[tex-live] install-tl-windows.bat unavailable in Microsoft Store

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2018-12-10 at 21:08:01 +0100, Zdenek Wagner wrote:

 > Please, notice that without total redesign everything in TL depends
 > on cmd.exe which is Microsoft's own uncertified product, so what do
 > you want to achieve and how? Prohibition of cmd.exe is the key
 > point f the S-mode. Allowing cmd.exe is the same as cancellation of
 > the S-mode.

And a total redesign is not helpful at all, even if someone is willing
to do the work.  If TeX Live doesn't work exactly the same way on all
supported systems there is no good reason anymore to prefer TeX Live
over MiKTeX.  Many Windows users who are not interested in this
important feature use MiKTeX anyway.

I occasionally support students writing their theses and it turned out
that this feature is unavoidable.  Different versions of macro
packages are not problematic because both, TeX Live and MiKTeX are
usually up-to-date.  But I often provide scripts which heavily rely on
the infrastructure of TeX Live.  I can't support MiKTeX users and I
can't support TeX Live users when we give up everything we achieved
regarding platform independency.

Some years ago a LaTeX teacher at Hannover University said that he's
using Linux exclusively.  Most participants of his course preferred
Windows and he was quite amazed that everything works exactly the same
way on both systems.  Nice to hear.  Denis, I suppose that your
experience is similar.

Zdeněk, you said that banks might be interested in Microsofts S mode.
Definitely not!  No bank is maintaining your money on a system
provided by Microsoft. That would be disastrous.  I know that one of
the most famous banks in Germany is using Solaris.  The Windows
machines you see in the subsidiaries are just dumb terminals with a
web interface.  All one has to do in order to achieve security is to
configure the firewall so that only connections to the (IP number of
the) server can be established.

Denis, I suppose that your student encountered the S mode problem
because he had a brand new Windows installation and TeX Live was the
first 3rd party program he tried to install.  I'm only a stupid
engineer but cannot live without GNU Octave.  Do math students
nowadays rely entirely on Microsoft Excel and Microsoft's pocket
calculator and thus can live with S mode?  I can't imagine.

After all, as I already mentioned in a previous mail, Microsoft's
S mode is absolutely ridiculous.  It tries to make a system secure
which otherwise allows mortal users to execute arbitrary malware which
then modifies the bootloader and encrypts hard disks.  This is
absolutely unthinkable on any other operating system.  IMO Microsoft's
S mode is nothing more than an evidence of incapacity.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                            Phone: +49-511-3373112
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