The only things holding back people to Windows, I thought - IE and VB style client server apps. There are still ao many websites, specially banking and so-called inhouse web apps that rely on ActiveX and Craptive things on the Windows Ecosystem. So with Edge, the intrwebs will be forced to support a standards-compliant browser on the Windows desktop. Very good.

Once that is complete, the only reason for Windows on the desktop will be gone, and browsers like Firefox, Chrome and Opera - which are all standards-compliant, more so than IE at any rate; will become first class citizens again. And there will be nothing to hold back Linux in the Enterprises which have moved on from VB crap.

Good to hear.

the most obvious solution is to uninstall third party driver management and hand it all over to Windows Update to avoid clashes.

This is neither obvious nor desirable, never a solution. Windows is an OS written by Microsoft. Generally, Microsoft makes no hardware, yet, the OS runs on hardware.

So the obvious solution is for MS to publish and adhere to standards for device drivers interfacing and integrating with the OS, and keep shut. Otherwise, Microsoft should be the sole mfr. of all hardware that is supported by and on Windows.

H/w vendors aim to make money by making their products superior - faster, better resolution / frame rate / quality etc. So they tend to keep their innovations private. If MS demands all h/w mfrs to send their code to Seattle and get it certified for every version and release, the vendors would be afraid of backstabbing, and code, architecture, design reaching their competitors.

So only obvious way is to release a standards compliance OS and keep shut. Or else, like Linux, MS can open source their OS and allow the distribution makers to bundle the OS, h/w, appln s/w, printer drivers and updates to all of them. Or else MS must put up and shut up while ambitious companies like NVidia, Samsung etc. try to innovate..

Question: Who owns the device drivers for hardware?

In the Linux world, the h/w vendor publishes specs, or conforms to standards, so the kernel guys write drivers and merge it. The distributors like RedHat keep sending updated drivers.

In the Windows World, Microsoft seems to have deep distrust of h/w vendors, despite not making any hardware by themselves. MS does not enjoy any h/w vendor having control of the OS internals, but such control is essential for the h/w to work.

If MS published interface or device driver standards, and adhered to them, then again the device mfrs wouldn't have issues. But MS keeps changing WDDM, DirectX and other interfaces, very often and without prior notice to h/w guys.

Atleast in Linux, if somebody wanted to use a display h/w with just some poor standard such as VESA without any fancy acceleration stuff, they can get it without instability and proprietary shims and stuff. Windows users are doomed by design.

you might as well upgrade Ubuntu while you're you are contributing to the reversal of society.

You mean upgrading to Windows 10 contributes to progress in society? Thanks. I understand you are in some call center helping terrified people with their nightmarish Windows 10 upgrades, in the name of progress.

I'd rather downgrade myself to barbarism....

"what do you think of Win10" ... maybe it's a cute girl asking.

If a cute girl asks your opinion on Win10, you better find another cute girl who doesn't ask you stupid questions.

Oh... so you mean those who work need to stay updated on "Experiments" installing an operating system on a bloody hardware? I'm getting my work done on my Ubuntu14 desktop, thank you.

Please get the latest updates on when the first Windows 10 RTM version came out, when the release of RTM versions was stopped, when it was restarted, how Windows 10 installed on old hardware, how it gets installed on current hardware etc. etc. Too much work it seems. Might as well stay in the basement... than risk getting stuck with garbage operating systems that gets in the way of getting work done.

I guess MS still strongly feels this site gets so many eyeballs so it is worth relentless ads brazenly disguised as stories or Experiments... so inspire of Troll mods the site is worth defending...

We don't want no stinking Windows10 stories. Submitters, editors... leave us nerds alone.

the execution was mismanaged

I feel the execution was very well managed. Nokia was a failing and falling company, its biggest asset was the IP. Microsoft got hold of the IP for cheap, and used that to negotiate royalty bearing patent licenses with Android device makers. They pretended to make Windows Nokia phone 'cos otherwise they'd be accused of being NonPracticingEntities.

So now MS makes more money from Android phones than all Android mfrs put together.

And then Nokia is now executed along with Elop. Mission accomplished.

Now we wait for the RTFM version so we can start screaming obscenities.

Last 3 patches since October have all been nuisance to sysadmins. Time to look elsewhere.

In my company, we have 3 colleges, a hospital and software teams that have been using the same PCs for over 6 years now. About 800 of them.

All large companies have the same IP strategy and they behave exactly the same simply because they can.

Sorry. Google, Motorola, Samsung, etc. have used patents purely in defensive mode. Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Erricsson etc. are the litigious bastards.

If these patents would be worthless, they wouldn't pay anything in the first place.

When these patenting agreements were drawn up, Android had a much smaller marketshare. So rather than getting caught up in litgation, some large Android makers chose to pay. But not Motorola, and they are yet to pay a penny. Now that Android is the undisputed king in mobile and tablets, even Microsoft making Android devices through Nokia; there is not much compulsion to continue paying.

Phones and tablets do not replace desktops and laptops.
Agreed, they don't. However people hesitate a lot before upgrading the desktop OS. And desktops and laptops last more than 8 to 12 years, so not much revefnue for Microsoft from those markets. Hence my prediction that they are doomed.

What the large monies paid by Samsung indicates is the enormous mindshare and marketshare for Android. Windows on the mobile and tablet space is non-existent. For some years Microsoft might make money out of Android sales using these patent threats, being the litigious thugs they are.

But in a few years - say three at the max, Android makers will realise that these patents are really worthless, and back away from their agreements.

In any case a few billions in patent royalty is pocket change for Microsoft, and their bloated manpower will plunge them into the death spiral since Windows is becoming fast irrelevant in the only space it serves - viz, the desktop.

Everyone knows the even number versions suck.