Windows 10 free: Why is Microsoft giving away its new operating system?

[SteveRiley]

Oh my. Installing a torrent network by default. What could possibly go wrong.

It isn't BitTorrent. It's an extension of a server feature called BranchCache, which has been part of Windows Server for a long time.

Let's take a look at a certain FAQ:

Delivery Optimization works in two ways.

Download updates and apps from other PCs
In addition to downloading updates and apps from Microsoft, Windows will get updates and apps from other PCs that already have them. You can choose which PCs you get these updates from:

PCs on your local network. When Windows downloads an update or app, it will look for other PCs on your local network that have already downloaded the update or app using Delivery Optimization. Windows then downloads parts of the file from those PCs and parts of the file from Microsoft. Windows doesn’t download the entire file from one place. Instead, the download is broken down into smaller parts. Windows uses the fastest, most reliable download source for each part of the file.

PCs on your local network and PCs on the Internet. Windows uses the same process as when getting updates and apps from PCs on your local network, and also looks for PCs on the Internet that can be used as a source to download parts of updates and apps.

Send updates and apps to other PCs
When Delivery Optimization is turned on, your PC sends parts of apps or updates that you’ve downloaded using Delivery Optimization to other PCs on your local network, or on the Internet, depending on your settings.

The logical setting, of course, is the former. The default (for non-enterprise) is the latter. Ugh. I disagree with this decision. Not because I worry about tampering: updates are digitally signed. I don't like it because it will increase the amount of traffic entering and leaving J. Random User's home network for no necessary reason.

A cynical person would point out that the question asks "Can it do it?" and the answer is not, "No it can't", it is "it doesn't".

Yeah, I saw that.

---

OK boys and girls, I'm not going to spend hours dreaming up defenses (in some cases) or criticisms (in other cases) of various features in Windows 10. Please promise me this: when you read something that sounds hyperbolic, it probably is. Fire up Google and do some research on your own. Look for the truth -- it's usually out there. Kthxbi.

[SteveRiley]

What if your internet connection goes down? How are you going to use the services then?

I have enterprise use cases in mind here. Enterprise cloud services include certain capabilities that distinguish them from "free" services aimed at consumers.

* Service level agreements. Customers are paying for service; if something becomes unavailable, the provider loses money.

* Many connection points. Large cloud providers have hundreds of Internet connection points. Most businesses have redundant connections and design their networks for common failure scenarios.

* Offline usability. In today's business environment, you have connectivity almost all the time. For those rare occasions when you don't, good cloud services can stream content and applications to local devices. This is a feature of Office 365, for instance. And as Microsoft makes improvements to Office, those improvements are trickled down to your PC in the background. You never need to perform a forklift upgrade again.

Extend the above notion to servers. Many months ago, Microsoft updated Exchange Online from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013. Most customers didn't even notice. And yet one day, voila -- new features in your subscription.

What if your internet connection goes down? How are you going to use the services then?

Now let's consider the context of home users. A similar claim could be made: move your stuff to the cloud of your choosing, because it's going to have greater uptime and more security than J. Random User can build. Most of us even have two Internet connections: your primary one is your ISP that's connected to your router. Your secondary one is your mobile phone's data plan. I haven't (yet) had an outage on my CenturyLink gig fiber. But if I do, I can turn my phone into a router and get pretty decent 50 mbps throughput, thank you T-Mobile.

Now, why does the guy who runs his own Postfix server and ownCloud instance make the above recommendation? Because I don't trust the "free" (scare quotes intentional) services. I'm not the customer, I'm the product. Why don't I use a commercial cloud service? I'm a cheap bastard and I love tinkering with servers. J. Random User should never, ever, look at /etc/postfix/main.cf!

The Chromebook is a good idea, but when you lose internet connection it becomes a useless piece of hardware that you can't do anything with.

That's an implementation flaw, not a criticism of cloud-everywhere. Remember what I wrote before about "free" services. If you're using a Chromebook and you aren't connected to the Internet, Google isn't making any money off you. So of course they'll make it behave this way.

[ronw]

Oh my. Installing a torrent network by default. What could possibly go wrong.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...timization-faq

"In addition to downloading updates and apps from Microsoft, Windows will get updates and apps from other PCs that already have them."

"PCs on your local network and PCs on the Internet. Windows uses the same process as when getting updates and apps from PCs on your local network, and also looks for PCs on the Internet that can be used as a source to download parts of updates and apps." (emphasis added)

"When Delivery Optimization is turned on, your PC sends parts of apps or updates that you’ve downloaded using Delivery Optimization to other PCs on your local network, or on the Internet, depending on your settings."

"Which versions of Windows 10 have Delivery Optimization turned on by default?
Delivery Optimization is turned on by default for all editions of Windows 10, with the following differences:

Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education: The PCs on your local network option is turned on by default.

All other editions of Windows 10: The PCs on your local network and PCs on the Internet option is turned on by default. (emphasis added)"

"Can Delivery Optimization access my personal files?
Delivery Optimization doesn’t access your personal files or folders or change any files on your PC."

A cynical person would point out that the question asks "Can it do it?" and the answer is not, "No it can't", it is "it doesn't".

[SteveRiley]

Windows Defender -- and adequate anti-virus protection for Windows 10? Expert opinions?

I used to be a supporter of Microsoft's own security tools, but I no longer am. A neighbor down the street got hit with a slew of drive-by malware that Defender and Security Essentials (on Windows 7) completely missed. I used MalwareBytes and Hitman Pro to clean the machine.

[SteveRiley]

W10 has a keyboard logger! ... THAT reason alone is enough never to run W10.

Not so bad as that, Jerry. See my earlier reply.

[SteveRiley]

Somehow this looks like a big collection of spyware

Cortana collecting data. how else will it do what it does? "Cortana, call Alice." It has to look at contact details to find Alice's phone number. Cortana executes not locally on your phone (not nearly enough computational power) but instead in Azure, Microsoft's cloud. BTW: Siri and Google Now behave the same.

Real-time protection. Some third party software still requires disabling malware scanning to install. Automatic re-enabling helps protect the computer and overall increases safety of the Internet. "Herd immunity" in PCs matters just as much as it does in humans.

No option to disable updates. Yeah, this one bugs me. Of course, do remember that you're looking at screenshots from the preview edition. To maximize the value of the preview, updates need to be kept current. I wonder if the actual release has the ability to disable updates. I don't feel like Googling at the moment, heh.

App and content suggestions in the Start menu. Yeah, this is dumb. Nobody wants this; some product manager on the Windows team got funded by advertisers to push this little turd, I bet.

Gripe about cloud services. The claim is true: Windows 10 will behave better when integrated with their services, for certain definitions of "better." Just like Android phones behave better when integrated with Google, and iThings behave better when integrated with Apple. Some people like this extra functionality, some don't. Shut it off if it bothers you.

Key logger. It's actually not a key logger. Instead, the preview edition samples keystrokes "for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spellcheck features" (source). It is well known that the preview has this. The release version does not. The whole point of a technical preview is to study how people use a system. You shouldn't use an unfinished operating system to, for example, log into your bank. Duh.

Wi-Fi Sense. It doesn't share actual passwords. Furthermore, the first time you connect to a network, you have to grant permission for that connection to be shared. There is no "pay it forward"; if Alice shares a connection with Bob, Bob can't share it with Carol. It's not the security risk that some people complain about, but I can certainly imagine implementation bugs that might enlarge a computer's attack surface. Still, though, it's another example of a feature that no one actually wants. How many people in your Hotmail/Outlook contact list ever visit your house?

Telemetry. This is indeed a dumb "feature," given how it's implemented.

[GreyGeek]

Windows Defender -- and adequate anti-virus protection for Windows 10? Expert opinions?

For the price it can't be beat, but you get what you pay for.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1926596,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1926596,00.asp

Of the ten products included in the latest report from Dennis Technology Labs, Microsoft was the only one that didn't receive certification at any level. On a scale where 300 is a perfect score, Microsoft earned negative 86 points. It did manage a perfect score on the false positives test, meaning that it didn't block any legitimate programs.

PC Mag recommends Panda Free Antivirus 2015.

[Qqmike]

Windows Defender -- and adequate anti-virus protection for Windows 10? Expert opinions?

[GreyGeek]

W10 has a keyboard logger!

That means that MS, and any other agency they give such info to, will know your login name and password for every online account you access through W10. "They" could log into your accounts and browse around or do anything they wanted and it would look like YOU did it. IP addresses are available only to MS and law enforcement agencies. They are not likely to finger themselves. THAT reason alone is enough never to run W10.

[reyfer]

Do you have a larger, high resolution version of that?

http://cdn.overclock.net/d/d9/d9fcbaaa_QP5DBAz.jpeg

There is simply no justifiable reason for not using the cloud now for routine (and even not so routine) corporate IT.

What if your internet connection goes down? How are you going to use the services then?

The Chromebook is a good idea, but when you lose internet connection it becomes a useless piece of hardware that you can't do anything with.

[SteveRiley]

Somehow this looks like a big collection of spyware

Do you have a larger, high resolution version of that?

[reyfer]

Somehow this looks like a big collection of spyware

[SteveRiley]

Doing all your work via the cloud makes your efficiency dependent on the speed and reliability of your internet connection and the speed of your browser. And it's security as well. In effect the browser becomes your Client interface and your OS. Catastrophic weather, solar storms, hackers and gov intrusions become your major threats. On the good side you can carry your "computer" on a memory stick and fire up a secure Linux Live USB and work from any box without its bug infested system bothering your work!

True. However, over the years a body of sound cloud architecture has arisen that mitigates most of these concerns. Interestingly, when properly designed, workloads placed in clouds can achieve 100% uptime. Geographic redundancy, the elimination of dependencies using message passing schemes, automatic scaling up and down for on-demand elasticity, and appropriate use of encryption and digital signatures make the cloud a more resilient place than traditional on-premises IT.

These will be useful reading if you'd like to learn more. They are from AWS's Architecture Center. Many of the principles apply to other clouds, too.

• Cloud architecture best practices
• Building fault tolerant applications
• Highly available and scalable web hosting
• Security best practices

[GreyGeek]

...

Subscriptions eliminate a lot of this unnecessary work. Fire up your web browser, go to $EMAIL or $WORDPROCESSOR, and enjoy the latest version continually updated as necessary. The security is better, the availability is better. There is simply no justifiable reason for not using the cloud now for routine (and even not so routine) corporate IT.

When I first started working at the dept of revenue the head of IT, who was in charge of maintaining the Novell Network, didn't have a clue about what he was doing. Almost every week we could count on a half a day vacation, albeit at work, because the net was down and our tools and data were not accessible. I moved copies of my dev tools, source and databases to my workstation HD so I could continue to work while he educated himself. Moral: you get what you pay for so choose your cloud wisely.

Doing all your work via the cloud makes your efficiency dependent on the speed and reliability of your internet connection and the speed of your browser. And it's security as well. In effect the browser becomes your Client interface and your OS. Catastrophic weather, solar storms, hackers and gov intrusions become your major threats. On the good side you can carry your "computer" on a memory stick and fire up a secure Linux Live USB and work from any box without its bug infested system bothering your work!