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Windows Microsoft Operating Systems

Microsoft Announces Windows 10 644

Today at a press conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the new version of their flagship operating system, called Windows 10. (Yes, t-e-n. I don't know.) With the new version of the operating system, they'll be unifying the application platform for all devices: desktops, laptops, consoles, tablets, and phones. As early leaks showed, the Start Menu is back — it's a hybrid of old and new, combining a list of applications with a small group of resizable tiles that can include widgets. Metro-style apps can now each operate inside their own window (video). There's a new, multiple-desktop feature, which power users have been demanding for years, and also a feature that lets users easily grab objects from one desktop and transfer it to another. The command line is even getting some love. The Technical Preview builds for desktops and laptops will be available tomorrow through the Windows Insider Program. They're requesting feedback from customers. Windows 10 will launch in late 2015.
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Microsoft Announces Windows 10

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:03PM (#48028915)

    Isn't that what Windows 8 was supposed to do? I am confused.

  • by jkrise ( 535370 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:03PM (#48028923) Journal

    Everyone knows the even number versions suck.

  • Windows OS X (Score:5, Insightful)

    by glennrrr ( 592457 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:05PM (#48028937)
    Sounds familiar.
    • by Art3x ( 973401 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @02:48PM (#48029877)

      Sounds familiar.

      Yes, they should use the Roman numeral and call this Windows X. Apple did it, and it was cool. Then they could call their next version Windows 10 Plus, or for short, Windows XP. Businesses will jump right on that one.

  • by ganjadude ( 952775 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:06PM (#48028943) Homepage
    based on previous rollouts, we are doomed. xp - good, vista - garbage. 7 good- 8 garbage. if we are skipping 9 (which historically would be the good release) and go to 10 will be a disaster! Someone needs to tell MS that users skip a generation of windows, not them!
    • by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:22PM (#48029119) Homepage

      Nah, it's fine. Every other release is garbage, not every odd number. How would you possibly try to figure out Microsoft's numbering, anyway? Their version numbers go from 3 to 95, jumps to 98, 2000, then goes to the lettering, ME and XP (are those roman numerals?). Then in goes to Vista. Now, lets be fair. 95 and 98 are the years, so let's just count. So 95 is version 4, 98 is version 5, 2000 is version 6, ME is version 8, XP is version 9, and Vista is version 10. So next comes 11, right? Nope, version 7.

      Ok, but some of those were professional builds, right? So let's just start from NT v4 and count major NT releases. 2000 is version 5, XP is version 6, Vista is version 7, and... wait.

      Wait, wait, I know, let's look at Microsoft's internal versioning numbers. NTv4 is version 4, 2000 is version 5, XP is version 5.1, Vista is version 6. Ok this is making sense, because next version after vista (v6) should be 7, right? Nope, Windows 7's internal version number is v6.1. Windows 8 is version 6.2. WTF?

      • by chuckugly ( 2030942 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:35PM (#48029235)
        Engineering, meet marketing.

        The internal version numbers are completely sensible, the marketing names are dreamed up by marketing people, what did you expect, logic?
    • It doesn't add up. Fruit - good. Cake - great. Fruitcake - nasty crap.
      Jim Gaffigan

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:07PM (#48028953)

    Truth stranger than fiction [infoworld.com]...

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:09PM (#48028975)

    I've been using JS Pager Virtual Desktop since the 1990's. It has all the features described here, and still works in Windows 7, even though it hasn't been updated since 2000.

  • by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:09PM (#48028985) Homepage Journal

    Is a re-sizable tile like a window?

  • by neilo_1701D ( 2765337 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:10PM (#48028995)

    From InfoWorld, April 1, 2013:

    If you've been looking forward to Windows 9, the OS that will fix what Windows 8 got wrong, you're in for a surprise: There will be no Windows 9. Instead, Microsoft announced it will proceed directly to Windows 10.

    "The Windows 9 internal beta was a phenomenal success," said Microsoft PR rep Cheryl Tunt. "I mean, it blew Windows 8 out of the water, and as we all know, Windows 8 is nigh flawless. After discussion at the C level, Microsoft has decided it will not mess with success and will leave Windows 9 exactly as it is. As such, work is now getting under way on Windows 10, which should see a public release."

    http://www.infoworld.com/artic... [infoworld.com]

    • by cptdondo ( 59460 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:20PM (#48029097) Journal

      Translation:

      It's such a screwed up mess that we don't know how to deal with it, so instead we're going to pull some marketing razzle dazzle and hope like hell people forget the mess we made.

      But the real question is this:

      If every other release sucks, and windows 8 sucked, and windows 9 is so good that it can't even be released, does that mean that Windows 10 will suck?

    • by Bogtha ( 906264 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:47PM (#48029335)

      Fuck everything, we're doing Windows 10.

      Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of operating systems in this country. Windows XP was the operating system to run. Then Apple came out with OS X. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called Windows Vista. That's Aero UI and a sidebar. For widgets. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened - the bastards went to mobile. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling a desktop operating system with a sidebar. Aero or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to Windows 10.

      Sure, we could go to Windows 9 next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, 8 worked out pretty well, and 9 is the next number after 8. So let's play it safe. Let's make a better UI and call it the Start Screen. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why!

  • No 9? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Retron ( 577778 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:11PM (#48028999)

    When I was a kid I remember reading that in Japanese, "4" sounded like death and "9" sounded like suffering. A quick bit of Googling 25 years on and:

    "[In Japanese] Nine is also sometimes pronounced ku, which can mean suffering."

    I'm guessing they skipped Windows 9 because they didn't want it to sound like "Windows Suffering" in parts of the world!

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Windows Nine is pronounced like the German "Windows Nein", which means Windows No.

    • Re:No 9? (Score:5, Informative)

      by baka_toroi ( 1194359 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @02:53PM (#48029903) Journal
      Windows 7 is "uindouzu sebun" (seven) in Japanese, and not "nana" or "shichi." Same goes for 8 (eito instead of "hachi"), So 9 would've been "uindouzu nain" and not "ku."
  • Windows 10, huh? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:13PM (#48029023)

    I guess they want version parity with MacOS? Or they want to put it in people's minds that this version of Windows is so much better than 8, they had to skip a version number.

    I just hope they listen to user feedback this time about the UI. If the Start menu is back, that's a good sign. I know a lot of people say it's a throwback, but the Metrofication of the familiar desktop was what caused our group to skip Windows 8 for inclusion in our product. (We provide a managed IT service to a very staid, boring industry that actively resists change.) I really really REALLY want Aero Glass or something like it back in the OS, or at least theming support that would allow a third party hack. Windows 8.1 Update 1 was pretty decent in terms of UI cleanup, and I hope they continue. Maybe they'll answer my other wish and fix the Office UI...having a background choice of white, bright white and insanely bright white is a killer on any screen larger than a tablet.

    We'll see if they learned their lesson with Windows 8. Hopefully by the time the release rolls around, the tablet/social/mobile bubble will have at least deflated a little, and people might be back down on Earth wanting to do actual work on a laptop or desktop. Windows 8 and Server 2012 R2 are actually really nice under the hood, and excellent upgrades to Windows 7 -- but they're hobbled by a clunky UI that I've only recently come to terms with.

  • by xepel ( 1573443 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:13PM (#48029027)
    I used to think that Microsoft's problems were due to leadership issues and completely ignoring their userbase's wants and needs...

    But no! Really, the problem is that they've been coding everything in base 9!
  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:13PM (#48029031)
    We can do a proper ten-point countdown to complete irrelevance.
  • by LVSlushdat ( 854194 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:14PM (#48029045)

    So let me get this straight.. what WAS going to be "Windows 9" is NOW "Windows 10"???? Idiot-central up there in Redmond.. Sooooo GLAD I retired from supporting MS's crap a few years ago.. Now I use Linux and damn glad about THAT!

  • by dysmal ( 3361085 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:16PM (#48029059)

    This reminds me of something my first boss told me: "Microsoft can't tell time. Have you ever seen how it counts down 3 minutes... 2 minutes... 7 minutes... 2 minutes... 1 minute...? They can't tell time!"

  • by NEDHead ( 1651195 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:23PM (#48029135)

    How long before I can reinstall Windows 95 and be up to date?

  • by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:24PM (#48029151)

    That's what Windows 10 looks like to me - a Camel. Mixing "traditional" apps with "Metro" tiles looks ridiculous. Why can't MS just leave Windows 8 behind? It was an experiment and it failed - massively. Yet they are still stubbornly handing on to "tiles" and such.

    On the bright side...

    1) Nice to see the Start Menu back...if only they could drop those stupid tiles.
    2) Multiple desktops is nice. Been using it on OSX and Linux forever. From what I can tell the functionality seems a bit limited in Windows 10 but it's a start.

    I've been using Windows 8 for about a year now on my home PC and, metro interface aside, it's great. Very stable, requires little in the way of resources. It looks awful but runs well. That's what Microsoft should be taking away from this. The guts of the system are fine. Fix the interface.

    What I'd like to see is something similar to Linux where you can choose the interface you want (Mint, KDE, etc.) from the login screen and it just loads it up. So if you're running a desktop with a big screen you get something that looks a lot like Windows 7. If it's a table or phone, give 'em tiles.

    This "one size fits all" approach is just an abomination.

    • by neilo_1701D ( 2765337 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:34PM (#48029213)

      2) Multiple desktops is nice. Been using it on OSX and Linux forever. From what I can tell the functionality seems a bit limited in Windows 10 but it's a start.

      Windows, since XP, has had this ability. You needed a SysInternals tool to enable it. But, finally, a welcome addition.

      I've been using Windows 8 for about a year now on my home PC and, metro interface aside, it's great. .... The guts of the system are fine.

      And that, my friend, is the great tragedy that is Windows 8. Underneath the flawed user interface is the best Windows NT system ever. Considering what it does, it uses less memory, is more stable, runs faster and is downright better than any Windows before.

  • by sootman ( 158191 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:33PM (#48029211) Homepage Journal

    Full list of planned features here. [apple.com]

  • by Spy Handler ( 822350 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:34PM (#48029219) Homepage Journal

    Windows: Next Generation

    Can be shortened to WiNG

    Maybe even a flying wing logo. (man oh man why didn't I become a genius advertising guru instead of a loser IT geek)

    And the version after this could be called Windows into Darkness

  • by Primate Pete ( 2773471 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:35PM (#48029237)
    MS Word jumped directly from version 2.0c to version 6, so that MS could catch up with WordPerfect.

    Oddly, changing the version numbering doesn't actually make the product better. Who'd have guessed that?
  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:36PM (#48029245)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by xeno ( 2667 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:45PM (#48029311)

    Wait... what? Multiple desktops, same apps behave properly as fullscreen tablet apps or desktop windows, snapping control, hybrid menus, launch/switch/end gestures (copied from WebOS and Unity), a task view with app and desktop preview... Every single one of these features has been out for years on Linux (and most on Android or OS X), in much more polished form. It's 2014 and the Windows team is just now figuring out how to have two window managers co-exist? How very retro!

    Windows 10 vs. Linux Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora/etc = iPhone 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy/Note series...
    The dominant/big-name brand is _years_ behind and floating forward on market momentum.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:49PM (#48029351)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Dear MS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @01:59PM (#48029443)

    One size fits all never worked. It doesn't with underwear, it doesn't even with socks. Sorry. Cutting corners here will only mean that your OS will be the WORST choice on ALL products. Because every other product in the market that is fitted to the type of device it is meant to run on will have a better suited interface and give the user a better experience.

    One size fits all is nothing but a mediocre compromise, and by definition inferior to any specialized solution.

  • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @02:15PM (#48029569)

    Given the history of Windows naming, MS likes to change the pattern after two versions:
    Windows 3.1
    Windows 3.11
    . . .
    Windows 95
    Windows 98
    . . .
    Windows ME
    Windows XP
    . . .
    Windows Vista
    . . .
    Windows 7
    Windows 8
    . . .
    Windows 10

  • Why not... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TomRC ( 231027 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @02:18PM (#48029599)

    Why not just merge the Start menu and the desktop once and for all, with all the best features of both?
    Hold down the Windows key to instantly hide all but the desktop.

    Basically like clicking in the lower right corner on Win7, but much faster, while bringing in some of the UI features from Win8.

    Get rid of the various "hover/slide in from the edge" Win8 conventions - put those options on the desktop.

    Make the task bar default visible only on the Desktop (optionally always visible, of course).
    For touch, keep a transparent Start button hovering in the lower left - hold touch on it if you don't have a Windows key/button to show the desktop.
    Apps could request true full screen to get rid of the button, of course.

  • by william.meaney1 ( 2732581 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @02:22PM (#48029629)
    That i can use CTRL-C and CTRL-V on the command line. Jesus christ...
  • Windows 10 (Score:5, Funny)

    by apcullen ( 2504324 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @03:02PM (#48029989)
    It's actually just a re-do of Windows 8, but they wrote it in octal.
  • by cjonslashdot ( 904508 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @04:43PM (#48030795)
    They should just liquidate the company and give the money back to the shareholders. ;-) Oh wait, Michael Dell said that about Apple.

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