."
8. Toggle "Windows Subsystem for Linux" to on and click Ok.
9. Click the Restart Now button. (I had to restart twice because the first restart hung to a black screen with a static dash prompt.)
10. Search for Bash in the Cortana / Search box and click its icon.
Up pops a window saying:
http://i.cubeupload.com/Ecsm7s.jpg
Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
Distributions can be installed by visiting the Windows Sto
https://aka.ms/wslstore
Press any key to continue...
11. Type "y" and hit Enter when promoted to install Ubuntu. The system will then take a few minutes to install Ubuntu in the command prompt window.
12. Create a username and password.

I'm kind of stuck at step 11 at the moment, because it "seems" to have
worked but now when I type "bash" at the Cortana prompt, the bash shell
comes up as show above, but then just disappears when I type anything.

So I'm not sure if the disabling of "waueng.dll" has a deleterious effect
or not yet. But when I get the WSL working, I'll test against Cygwin.

Andy Burns wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:

Well, Cygwin only exists for well over two decades, but if you're
happy that yet another flavor of Linux runs (only) on Windows 10, then
go for it. (Cygwin is mostly GNU.)

I suppose cygwin is more posix than linux.

Cygwin is GNU based in the same way that 'Linux' is GNU based. 'Linux'
in scare quotes, because what we call 'Linux' is actually GNU/Linux,
i.e. the Linux kernel with GNU on top. If you're not aware of these
subtleties, read up on http://www.gnu.org. Quite fun stuff.

So both Cygwin and 'Linux' are *more* than just POSIX.

NT originally had its own
posix subsystem, I briefly dabbled with the Interix bolt-on (and before
that the MKS toolkit for DOS) then MS bought it and it became SFU, until
that was killed too.

I never used NT's POSIX subsystem, but - of course :-) - I used the
MKS Toolkit for DOS. As a UNIX person, I couldn't survive without it,
could I!?

I think technically the WSL method is quite clever (even if it has a
stupid backwards name) just enough shim to make the NT kernel look like
a linux kernel to most of ubuntu.

Yes, it seems much better than Microsoft's previous - half-hearted -
attempts.

Let's see what the Cygwin and 'Linux' user bases think about it.

If it had appeared in Server2016 I might have believed MS had some
commitment to it, perhaps they're worried backend services would run
faster under it than natively?

Bob J Jones wrote:
In news wrote:

Well, Cygwin only exists for well over two decades, but if you're
happy that yet another flavor of Linux runs (only) on Windows 10, then
go for it. (Cygwin is mostly GNU.)

[...]

Frank Slootweg,

That's a valid technical point.

[...]

The technical on-topic question is whether Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux
(WSL) and Cywin are appreciably different in what power it gives to the
user that they don't already have in Win7 or WinXP.

Hence, Cygwin is a good on-topic point, where almost all of us have used it
in the past, and where I, personally, having used UNIX for a decade prior
to Linux even existing, found Cygwin too much trouble for just a grep,
diff, and comm on Windows.
[...]
So, the valid on-topic question is what Windows 10 Linux Bash shell
provides that Cygwin doesn't provide, if anything.

Googling to see if anyone has done a comparison between the two...
https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=review+cygwin+compare+windows+10+linux+bash+sh ell

We 1st find "What are the differences between windows bash and cygwin?"
https://askubuntu.com/questions/813848/what-are-the-differences-between-windows-bash-and-cygwin
Which says:
1. Cygwin is unable to run native, unmodified, Linux ELF64 binaries

Personally I do not consider that a problem, because there are
zillions of Cygwin packages for most anything you can think of and you
can even do things like run mail-, web-, NetNews, X-, etc. ad inifitum
servers on Cygwin and hence getting "native, unmodified, Linux ELF64
binaries" only makes things *more* difficult, but yes, I can imagine
that the odd someone might need some 'Linux' software which is not yet -
or will not be - a Cygwin package.

2. In FCU, WSL can run more than one Linux distro side-by-side
3. WSL supports USB-serial comms (I'm not sure how important that is)
4. WSL supports mounting of USB-storage and network shares (important?)
5. Cygwin is much faster than WSL (the WSL developers agree)
6. Cygwin works on all 32-bit Windows machines (not just 64-bit Win10)

Given that, I'm personally not sure if we should keep or drop WSL.
What do others think about that technical topic?

Do we keep or remove the last item from the list?
1. Windows Store apps
2. Cortana searches
3. DirectX (for gaming)
4. Access 2TB of RAM (instead of 512GB, 192GB, & 128GB previously)
5. HiDPI scale text & GUI to 200% (not just 150% previously)
6. Full-screen console mode ?
7. Timeline (as of April 2018 release)
8. Linux Bash shell (or is Cygwin functionally equivalent?)
9. ?
10. ?

Two points:

- I think you can just say "..., in addition to Cygwin [functionality]."

- Now the '...' bit. IMO 'Linux Bash shell' is not doing WSL right and
is a misnomer, because there's no such thing as a 'Linux Bash shell',
it's a 'GNU Bash shell'. Just do a 'man bash' on a Linux system and
check what it says at the left of the last line, probably "GNU Bash".

'Linux Bash shell' is not doing WSL right, because it's *way* more
than just a Bash shell.

Perhaps others who've used WSL can give a better 'name' for it.