Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Tech Corner

5/3/2017

0 Comments

 
You may have seen headlines today about an announcement by Microsoft for a new operating system called Windows 10 S, and wondered, "Say what???!!  Is this something I need???"

Since I figure that most people won't read past the headlines, I figure that I'd chime in with some basic explanations.  Please know that I don't know all that much about it, haven't seen it, and have questions myself.  But that aside, here we go --

The simplest answer:  Windows 10 S has value, and no, you don't need it.  For most people, you can stop reading right here.  But if you want to know more, read on, MacDuff.

To explain what Windows 10 S is in a bit more detail than that... -- it's a version of Windows 10 that offers more security, ease of updating and fewer options, mainly made to compete in the low-end systems for the education market.  There are other uses for it, but the education market (which is right now ruled by Chromebooks) is the Holy Grail.

Why it's so secure and easy to upgrade is because Windows 10 S requires that a user ONLY get its system's software downloaded from the Windows Store.  Everything is checked there for security, and so you know that anything downloaded from it is safe.  And this also allows the software there to be automatically updated and pushed to the users systems.  If this sounds draconian, though protective, keep in mind that in many ways this is like how the Apple Store operates.

There are a great many apps in the Windows Store now, but many programs that aren't.  Microsoft offers third-party developers software that eases conversion of their apps so that they will fit in the Windows Store, so the number of programs that exist will grow.  But there will still be major programs that aren't available.  At the moment, for instance, the Chrome browser and Quicken don't exist in the Windows store.  Microsoft's own Edge browser is the default browser in Windows 10 S, and is basically set to remain the default browser.  Though if Chrome adapts its browser for the Windows Store, then it will at least be available.

If this sounds like Windows RT, that misguided effort from Microsoft...in many ways, it is like Windows RT.  Though with improvements.  More on that in a moment.

A few random thoughts based on very little information about Windows 10 S, and a great deal of ignorance about the education market:
 
This seems a poorly named product.  While I personally like the clean name, I think most consumers will be bewildered by it.
 
Despite Microsoft’s insistence to the contrary at the launch of the product, it seems like this is of value almost solely to the education market.  That’s not inherently a bad thing at all, but it seems like Microsoft should be more forthright about it – not as a matter of honesty, but rather because of marketing and clarity.
 
Windows 10 S seems like a great concept that’s incredibly limited to most of the public, and until there are more apps in the Windows store – most-especially including the Chrome browser – it is indeed (despite the different name) Windows RT.
 
Having said that, being Windows RT today doesn’t appear to be the problem it was when Windows RT was introduced.  At that point, Microsoft put out two near-identical products (Windows 8 and Windows RT), each of which were very different from what was then the norm, while each being similar to one another.  It totally confused the public.  Today, however, Windows 10 is pretty well-established, so introducing a new piece of software based on it seems less a confusing issue.  It will still be confusing, but not at the monumental level that Windows RT was.
 
Because I don’t know the education market very well, the value of creating this product has me scratching my head somewhat, but since I accept that the education market must be massive, I can see value if they handle it right (see above…)  and get more apps in the Windows 10 store.  

But again, for most people, you can totally, completely, utterly ignore it.  It's not meant for you.

If you want to read more about Windows 10 S from a much more knowledgeable standpoint -- yet easy to follow in human English -- I pass along two articles about it by my friend and Windows maven Ed Bott, who writes for ZDNet and wrote the official Microsoft book on using Windows 10.

This article here is "What is Windows 10 S."

And this article by Ed here looks into why Microsoft developed the software to compete with Chromebooks in the education market.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Busienss
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like