mavhc Posted October 20, 2018 Posted October 20, 2018 most new laptops don't have dvd drives, most people stream movies. Schools are an outlier due to weird licensing issues, just install vlc, only takes a few seconds. Updates never work, see the entire history of Windows Update. The problem is they haven't moved everything to Settings yet, taking too long. The reason why is a) it's cross platform, b) it scales with screen size, c) Control Panel got too complex 1
free780 Posted October 20, 2018 Posted October 20, 2018 There's always click View or planet estream which is better. You don't have to worry when physical media breaks. Education isn't Microsoft main market.
mavhc Posted October 20, 2018 Posted October 20, 2018 Or just ripping the ISOs to a 8TB drive in a NAS somewhere
jmak Posted October 20, 2018 Posted October 20, 2018 Or just ripping the ISOs to a 8TB drive in a NAS somewhereThat would take planning... 1
DavR Posted October 22, 2018 Posted October 22, 2018 most new laptops don't have dvd drives, most people stream movies. Schools are an outlier due to weird licensing issues, just install vlc, only takes a few seconds. This is what we did, it's a bit clunky, but works well enough. It's a retrograde step sure, much as I understand the financial logic behind removing native DVD playback. It's like being back in XP days, scrabbling around for a working version of Cyberlink PowerDVD. What I don't get is, if VLC can offer this functionality for free, why can't Microsoft.... 1
LeMarchand Posted October 22, 2018 Posted October 22, 2018 What I don't get is, if VLC can offer this functionality for free, why can't Microsoft.... It's got something to do with a quirk of French copyright law which allows them to include copyrighted/patented codecs and say, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries". Legal - VideoLAN 1
DavR Posted October 22, 2018 Posted October 22, 2018 It's got something to do with a quirk of French copyright law which allows them to include copyrighted/patented codecs and say, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries". Legal - VideoLAN Ah, ok. Viva Le France! Also, good use of Python
DrBeaker Posted October 22, 2018 Posted October 22, 2018 That would take planning... Planning and money, neither of which are very common in UK schools.
jthompson Posted October 29, 2018 Posted October 29, 2018 An interesting take on the current state of Windows from Ars Technica - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsofts-problem-isnt-shipping-windows-updates-its-developing-them/. 3
gshaw Posted October 29, 2018 Posted October 29, 2018 (edited) An interesting take on the current state of Windows from Ars Technica - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsofts-problem-isnt-shipping-windows-updates-its-developing-them/. There's an interesting counter-argument to this on The Register as well, along with an amusing anecode of how the Windows Vista shutdown menu ended up involving 40-odd people from multiple teams and took over a year to complete (!) https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/23/microsoft_windows_10_crisis/ Personally I don't think an OS needs two updates per year, the stability is suffering too much for very small benefits. One main release aka the xx09 build as a yearly version with the xx03 being an "Insider" Beta i.e. you can install it and try some new features early but expect some bugs. Support the xx09 releases for 24-30 months as per the recent changes but the xx03 have no production support at all as it would be officially marked as beta software. Seems like MS have bitten off a bit more than they can chew with the current model, or alternatively you could look at it that they're deliberately reducing the reliability of on-prem installations in order to sell you their hosted VDI version... https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/virtual-desktop/ Also note this statement on O365 ProPlus support on 2019 RDS https://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/news/252451300/Windows-Server-2019-RDSH-drops-Office-365-ProPlus-support Edited October 29, 2018 by gshaw
supportman Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 (edited) I like the new model of release early, release often as its given some great new features such as dark mode. But they should have a parallel LTS release. I know LTSB/C is available and use it here in school, but Microsoft should promote it some more and actually give us some confidence in that product rather than saying its just for certain specialist customers. Edited October 30, 2018 by supportman
mavhc Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 But it is just for specialist customers, you can't run anything new on it, Minecraft, Paint 3D, neat stuff the kids love. If we don't move to the new stuff then we'll never get to a version of windows that isn't full of legacy crap that's causing all the problems.
rosslaing Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 But it is just for specialist customers, you can't run anything new on it, Minecraft, Paint 3D, neat stuff the kids love. If we don't move to the new stuff then we'll never get to a version of windows that isn't full of legacy crap that's causing all the problems. This^^^^ I would never use LTSB, Kids are going to be using Windows 10 at home, with all the latest apps and features, when they go into a place of work, probably the same. We have 7000 odd machines running windows 10 and not one issue regarding any of the Apps that come bundled with it. hell, even the Xbox game bar is useful to staff for creating Video tutorials. Windows 10 is far from perfect but, it is not my job to say apps shouldnt be used in an education environment when im not the one teaching, apart from if it is a security issue. At the end of the day I am here to facility the staff to teach the children, they can decide what they want, with a bit of guidance
jthompson Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 Windows 10 is far from perfect but, it is not my job to say apps shouldnt be used in an education environment when im not the one teaching, apart from if it is a security issue. At the end of the day I am here to facility the staff to teach the children, they can decide what they want, with a bit of guidance In a way, it ~is~ your job, since you're the one responsible for supporting the use of that software. The use case for a home PC or an office PC is arguable quite different to that of a classroom PC, since a classroom deployment [ideally] shouldn't care whether users have used that particular machine before or not. A fair amount of software doesn't fit that model, or at least not well enough to be worth supporting (e.g. Windows Mail app). If I don't want to be supporting a piece of software, I don't really want it hanging around, inviting end users to feed data into it.
mavhc Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 So learn the new software, or just do what everyone else does, fiddle about with it for 5 seconds and already know more than everyone else in the building about it. You're not not learning a new piece of software though, you're not allowing the installation of an entire class of software, UWP, which is the only thing MS will be writing apps in from 2 years ago onwards
jthompson Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 So learn the new software, or just do what everyone else does, fiddle about with it for 5 seconds and already know more than everyone else in the building about it. You're not not learning a new piece of software though, you're not allowing the installation of an entire class of software, UWP, which is the only thing MS will be writing apps in from 2 years ago onwards It's still possible, after doing that, to decide to not support certain things. We opted to deprovision the cruft rather than use LTSB, to avoid painting ourselves into a UWP corner down the line. 'Learning the software' is perhaps not as trivial as you've made out, for the very reason you've given: it's an entirely new class of software, yet one that seems to demand a lot of uphill work to administer (hence this thread).
rosslaing Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 If I don't want to be supporting a piece of software, I don't really want it hanging around, inviting end users to feed data into it. So you are deciding what they can an cannot use regardless of business/teaching case? I dont want them to use the Mail App, just to use your example, it is rubbish and they should be using their dedicated mail systems supplied, but, some users may prefer it. I may block access to it until someone asks for it, but that is a far cry from point blank saying no and removing it altogether. I think if I took the line of not wanting to support software for whatever reason, the software portfolio would be rather small. If they want to use software that quite blatantly doesn't work in the environment then yeah, im not going to install it, and in most cases they shouldn't be buying it anyway, but the built in stuff, although mostly useless, may be of use to someone in some way.
mavhc Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 That's fine, it's people using LTSB that are weird. Also teachers teaching vs teachers admin'ing are 2 different sets of users. Don't want school email on Win10 Mail if it can't be controlled/filtered/encrypted/etc, but that's different from teaching about email
rosslaing Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 That's fine, it's people using LTSB that are weird. Also teachers teaching vs teachers admin'ing are 2 different sets of users. Don't want school email on Win10 Mail if it can't be controlled/filtered/encrypted/etc, but that's different from teaching about email Thats kind of my point, its a teaching aid. We dont use Outlook either, but, teachers do use it to teach about email, they may want to use the Mail app in future. Cant do that on LTSB. Its only one app as an example but there are others like you have mentioned. Seeing as Sticky notes is now UWP, id imagine that wont be in the next LTSB release, id have uproar if that went away, was bad enough moving from windows 7 profiles to windows 10 and having to restore sticky notes for those that shouted the loudest!
jthompson Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 So you are deciding what they can an cannot use regardless of business/teaching case? Not regardless, no. Generally, there's dialogue going on between the teaching and support side as to what software is available for the classroom, but essentially it's up to the teaching side to ascertain what software they need/want, and for us to provide them with it if we can. Until there's a stated requirement, I'm not going to deploy software that nobody wants/needs.
rosslaing Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 Not regardless, no. Generally, there's dialogue going on between the teaching and support side as to what software is available for the classroom, but essentially it's up to the teaching side to ascertain what software they need/want, and for us to provide them with it if we can. Until there's a stated requirement, I'm not going to deploy software that nobody wants/needs. Ah I see, thats not the way it read originally so my apologies for picking that up wrong, that is the approach id expect. 1
free780 Posted October 30, 2018 Posted October 30, 2018 I wouldn't touch LTSC unless you have a use case. Thin clients for example. Windows 10 isn't perfect. I'm currebtly reimaging to 1709 as 1809 isn't ready yet.
supportman Posted October 31, 2018 Posted October 31, 2018 I wouldn't touch LTSC unless you have a use case. Thin clients for example. Windows 10 isn't perfect. I'm currebtly reimaging to 1709 as 1809 isn't ready yet. We have used both LTSC and the fast track 6 month releases. Must admit I much prefer LTSC its been rock solid since install. The faster releases have had all kinds of issues from the upgrades so i'll be using LTSC from now on. There is a poll somewhere on here that shows the majority of admins have chosen LTSB/LTSC I believe.
mavhc Posted October 31, 2018 Posted October 31, 2018 Is that because it's better, or easier for them? If you're unwilling to try new things, maybe don't get a job in technology?
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