Welcome to Build 9879, Windows Insiders!

If it wasn't overcast ( it's the rainy season here in Vancouver) this is what the eastern horizon would look like about now....but it's a good day anyway! And I wasn't dreaming last night around bedtime - Microsoft did update the operating system again, very seamlessly, to Build 9879, and this one is noticeably improved from Build 9841 where I climbed on the bandwagon. Not that there was a lot wrong in 9841 - I didn't find any problems - but this has more polish, new folder icons, ....improved Start Menu....Virtuagirl App (just kidding, Mom!) and other tweaks I haven't had time yet to checkout....

It's looking good! My favorite Winamp player is playing Jazz24 from KPLU, and all my gadgets are working smoothly, and I can't think of anything to bitch about.....well, maybe one thing: I'm still getting that error pop-up when I start to load Stellarium, and I still have to hammer hell out of its button for "Continue" until it finally loads, error-window free. But this isn't necessarily a Windows problem. It could be something in the latest open-source build (13.1) of Stellarium. I removed it, cleaned out the secret hidden folders in AppData, and re-installed it, but that doesn't solve the problem. I think I'll write to them at Stellarium and ask them to check their newest version against past ones, because we didn't get that in older ones.

So.....Thanksgiving and Christmas started a little early for us Windows Insiders yesterday, with Build 9879, which The Man says is our last automatic upgrade until after the holiday season, and we are urged to continue the Feedback until the action resumes in January. Trust us - we will! And we hope that everyone at Mighty Microsoft enjoys a very nice Thanksgiving, and a best-ever Christmas.

Testing Windows Ten is proving to be a hell of a lot more fun than testing some of the previous ones, and the process has improved amazingly. When we finished testing Windows 7, and it went on sale to the public, I thought, "That's it - this is about as good as it gets." I'm here to say I was wrong! This one is going to better it - and let's remember, Windows 7 is still the world's favorite version of Windows. But just wait, Kiddies!  

This is new (to me, anyway) and it's a very nice touch. We as users really do appreciate being made to feel like we're actually part of the process. And as I said once before, a long time ago, just before testing began on Windows 7, even though we as users don't know 'squat' about coding and making everything work smoothly with everything else, we do know what we like, and what's comfortable for us, and what's easy to use. And that's valuable knowledge for those fitting all the pieces together. And we really are all in this together. And if that sounds like a "pep talk" forgive me, but that's how I feel about it. A pilot doesn't need to know how to build an aircraft in order to fly it, and I don't need to know how to build Windows in order to enjoy using it - and I do want to enjoy using it. And I'd like everyone else to enjoy using it too.

I've used Unix-like PC-BSD, which is very similar to the way OS-X is built, and while it runs very nicely, and has a very easy updating system, it like OS-X has only a certain list of acceptable programs that run in it. Mind you, there's lots of them, but they aren't necessarily the ones that I'm familiar with, or might choose on my own if there were no restrictions on what the system would run. Windows, on the other hand, accepts third party programs from all over the world, and runs them seamlessly with its own. That's what makes it unique. Let's try to keep it that way. I like having choices, don't you?