Reply to post: Here are some tips on how to reduce the testing workload

Here are some tips on how to reduce the testing workload

Slowing down, is not really an option, slimming down should help making the workload manageable.

Short version: Concentrate on the Operating System, not an ecosystem of vendor lock-in that nobody wants

Detailed version for things to kill:

- The microsoft shop or store or whatever it's called: Never used it, never needed it, deactivated it. Nobody wants a Microsoft software tax on applications. Sell Office on Steam, make sure it runs on Linux, too

- Edge, Internet Explorer: You are not a browser company, but more importantly: Nobody wants you to be. How many more decades do you need to understand that it's not a good thing to do what nobody wants you to do?

- Anything Xbox: Steam works better, Uplay and Origin are ok, nobody wants yours!

- Stop this editions crap: S, Home, Professional, Ultimate, Enterprise, Server, Client... Just create a single server edition, eliminate all that license checking stuff, because it breaks things

- Sell the OS at a reasonable price per user independently of computers: Don't penalize people who run several perhaps even a dozen different physical/virtual computers or just OS images that get moved/swapped between PCs. The ease with which a single SSD can be booted on a handful of systems is one of the major advantages Windows 10 currently has even over any Linux, is something I have come to enjoy (with VLK enterprise editiions). Look at Android (any number of devices) or Steam (no concurrent use) for how to not penalize buying more hardware, when they only ever use one at any given time.

- stop trying to play catchup with Apple: Why would anyone want to sink that low?

- stop collecting user data

- stop sending collected data to Microsoft servers

- stop Cortana and this Microsoft specific OS embedded AI stuff: Create usable AI API frameworks which allow users to chose Cortana, Alexa, Siri or Whatnot if they want, but don't try to make it the new MediaPlayer, InternetExplorer etc.: You're evidently too small a company to do that properly

There are also things to add:

- support running Android applications, including Play Store, seamlessly

- support running Linux applications, including native Linux kernel API docker containers, seamlessly

- native Linux file system support

I got really big machines with dozens of cores, hundreds of gigabyte of RAM, Atoms and many things in between: Every month I am banging my head on the table when I see how slowly patches get installed, while nothing, absolutely nothing is going on these machines: One core is burning hot, no network or storage I/O of any kind, just some code ruminating on: "To copy, or not to copy this file, that is the question..." Pitiful!

Unforgivable sins:

- Knowing "better": At one point in time, Microsoft decided that users who click "shutdown" on their computers, would rather 'hibernate' their systems, even if that is a different button on my Classic Shell (without which Windows 10 would be unusable). So whenI then take that SSD and start it on a different computer, it looses all the data and changes in the hibernate file, because the new computer has different hardware and cannot just blindy resume a suspended image. I knew that this would be the case, which is why I hit "shutdown". But Microsoft knew better and after a couple of swaps forth and back I finally figured out I had to hit a greyed out option somewhere deep in the energy settings...

That's how engineers just following manager's orders get shot on their way home

- Forced Windows upgrade etc.

Generally:

- Don't go for world domination, try being better than the competition for a change, that might just be enough to ensure a leading position

- Concentrate on slimming down

- If you really think the world needs a new file system, make sure it also works with Linux

- work with open standards e.g. Vulkan instead of DX12. If Vulkan is worse, make it better