Another Reason for Windows 11?
October 13, 2021
The team at Beyond Search talked yesterday about Windows 11. One individual installed the system on one of our test-only machines and reported, “Not too exciting.” Another dismissed the Windows 11 as a distraction from the still-lingering SolarWinds and Exchange Server security face plants. I took a look and said, “Run some tests to see what it does to the performance of our AMD 5950X machines.”
Then I turned my attention to more interesting things. This morning my trusty Overflight system spit out this headline: “Microsoft: Here’s Why We Shrunk Windows 11 Update Sizes by 40%.” I noted this statement in the article:
…It was necessary to reduce the size of them, which in the past have been almost 5 GB in size. In a word, it’s about bandwidth, which millions of households in the US have a shortage of due to poor broadband in remote areas.
Maybe cost is a factor?
My hunch is that Microsoft has many employees who have opinions about the shift from the last Windows to a last-plus-n Windows.
Several observations from our underground computer lab in rural Kentucky:
- Updates create problems for Microsoft; for example, security issues lurk and actors world wide are enthusiastic about exploring “new” code from Microsoft. Vulnerabilities R’Us it seems.
- Implementing procedures which produce stable code are more expensive than figuring out how to reduce code bloat in updates. Therefore, the pitch touted in the write up cited above.
- Microsoft has shifted from 10,000 sail boats going in the same general direction to 20,000 motor boats going someplace. Evidence? The changing explanation for the existence of Windows 11.
Net net: Big and changing operating system may add vulnerabilities, not just rounded corners and a distraction from deeper issues.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2021
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