back to article Loose lips slip when Windows 10 ships: 'End of July' says AMD CEO

AMD's chief exec Lisa Su may have inadvertently narrowed down the shipping date of Microsoft's Windows 10 in a conference call with financial analysts. During a chat to discuss her firm's first-quarter earnings, Su was asked to discuss the chipmaker's business outlook for its next fiscal quarter. Her comments appeared to …

  1. InfiniteApathy

    Microsoft - Please take your time

    Many of us poor sods are going to end up using it for the next umpteen years. I'd rather see a solid product a few months late.

    1. Wade Burchette

      Re: Microsoft - Please take your time

      I agree. I have a virtual machine testing Win10 and there is much that needs to be done, but probably won't be done because of the "cloud first, mobile first, customer last" approach Microsoft currently has.

      There is still no option to enable full Aero. F8 is still disabled by default. (Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be slapped in the head every day for the rest of his life.) The search on the start menu searches with Bing first and THEN files, programs, and settings on the computer; Bing search on the start menu should be disabled by default. The start menu is not customizable; it is the Win10 way or the highway, unlike previous versions of Windows where you had a choice. There is still no full backup program. The repair installation -- what Microsoft calls an in-place upgrade -- only works when Windows is running; in Windows XP you could repair a non-bootable Windows with the disc, but starting with Windows Vista this was taken away.

      But the thing that needs to be implemented more than anything else is a return of privacy. No collection of any data about me for any reason, no exception. No trying to trick or force me to log in with a Microsoft account. The anti-privacy features of Windows 10 is the reason why I'm sticking with Windows 7 until the bitter end. And I told Microsoft this in my feedback. But the shortsightedness of companies today means my feedback will be ignored. Microsoft is trying to find new sources of revenue while forgetting why they became so big to begin with.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The Fate of F8

        My Windows 10 Install has finally died. Got to 10041, or between 10041 and the next one.

        It was getting more and ropey as each sucessive build/update was applied, then failed, then reapplied. It really didn't help things attempting with switch between Fast and Slow builds. That's the easiest way to break the install, really don't do it.

        Finally it would boot into Windows, freeze and die with a BSOD. I wish I'd read your comment earlier, spent hours backing up across a fast network (mega slow, even with A Samsung SSD) then attempting a 'refresh'. So called 'refresh' is about a useless as a chocolate teapot, as said, if Windows 10 has failed, it still will fail after a refresh.

        F8 Safe boot is now hidden away, and it no longer 'safe boots', when all else has failed - like it did in the past-great. Progress. Also, no way to switch off fast boot in the safe menu? Just takes you round in circles to get to this menu now, a real pain. And so difficult to break out of this process to use an bootable USB key.

        Windows 10 is the most amatuerish pre-release I've ever used from MS, there is no way this will be ready for 1st August, October 2015 for that matter. Shame Amazon have used the name Kindle, because in terms of Kindle, it seem to be the easiest of Windows builds to break.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Who thought a Synaptics Touchpad update could prove so evil?

          Hours upon hours later, it turns out to be an evil Synaptics Touchpad driver 19.03 that killed Windows 10 build 10041. Actually no, it turns out Microsoft Recover support tools actually killed it and stupidly going down that road, with their abysmal support tools.

          If I'd just plugged in a mouse into the laptop, on build 10041 none of this shit would have happened. How can a common touchpad driver be allowed to cause so much mayhem on a release build?.

          I've used Linux to support Microsoft products since the 90's, and for once I stupidly decided (against my better judgement) to run MS recovery, be nice if it at least recovered booksmarks/download history from popular browsers. Too much to ask MS?

          If it wasn't for Linux providing the sticking plaster every time for MS Products, Windows would have been thrown on the scrap heap long ago.

          If you run into problems testing Windows 10, plug in a regular mouse, into your laptop before doing anything else and try booting again.

          Or take it as given, Microsoft managed to not even test build 10041 with a touchpad driver before releasing? Says it all really. Almost seems like a planned sabotage by someone at MS.

  2. W. Anderson

    One can only hope that significant proportion of Windows 10 development focuses strongly on making the Operating System (OS) substantially more secure and reliable than previous versions, which have shown Windows to be very poor by comparison to Apple Mac OS X, desktop oriented Android and Linux - in reliability, scalability and adequate OS security.

    It is incredulous that in 2015, Windows is the only mainstream OS requiring momentous install of anti-malware bloatware in order to just work at all. Every non-Microsoft supported, paid-for or endorsed reasonaby objective study has shown this Windows security malady to be the case

    1. James O'Shea

      Last I looked, Windows 8 and later shipped with 'Windows Defender', a.k.a. Microsoft Security Essentials. Neither WD or MSE are 'bloated', and neither require a 'momentous install'; WD is installed automatically with Win 8.x and doesn't require any kind of install on the part of the user at all. Both appear to work reasonably well. I have MSE on my Win 7 systems and WD on my Win 8.1 systems, both with Malware Bytes (which isn't bloated, either, and doesn't require a 'momentous install) as a backup. So far, no problems.

      meanwhile, malware _does_ exist for non-Microsoft systems, you know. Not all that much of it, but it's there. Most of my OS X systems don't have anti-malware, but where there is a reason for it (usually a paper requirement that all systems attached to certain machines have anti-malware, period) I use Sophos. That's not a 'momentous install', either.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @James

        WD and MSE however could catch a cold in Siberia as many AV testing labs have demonstrated.

    2. Siv

      That sounds like a Mac Fanboy spouting off. The reality is that Windows is probably the best protected O/S, (because it has been hit so much with malware over the years) the virus writers will always target the biggest user base and until the rise of Android, Windows was that. It is so well patched now the virus writers are turning their attention to Android and Mac OSX and only trying to attack Windows via non-Windows O/S components like Java and Adobe Reader/Flash. The other tactic is to use social engineering to get users to allow the virus in, as most modern Windows Anti-Malware can keep the vast majority of viruses out.

      I am amazed at how Android and Mac users believe that they are immune to viruses. These links suggest otherwise:

      http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/03/21/10-years-of-mac-os-x-malware/

      http://blog.kaspersky.com/mac-viruses-are-here-to-stay10-examples-of-mac-viruses/

      http://clamav-du.securesites.net/cgi-bin/clamgrok?virus=osx&search-type=contains&case-sensitivity=No&database=daily&database=main&display=virus&.submit=Submit+Query&.cgifields=database&.cgifields=search-type&.cgifields=case-sensitivity&.cgifields=display

      https://www.lookout.com/resources/reports/mobile-threat-report

      http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-apps-one-ten-affected-malware-viruses-states-new-research-1459576

      As the Mac becomes more popular so it will be attacked as it represents a worthwhile target for the virus writers. I really think you should lose your blinkered view that only Windows gets viruses and get real.

    3. Code For Broke

      Is 'W. Anderson' the nom de plume Cortana uses to post on the internet forums these days?

    4. Glenturret Single Malt

      You are incredulous, it is incredible.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Erm, but Windows had fewer security holes than both OS-X and just the Linux kernel last year! And Internet facing Windows servers are statistically much less likely to be successfully attacked than Linux ones. I think you are confusing the result of being used on 90% of desktops...Windows on the desktop is heavily targeted. If you look at Android - which is based on Linux - it is popular - and also has high levels of Malware...

  3. veti Silver badge

    Early, buggy release = fewer giveaways

    Remember how MS promised that upgrades to W10 would be free to W7 and W8 users "for the first year after release"?

    Releasing the new OS in a, frankly, barely-beta-worthy condition, may be seen by some factions in Redmond as a way to keep the takeup down, and thus encourage more people to... pay for the product later.

    Yeah, it's stupid and it'll damage their already-tarnished brand still further. But because of the factionalism and infighting within MS, that's how it unfolds sometimes. This sort of passive-aggressive "compromise" is exactly how the brand became so tarnished in the first place.

    Right now, I'm running Windows 8.1 - and contrary to all my expectations, I love it. Easily the best version since XP, beats the heck out of Windows 7. It'll take either unanimously stellar reviews, or the promise of a substantially enlarged support window (8.1 expires in January 2023 - extend that to 2027, and we'll talk) to persuade me to upgrade to 10.

  4. a_yank_lurker

    The smart move from the comments I have seen would be to delay the release until it is ready. MS does not need another OS black eye. With the underlying OS being less relevant and with that trend appearing to continue it becomes easier for OEMS to offer alternatives such as Ubuntu and for users to switch from Windows. A pile of buggy garbage would alienate users.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What happened to waiting until a product was ready?

    Remember when software vendors would wait until a product was actually ready for release?

    Yes there may be bugs found but at least the product would generally be fit for purpose.

    1. InfiniteApathy

      Re: What happened to waiting until a product was ready?

      Goodness me, I've found another old man. I too recall those days of yore.

    2. veti Silver badge

      Re: What happened to waiting until a product was ready?

      Yes, but then we invented "computers that can do more than one thing at a time" and "software that's too long to type in line by line from a listing in a magazine".

      Complexity is the villain here, but it's inevitable if you want to be able to, y'know, actually do much of anything with the computer.

  6. Hellcat

    Facts getting in the way of headlines?

    The Win 10 phone tech preview, which just as a reminder is full of alpha and beta components, isn't bricking peoples phones - that was the recovery tool which looks to have been resolved.

    As for the 100 days meaning the UI won't have time to change much - I've seen lots of changes in the UI over the course of the preview, and many significant ones just from one build to the next. I've no reason to think that any UI changes couldn't be introduced before the consumer preview, or the RTM version.

    Com'on El Reg.

  7. Bassey
    Coat

    Summer starts

    "Summer starts on June 21st this year"

    Really? According to whom? That's the longest day, not the start of summer. According to the Met Office summer is June, July, August which puts the end of July 2/3 of the way through summer.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So

    Damn few people care about Win 10. It will not create any significant new PC sales as consumers are aware they do not need and in most cases do not want Win 10. That's why Lisa Su said they will "watch" the response which is likely to be nil.

  9. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    On the contrary

    "Damn few people care about Win 10. "

    On the contrary, I've had several people (who persuade themselves their old computer is slow because it's "getting old", when really they are running Windows so they have loads of viruses and spyware bogging them down), they know they can't get a new system with Windows 7, and they know they don't want Windows 8. And inexplicably they won't just ditch Windows even though they are literally doing nothing but web browsing (not even word processing...). They just couldn't wrap it around their heads that Windows 10 hasn't shipped yet, that it's effectively vaporware until the OEMs actually get it (since in the past, Microsoft has almost always stated the next Windows version will ship in the next 3-6 months, and just push that date back until it's actually ready.) They insisted they would find a machine with Windows 10 on it, I was like "Good luck with that".

  10. ADRM

    Windows 7 Machines

    Dell still has Windows 7 machines on sale. Look here:

    http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/campaigns/windows-segment-search-en-corp-us-new?c=us&l=en&s=corp&ST=+windows7%20+dell&dgc=ST&cid=263894&lid=5209456&acd=123098073120560

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