Too good for a number scheme, Windows 10 announced for 2015

[Xeogred]

For those who didn't upgrade, is it save to update again without that crap happening?

[bmoc]

Something I learned while I was at Amazon is that people don't actually understand how to use a computer; they simply understand that if they take this precise series of steps then they get where they want to go. If anything about that changes then they're utterly lost.

About 5 years ago, I had to work with a guy that no idea what a search engine was. When he went somewhere on the internet, he just clicked links from his homepage until he got there. He didn't know what bookmarks/favorites were either. So what did they do with this fine individual? Well they put him in charge of the theatre department, naturally. The education industry is a funny place.

[Tanooki]

^^Exactly which is why you find in any 'good' teachers desk the 'Teachers Key' version of the school book with all the answers so they don't look stupid in front of the class.

[MrPopo]

^^Exactly which is why you find in any 'good' teachers desk the 'Teachers Key' version of the school book with all the answers so they don't look stupid in front of the class.

You realize that's not a new thing, right?

[isiolia]

The barrier of entry has gone down. Someone who's savvy with Windows can be utterly lost on a command line because you generally don't need to use one in Windows.

It's partly that, but I think a lot of it winds up being a lack of adaptation. I remember having customers in the 90s that were lost with Windows 95, but knew DOS. Hardened fans of Mac OS or Windows often don't know the ins and outs of anything else. The Windows 98, er, Windows XP, um, Windows 7? holdouts that simply can't do the newer one for some reason (being fair, I stuck with Windows 2000 for a long time because XP had product activation )

At one point, there was a higher barrier of entry for using a computer, but I'd say it was still the same general thing. Plenty of people would learn what they needed to do the specific task they wanted, and be loathe to learn the new thing when it came out.

As low as the barrier of entry to using a new PC or tablet is, a savvy 80s DOS user would probably be utterly lost trying to navigate the internet it connects to. /shrug

[Ziggy]

But look at documentation that use to come with PCs and parts.

Yesterday, I watched LGR on YouTube unbox a brand new CD-ROM drive from pre-Win95. That thing came with many papers, one of them being a book. The Commodore 64 came with books (plural). One of which taught you how to program in BASIC.

Granted, computers where a little more complicated to use back then. That CD-ROM drive wasn't plug and play (it actually came with it's own controller card). But still, what documentation comes with PCs these days? A small piece of paper folded up, most of which is warnings and/or an EULA. The instructions cover how to plug in all the wires, where the power button is, and nothing else.

[isiolia]

Well, like you said though, that was a lot more necessary. The end results were typically pretty simple, but needing to set up a boot disk to configure your memory manager right, and configure your sound card settings in every game... lead to things like including that information in documentation. Plus, the internet wasn't the nigh-ubiquitous resource at the time either. If you didn't have that information provided in the box, where were you going to get it? A For Dummies book?

The modern paradigm likely becomes a problem if someone has no internet connectivity at all. So, it's not perfect either. Some of it though... I mean, I'm pretty happy to be able to go buy a DVD-RW for $15 that just works, even if it's not the event that bringing home a $150+ "multimedia kit" was back in the day. I wonder how well something like that would sell today, actually, as a throwback kind of thing.

[Tanooki]

^^Exactly which is why you find in any 'good' teachers desk the 'Teachers Key' version of the school book with all the answers so they don't look stupid in front of the class.

You realize that's not a new thing, right?

Yeah I know that. I saw it when I was in school and when I was a TA in senior year too as the math teacher I worked with who did peons who couldn't do basic math would use it to teach them how to minimally function doing balancing checkbooks, running registers, counting change, and other basics.

[Ziggy]

Plus, the internet wasn't the nigh-ubiquitous resource at the time either. If you didn't have that information provided in the box, where were you going to get it? A For Dummies book?

You're right. Also, now that I think about it, a lot of stuff will give you a (sometimes large) PDF on the CD with the drivers/software.

[emwearz]

I absolutely hate that the apps are not hidden in the new start menu, it looks so messy and bloated now. Why would they not give the option to leave it "click to show apps" rather than this sloppy shit.

As someone who spent a fair bit of time getting the start menu how I wanted it, nice and clean with minimal bloat, then an update just throws a list that is like 15 icons high, just messes up the flow.

First big complaint I have had with W10. I am thinking of going back to the fullscreen "metro" style start menu of Windows 8, because this is utterly ugly.

On what planet does this new section not look like a clusterfuck (not my start menu).