what os are you using?

[Octal450]

Windows 10 is BABY, that's all I think.

I'd even prefer Windows ME over Windows 10. (shudders)

Regards,
Josh

[HJ1an]

Oh, it turns out I can vote again. So I went with Linux as well.

[Lydiot]

Win 7/10 & OSX. They're all great. They all suck. I don't have a bigger problem with W10 than any of the others.

If anything I'd say that Microsoft's concept is way ahead of the competition. It just needs "tuning". To have one OS that you can install on a bunch of different devices with an experience that is extremely similar across them then that's a really good thing. Having to continuously adjust to being on either portable touch or desktop is annoying me. And there are other things about the OS that are really interesting.

I used to think that why on earth would anyone want an "empty" laptop, but then I figured it out. The vision here is that not just your main device for communication but also for computation goes with you wherever you go. We're pretty quickly approaching a point where a large majority will never need more horsepower than what's available in a smartphone. So, since the screen is small, sell a Continuum-compatible "empty" laptop to go with it - a touchscreen/keyboard/touchpad that connects wirelessly to your phone and then acts like a laptop using those apps. It actually makes total sense. Why lug around a laptop that's heavier because of the electronics inside when you're already lugging around a computer in your pant pocket.

And then there's security that goes with it. By having only this one device store information locally you lower the risk of spreading information. So if you're a journalist or work for a company or whatever then while you're traveling for work you can connect your very light and thin laptop and connect it to your phone, and when you get to the office the company no longer has to provide expensive equipment and only a screen and a keyboard where you again connect using Continuum. If there's a raid on the office nobody can take information because it's on your phone (and in the cloud). Same with the laptop. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway, I'm rambling...

[Lydiot]

Oh, and I find the talk about MS spying to be incredibly overblown and hyperbolic.

[HJ1an]

Extra thought : if I can get my dad onto this poll, he'd be able to choose Punch Card and it'd be legitimate.

[KL-666]

That would be the perfect world, Lydiot. Keep your information to yourself on your mobile device. Yet still each and everyone wants us to throw our information into the cloud. And if we do not, we are lured into it by apps that want more permissions than they really need for their functionality.

All i can say is, stay aware, unless you do not care.

Kind regards, Vincent

[Lydiot]

Yeah, well I think the issue is that there are different types of information and different ways in which it's all handled.

For all the apps that "lure" people into sharing I think it's mostly due to the "social media" aspect of it. So people upload photos and media and data and it's all in the process of being social. And I agree btw that this is a bit of a problem for a lot of reasons. In some cases I think people can pretty much take the heat they receive, when they for example post nonsense that is really terrible and then get fired because of it.

But when it comes to business data I'm not so sure I think it's a problem. I mean, if I'm using MS office for work and personal purposes and it automatically backs up to the MS cloud, then how on earth would a third party app grab that data and disseminate it. We're talking about the number one provider of OS' for corporations, so I'm pretty confident that they've got their stuff together. There's going to be waaaaaay more important clients than me needing solid security from MS. I just can't see how it'd be a big problem without huge lawsuits as a result.

[J Maverick 16]

I always run FG on Windows but then my PC got some problems so now I'm using a 2011 27" iMac to do everything.
I hope to start building my own badass PC in some time, where I'll install Windows 7 and maybe Linux.
Regards, Mav

[KL-666]

Hello Lydiot,

Everyone must decide for themselves whether they deem the cloud safe enough for certain categories of data. You may be "pretty confident that they've got their stuff together", but others may decide otherwise.

The issue is, that the others are taken away their right to decide. This may be acceptable for a free app you willfully install, but it is totally unacceptable for an OS i purchase and use in my company. It should be completely silent if i find it necessary to protect my property, my corporate inventions i want to keep secret from competitors. In such case i really do not care what it sends, how harmless the information is, how discrete Microsoft handles it. It is a security risk a company may not want to have, so it must be possible to shut it up sending anything secretly.

Even with all privacy settings off, Windows 10 still contacts Microsoft's servers.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/

A respectable operating system has degraded to the level of a free app. Which makes it totally unacceptable to be used in a corporate environment.

Kind regards, Vincent

[Octal450]

@KL-666 Yup. My point exactly.

SpyBot AntiBeacon works well to prevent this however. But you must tell it to start on Windows Startup, because, Windows Update will revert all it's changes.

Josh