Now that Microsoft has finalized the release date for Windows 10 (July 29) and is offering it as a free upgrade to just about everyone running Win7, 8, and 8.1 I need to know, will Boinc and CPDN be win10 compatible by that date.

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Should be; I'll check.

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

According to BOINCstats, there's 2250 Windows 10 machines here.

Host Operating System breakdown

From Jord, a boinc programmer and CPDN participant and adviser:

The upcoming BOINC 7.6 is Windows 10 compatible, with correct detection of the kernel and all that. I don't think that CPDN needs to change anything about their apps to make them W10 compatible, since they don't run immediately under the OS, but instead under BOINC.

Not sure what Jord means by "correct detection" but, as Les notes, many people already have it operational -- and Jord's second sentence clarifies that.

No worries, eh?

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

No worries, eh?[/quote]

As the Captain of the Titanic said, �what could possible go wrong, full speed ahead.� ;)

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Not sure what Jord means by "correct detection" ...

There are two parts to the answer about "is it compatible?"

1) Do the application programs run?

Microsoft has been pretty good over the years about maintaining backwards compatibility for applications when new versions are released. I don't think anyone has any serious doubts on that score, although we need to keep our eyes open. According to BOINCstats, there are 179 computers already running CPDN under what must be one of the technical preview versions of Windows 10: it didn't take long to find a couple of them - http://climateapps2.oerc.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/hosts_user.php?userid=57263. Both those machines show a lot of errors, but I'll leave you to consider whether any of them are OS related - didn't seem to be, from the few I checked.

2) Do all the cosmetic messages look right?

When BOINC starts up, it has a snoop around your computer to find out what sort it is and what it's capable of. That's why we can see from the link above that Ron has one Intel CPU and one AMD CPU, two NVidia graphics cards, and two copies of Windows 10. BOINC actually has to know what all those code numbers like '10.00.10130.00' mean, before it can accurately report back, for example, whether it's a Home, Professional, or Server version of Windows, and where it comes in that list from Windows 95 to Server 2015. As you can see, BOINC v7.4.42 can correctly report Windows 10 - that's the "correct detection" Jord mentioned - but you would find that earlier versions of BOINC get confused by an unknown operating system. They would probably still work, but just print nonsense in the OS column.

Thanks, Richard. Appreciated.

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

Just to add. CPDN and BOINC are both compatible. As Richard indicated most of the errors I have on both machines are for the most part normal computational errors. However there have been some stability issues on the Intel machine that requires rebooting every four days or so or it starts to bomb dramatically on the "short" models, and a reboot clears the problem. The AMD machine for the most part runs solidly with reboots only required after certain system updates. Is it an improvement over previous Windows versions? Well it certainly addresses the main annoyance of 8.0 and 8.1; namely the start menu. The rest is all somewhat subjective; you like it or you don't. Is it ready yet for what I would call "production machines"? No!!

As an aside. Users of Windows may find it helpful to install .NET 3.5 which does not come standard on Windows 8 8.1 or 10 (can easily be added through Control Panel).

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

For those who don't already know.

The release of Windows 10 is scheduled for July 29. It will be offered as a free upgrade to all registered Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 machines (upgrade is not a requirement but an option). In breaking with tradition Microsoft will continue the Insider Program. Those who currently are running the insider edition of Windows 10 will have the opportunity to either settle on the final Windows 10 release or continue on with the Insider Program and receive builds of the future Microsoft operating system. In a sense this will be much like "rolling releases" as found on GNU/Linux distributions such as openSUSE.

Although not yet specifically stated I'm sure Microsoft will be advising everyone to upgrade. My own thoughts are that in most instances an upgrade should be performed in order to gain seamless integration between devices (mobile, tablet, and desktop). Myself? I am going to remain in the Insider Program in order to follow future developments to the operating system. Having been a die hard GNU/Linux user for 14 years this was not an easy decision.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

Hi Ron and hi every one, thank you very much for this information Re: Windows 10.

Ron,

I haven't been following this Win 10 stuff. What's in it for MS, other than trying to get everyone on one OS for support purposes? I mean a free upgrade? Where's the $ in that? Anything that involves a whole bunch of work on their part, that is "free" for the consumer, sends off suspicion bells in my head. But then I may just be paranoid, or underinformed. :-)

The money is in selling the OS on new computers

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It could be another attempt to get rid of XP, especially with companies that have a lot of computers which happily do whatever they're used for, and don't want the expense of an OS upgrade, as well as learning time on a new system.

As far as I remember XP went out of support in March last year. Anyone still running it is "on their own".

Anyone still running it is "on their own".

That is a lot of people out there on their own!

The big box store chain that I work for still uses XP to run the computer system that runs the cash registers, and probably all of there other computer systems. Most businesses are the same. THEY ABSOLUTELY HATE WIN 8 IN ANY FORM.

Why do you think that you can still buy computers that come with Win7 pro preinstalled.

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The discussion about the retirement of XP may suggest what the problem really is for Microsoft - diminishing returns from a relatively mature product line. Client/server, "thin-client" have been around for years in the business environment, but mobile users, good networks and cloud services have taken that change to reduced-capability clients to a whole new level, including ordinary users: hardware vendors might use software to shift hardware, but Microsoft and others are likely to start pushing subscriptions as a substitute for upgrades that we don't seem to want. Office 365, Exchange on the Web (Small Business Server gone!), OneDrive/DropBox/iCloud etc. etc. - security, storage, backup, upgrade and performance all out-sourced for a few dollars.

Thank goodness for the idiocy of computer games, which might keep clients "fat" for a few more years - and keep distributed computing going. Until the PC goes the way of the fixed telephone line, the letter and the corkscrew ...

Until the PC goes the way of the fixed telephone line, the letter and the corkscrew ...

I disagree, the corkscrew will be around forever!

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So does the chain that my son works for. I guess the investment in bespoke software outweighs any considerations about having to upgrade an OS. At the Uni I worked for until I retired last August it took 3 years to go from XP to Win7.

Although a Linux user I bought a HP PC with Windows 8, soon upgraded to 8.1. I installed Virtual Box on it and am running 2 CERN projects, SETI@home and CPDN. I've been promised Windows 10 on July 29.
Tullio

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