6 Features That Windows 10 Has Taken From Linux

Microsoft has announced its upcoming operating system Windows 10. The name ‘Windows 10′ has surprised many as people were expecting it to be called Windows 9 .

Windows 10 promises some features which Microsoft users may find exciting. These features might be new to Windows but are they really new? Indeed, there are several features existing in GNU/Linux world for quite some time. In this article we shall seefive six Windows 10 features which might actually be inspired from Linux.

Six Windows 10 features inspired by Linux

Just to clarify, I am not saying that it is unethical that Microsoft has implemented some features in Windows 10, which are existing in desktop Linux. If the features are good and enhances user experience, every OS may try to implement those.

Multiple desktops aka workspaces

One of the most talked about feature in Windows 10 is multiple virtual desktops. In Linux world, these are known as workspaces. You can segregate various running apps in different workspaces. This allows you to switch between the applications in a better way.

While this feature is being introduced in Windows in 2015 with Windows 10, in Linux this, perhaps, dates back to 1998 when KDE 1.0 was released. All the major Linux desktop environment support multiple desktop feature.

Task view aka window spread

Windows 10 boasts of a feature called ‘task view’. Clicking on the task view button brings up an array of running apps.

Window spread feature was introduced with the new age desktop environments. Both Unity and GNOME have this feature. Pressing the super key (Windows key) lays out all the running applications in GNOME 3.

Desktop plus online search

Windows 10 will have improved search. Entering a search term in the field will result in either a file on the local machine, an installed application or application available in Windows Store or from the internet (to be opened in Internet Explorer).

Ubuntu has done the same with Unity Dash and lenses/scopes. When you search for something in Unity Dash, it provides you suggestion in local files, local applications, applications from Ubuntu Software Center, the infamous Amazon search results, along with other results categorized in various ‘lenses’. This includes search results from social networks, Wikipedia and You Tube.

Borderless windows and flat icons

This is very minor tweak but the windows in Windows 10 will be border-less and will have flat icons in Windows Explorer. This results in a cleaner look.

If you remember well, borderless windows were among one of the new features introduced in Ubuntu 14.04.

Convergence of mobile and desktop OS

Microsoft has promised better convergence across mobile and desktop devices with Windows 10.

While there is not a single mobile device out yet, Ubuntu was first to foresee the need of convergence. It will be interesting to see how Ubuntu Unity performs on mobile devices when Miezu will launch the first Ubuntu phone later this year.

 

Windows 10 (finally) has a package manager

Windows 10 will be coming with a package manager of its own. That means you can install applications via command line in Power Shell. An image from HowTo Geek will give you a glimpse of it:

As you can seem using the command Install-Package Firefox, you can install Firefox in Windows. But as a Linux user, you know that package management is an integral part of a Linux OS. It has been in Linux since forever. One more Linux feature that inspired Windows 10.

New partnership:Microsoft and Arduino !

It’s a special day for the Makers’ community. Massimo Banzi is in San Francisco attending Build Conference, the biggest developer event of the calendar year for Microsoft and today Microsoft is  announcing a strong partnership with Arduino:Windows 10 is in fact the world’s first Arduino certified operating system!

‘Arduino Certified’  Windows 10 enables makers to easily create smart objects combining hardware-driving capability of Arduino with the software capabilities of Windows.

For example, a security camera can be built by using Arduino to power the motors controls to tilt/turn the camera and using Universal Windows Platform (UWP) to create great UI, to connect the camera to the cloud, to process the image for motion detection and for adding facial/voice recognition.

The makers’ community can now also enjoy Windows Remote Arduinoand Windows Virtual Shields for Arduino technologies – both released as open source libraries.

With Windows Remote Arduino developers can (wirelessly) access the capabilities of  Windows 10 devices as if they were physically attached to an Arduino Shield and leveraging Arduino functions directly from Universal Windows Application.

In this way Microsoft is enabling developers to extend their Universal Windows Platform Application with Arduino commands (that execute on a wirelessly connected Arduino device). Combining the power of Windows 10 devices including features such as Image processing, Speech recognition, Website parsing, Cameras and Advanced Audio pipelines with the power of physical world interactivity through Arduino enables incredible new scenarios to be created. Take a look at this Basic Windows Remote Arduino project to learn how to leverage this technology in any interactive project.

How To Install Windows 10 IoT On Your Raspberry Pi 2

How do you run Windows on a Raspberry Pi? 

And why?

First, I invite you to check out Microsoft’s refreshingly complete GitHub page where they offer instructions for installing Windows 10 onto Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Galileo, and MinnowBoard. The page offers instructions for getting the official “Windows Embedded IoT” image for use with these devices. You can also just download it here.

What you need

1. A PC running Windows 10 Insider Preview.
2. Register with the Microsoft Connect program to download the Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview image.
We release the Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 through our program on Microsoft Connect. If you have not signed up yet, please go to our program site onMicrosoft Connect site to sign up. You can find step-by-step instructions for signing up for Microsoft Connect here. If you're already signed up for this program on Microsoft Connect and try to sign up again, you will just see a blank page.
3. Raspberry Pi 2.
4. 5V micro USB power supply with at least 1.0A current.
NOTE: You may want to use a higher current power supply (>2.0A) instead if you plan on using several USB peripherals or high-current devices.
5. A 8gb Class 10 (or better) micro SD card.
If you don't have an SD card, we suggest this one or this one.
6. HDMI cable (if display is desired).
7. Ethernet cable.

How?

Here is how to install Windows 10 IoT onto your Raspberry Pi.
Steps: 



Here is how to install Windows 10 IoT onto your Raspberry Pi.

1. Create an account at Microsoft Connect.

2. Download the file Windows_IoT_Core_RPI2_BUILD.zip which contains flash.ffu. Place this file in an accessible place.

3. Insert a blank 8GB Class 10 SD card into your computer.

4. Open a command prompt and type:
diskpart
list disk
exit

This will allow you to find the drive number for your SD card. Use this in the next step.

5. Finally, follow Microsoft’s own instructions for flashing the SD card in Windows 10.

Using the administrator command prompt, apply the image to your SD card by running the following command (be sure to replace PhysicalDriveN with the value you found in the previous step, for example, if your SD card is disk number 3, use /ApplyDrive:\\.\PhysicalDrive3 below):

dism.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:flash.ffu /ApplyDrive:\\.\PhysicalDriveN /SkipPlatformCheck

6. Safely remove the SD card.

Hook up your Board

1. Insert micro SD card you prepared in the section above (the slot is on the opposite side of the board shown below).
2. Connect a network cable to the Ethernet port on the board.
3. Connect an HDMI monitor to the HDMI port on the board.
4. Connect the power supply to the micro USB port on the board.

The card is now ready to boot in your Raspberry Pi 2.

Why?

Why would you want to do this? Well, as Microsoft notes, “Windows 10 IoT Core is a new Windows 10 edition for low-cost, small-footprint devices that will be available ‘free’ for Makers and commercial device builders.” This means you can easily flash and use a stripped-down version of Windows in your own projects. Interestingly, this version of Windows will be very familiar to users of similar platforms like Arduino and Rasbian.

Don’t expect to be playing Far Cry on this thing anytime soon – think of it as more of a universal app platform that connects to simple devices like Arduino-based relays and LEDs. In fact the UI is quite limited unless you program some apps yourself.