I can live with Win10 on a (non-touch) laptop.
I also looked at the Win8 preview - wouldn't spit on it if it was on fire. I need Windoze because that's what a lot of corporates (also) use. I currrently only use Win7, but a quick initial look indicates I can manage Win10 if I have to.

Yeah, and it seems that PV did that for a precise reason, i.e. because of the marketing "version jumps" of other major distributions. Those tricks in fact caused Slackware to be perceived as "outdated" by people who didn't know much about Linux. Previously, in 1996, Slackware 3.1 had been re-branded "Slackware 96".

Why the jump from 4 to 7?
This is Slackware Linux 3.1.0 (Slackware96)

I believe it's actually 10th iteration.

Because 7 8 9


Anyway, I heard from the tech show podcast that windows 10 has similarities to some ubuntu/linux features.

Windows 10 copied some design concepts like: virtual desktops, a new universal search that pulls results from the web and a compiz-like effect when closing and opening windows.

I really don't like that everyone uses the word copied especially when referring to technologies that are pretty old on their own like multiple desktops that come from Amiga and BeOS. MS didn't copy that from Linux because they predate Linux they implemented their own version of them.

I think the folks at the tech show podcast meant MS copied the ideas from the linux desktops and not the source code of those features. Anyway, in this day in age, everybody is copying ideas from somebody which explains all those patent lawsuits between MS, Apple, Google, Sansung, Oracle and many others...

And linux copied it from Amiga and BeOS, I think OS/2 had them too. It's not a linux idea to be copied it's far older than that.

Windows 8.1's GUI is a turd, but it's still a more usable turd than the latest offerings from the gnome project...

I asked this in an earlier post in this same thread: why would someone make a GUI less intuitive by actively hinding things?. That was focused at W8, but you are totally right about Gnome. At least I think that is what comes with Ubuntu nowadays? I am talking about Unity. Last year I bought a netbook for my wife and it came with Unity. I almost suffered a nervous breakdown and a divorce because I still don't get what the idea behind those tiles is on the left side of the screen. I couldn't find all programs I needed and the things shifted up and down when I opened or closed applications.

It seems that both the W8 developers and the Gnome developers are convinced that a GUI should be a mystery game.

Compare this with KDE: big start button, if you press it you get a menu with meaningful names and different tabs indicating they might show what you need. And very prominent on top: a search field.

Now KDE has a few other (not so minor) shortcomings, but not the idea how to expose as much as possible of where your tools are.

jlinkels

I saw something earlier today...suppossedly from a MS dev...
http://www.techradar.com/news/softwa...nflict-1267580

Of course, the article contains refrences which potentially contradict this...but here is is anyway.

Apparently, a lot of developers used something like
And since "Windows 9" would also fit the criteria, it would attempt to run code designed to run on Windows 9x.

Again, the credibility of this is very shaky, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Actually no. You are assuming that Microsoft uses base 10 arithmetic. Microsoft actually uses base 9 arithmetic. So the Microsoft number sequence is 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21, . . .

------------------------
Steve Stites

So true, cynwulf!

And some of the new features in Windows 10 are just just halfass versions of what already exists in every other operating system for many years.

I guarantee you that each one of these new "features" (like virtual desktops) will be implemented only barely usable.

Microsoft is not known on getting features right or implementing them well (*cough* paper clip or icons disappearing from the system tray). Look how long it took for Internet Explorer just to get tabs. And how many years did people beg for such a simple feature? No they always work on stupid crap that no one will ever use (we made this new API for businesses to be able to ... or you can save all your stuff from the "cloud!" i.e. our servers so we own your data and sell it to advertisers).

If Microsoft really cared, they would go back to the Pre-Windows 95 days where they did a MASSIVE amount of usability studies to determine what people liked/needed/wanted and found easiest to use. Windows 95 was their best upgrade ever. But when is the last time Microsoft cared enough to do that again? Right? How about skins and the ability for people to make skins? How many years have people begged for that? Or how about a decent built in paint program or notepad improvements? I could go on all night with stuff that would make a new Windows a #1 sale overnight.

Linux is a better operating system in every way (except, like cynwulf pointed out, the horrible garbage from gnome the last several years that Linux Mint corrected and became the most popular distribution - or that stupid egotistical "cashew" in KDE because they don't want choice when it comes to putting a sperm cell on your desktop wallpaper).

The only thing Windows has on Linux is the software made by 3rd party companies - like Sony Vegas or Adobe Photoshop or high end games. But, then again, that has nothing to do with the OS and everything to do with those companies not providing software or drivers for Linux.

Remember that not all of us believe that a big start menu button is the the sign of a good GUI. There are more than a few of that even while working in Windows don't use the big start button we prefer keyboard shortcuts to menu, sub-menu. The Windows 8 GUI while not perfect, to me was better than the 7 GUI.

The point is, a GUI should not actively hide entries. If you think a GUI should be hiding entries, we disagree strongly.
I also know GUIs which do not have a start button like some of the lightweight WMs in Linux. But entries are no further away than a right mouse click or something obvious like that. That is fine.
In W8 I have to call a collegue at the other side of the ocean to find out how to start an application. I never had to do that in any well designed GUI, which include W2k, WXP, W7, Fluxbox, IceWM, LXDE, KDE, Gnome2.

jlinkels

It doesn't actively hide anything it's simply not a mouse based GUI it's keyboard/touch based.