Why does Windows lie

[D-Dan]

As most people will know, I use Linux. I do, however, keep a couple of fully licensed Win 10 Pro virtual machines around. One is on a USB HD, and is fully portable (sucks to be you, M$, trying to force us to re-license when moving machines).

Updating on Arch is as simple as “yay -Syu” and it’s done in a few minutes even for major upgrades, when I’m updating stuff that has to be compiled.

Win 10, OTOH, takes an age, and when it reports 100%, it takes an age more, so clearly not 100%, Why does Windows lie about how long this update will take?

 

EDIT: To add insult to injury, it only updates Windows. On linux, everything gets updated. And people wonder why I use Linux. Sheesh.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Dave Rice]

Well stop using Windows then and you’ll have nothing to moan about 😆

The Windows licence you used ties it to hardware. There are other licence models available but of course they all cost money.

And “Linux” doesn’t necessarily update everything in one go. I think you mean what the Distro includes in its repositories get updated with one command? VNC tells me there’s a new version available but the usual RPi update methods don’t touch it. Neither does UniFi on any Distro unless you specifically do something manually about it i.e. add the repo and that isn’t necessarily straightforward. Then there’s apt, yum, or whatever.

Having dealt with upgrading 25,000 machine estates, sometimes in emergencies, the last thing you want is uncontrolled updating of this, that and everything in one go. You’d never get that through Change Control and the back out plan would take weeks to work out for each individual app and dependencies.

All o/ses have their strengths, weaknesses and foibles. If the Linux Distro model “X” suits you rejoice, but it won’t suit everyone.

A Comparison of Linux Software Update Technologies link One telling line “apt and yum based updates may require luck
or other methods for reliability”.

[D-Dan]

Just saw your reply, Dave, so sorry for the delay.

I agree that apt based systems in particular can be hit and miss with updates (and Debian will always be behind other Debian based systems).

However, I use Arch (with testing repos active), so I’m about as cutting edge as Linux gets, being a rolling release and most software pulled from upstream as software gets updated.

For this reason, my single line is more than adequate. OK, there will be breakages, but in 6 years, never anything I couldn’t fix, though as I get older, I’ve also taken to a complete timeshift backup once per week.

It does, however, update everything to pretty much the latest available every time I update.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[keith with the teef]

Yeah. So when you sell a mobo second hand and it has had w10 on it. Well there’s a good chance that all the recipient has to do is install w10  from the free iso and on his new build and declare no key on install and it should self register and be up and running.

Which means a 60£ mobo which has had w10 pro on it should sell for what? 260.

[D-Dan]

Not to be a pedant, but a MB has nothing but the firmware on it. You’d need a drive and/or a case with a product key sticker.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Not any more D Dan. W10 registers its self to system hardware these days and a MoBo that has been in a registered system seems to be enough to convince W10 to reactivate without a key.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

As it stands at the moment, if you have a retail version of W10, or a retail key, then the licence is technically with the key but will find that if you try to uses the key on  new hardware you will have to ring Microsoft so they can register the new hardware and deregister the old hardware. There is no way you can deregister the old hardware yourself.

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