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Microsoft Operating Systems Windows News Technology

Microsoft Unhappy With Beta Testers, Demands Answers (computerworld.com) 355

Posted by BeauHD from the not-my-gumdrop-buttons dept.
Freshly Exhumed writes: Microsoft has mandated that the feedback functionality built into Windows Insider Preview beta be switched on -- a change from earlier when testers could block questions from the company about what users thought of specific features. Starting with Build 14271 and newer, the frequency in which Windows 10 will ask for your feedback will be locked to 'Automatically (Recommended)' in the Settings app. This would seem to disrupt what has traditionally been seen as a tacit understanding between corporations and their beta testers/sandboxers in that the latter would volunteer their time, effort, CPU cycles, possible hardware failures/breakage, and more as part of a bargain to receive feedback or to test fly the beta OS with internal software environments in private. Microsoft would now seem to be altering that relationship.
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Microsoft Unhappy With Beta Testers, Demands Answers More

Microsoft Unhappy With Beta Testers, Demands Answers

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  • The solution seems obvious to me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Sunday February 28, 2016 @07:17PM (#51605353)

    Oh good grief! If you don't want Microsoft to gather information from your beta testing of Microsoft products, don't become a beta tester. I mean, is that what beta testers do, use the product and give feed back as requested? The simple solution if you don't like this policy is to not sign up to beta test Microsoft products if you don't really want to be hassled with feedback, "telemetry", and so forth.

    • Re: The solution seems obvious to me... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 28, 2016 @07:22PM (#51605383)

      Yeah..... Bizarre ask a beta tester to give feedback....what's this work coming too? Will someone please think of the children!

    • Not saying that everyone should or shouldn't give feedback per the term they agree with. But imagine certain group of people like journalists/reviewers, and MS know about them using beta products to gain insight/benchmark and writing review. Obviously you don't want MS to start gaming the system knowing which beta copy they are using and tweak the setting that would work well for particular system/task, but not working well in real life. So, yes, there are certain exception that I would rather have MS no

      • Re:Playing Devil Advocate (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:22PM (#51605695)

        But imagine certain group of people like journalists/reviewers, and MS know about them using beta products to gain insight/benchmark and writing review. Obviously you don't want MS to start gaming the system knowing which beta copy they are using and tweak the setting that would work well for particular system/task, but not working well in real life. So, yes, there are certain exception that I would rather have MS not knowing everything, even if those people accept the terms.

        "Journalists / reviewers" don't fit the specs for the beta testers Microsoft is talking about. If Microsoft hands you a piece of software for the specific purpose of "beta testing" it and providing feedback, that is fundamentally different than being dishonest and signing up the beta test according to Microsoft's rules for beta testers, even though you know you're going to blow them off and just write some article for your blog or whatever.

    • I would expect to turn telemetry off, and if I find a problem, turn it on and repeat whatever I was doing that caused the bug.

    • Oh good grief! If you don't want Microsoft to gather information from your beta testing of Microsoft products, don't become a beta tester. I mean, is that what beta testers do, use the product and give feed back as requested? The simple solution if you don't like this policy is to not sign up to beta test Microsoft products if you don't really want to be hassled with feedback, "telemetry", and so forth.

      I agree. I was a beta tester for Microsoft when Windows 10 was in beta. Are there other things that are now being beta tested that I should know about? I did provide feedback about a few apps like News, Movies and TV. Never heard from them

      • Win10 has a "Windows Insider" program which gives you access to pre-release builds (remember, Win10 is getting ongoing upgrades, sort of a mini-service pack every few months). People who opt into this program are beta testing the next version of Windows. It may still call itself Win10, but the build numbers are going up and new features are being added.

        There's also Win10 Mobile, which *is* still pre-release; they shipped preview builds on a couple phones (Lumia 950 and 950 XL) but the only way anybody else

        • True. I just got a Lumia 550 to use abroad - when I'm not being serviced by Verizon. It's reasonably good, and I got it @ $150 unlocked. At the moment, it doesn't have a SIM or phone, but it's still useful for everything else - Skype, music & so on. Too bad Verizon doesn't seem to want Windows 10 Mobile phones.

    • Re:The solution seems obvious to me... (Score:4, Funny)

      by davester666 ( 731373 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @01:43AM (#51606695) Journal

      I cannot believe FP was not "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

      WTF is slashdot coming to?

  • Obligitory (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pikoro ( 844299 ) <{hs.tini} {ta} {tini}> on Sunday February 28, 2016 @07:21PM (#51605375) Homepage Journal

    Microsoft would now seem to be altering that relationship.

    Pray that they don't alter it any further.

  • Less altering, more enforcing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @07:26PM (#51605399) Homepage

    Less altering the relationship I think than enforcing it. Too many beta testers were, it sounds like, treating the beta test as a sneak preview or early-access program and taking advantage of the offering without providing the feedback that's their part of the agreement. All Microsoft's doing is taking out the switch that lets them avoid being bugged for the feedback they agreed to give. It'll annoy people who were giving feedback but aren't having problems with those particular areas, but they're heavily outnumbered by the people who weren't giving feedback at all. Yet another case of the greedy breaking things for everybody, I suppose.

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • How about, "But I like my Windows machine."

      Seriously. I know linux, and use it on servers. ChromeOS seems to me like a bad idea, just trading one giant corporation for another. Apple drives me crazy enough on my iOS toys, and I'd rather not pay their premium.

    • Re:is this really still an OS anymore? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:29PM (#51605741)

      I'm a fan of Linux but have to say:

      1. There are plenty of people who have over 500 Steam titles, so that's not necessarily a good trade-off (losing over half my library?). Also graphics drivers are still pretty hit-and-miss on Linux unless you're lucky to have specific hardware.

      2./3. Libreoffice is great for personal use, but if your whole company/job doesn't use it then you might be stuck with whatever they use for formatting and compatibility reasons. Hopefully it's Google Docs/Sheets/etc. or you're stuck back on Office for Mac or PC. In general the alternatives, to OS-specific software, are always going to be lacking one or more features the original program has even if they have a bunch of other great features added.

      4. There is an efficiency involved in using the tools you're experienced with, especially for those who are using a tool on Windows or Mac OSX that doesn't play nice with other operating systems.

      "#1 point" Really not sure where that's heading, but you could say the same about Mac OSX and Chrome OS, as well as Ubuntu or the GNOME interface. Pretty much every modern operating system except perhaps some more advanced variations of Linux and BSD will "insult your intelligence" by making assumptions that are meant to improve work-flow.

      The privacy stuff going on with Windows 8+ is probably the same as what already happens with the Google Chrome OS, but still worrying.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Serious question: does LO handle tracked changes correctly yet? That was only the most obvious deal-breaker feature the last time I tried to switch of MS Office entirely, but it was a really obvious one. At work, we use tracked changes all the time.

          Of course, we also have very complicated template files at work, which render correctly in Word 2010 - 2016 but which I would be impressed if they were correct in Libre/OpenOffice

    • Re:is this really still an OS anymore? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LordLucless ( 582312 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:41PM (#51605771)

      1. But I use windows for gaming! Steam has more than 200 titles that run just fine in Linux

      It does. But like 90% of everything, most of them suck. There's a handful that are good. Games aren't fungible - it may be that just a single, specific title not being available on Linux is enough to keep certain people on windows.

      Personally, I run a linux machine and a windows machine, with a kvm switch. I game on windows, and do everything else on linux. Works for me.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )

        Ditto. Same here even though I rarely games, but I do use both depending on whart I need to do. I also use Macs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
      I agree with you with a caveat. I have to maintain installations of both LibreOffice and OpenOffice. If LibreOffice won't open, mutilates, or all around fucks something up, I fire up OpenOffice which will generalist handle it just fine. This works vice-versa. I am allowed to be the only one not running MS Office, because I do get it done. But no one else would be willing to work with two office products over the sake of a document or spreadsheet. We will get there though.
    • Screen reader. The linux ones suck.

    • yes, it is for many many people (Score:5, Insightful)

      by batistuta ( 1794636 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @09:26PM (#51605927)

      Interesting points, and I fully agree with you when it comes to tech people like us.

      But if you think that your comments are scalable, then you probably have not dealt with non technical people, who are just trying to get work done(tm)
      For instance:
      - girlfriend works in some marketing/accounting/business unit and needs to finish some documentation at home during the weekend because of a late request
      - grandma wants to see her grandchildren photos, which are embedded in that powerpoint. Background music is important.
      - Non-Tech father needs to rework some documents done in the universal tool of all Lords, namely Excel, which office people bastardize via macros and whatever to serve a schizophrenic life of being spreadsheet, text editor, database, time planner, bug tracker, and version control tool all at once.
      - Friend want to install password manager, tax program, adobe lightroom/Picasa, iTunes, pick non-web-based program, etc. and doesn't feel like learning anything about wine unless he/she is going to drink it.

      So if you truly believe what you wrote, then you are either too young, or you work in a small technical company, or are a freelancer, or are one of those people expecting the world to change and learn to think and behave like us.

      My heart is with you. I even use Linux (Xubuntu) as my daily driver at home, and I used to think like you trying to change the world. But as you have said yourself, times have changed and I have learned the reality. And even I need to dual boot to Windows every once in a while.

      • you probably have not dealt with non technical people, who are just trying to get work done

        It's utterly ridiculous to claim Windows is easy to use. Its popularity is self-reinforcing. People learn all the cumbersome ways it works because it is common, and it stays common because many people have learned how it works.

        Windows is incredibly DIFFICULT to use. It's got a million crufty old and non-intuitive weird things people need to know. Not even a nice friendly app store (or repo) from which to point-and

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by PCM2 ( 4486 )

          Windows is incredibly DIFFICULT to use. It's got a million crufty old and non-intuitive weird things people need to know.

          I agree. Even the new stuff is difficult/non-intuitive for the average user to figure out. For example, the new control panels/settings changed several times during the Windows 10 beta period.

          But then, by the same token I've always felt Mac OS X was a huge regression from Mac OS 9 in terms of how easy it was for the average shmoe to use it properly.

        • People learn all the cumbersome ways it works because it is common, and it stays common because many people have learned how it works.

          Windows has changed it's interface and general way of operating more than Linux has. "Common" is one of the words I would not use to describe it. "Integrated" I would since all Microsoft products end up with the same look feel and user interaction.

          Windows is incredibly DIFFICULT to use. It's got a million crufty old and non-intuitive weird things people need to know

          No it doesn't. Windows has a million cruft old and non-intuitive weird things that nearly all computer users don't know, never need to know, and just don't care about. We are tech people. We use these difficult crufty old non-intuitive weird things to get our OS t

    • Yes, Windows is a non-free operating system as it always was. What inconveniences its proprietor puts in a user's way is up to the proprietor as it always was. You're right to point out free software options, and thanks for doing that! But Windows, Chrome OS, MacOS, GNU/Linux, and some BSD variant are not equivalent alternatives to each other on the grounds of giving users freedom from proprietary oppression. You might as well add the Amazon Swindle [gnu.org] to that list too, for all the freedom to read that device [defectivebydesign.org]

    • Counter point: Open source software is the only source of hard crashes (where the system had to reboot) that i've seen in almost 20 years. I suffer no "abuse" from MS because the user experience has been flawless for me, but if you want to keep making up scarecrows, just know you clearly aren't familiar with the MS-home user experience, anymore.

    • AutoCAD?

    • For those still running windows, and not Chrome OS, Mac, Linux or BSD consider this...an intervention on behalf of the slashdot community. im sure you have some immediate concerns -- reasons perhaps -- that you cannot part with your abuser. ill try my best to assuage your fears.

      The Linux evangelist arrives at your door unbidden like the Seventh-Day Adventists. But shy a tenth of the humility or respect for their hosts.

      1. But I use windows for gaming! Steam has more than 200 titles that run just fine in Linux.

      and 6,000 games that run just fine under Windows. Steam Reaches 6,000 Games [gamespot.com] [August 2015]

      2 I need it for office documents.
      3. well its what my office uses so...

      LibreOffice is the stand-alone office suite of the 'nineties, which not much to offer in terms of extensions, templates, and other resources.

      MS Office is one component of an office system that scales to an enterprise of any size --- and it remains the gold standard for clerica

  • To much of something is a bad thing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zorak30 ( 1014751 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:09PM (#51605631)
    I actually was a Windows Insider and loved it but then I started getting dinged with prompts for feedback every time I opened a new program or used a new feature they added. It isn't that bad, but when you're in the middle of trying to do something it is annoying as hell so I don't answer them. Over time this actually changes my habits and made me stop answering any of them all together. I was giving them feedback. They asked for more and I started giving them none.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      They asked for more and I started giving them none.

      Same. I'd be surprised if anyone felt differently.

      The prompts are a nuisance, and they tend to be asking me about things I haven't really thought deeply about. But by popping up a prompt when I'm in the middle of doing something, they seem to be saying they want an answer right away, and I don't really have one.

      In other cases, the questions just plain sail over me. Q: What do you think of such-and-such new capability in Cortana? A: Just haven't got into the habit of using Cortana for anything yet, sorry.

      • Re:To much of something is a bad thing (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 28, 2016 @10:05PM (#51606049)

        In other cases, the questions just plain sail over me.
        Q: What do you think of such-and-such new capability in Cortana?
        A: Just haven't got into the habit of using Cortana for anything yet, sorry.

        And that's the real issue here. I've ignored the feedback requests because I know damn well there is no option for "Cortana is useless shit, get rid of it" and "The entire Windows 10 UI is a fucked up mess that is significantly worse than Windows 7".

        And even if there was, those responses would be ignored.

  • I offered quite a lot of feedback from Windows 10 (Score:3)

    by slaker ( 53818 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:15PM (#51605661)

    I really did offer a lot of feedback on Windows 10 during its testing period, using several methods that were made available for that purpose. As far as I'm aware, none of my feedback was reviewed or commented upon and some of the issues I reported were still problems in the shipping releases of Windows 10.
    I'll admit that I was testing Windows 10 more for my own professional needs than for the benefit of Microsoft or the final product, but why should I offer feedback at all if it will fall on deaf ears and be met only with inaction?

    • To be fair just because a bug is a big issue for you doesn't mean that it rated high on the list of bugs/changes to be processed for release. If I have a bug that causes crashes or that a 1,000 people reported I'm going to work on that before something that 25 people report that doesn't cause crashes.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Zocalo ( 252965 )
        True, but like OP I tested Windows 10 and gave feedback. No replies or acknowledgments were ever provided. Amongst the many bug and feedback reports I sent were for issues that were absolutely an issue for lots of people because lots of people starting bitching about them once the product actually shipped; stuff like the inconsistent UI, many of the on-going stability issues, and other issues that made it through to release. I'm sure that I reported many things that were specific to me and maybe a handfu
  • Beta testing Windows 10? They must mean 10.1 or 11. I thought 10 was a released product. If they want to find out what bothers people about windows 10 all they have to do is Bing " hate about windows 10".

  • So when is this going to get pushed out for everyone?

    • When all the Windows users panic that there are only a few more days left to get their free upgrade, not realizing that their older release is still going to be just fine even after support ends, so they can start saving up for a new computer that isn't running a beta product.

  • by getting it from Astalavista.

  • Blame the testers, not the recipients of feedback! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by urbanriot ( 924981 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @08:53PM (#51605805)
    Typical post-Gates Microsoft, blame the testers rather than the recipients of the feedback. I have a feeling they're ignoring all the valid feedback as it doesn't fit their narrative and justify what they're paying their developers.

    "With Windows 8 we hear your negative feedback but we don't care for it since we know what's better for you and you're going to like it. Or not use it. It's your choice."

    As someone who's been beta testing and feedbacking Microsoft products since they had beta tests, I threw in the towel with Windows 8 because they ignored the feedback concerning actual bugs and typographical errors.

    Screw you Microsoft, you should have listened when people cared more than you claim to.

    • "With Windows 8 we hear your negative feedback but we don't care for it since we know what's better for you and you're going to like it. Or not use it. It's your choice."

      Sounds a lot like Linus when someone proposes a fix he doesn't like...

    • Maybe before they found it easy to believe that voices like yours, although vocal, were not representative enough of "typical" users and not worth the cost/benefit ratio to fix.

      But with ubiquitous telemetry, and mandatory feedback, those sorts of denials will become impossible.

  • Why pay people to do the same things that you can force your customers to do -- like beta testing!

  • The Deal Has Been Altered... (Score:3)

    by Irate Engineer ( 2814313 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @09:02PM (#51605845)

    Beta Testers: Hey, Microsoft, Windows 10 is OK, but the telemetry is fucking evil.

    Microsoft: It's not evil. Otherwise, how is it?

    Beta Testers: It's really fucking invasive and evil.

    Microsoft: Outside of the telemetry, focus! focus!

    Beta Testers: Umm.. your software is evil as shit...

    Microsoft: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

    Beta Testers: *Gasp!* * Choke!*

  • I've found that when you demand review answers, you get flippant responses. Let the reviewers or beta testers respond when they want. If you need more feedback, provide a carrot. But if you try to push people, they will push back.

  • You get what you pay for (Score:3)

    by PotatoHead ( 12771 ) <doug.opengeek@org> on Sunday February 28, 2016 @09:53PM (#51606007) Homepage Journal

    Microsoft is pushing a lot of testing onto early and non business users. What did they expect actually?

    Secondly, Microsoft has moved to a rolling release style of development, while also pushing hard on features people aren't all that excited about. What do they expect?

    If they really "demand answers", maybe they can fund the internal testing, etc... needed to get them, so their "beta" program may actually then deliver more meaningful feedback.

  • Tired of MS Shenanigans (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I think this beta tester thing is overblown on the part of the testers. If you want to be a beta tester, provide feedback. But... MS has been very ugly in how they are using Windows 10 and other software onto users in a most Orwellian manner. I really think it's a hideous mistake to not honor customer settings on privacy and then "undo" these privacy settings with the next update. I saw Windows 10 for what it was long before it hit mainstream, as Windows 8.1 wasn't much better. This is not the OS to use sho

  • Hey Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @10:20PM (#51606111) Journal

    Unlike most here on slashdot I do actually want to use and learn your products. I really do as an IT professional I need to be up to date and I have the power to recommend your products and give you more money too.

    Here is what everyone including myself think and why you are receiving negative feedback.1st off I want to say job well done with Windows 7. It brought me back from Linux as my main desktop as I know have linux stuff in vm's. What we liked was it was rock solid, stable, well tested, and worked and was well tested with the enterprise environment.

    Windows 10 is very very flakely and loaded with privacy concerns since you fired all your QA. I tried last week for the 4th time to install Windows 10 on my desktop as a fresh upgrade. Too many bugs. What is unique as all 3 times I received a different bug. DNS issues, graphical artifacts, names cut short like c:\users\ti, drivers for Samsung pro SATA replaced by MS making system unbootable, etc. Corporations and inviduals have privacy concerns too. Make the pro version not track so you can monetize. Many businesses (all of them) process credit cards. How do you know that info is not being sent?? Not everyone is a big enterprise who buys the enterprise edition just for your information.

    Hire some QA back and address privacy and give options for paying customers to have no tracking instead of relying on users and I may recommend 10.1 or 10.2 after redstone and all will be forgiven just like after Vista, 7 fixed things.

    It is a shame because I started liking your products recently.

    • If "recently" is Windows 7, then you're well behind the curve as there have been 8, 8.1 and 10 since. Apparently you like one of their older products, you can't call Windows 7 their most recent one any more.

    • How do you know that info is not being sent??

      That is always a concern with Windows, regardless of version. There is just no way to know what its doing behind your back, even if you can spend the many man-lifetimes needed to reverse engineer every circumstance that could possible lead to a transmission back to Microsoft.

      You're always better off not using Windows.

  • When did Microsoft actually start paying attention the feedback of real live users? Last I've seen (Windows 10) they are still soliciting the feedback of people that have never even seen a computer before. That or they are using slight deranged Labrador Retrievers for feed back. Guppies swimming in a tank maybe.

    I mean judging from the outcome of the product.

    • Re:Since When? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by maxwells_deamon ( 221474 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @01:39AM (#51606687) Homepage

      Graphics on my laptop great with Windows 10 until the an update. Since then it will not drive an external monitor. Reported it about 6 months ago. Machine is dual boot so windows 7 runs fine on the same hardware so I know the graphics card is fine, Will they let me roll back to older driver? No. They have a working driver, just let me install it.

      Why give feedback when it will just be ignored.

      I had over 100 upvotes on insider feedback last time I checked.

      • Re:Since When? (Score:4, Informative)

        by ezdiy ( 2717051 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @03:16AM (#51606877)
        You can sometimes roll back the driver in device manager, but that feature is flakey. Better just:
        Control Panel -> System -> System Properties -> Hardware -> Device installation settings and disable driver updates in there. Some KBs will still spuriously install drivers as part of some "hot fix" or whatever, but since disabling this I had much less issues with devices suddenly misbehaving.

        Keeping drivers on auto update in windows is downright crazy now, as microsoft for some inexplicable reason decided to stop QA vetting drivers and push whatever garbage they get their hands on.

  • Pray I don't alter it any further.

  • Learned of it from a /. article back in Jan-Feb 2015, joining was a job in itself -as- I have a Hotmail account which half or more of the sites I frequent have as my e-mail address which is then forwarded to Gmail to POP.

    I can't access Hotmail; I've tried just enough to not lose it, nor would MS take it for the Insider program so I created a new account which damn if it didn't match itself to my hot mail account.

    Hours later I downloaded Win10, read the ToS and couldn't agree to it, refusing to install Win10 and never logged back into the insiders program. I was to allow total access to my computer and it's peripherals, the LCD Cam was one specifically addressed.

    I figure the Win10 archive was removed from my system and I don't delete anything. I haven't come across it since.

    Feedback? Run to the back of the house and ask in a low voice "Cortana can you hear me now?", send report.

    Ironic/the hell!, I have Win10 on a small laptop now, it request that you sign into Microsoft, using any email address including Hotmail.

      Never going back to Microsoft and the Insiders was a precaution due to an error on my part - I tried to set up a POP3 account with my new MS e-mail address so Goggled the POP3 ports for MS, who knew there are separate ports for Outlook, and another two for everybody else! I do now, always figured two ports for all e-mail.

    The ports I used hardwired my insiders new email handle into my Emailer Forte Agent's From: entry and I have yet to find out where - it can only be in the Agent directory, as the system has seen many fresh installs since.

    One nightmare I could and should of avoided.

  • Headline is hilarious. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @02:35AM (#51606807)

    It makes it sound like Microsoft is Angry with their insiders over something they did or something they didn't do, and demanding an explanation from each one of their beta testers about their lack of feedback, or else....

    In reality, it's nothing of the sort.... they have just decided to remove the ability of Beta testers to Opt-Out of annoying nag screens.

    . Starting with Build 14271 and newer, the frequency in which Windows will ask for your feedback will be locked to 'Automatically (Recommended)' in the Settings app and managed by the Windows Insider Program."

    While Aul did not offer a more specific reason for the move than that feedback was important, Microsoft may have taken control of the setting because it didn't believe enough testers were contributing to the beta program. Asking for feedback in return for running pre-release software is traditional in the software business, but Microsoft's move here is a step further than most developers take.

    If users object to the change, Aul suggested that they abandon the Insider program and revert to the latest production build, which was released to the Current Branch in November as "1511."

  • Fiction (Score:4)

    by eWarz ( 610883 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @04:16AM (#51606997)
    Only on Slashdot can 3/4ths of a story be complete fiction written by troll and get a bunch of nerds (no insult, since I'm the biggest nerd of them all) passionate about X upset about Y. The only real story is that Microsoft removed the ability for insiders to opt out of testing...which was what they said would happen to begin with....long before Windows 10 ever came out.

  • You just don't fucking listen.

  • Insider build on phone, but feedback too soon (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fencepost ( 107992 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @10:57AM (#51608029) Journal
    I have an Insider build of Windows 10 on a Lumia that I'm not using as a daily driver, and it feels like it'll update overnight, then ask me in the morning how stable this build is. I don't know, I've probably had less than 15 minutes of "on" time on the phone since the last update! Further, 99% of the crashes I see on the phone are because the primary app I use (PocketCasts for podcasting) was released, updated once, and has a variety of significant bugs.

    Windows Phone itself? Has been fine, I actually like it, but was a little too locked-down for my use and is of course lacking in apps.
    • I was just going to comment on the same type of experience, but on the desktop.
      I have beta tested a number of Windows OS versions.
      I don't recall what version of Windows (7, or 8), but I remember in the Beta I would click on a feature to try it out, and immediately I would get a dialog asking how did I find the design and the functionality of this feature. I would click off the dialog, then try out the feature and I wasn't allowed to bring the dialog back up to comment. I did have a section I could bring u

  • Staying alive (Score:3)

    by iamacat ( 583406 ) on Monday February 29, 2016 @12:52PM (#51608835)

    While some of Microsoft's moves are irritating, they are probably the only way for them to stay relevant as a major OS market player long term. Pushing users to update to Win 10 is their best hope to retain developers who would otherwise focus on low fragmentation iOS first. Since Windows hardware is fragmented as well, they can't hope to compete with stability of all-in-one vendors without extensive telemetry and feedback. Also, users are no longer accustomed to paying for OS updates, since OSX/iOS/Android/ChromeOS have free updates (and the last two are also free for OEMs). So the only ways to make money is keeping users on Bing/Edge, getting everyone to update to OS version with Windows Store, pushing cloud services like Office 365 and experiments such as lock screen ads.

    They could do everything we want them to and become a minor player like Blackberry in 5 years. I guess I don't blame them for trying to stay relevant, especially when we have other choices from vendors who chose a different business model.

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