Coping with the end... what's your poison?

[AndyCalling]

OK folks, so Windows 10 mobile is now certainly in its final hours. I discovered today that MS have confirmed they don't intend to move the recently divorced W10 Mobile spur back to the main W10 builds and will no longer add features to W10 Mobile. Whilst I have not always been passionate about MS, I have always loved Windows. It is second only to Sinclair devices in my heart. But they have decided to abandon me and I'm taking it hard.

So, if you're a True Believer and can't stand iOS and Android no matter what, how well are you coping? Personally I'm taking up new hobbies, such as drinking heavily, smoking fags by the packet and listening to lots of Passenger tracks. I would try a technological solution, but the alternatives suck so bad I can't be Harrised.

So, what's your approach? A defiant rejection of reality? Maybe you're combining a Pocket PC and a tab of LSD? Are you letting Jesus take the wheel? Perhaps you're giving up tech entirely and becoming a technological hermit? All better options than turning to Google's MCP or relying on fruit based solutions (except wine and cider). So what's your final solution, and what are you listening to on your Windows Phone whilst you hide from a cruel, cruel world?

Cortana says "I don't know what happened, give us a minute and try again". Tie your scarf on tight, it's to be a cold night.

 

[AndyCalling]

Well I'm sticking with because the alternatives are not remotely acceptable. I've just gone past the point where I can be happy about it.

Still, more power to your elbow mate. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

[PerfectReign]

OK folks, so Windows 10 mobile is now certainly in its final hours. I discovered today that MS have confirmed they don't intend to move the recently divorced W10 Mobile spur back to the main W10 builds and will no longer add features to W10 Mobile. Whilst I have not always been passionate about MS, I have always loved Windows. It is second only to Sinclair devices in my heart.

Well, the alternatives all pretty much suck equally for their own reasons.

My 950xl doubles as a bedside clock, alarm (since I wake about an hour earlier than my beautiful young bride), and work phone.

I did switch to an Iphone and am mostly okay with it. I can't root it and install a custom ROM, but it works pretty well. If only I could use Cortana instead of Siri by default.

Seriously, though, a Sinclair? I remember friends of mine having the 1000 (ZX80) when I was in sixth grade. No idea they were still around.

 

[mattiasnyc]

MS have confirmed they don't intend to move the recently divorced W10 Mobile spur back to the main W10 builds and will no longer add features to W10 Mobile.

Where did Microsoft confirm that?

 

[kaktus1389]

I am trying to hang on my 950 for as long as possible, perhaps I will hack it if that's the only way to get CShell if it comes in next 6 months. My nerves aren't holding up well when I need to launch Facebook or Windows Central app 10 times for it to work. Every few weeks I almost go for an iPhone SE but I stop myself last second because that phone still costs some money and I can't afford to throw 400€ on a phone every year. I'll try to live with it until September 2018 when it's my due to upgrade, I just hope app launching times won't change to worse until then because I may be forced to use my phone as a stressball in that case. I can live without billions of apps (although I would appreciate to have my bank's app or at least PayPal app), but if those that I need aren't working then it's all useless.

When I first enrolled to insider builds for Windows 10 Mobile I was amazed by the new design (I missed 8.1 animations), though I still thought they could furtherly improve it. I saw Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile as Windows that were different from previous Windows versions and would be Microsoft's no. 1 priority since they are, as many say, primarily a software company. I am happy to see all the improvements come to Windows 10, but I would be happier if they had told us what we are going through right now. With Windows 10 on Arm and CShell I can see that this is moving towards the OS merger, but I would really be glad if they would push this update for existing hardware and tell us something more about their plans.

 

[Mohammed Feizal Samat]

i'm still sticking to my 950. i bought a 1+5 for my wife (as a testing so to speak ^_^). My whole family uses Win 10 M.

 

[midnightfrolic]

Gonna use the 950XL for a while until something interesting comes along. But I'm fickle. Might hop back to IOS or Android on a whim.

 

[Drael646464]

You've been misinformed.

MSFT has made no such official announcement. What you are hearing is the Chinese whisper effect.

An insider team member on a live stream said "There's no current plan to remove win10m from feature2, and also said don't make a big deal out of feature2"

Dona sakar said "is there is a immediate/soon plan to remove win10m from feature2?" "no". Much like the above.

Unfortunalely as leblanc tweeted, insiders aren't remotely privy to long term plans. Both questions where _specifically_ about immediate plans - both questions directly targeted at immediate/short term merger, and insiders are only privy to stuff related to their workload anyway - immediate plans.

So all this ACTUALLY means, is that nothing particularly exciting is happening for the FCU, and mobile at that point will still be feature2 when FCU hits. Which whilst a disappointment, at this late stage, isn't entirely news. I mean if it was going to change soon, mobile insiders would already know about it!

Of course chicken little loves to shout that the sky is falling, so chicken little shouts that the sky is falling.

But my advise would be to relax.

UWP is the lynch pin of the future vision of MSFT for windows. Its what enables "OD to 4D" and hardware independent cross-platform user experience, one OS etc. This is stuff they have been chanting like monks since the release of windows 10. Win10m, is a UWP based platform.

So it shares its fate, with the whole of the windows vision - if UWP fails, all windows suffers, and MSFT suffers. If windows roadmap goes well, UWP goes well, win10m benefits. It's a shared fate scenario.

If for some bizarre reason Microsoft was outright lying about feature2 being for work on one core, and they are poised at our backs with a hatchet - the OS will still work, the apps will still be developed, and MSFT can hardly afford to dump the multiple form factors (including pocketable small screens) it needs to mature and develop first and third party software for its next gen OS vision.

They can't actually back out permenantly from small screen pocket devices, unless they admit defeat on the next gen OS vision, which would be really really bad for them (devs would rage quit, they'd be left with no future strategy as a company, stock would fall and probably Nadella would be fired). They actually need a mobile play, even if its a niche market device, if only for development purposes.

From where I am sitting the sky is falling crowd are exactly as ungrounded, emotional and biased as the ultimate mobile widget crowd.

One might see me as slightly optimistic, but I will not make a storm into a teacup, or a molehill into a mountain. I'll always at least try to work in the realm of reason and evidence. Something that TBH is pretty hard these days when it comes to win10m - there is so little evidence, and nothing much to question rationally - but nothing but wild fire speculation all day long on the blogs.

Its like trying to remain rational about life whilst listening to gossip from e news all day. Maybe if forums and blogs didn't remote tech news like a womans magazine reports celebrity gossip life would be a bit easier.

 

[onysi]

It's not officially dead to me until Microsoft has a phone with android on it. Windows phone is renamed back to windows mobile, and they could be preparing for a surface phone. everything is tight lip in Redmond, but the only way to catch up is to fork android with some windows features and put in office and Xbox streaming gaming on the surface phone to catch up to this mess that Ballmer has created.

 

[Drael646464]

It's not officially dead to me until Microsoft has a phone with android on it. Windows phone is renamed back to windows mobile, and they could be preparing for a surface phone. everything is tight lip in Redmond, but the only way to catch up is to fork android with some windows features and put in office and Xbox streaming gaming on the surface phone to catch up to this mess that Ballmer has created.

If the only way to "catch up", is to destroy your future plans (dismantling your whole next gen OS play, and deliberately sabotaging your whole platforms still new next gen app system, UWP), that's not really catching up is it?

Not only would it be setting fire to everything MSFT has been working on and sending a personal F you to developers, but the windows store has better and more apps than the amazon app store, because most android apps require google play services (many also require google games, google maps, google+ etc) - which a forked android doesn't get, ever (it has to be close to stock, to get googles tick of approval, it has to essentially be a relatively unmodified android. because you know, google does it to make money, not to make other people money)

So they'd be giving the their newly minted, not particularly noteworthy android based OS, LESS apps than win10m currently has, at the same time as removing all hope their hybrid next gen can gain market share in future markets, like VR/AR, folding devices and the other things that will make slab phones and their attendant current platforms somewhat redundant.
Plus rumour is, google is looking to replace android. To dump it. With its attempt at a hybrid OS, Fushia (which it will also have to build a new ecosystem for). Presumably google and apple are both smart enough to know that slabs aren't forever. MSFT is currently ahead in their development of a next gen OS (One that isn't mobile, or desktop or VR, or no screen/voice but everything)
. By several years and a lot of 3rd party dev support.

I'd describe that as "shooting yourself in the foot, at the exact same time as stabbing yourself in the eye", rather than "catching up".

Sorry to be viscerally blunt and contrary, but I can't help but start choking on my salad when people say things like this. It kind of baffles me, so I am sorry if my rant comes off as rude.

 

[fdruid]

Dude, just keep using it for as long as it works. It's not gonna implode in your hands. "Coping" is for when something hard happens in your life.
People whose dear relatives or friends have died on them are "coping". People with a terminal illness are "coping". People who have been recently fired, who have broken up their relationship, etc. But "vague news of your smartphone OS not going to last forever", I think anyone can live with that just fine. Jeez.

 

[anon(50597)]

Dude, just keep using it for as long as it works. It's not gonna implode in your hands. "Coping" is for when something hard happens in your life.
People whose dear relatives or friends have died on them are "coping". People with a terminal illness are "coping". People who have been recently fired, who have broken up their relationship, etc. But "vague news of your smartphone OS not going to last forever", I think anyone can live with that just fine. Jeez.

People cope with chronic conditions also, diseases that progress slowly over time. Dealing with a platform that doesn't keep up and creates situations where people have to deal with workarounds is a form of coping.

 

[LuxuryTouringZone]

So, if you're a True Believer and can't stand iOS and Android no matter what, how well are you coping?

Thankfully, I can stand iOS and Android, so if I had to I'd use an LG V20, Samsung Galaxy S8+ or iPhone 7+. I'd still buy a Windows Phone at this point, because I'm not normal! The fact that I have an OS 10 device further supports this.

 

[sinime]

Well, I'm staying with my L 950 and looking forward to the new devices that will run Windows 10 on arm. Hopefully they truly release a device that is game changing and that OEM's and more devs get on board this time around.

 

[onysi]

If the only way to "catch up", is to destroy your future plans (dismantling your whole next gen OS play, and deliberately sabotaging your whole platforms still new next gen app system, UWP), that's not really catching up is it?

Not only would it be setting fire to everything MSFT has been working on and sending a personal F you to developers, but the windows store has better and more apps than the amazon app store, because most android apps require google play services (many also require google games, google maps, google+ etc) - which a forked android doesn't get, ever (it has to be close to stock, to get googles tick of approval, it has to essentially be a relatively unmodified android. because you know, google does it to make money, not to make other people money)

So they'd be giving the their newly minted, not particularly noteworthy android based OS, LESS apps than win10m currently has, at the same time as removing all hope their hybrid next gen can gain market share in future markets, like VR/AR, folding devices and the other things that will make slab phones and their attendant current platforms somewhat redundant.
Plus rumour is, google is looking to replace android. To dump it. With its attempt at a hybrid OS, Fushia (which it will also have to build a new ecosystem for). Presumably google and apple are both smart enough to know that slabs aren't forever. MSFT is currently ahead in their development of a next gen OS (One that isn't mobile, or desktop or VR, or no screen/voice but everything)
. By several years and a lot of 3rd party dev support.

I'd describe that as "shooting yourself in the foot, at the exact same time as stabbing yourself in the eye", rather than "catching up".

Sorry to be viscerally blunt and contrary, but I can't help but start choking on my salad when people say things like this. It kind of baffles me, so I am sorry if my rant comes off as rude.

It was more of an eye opening than rude. Wasn't aware of what's google trying to do. I was looking at the successes of blackberry, and amazon, and now Nokia using android, so I thought maybe some type of dual booting(win10/android) would be best.
I've been a windows mobile user since forever. Now I carry two phones because I refuse to let go of my wm10. This is it., it's 2017, galaxy s8 is a really nice phone. Galaxy note 8 will be even tempting in the fall if microsoft doesn't have any surface phone announced by the end of year.

 

[AndyCalling]

Originally posted by PerfectReign
Seriously, though, a Sinclair? I remember friends of mine having the 1000 (ZX80) when I was in sixth grade. No idea they were still around.

Sir Clive is still around (correct as at 22:02h 18/07/17...). I still hold out hope for the Sinclair ZX SpecPhone. Zilog Inside till I die.

 

[aximtreo]

Sold my 950 XL and backup 650. Bought an iPhone 7+ and Nexus 6P to see which I preferred. The 7+ won by a landslide. Now, I'm listing the Nexus 6P on our Marketplace hoping for a trade for the HP Elite X3. I'll use the 7+ for daily stuff and put the HP under my pillow so hopefully I have good dreams.

Damn, how can one company make so many stupid decisions in such a short time span?

 

[AndyCalling]

Damn, how can one company make so many stupid decisions in such a short time span?

 

[Guytronic]

Lol...

WP refugee here.
Did my best to find viability with MS after spending what I thought was my fair share to support Windows Phone.
My parents must have done a good job raising a son with a moderate amount of common sense though.

If something isn't making you smile and there's an alternative then there ya go

I absolutely admire the WP/WM effort and will seldom if ever propel any ill will at anyone who has the huevos to cling to WP.
For me I'm a hardware junky and when MS/WM decided to shutter the phone manufacturing the message was: "We are done here"

Far as I see if a company doesn't have enough faith to even offer at least one backed new phone that shows off the fantastic often updated OS that means so much to so few then it truly is game over.

 

[Markeyse Jamar Mundy]

Still hanging on to my Cracked 950XL, but could be getting Android for a little break.