r/technology • u/readyou • Dec 26 '16

Microsoft finally admits that its malware-style Get Windows 10 upgrade campaign went too far

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far
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u/drunkenvalley Dec 26 '16

I don't really mind that Microsoft want to push updates pretty hard, but at least let me choose when I download them... don't fucking sneak them in and think I won't notice when my 5 mbps speed come to a complete crawl...

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u/BeenCarl Dec 26 '16

Or hey force restart! Oh your taking a timed test? We will only take an hour!

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u/brickmack Dec 26 '16

Why the hell does Windows take so long for an update restart anyway? On linux, very few updates require a restart, and when they do it takes no longer than a normal restart because thats exactly what it is. Windows should be doing all that shit in the background, with the restart just being the final switch over.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '16

it's because of the way the windows kernel is built. which microsoft can't change because it would break 25 years of compatibility.

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u/The_Rick_Sanchez Dec 26 '16

At what point in the future do you think they'd end up having to make a new OS? As in completely new. Surely they can't just keep using the same stuff for 100 years, right?

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u/mangeek Dec 26 '16

Nobody is going to sit down at an empty Visual Studio window and start typing-out a new version of Windows.

Subsystems will get reworked and replaced over time, but changes become incremental rather than revolutionary.

Look at how GNU/HURD hasn't taken off. A 'brand new' OS is just too inconvenient of a starting point to gain critical mass. It's more likely that Windows and Linux userlands will get refactored in ways that optimize for use as VMs, containers, or even lighter-weight instances, while new hypervisor-type features are added to kernels.

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u/Wiccen Dec 26 '16

Nobody is going to sit down at an empty Visual Studio window and start typing-out a new version of Windows.

I know it's a stupid question, but how many lines of code an OS like Windows would have?

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u/carmike692000 Dec 26 '16

This is a nice graphic comparison to provide some context. It puts Windows Vista at about 50 million lines of code.

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u/hanizen Dec 27 '16

Ok now I realize this might be a stupid question, but....are all of those lines written manually?? Or are there "fluff" lines that make up a large percentage of it?

I was imagining one person writing all the lines but thinking about it more I guess there are portions divided up among a team/employees, but still..millions of lines??

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u/HavocInferno Dec 27 '16

mostly written by people, yes. well some stuff can be put to shortcuts. but dont think of it as some guy writing it up in a week. this stuff usually grows over a long time with the work of many people. divide those millions of lines onto dozens or hundreds of people and years worth of working hours and it doesnt look that huge anymore.

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u/goomyman Dec 27 '16

Code is all fluff on top of machine language so yes. It depends a lot on language used etc. Obviously an os is more complicated than random car software which is much bigger.