Monthly Archives: October 2019

The Future of Windows

On Wednesday, October 2nd, Microsoft made some interesting announcements regarding new devices and notably, a new version of windows. This Windows Central article gives a great overview of how Windows 10 is being reimagined, and I think it looks intriguing.

Windows 10 in its current state is a big monolithic dinosaur, the accumulation of 10 + editions of the base windows 95 architecture. I can only image the spagetti code that exists inside windows 10, but the fact that every patch that is released for Windows 10 comes with headlines of issues, it appears that it is really getting unmaintainable.

So Microsoft announced Windows 10x, which appears to be a rearchitecture of the operating system to cover a wide variety of devices. Instead of a ‘one windows for all devices’ mentality, it is being modularized to only run the components that make sense for each device. According to the Windows Central article referenced above:

This new edition of Windows 10 is based on Windows Core OS, a modular version of Windows 10 that aims to modernize and componentize the OS for all kinds of device form factors such as HoloLens 2, Surface Hub 2X, and more. 

Initially, Windows 10x will only run on the new mobile devices they announced. This stripped down windows 10 assumedly will contain only the bare minimum of functionality needed, which makes sense for new mobile devices. To reduce Windows size and complexity, why not strip out printer support, win32 support and other ancient code needed to run older technology? Windows 10 still has code to run 1990’s era Visual Basic 6 on Windows 10 – is it necessary to port support for that to a new operating system?

I think Microsoft came to the conclusion that Windows 10 in its current state is unmaintainable, and it needs to be rearchitected. I give them alot of credit for thinking ahead and envisioning a better future for Windows. Here is a prediction – I think they will re-brand this before launch, dropping the 10x name and having a name not related to Windows 10 at all.

I have been pretty critical of Microsoft over the years, but I have to give them credit for turning it around. Since Satya Nadella arrived as CEO of Microsoft in 2016, things have changed much more than I expected. They are making smart decisions (mostly..), and really challenging the old ways of doing things. I knew that Nadella would be a huge improvement over the Ballmer administration, and so far I think Microsoft and Nadella have exceeded everybody’s expections.

Dispatch From Croatia

I just returned from a trip to Croatia, a country I (and likely most Americans) know little about. During my two weeks there, I learned alot about the history of Croatia, and got a decent sense for the country. Here are a few random observations I picked up.

I Started in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Not really known as a tourist destination, but I was pleasantly surprised with how nice it was. Large pedestrian zone in the center of the old town, nice walks in the city and cafes.

Radiceva St in Zagreb

Zagreb and Croatia as a whole was pretty inexpensive, so if you are looking to travel in Europe on a tight budget, Croatia would be a great option for you.

Thoughout the various destinations I visited in Croatia I noticed very few Americans. Thats not to say there were not a lot of tourists – there were – tourism is Croatias leading industry. Most the languages I heard from the tourists were British, German and Slavic, which gave it a nice international feel.

If you visit Croatia, consider skipping any city where the cruise ships visit, unless you want to do the sights early or late. When the Cruise ships dock at Dubrovnik and Split, the streets get flooded during the day with people. We started our trip through the town of Dubrovnik around 8am, and were done by 11am. As we left, the crowds where everywhere:

We got out of there quick. There are plenty of great stops where you don’t have to fight the waves of tourists.

Regarding tourism in Croatia, in talking with a few Croatians, I got the impression they are not happy about being a tourism driven economy. It seemed to me that they felt the fall of communism and the resulting Balkan war broke their country. Industries were privatized, and the high paying jobs associated with those jobs are gone. More than one Croatian lamented the outflow of immigration of Croatians to other countries in search of high paying jobs. Granted most the people I interacted with were in the tourism business, so this anecdotal observation may be slanted, but it felt pretty prevelant.

On our way back from Croatia we stayed over a day in London, primarily because it is hard to get direct flights to Croatia. This was my first visit to London, and found it interesting. I was surprised how dirty it was, walking through the streets there was lots of litter and garbage everywhere. I find most European cities to be pretty kept up so that surprised me. Also was surprised about the number of homeless in London. Not as many as in the states, but more than I recall observing anywhere else in Europe. I am not sure what that indicates, other than the problem is not specific to America.

In summary, Croatia is a great place to visit. If you go, take some time to learn about the history of Croatia, Tito and the fall of communism, and the rise of the independent Yugoslavian states. But also enjoy the scenery.