The Early Perspective on Windows 10

Well, the day has finally come. Windows 10 has been rolled out for the universe. We thought it might be worth sharing some of the early perspective and advice on how the new operating system from Microsoft will integrate into existing hardware.

The company expects more than 1.5 billion people to download it, so your company better be prepared when it’s time to take the plunge. The early sentiment, though, seems to be those people should practice patience before downloading the software. They might want to wait until at least mid-September. My sense is Columbus Day probably makes more sense.

Here’s what Gizmodo had to say: “The current build is buggy enough that you should probably hold off a few weeks/months before upgrading. But you should definitely upgrade.”

That’s a sentiment shared by David Pogue over at Yahoo Tech. He writes, “The Windows 8 error—I mean era—is over.” He adds, “Windows 10 is coherent. It makes sense. Its design no longer leaves you pounding your forehead on your desk, ruing the day that Microsoft lit up whatever it was smoking.” But just don’t download it right away.

Pogue likes the fact that the start menu has returned but no longer takes over your whole screen. It does what a start menu should do: be there but not be intrusive. He also likes that there is fairly consistent behavior among apps. You no longer have to learn two sub-operating systems within the Windows 8 universe.

Walter Mossberg, who used to be the tech guru for the Wall Street Journal, observes at his ReCode website, “At its heart, Windows 10, which will begin rolling out gradually as a free update, is a rescue mission.” That’s hardly a ringing endorsement.

He finds the new operating system surprisingly buggy but he holds out hope. “Still, some of the new features are promising, the balance between old and new styles seems right this time, and — if the bugs get erased — Windows 10 would be a good choice for Windows devotees,” he writes.

Just don’t get him started on the voice-controlled Cortana intelligent assistant. It’s Bill Gates’ answer to Steve Jobs’ Siri. He says the feature let him down about half the time. It also made a weird technological reference to the microphone he was using, saying it wasn’t best suited to the task. In spite of the fact, it was a brand-new microphone on a brand-new laptop.

Over at Wired, David Pierce says you should wait for the bugs to be worked out but once they are: pounce. “Why wouldn’t you? It’s free, it’s easy, and it’s a huge improvement on whatever version you’re using,” he says.

To be a better system, though, Windows 10 is going to need more apps. That’s one of the big flaws Pierce observes. “Someday, Microsoft hopes its vision for a universal OS will make developers want to build apps for it,” he says. “So far, not so much. Not even close. But hey, at least until then, apps install just fine the way they always have.”

One aspect Pierce really likes (as in “really, really, really”) is the new Internet browser Microsoft Edge. He says, “Edge is simple, fast, and reliable, which any good browser should be but almost none are.” Pierce adds, “It’s brand new, so there’s a lot still missing—extensions, download management, and many other little things—but it works.”

I like this particular observation he makes. There is no wrong way to use Microsoft 10. There were lots of wrong ways to use Microsoft 8, especially if you only had a desktop or laptop and weren’t an experienced tablet user.

This article from TechRepublic isn’t a review. Instead, it tells you if your hardware is going to work with this new software. The good news, it appears, is Microsoft has found a way to work with machines dating back to 2003.

You’re definitely going to have to take a wait-and-see attitude, though (sound familiar?). As the article points out, upgrades could downgrade what machines can be used. “There has been speculation over how rapidly Windows 10 will become more demanding to run as it accrues new features and how soon those running it on machines close to the minimum specs will be forced to upgrade,” TechRepublic says.