So I decided to put the latest version of Windows 10 LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel) - what used to be their "LTSB" version. Before that, I'd only run it as a test in a VM so rarely every actually touched it and never gave it any real thought.
I've been running it since before Christmas and have to say, I can't understand why MS don't make it more generally available.
From a home-version perspective, I can understand it, as it doesn't have things like their tiles (so no advertising) and it doesn't update every 6 months but my god it's such a cleaner interface.
It's fair to say that I don't mind the tiles when they are there but going back to an OS without them, it's like stepping back to Windows 7.
Microsoft don't recommend it's used for a day-to-day general purpose machine (which they define as one where you intend to run applications such as Office) but even talking to them directly or more recently a licensing specialist, they don't really have a good explanation as to why that is - especially as it was originally intended as the OS of choice for the Enterprise.
Which only adds more to my confusion because I'm yet to actually see any Enterprise running it.
It still gets all the security patches you'd expect, of course.
I would say it feels snappier in use but I'd be reluctant to put that down to the OS itself over the fact it's a fresh install so will inevitably benefit from losing the buildup of garbage that you get over time.
As it is you can only legally get it if you have either a volume license agreement or subscribe to MAPS (I do the latter) and that, to me, is a crying shame.
I've been running it since before Christmas and have to say, I can't understand why MS don't make it more generally available.
From a home-version perspective, I can understand it, as it doesn't have things like their tiles (so no advertising) and it doesn't update every 6 months but my god it's such a cleaner interface.
It's fair to say that I don't mind the tiles when they are there but going back to an OS without them, it's like stepping back to Windows 7.
Microsoft don't recommend it's used for a day-to-day general purpose machine (which they define as one where you intend to run applications such as Office) but even talking to them directly or more recently a licensing specialist, they don't really have a good explanation as to why that is - especially as it was originally intended as the OS of choice for the Enterprise.
Which only adds more to my confusion because I'm yet to actually see any Enterprise running it.
It still gets all the security patches you'd expect, of course.
I would say it feels snappier in use but I'd be reluctant to put that down to the OS itself over the fact it's a fresh install so will inevitably benefit from losing the buildup of garbage that you get over time.
As it is you can only legally get it if you have either a volume license agreement or subscribe to MAPS (I do the latter) and that, to me, is a crying shame.