Not you, me.
After letting others take the arrows (is that racist? Of course it is) – I decided it’s safer now to migrate to windows 10. As a moderately interested web host, I really should make sure visitors using win10 and the new and improved Edge browser have a good user experience for their eyeballs.
To my shock!, there is a significant issue that hasn’t been brought to my attention. That may say more about Win10 than the people who use the web site. There has been another death in the technology family – I’m always the last to know these things.
Back in the 1990s, fearing rumored patent risks from using GIF or JPEG images on a web site, I started using “PNG” format, which was (and still is) widely supported as an image format with no known patent troll vulnerabilities – this was the FindAnISP.com days, when it was a business with real income.
Well, the PNG website stopped being updated in 2006, and Windows 10 doesn’t appear to support the format – no browser running on Win10 can make any sense out of .png format. Bing’ing for an explanation finds basically nothing, which tells me png died a very long time ago. I need to convert the images back to something more mainstream.
Any questions or things you would like to say about Windows 10?
I lied. Chrome supports PNG format under win10
Avoid Windows 10 if you use Windows Media Center.
Still running Windows 7 and refuse to change at this point. This machine came with Windows 8, but I loaded 7 instead. I got a message from Microsoft to be put on this list to receive 10, filled out the form, but to date have never received it. Because I really don’t want it, I haven’t followed up.
Over all, other than the PNG issue, do you like 10?
Win10 is meant primarily to allow smart phones, tablets, Laptops and desktops to all work similarly. Since the eMachine has no camera, no trackpad, no microphone, no GPS, and especially no touchscreen – win10 doesn’t offer much benefit. The goal is to nudge people to use “the cloud” and pay Microsoft to rent you disk space. This is similar to Apple’s iCloud or Google Drive – but more transparently incorporated into the operating system. Some aspects of the cloud are great if you don’t mind everyone knowing what you’re doing, like syncing bookmarks, remembering passwords, and contact lists across all devices you use.
I have only used it for an hour, so I do not have a firm opinion yet. The upgrade was annoying on my slower DSL line, but nothing appears to have broken.
Win10 is oriented toward the “app” concept where Microsoft controls software distribution similar to google Play or the Apple App Store. At least for now, other software companies can still install on the computer without Microsoft’s permission, but that may be temporary. Getting your apps from the store gives at least a little assurance the software isn’t filled with malware.
FWIW – 10 is passable. It returns to the start menu concept. The big hack in 10 is Edge. This is the plug-in/extension free browser. That means if you use Norton you should stick with IE 11 or earlier. Edge will simply fritz out on you when you least expect it – without an error message and no way to recover. I bet it will improve with time, but I – for one – am sick of this endless need to change the behavior of the browser so that it doesn’t work with anyone’s website anymore.
I’ve read that the anniversary update now integrates Cortana deeper into the OS. Win10 does look shiny and pretty, but the spying is just atrocious.