Windows 10 October Update

[Westward]

Just a little warning.

Yesterday at about 7 pm Windows decided to do this huge update. It should have happened months ago but they royally fouled it up and had to rework it to overcome the many issues it caused. Anyway, the point is that it took nearly 7 hours to complete, with the download taking most of that. Presumably their servers couldn't cope with the load as there's not much wrong with my internet connection.

This morning it took about 5 minutes to start up which I hope is just a one-off. ☹️

If only Android could do the relatively few things I use a PC for...

[LeadWasp]

Windows OS is like a badly designed privy.  Early versions were outside ones that had a draught howling under the door and the toilet roll holder on the wall where it could get in the way of your elbows.  With each new release they may have cured the drafts but the roll holder is now out of reach on the back of the door, the damn thing doesn't flush and there's no bookshelf.  More importantly having got used to the concept of the throne itself being found at ground level they decided to put it high up on the wall in a dark corner!

Thank heavens ancient humankind didn't have to suffer an earlier incarnation of MS - just imagine the stone tools.....................

Edited January 24, 2019 by LeadWasp

[grrclark]

44 minutes ago, Westward said:

Just a little warning.

Yesterday at about 7 pm Windows decided to do this huge update. It should have happened months ago but they royally fouled it up and had to rework it to overcome the many issues it caused. Anyway, the point is that it took nearly 7 hours to complete, with the download taking most of that. Presumably their servers couldn't cope with the load as there's not much wrong with my internet connection.

This morning it took about 5 minutes to start up which I hope is just a one-off. ☹️

If only Android could do the relatively few things I use a PC for...

Get a Chromebook, it's pretty much just Android or any netbook type device 

[Westward]

39 minutes ago, grrclark said:

Get a Chromebook, it's pretty much just Android or any netbook type device 

It definitely has appeal - either that or a Galaxy Tab with keyboard but apart from the net and email I use Open Office and a couple of graphics programs. I also do some scanning and printing, some of which requires removable disk or memory stick storage. It's also very useful to be able hook up to the phone to transfer pics.

Not really Android territory I'm afraid.

[Westward]

1 hour ago, LeadWasp said:

Windows OS is like a badly designed privy.  Early versions were outside ones that had a draught howling under the door and the toilet roll holder on the wall where it could get in the way of your elbows.  With each new release they may have cured the drafts but the roll holder is now out of reach on the back of the door, the damn thing doesn't flush and there's no bookshelf.  More importantly having got used to the concept of the throne itself being found at ground level they decided to put it high up on the wall in a dark corner!

Thank heavens ancient humankind didn't have to suffer an earlier incarnation of MS - just imagine the stone tools.....................

When IBM came knocking on the door of MS, back in 1980, they were there because the owner of Digital Research was off sailing for the day and his wife wouldn't sign the NDA without lawyers present!

Bill Gates explained to the suits that MS was a compiler company, not an operating system company but IBM made him an offer he felt he couldn't refuse.

Gates should have listened to his own advice.

[RockySpears]

1 hour ago, Westward said:

Not really Android territory I'm afraid.

Au contraire!  Sounds like just the job for Android, depending of course what you want from graphics programs.  Wireless printing and scanning is very common these days as are spreadsheets and word processors. 

  You should take a closer look.  But not at a Chrome book, getting tied in like that with propriety stuff is not good, especially as I just read an article about Google looking to issue a new browser that would completely stop ad-blocking.  OK, Android is Google too, but it is a more open platform than a Chrome book.

 

RS

[grrclark]

2 hours ago, Westward said:

It definitely has appeal - either that or a Galaxy Tab with keyboard but apart from the net and email I use Open Office and a couple of graphics programs. I also do some scanning and printing, some of which requires removable disk or memory stick storage. It's also very useful to be able hook up to the phone to transfer pics.

Not really Android territory I'm afraid.

A chromebook would do all of that, the more niche stuff like graphics programs can be more limiting, but all perfectly doable.

Any laptop running Unbuntu linux will do everything you need and Android is just a derivation of linux really, as is Apple's OSX.

[Westward]

I've looked up wireless scanning and printing with android and at best it has pretty limited functionality. There's a big difference between printing off a pdf file or a text and utilising the printer's capabilities for image printing. As for operating a flatbed scanner I can't find much info at all.

Much as find myself annoyed by life with Windows 10 (3 more updates today for heaven's sake), Android doesn't come close enough at the moment and whilst I don't need to produce print ready output anymore and my graphics work is therefore much simplified, I can't see the PC going for a good while yet.

Whilst I appreciate the suggestions, I doubt Android was ever meant to be a desktop OS or will ever really compete in that marketplace.

 

[grrclark]

Android is really a derivation of Linux that was customised for mobile devices, but there are different Linux operating systems for pc’s. Apple operating system on the Mac is pretty much Linux.

By and large pretty much every ‘smart’ device or appliance you use runs on a variant of Linux.

So don’t think about it being Android as such, just a Linux platform.  Ubuntu is one of the most common and has excellent “Windows” like graphical interfaces.

If you want to play (for free) and see what it’s like then go to www.virtualbox.org and download a version of the app that runs on Windows 10.  It’s wrotten by Oracle so absolutely legit.

Install that and create a virtual PC on your existing machine.  It wont interfere with Windows.

visit Ubuntu.com and download a copy of that and install that as the operating system on the virtual machine you have created.

Loads of youtube guides that will show you what to do.

After that you can either run your pc as normal in Windows mode or you can run the Ubuntu VM.  That way you can work out if Ubuntu does everything you need (it will) and if you like it you can sack Windows off entirely and run a pure Ubuntu machine along with 50million other people in the world.

[Westward]

Thanks grrclark for taking the trouble to post the above.

As it happens I have 40+ years in and around the computer industry and I'm well aware of Linux - which is itself a subset of Unix - and that it's core size and efficiency make it the base OS of choice for all manner of devices.

As and when time allows I will look into the alternatives to Windows and of course like many these days, I do more and more with the phone. I no longer have any specialised devices attached and I'm down to just 1 PC so dumping MS may make sense. As said, I can't see Android ever being capable enough. Not bashing or anything but it is after all a phone OS and not intended as a desktop OS.