Posted on 01/09/2019 4:38:27 PM PST by dayglored
Quality Assurance? We've heard of it
Microsoft has doubled down on efforts to persuade users to migrate to Windows 10 by breaking Windows 7 networking for some.
Windows Server 2008 R2 is also affected.
While the last few monthly updates for the soon-to-be-obsolete OSes featured a known issue affecting an "unknown" number of "problematic configurations" that require manual reinstalls of network drivers, January's monthly update seems to have upped the ante somewhat.
2019's treat has seen some users finding their shares are now inaccessible, with RDP and other connectivity also suffering.
The issue, which affects both the bonzer monthly roll-up (KB4480970) and the more petite Security-only update (KB4480960, which has no known issues according to Microsoft at time of writing), leaves users receiving an INVALID_HANDLE when attempting to kick off a SMB2 connection.
A bit of sleuthing by a contributor posting on Administrator.de has pointed to the problem being related to Microsoft tweaking security settings in the update, with administrators on the host system being affected.
The post by "Andi" at Administrator.de reckoned it was down to "an extension of security".
This is of scant comfort to users who have had to back-out the patch to get connectivity up and running again. After all, there is important stuff in those updates that really needs to be installed.
The Administrator.de contributor suggested a possible solution, requiring a Registry change around Admin credentials.
Users have reported success, but The Reg has been unable to check it out for ourselves, so try it at your own risk. The usual health warnings apply: fiddling with the Registry could leave your system irrevocably borked.
Others have opted to uninstall and await an official fix to be emitted by Microsoft.
We contacted the Windows giant to find out when such a fix might be forthcoming, but have yet to receive a response.
In the meantime, a Reddit thread has popped up with users discussing their own experience of Microsoft's latest quality cockup, with one wag observing: "We are their QA and I think we do a fantastic job of finding problems. Just not pre-release."
Ouch. ®
My 2009 Win-7 Pro x64 is 100x better than that Win-10 garbage. And is flawless.
I have been running Win 10 for a year, and have yet to have a single crash, blue screen of death, or even a hiccup. Very stable.
Well, sort of. My own experience with WINE, back in its early days when it was a bunch of hacks thrown together to run Windows games on Linux, is that -IF- you were trying to run something that one of the hackers got running, you probably could make your thing run too. But if you were trying to run some arbitrary Windows application, and WINE hadn't been tweaked specifically for that application, chances of it running properly were dicey.
These days the situation is much better. CodeWeavers' "CrossOver" supported version of WINE is reputedly quite good.
Personally, I use a Windows VM (virtual machine) since I'm willing to spring for a Windows license.
I enjoy doing a little experimenting with operating systems so I do understand your enthusiasm. In the past, I have had many of our computers set up to dual or triple boot. For the past couple of years I have used virtual machines to accomplish basically the same thing largely because the Linux drivers for the latest generation intel CPUs and also video cards, touchpad, touchscreen, network adapters, sound cards and other systems have not been available.
We have one little 10 inch “convertible” that would be ideal for Linux but despite now being three years old, the drivers necessary still do not exist. And believe me I have tried... If you want to run Linux on new hardware and even some older hardware, you need to do research ahead of time to make sure that you will not be banging your head against a wall. Not everyone can have the best of both worlds.
I turned my Win 10 into a doorstop (I’ve had better doorstops), and bought another Win 7 refurbished system. Knock wood, but it’s been absolutely perfect for a year. I get pop-ups notifying me there are updates available, but now I’m inclined to continue ignoring them if MS is building in problems. I run MS Office 2003 Suite. It’s the only software I put in my carry-on when we relocated.
> Funny. They only just added SSH support this past year. Welcome to the 90s Microsoft! It is also good to see that they are finally getting around to adding a decent shell. Of course, it's BASH, but better late than never.
First, allow me:
Microsoft makes theI would opine that "the technological world" includes the Internet. The majority of the Internet is deevloped on, and runs on, something other than Microsoft products. Linux, mainly, with some BSD and Solaris Unix, and a few Macs.technologicalCORPORATE world go round.
Microsoft's developments (they love to call them "innovation" but it's mostly, like it is for most other outfits, just adaptation of other people's innovations) are done for the benefit of Microsoft and its product lines. With few exceptions (all recent), the technological world had two large components: Microsoft, and everyone else.
In recent years Microsoft has softened their hardass position somewhat, and that's great, and welcome.
It's ironic that Windows will soon become a subscription service, delivered from the Internet, most likely hosted on Linux servers (Akamai and so forth).
And when Windows eventually disappears, which it will, the Internet will keep cranking along just fine, but corporations will have to make major changes in their desktop/laptop deployments, backend MSSQL, SharePoint, and Exchange servers, Windows-dependent applications, and so forth. But they will do so, and Windows will become as much a memory as MSDOS and OS/2.
This is what I understood also from doing research and talking to linux users in the past. This why I opted for Dual boot, just in case there is something I absolutely have to have and need windows to run it.
But running the windows in a Linux VM is the best option because the VM OS is isolated from the rest of the machine if it gets cooties. And it is not a bad idea to isolate windows from everything else if you can. lol
Currently running a second clone Linux in a VM with a tunnel server to cruise the deep web for the same reason, nice to isolate from the core machine OS. Just delete and repeat, good to go. Nothing else is affected.
I have no doubt that what you predict will eventually come to pass, but I think that we have a long wait for this when it comes to the desktop and laptop segments of the market. Microsoft still provides the Operating Systems for 90% or more of that market. And this has not changed for decades despite similar speculation... for decades.
Microsoft has been trying to move to subscription based services for years. Office has been available as a subscription based service since 2013 I believe. And they push this option pretty hard when you buy a new computer with quite a bit of success apparently. But the OS market is a little more complicated for them and more risky I believe. To do it they have to convince the hardware manufacturers and vendors to go along. So far they have not been able to make the transition.
I think that it will be a hard sell... and when you already control 90% of the market is it really a good idea to rock the boat? Microsoft has been spending around $13 Billion dollars a year on R&D to stay ahead of the game, but Intel, Samsung, Google, and Amazon all spend similar amounts or more. Even Apple which is focused more on marketing, spends around $6 Billion a year. When this much money is being spent by competitors I just do not see Microsoft risking their ace in the hole, at least in the near future. Even with all this money being spent, it is still very hard to say when the next “game changing” development will come along and shake the whole order up.
How long has this been? Because I haven’t heard of any driver issues at all from the most recent Distros yet. From what I am reading drivers are updated almost daily. and there are many third party community sources. We will soon see, and I will get back to you on this.
May be loading a brand new machine up soon. I will be honest about issues if any come about with this install and will let you know in detail. These need to be shared pro or con for everyone considering this move.
I think there may be some myths out there preventing folks from giving it a try, these need to be proven true or false without question. The fear, hesitance, and myths need to be overridden.
Like I said in another thread about another topic it is human nature to fear change, always has been without reassurance it is a safe change. And I get that. But I am kicking myself in the rear for not making this change years ago. After dealing with Win 10... I am confident most will do the same if they do.
It’s like moving from the city to the country, While you might think you miss a few minor conveniences, The overall ambiance and lack of chaotic hustle bustle hassles and BS becomes absolutely priceless. :)
I was active back when the corporate model was "central server with terminals" through the late 60's, 70's, and well into the 80's.
I was very active when personal computer model invaded the corporate domain and largely replaced the earlier model with distributed machines with networking and centralized storage.
And I have been very active as broadband has allowed the internet/cloud model to replace the personal computer model, both for consumers and corporate customers. Simpler devices like tablets, Chromebooks, etc. are making serious inroads as more and more compute and storage resources are made remote. The necessity of having a lot of horsepower on one's own desk is disappearing for the majority of corporate users, and has already passed the midpoint for home users.
It's not circling back around to the 60's-70's model -- it's creating yet another new model, where the important features are communications and access to shared resources. The requirements at the user's end are high-speed connections, and a local device. But that device need not have an operating system that is visible to the user, in fact it's much better if the OS is unavailable to the user. Just apps and access.
Visible, interactive operating systems are already becoming irrelevant for most home and corporate users. Most everything can be done equally well on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and a variety of embedded OSes. (There are exceptions, of course, such as high-end engineering and software development.)
I predict that the Windows OS as we know it today, along with MacOS, will morph into a largely invisible application platform in less than 5 years, and will be essentially gone in less than 10 years. MacOS is most of the way there already. Linux will remain as a niche OS, because it's where most engineering and software development are done most effectively.
Thanks, I’ll just wait.
Well, sorry that you haven't heard about any driver issues from the latest “Distros”. My latest laptop is nearly a year old, it is an HP with an Intel 8th generation core processor, a Radeon video card, and a touchscreen. I follow the forums on this and I have read of no one who has claimed to have Linux running properly in a native environment on this family of laptops. I like others who run Linux on it use it in a virtual environment. It is the same with my little 10” “convertible that is 3 years old. Some of the components do not have Linux drivers.
Occasionally, I will read a story saying that the latest Linux “distro” of this or that will do it on “any computer”, but every time that I have tried... its turned into a waste of time with various features not working properly even after hours of troubleshooting.
If you want to run Linux on a “newish” computer you need to do some research especially if you don't already own it.
I have heard similar predictions many times. And I am certain that you are essentially correct. But I unlike you I have no idea of the timeframe involved.
I remember well maintaining a bunch of PCs with monochrome monitors with 640K of RAM and 10GB hard drives. Their primary software was Word Perfect and Lotus 123 with a menu system that started the programs with batch files that I wrote. They seemed quite powerful compared to the Timex Sinclair 1000, the TI-99/4a, the Spectravideo MSX, and even the Commodore 64 computers I had at home at the time. Tablets, Chromebooks, and other low powered devices intended for content consumption certainly have made inroads. Even an 8” Amazon HD Fire Tablet which is on sale for $50 every month or so can be useful communication devices when paired with a keyboard . But Windows still reigns supreme when the game is stepped up just a bit into standard laptop and desktop computers. People like having powerful hardware for various reasons, and the power doesn't cost very much these days. I don't see any signs of that that changing in the next 5 years, but I have been wrong before. So we shall see.
Just installed linux on my wife’s brand new HP 1 month ago, running absolutely fine so far. Something to remember about HP, They are not like other computers. They are extremely propitiatory by design right out of the box. They are just like MS, it’s always theirs and never yours no matter what YOU would like to do with it.
Man I hate HP... Owned a lot of them and they were all junk because of HP user permissions policies. Trust me... if it’s an HP, it’s not always the hardware or drivers. It’s the firmware permissions and propitiatory agreements between MS and HP. I had to call and raise hell with HP to get the linux loaded in my wife’s. After a few manual changes with instructions from a tech to override the firmware block I was good to go.
If you own an HP and are a bit techy, still under warranty or not, flash that firmware so that it doesn’t “know” it’s an HP and your life will be much happier in the long run. :)
“PCs with monochrome monitors with 640K of RAM and 10GB hard drives. Their primary software was Word Perfect and Lotus 123”
Just want to point out that it looks like we have both been at this game for about the same amount of time. I actually still have a wyse terminal in storage.
I definitely share your feelings about HP. I might just give it a try... using your tip. Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of applications that I have decades of experience with that for me have no real Linux substitutes. And the applications that are very demanding need to run in a native environment for efficiency, so Windows will remain the primary OS.
I have basically never gotten rid of a piece of computer hardware or software for that matter. I must admit to being a hoarder of defunct technology. We are going to be moving in a few months from a place with almost unlimited storage. So I have got to start getting rid of a bunch of old computer hardware and even software. I have got tons of stuff backed up on tapes; I don't know if the drives will even still work.
I have got all these perfectly good old CRT monitors, monochrome, CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA, up to great big ones. I guess they are going to need to go to the recyclers, but it feels like a shame. I think some of the old “home” computers and expansion boxes are actually worth a little money on eBay but I don't want to pay for storage for them for very long.
Absolutely understandable my friend, But please remember that your particular situation is not the situation of the “average” user. And actually to be truthful mine is not either. But I put myself in the shoes of an average user and see a whole lot of advantages with linux over MS. For most... Actually finally fully owning what they paid for without the MS BS be might quite important. I know it was for me on principle alone. :)
Man... That sounds like me. I have all kinds of old stuff. Single sided drives, Radio Shack “Color Computers” and lots of dinosaurs.
So I am kind of in the same boat. Here is something you might look into... It hit me a couple weeks ago that movie production “propmasters” might actually be interested in this old stuff at a “make me an offer” situation. :)
I’m trying to figure out what I am going to do with mine too. Last resort, they are getting mined for precious metals. The older stuff had much more gold, silver, and paladium. lol
“but it’s old such cool stuff!” lol
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