NO - Windows versions

[Bastiaan Olij]

Owh Mike, what a can of worms to open :)

Windows 10 is definitely heaps better then Windows 8 and the time is
approaching fast where applications are starting to use the new features
in Windows 10 making Windows 7 something that eventually won't suffice.
It's hard to let go of Windows 7 because that was a really good version
of Windows IMHO.

So far on the machines I've got Windows 10 running I've been pretty
happy with performance. So far the buzz I've gotten from others and
which seems anecdotally 'confirmed' by my own experience is that an SSD
as a system disk is a must for Window 10, it does seem to do far more
disk access then Windows 7 did.
I'm planning to install an SSD in my 4 year old Dell Alienware laptop
soon for this reason as a mate of mine has almost the same laptop but
with an SSD and it runs markably faster then mine does.
It's also a bit more memory hungry so don't skimp on memory. Both
machines I use regularly have 8Gb which many say is on the low end but
it works fine for me.

In contrast, my daughter is running it on an underpowered netbook with
only 4Gb of memory and a small SSD drive and for the most part it
actually runs surprisingly good considering the low specs of the machine.

>From a security perspective you have to realise Microsoft has
overstepped a few boundaries. There are a few feature turned on by
default which you probably want to turn off. There are a few guides out
there that step you through the worse of them but one I was reminded off
just last night (though I had it turned of already) was this wonderful
feature that shares your WIFI password with your friends just in case
they come to your home and want to share your internet trouble free. I
can't remember what the other issues were but there are a few things
that are smart to turn off out of the box, definitely in the area of
Cortana and how much Microsoft records on searches and voice commands.
Bonus of visiting a mate who is very security conscious :)

The important thing for us with expensive internet is that by default
Windows 10 shares patches within your network. In theory it should not
go outbound unless you allow it but you might find your laptop uploading
patches to users nearby and eating up your bandwidth and data allowance.
Its a great feature for say an office network or when you live in one of
those places in the world where high speed internet comes cheap and you
feel like a good Samaritan but here in Oz.....
I had a friend who had to use one of those 4G dongles for internet and
she blew through 4 Gigs of data within a couple of hours because of this
nifty feature, that was an expensive day for her. In that same line, as
Doug mentioned in his email, the automatic updates are aggressive. Not a
big deal if you're on fast internet, but potentially costly in Oz's
internet culture.

>From a user perspective I'm not the right person to judge. I'm too used
to a Mac so each time I use Windows it frustrates me that it works
differently. For the most part it just works differently but I do find
that I fight a lot more with the OS then I used to when I was working on
Windows 7. I think this is mostly just a matter of getting used to the
OS. So far those of my friends who are heavy Windows users have told me
they are fairly pleased with Windows 10 and think its an improvement on 7.

My main complaint would be that they really screwed up the start menu.
Yes its a magnitude better then Windows 8 which was a complete fiasco in
this respect but even with bringing it more back to the older start menu
it still just feels clunky. Like they tried to mix and match way to many
features into a menu that should work straight forward.
On the flipside, while I haven't tried the voice control part of it,
Cortana is a nice tool and I find I used that far more to start up
applications then I use the start menu. While it has its quirks
generally speaking it easily finds generally hard to reach apps,
especially the settings related apps for which you normally need to
navigate through several wizardy like windows. One little anecdotal
quirky thing here was something a friend showed me last night where he
tries to find and start his VNC program. Type in VN and the top result
is the VNC app that he wanted to find. Type in VNC and it doesn't find
it but it finds a link to a website where he can download another VNC tool.

Anyway, enough ranting, time for work:)

Cheers,

Bas

On 30/11/2016 3:38 PM, Mike Rowan wrote:
> Please forgive my non-Omnis question, but I need a reliable non-biased
> opinion (being a Mac only person myself):
>
> My son needs a laptop for work (just routine office stuff).  Limited funds.
> His local PC 'expert supplier' has told him not to get Windows 10 because 7
> is much better.
>
> My local retailer is saying Windows 7 is no longer supported, get 10 - its
> perfectly OK.
>
> What is the truth/best advice here?  Thanks in advance.
>
> Mike
> _____________________________________________________________
> Manage your list subscriptions at http://lists.omnis-dev.com
>
>


-- 
Kindest Regards,

Bastiaan Olij
e-mail: bastiaan at basenlily.me
web: http://www.basenlily.me
Skype: Mux213
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bastiaanolij