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Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions
- kossmoboleat 11y agoFunny, isn't that exactly the same thing Apple does?
- misframer 11y agoIt's interesting that Windows is stopping at 10 as well.
- AdeptusAquinas 11y agoOSX = Apple OS Ten, Windows 10 = Microsoft OS X?
- digitalzombie 11y agoWell to be fair they cheated and skipped 9.
- wvenable 11y agoApple cheated too by renaming NeXTStep to Mac OS and using its version instead. :)
- olympus 11y agoThe rolling/incremental release is something that Apple does, but it's not like Apple is the only company doing it. Several Linux distros follow the same release model, and other software (not just OSes) does it too - MATLAB switched to this style model years ago, and it is nice at work to have something that is never more than 6 months out of date. The only downside is that you have to really plan out deprecating features. It's easy to drop features when going from major release to major release, but in a rolling update, you need to give developers a heads up that things are about to change and give them time to fix things in their code.
- kaybe 11y agoWe dropped MATLAB because the communal version refuses to work without internet connection (standard in the field) and we cannot afford a licence for all field laptops, where they will be used very little (but still to do things that need to be done).
- digitalzombie 11y agoOSX jump version, Apple jump from big cat names to place names now. OSX does have mini patch update. It seems like their new version is always bleeding edge, yosemite had major wifi drop issue even though they supposely fixed it with a few patches. The article made it seem like there is no more major version and just Window 10 and bunch of patches/features?
- zyxley 11y agoPretty much. Microsoft is even stopping on Windows 10!
- seanp2k2 11y agoMaybe they can't do 11 because they have legacy code which looks for "11" in version strings due to Windows for Workgroups.
- vardump 11y agoMaybe next Windows versions have canine names? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Subspecies_of_Canis_lupus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Subspecies_of_Canis_lu... Windows 10 Dingo. Would be funny.
- ramgorur 11y agoI would like to go for dog breeds -- Windows 10 chihuahua Windows 10 chinook Windows 10 chippiparai Windows 10 chowchow
- gabeio 11y agoApple releases new "minor" versions every year but it's still 10.x.x.x. I just see the first part as being publicity and the second number starting the real semver.
- higherpurpose 11y agoHow does that work exactly? Will they require a subscription? I have a hard time believing most Windows users who right now think they are getting "Windows for free" with their laptop and never have to worry about it again, would agree to pay Microsoft even $1 a month for it. If there is no subscription then how will they charge users - per "major update"? Like some sort of Windows 10.1? What would happened to the Windows 10 users who don't want to pay for that update then? Do they still get security fixes?
- giaour 11y agoMicrosoft has already softened their pricing strategy by offering Windows for free on small tablets and by not charging for the upgrades from Windows 8 to 8.1 or to 10. Perhaps they don't see Windows as the cash cow that it once was and will make all upgrades free.
- Karunamon 11y agoIt wouldn't surprise me to see them make the base OS for home users free, and then only charge for enterprise specific features. Think of 7 Home Premium as free, and Ultimate/Enterprise now the paid versions.
- dordoka 11y agoActually, they even include Windows 7, not only 8 or 8.1 [0]. I guess that "for the first year" will probably be extended as well... Edit: if this [1] reuters article is true (I couldn't find a reference on Microsoft's site), they are also including pirated versions... [0] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/about [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-microsoft-china-idUSKBN0ME06A20150318 http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-microsoft-china...
- bad_user 11y agoThis is because 8 and 8.1 are a downgrade compared to 7 and weren't received well. Consider that Windows XP has a bigger market share than 8 and 8.1 combined.
- Sir_Substance 11y agoI'm not happy with this. I waited on XP until they got over vista, and I'm still on 7 while I watch in bemusement at the windows 8.1 nonsense. Now, with windows 10, my security updates will come bundled with my unwanted OS changes. I doubt microsoft will let people opt out of unwanted cloud-based security risks or crazy interface experiments.
- chinpokomon 11y agoI think you could technically block updates that would appear to be major/minor updates. That level of control will have to be available for enterprise releases. I don't know what will happen with security updates though if you purposefully block some updates and allow others. It may be that some security patches will be dependent upon other system updates.
- mattmanser 11y agoThey kind of hint in the article that changes will be optional when they first roll out: [this will] let Microsoft tinker more with the software to test new features and see how customers like them
- tehwalrus 11y agoyou can almost imagine a Windows, stable and Windows, beta channel...
- cleverjake 11y ago>I doubt microsoft will let people opt out of unwanted cloud-based security risks or crazy interface experiments. you're wrong. IE/Edge has the same type of updating, and it can and ill always be opt-outable because of the enterprise.
- Mahn 11y agoWell but if you op-out you op-out of everything, including security updates. There's no "I want security updates but no random feature/interface changes" button.
- mattmanser 11y agoSo I wonder if they are they going to move to more aggressively limiting you moving a license from one machine to another. Or are they just going to rely on people just paying for the convenience of having Windows pre-installed and working out of the box? In all honesty, they'll probably do fine relying on the latter.
- ceejayoz 11y agoI suspect eventually Windows will be a free OS, like OSX now is, used to drive sales for other more profitable products.
- ghaff 11y agoWell, the difference is that Apple sells hardware. It actually used to be the case that computer manufacturers routinely bundled operating systems for "free" with their hard ware. This has been a kegal issue in some cases, e.g. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/473/908/ https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/473/908/
- balakk 11y agoI believe Microsoft is going to sell hardware, big time. Their play is devices & services now.
- Giorgi 11y agoStupid decision. Will take years before they realize Internet is not so fast everywhere and not every company would like to have only online version of OS.
- MichaelApproved 11y agoService packs have always been available on physical disc, in addition to downloading. I don't see why major updates couldn't be available on disc as well.
- vruiz 11y agoI see 2 possible scenarios. 1) as others are suggesting, they'll adopt Apple's versioning model putting everything under the windows 10 umbrella. 2) they are setting the table for a rebranding/replacement of Windows in the same fashion as they are doing with IE.
- nathanaldensr 11y agoI agree with #2. I think Microsoft is likely producing a new operating system as we speak--one that hopefully is focused on security first. Perhaps a realization of the Singularity OS is coming. OS APIs running managed code, perhaps? The future will certainly be interesting for the Windows ecosystem.
- gsnedders 11y agoLook up Midori — it's a managed code OS, supposedly based on the ideas from Singularity but with more of an idea for commercialisation. But basically haven't heard anything about it for three years now (on the other hand, the mention in 2012 was the first since 2008, so maybe that's meaningless).
- Mahn 11y agoWindows as a brand is still way too big, and unlike IE its reputation is okay and its market share huge, Microsoft has more to lose than to win rebranding Windows. I don't see it happening, but IMO there's no reason why Windows can't be the new Windows eventually.
- smitherfield 11y agoVista and 8 did do a great deal of damage to Windows' reputation. (I'd say somewhat undeserved in the former case, and there are plenty of people who will defend the latter. I'm sure it's great on the Surface). That said, I'd agree that it'd be a bad move to rebrand Windows just yet. Then again, DOS was a well-known and well-liked brand too.
- Crito 11y ago
- reuven 11y agoI see the marketing people fell asleep at the switch here. With just a bit of effort, Windows could have been "the operating system that goes to 11."
- tgbrter 11y agoWhy don't you instead just make 10 better?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Gabriel_Martin 11y ago... It goes to eleven.
- fizixer 11y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven
- derefr 11y agoI would be intrigued by an Adobe Creative Cloud equivalent for Microsoft products. Especially if it meant that a subscription was per-person, instead of per-machine. This would work especially well coupled with the global "floating identities" introduced through signing in with your Microsoft Account. The image I would have is of Windows being automatically updated either way, but preventing sign-in to Microsoft Accounts whose subscriptions have lapsed (save for some limited kiosk functionality related to renewing the subscription, and local administrator access for fixing Internet connectivity et al.)
- cm2187 11y agoI don't really like the idea of Microsoft having access to everyone's windows credentials, personal folders, internet browsing history, etc.
- 7952 11y agoSuch a model would create an amazing marketing opportunity for a Linux based OS. Instead of paying an annoying monthly subscription you get a free office system built in. Not including such basic functionality with the OS is like selling a phone without batteries. Suddenly Linux becomes a premium product with lots of high quality software included compared to the annoying app store you get with Windows.
- derefr 11y agoIn other words, it would force all the people currently pirating Windows and Office to actually decide between the products on offer based on their previously-merely-nominal market positions. (Which is, indeed, what Creative Cloud has done for Adobe.)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- farresito 11y agoI don't think it's that unique to have continuous upgrades without major versions. It just seems too generic, but hey, who knows. I've seen all sorts of nonsense things.
- pjbrunet 11y agoUh, yeah but didn't Cyanogen recently announce they're working with Microsoft? But maybe that's just a coincidence.
- Grue3 11y agoChecking app compatibility is going to be fun
- jeena 11y agoI use Arch which does the rolling release thingy and I love it.
- farresito 11y agoI agree. Sometimes, though, you get those manual changes that are a pain to solve, but they happen only now and then, so it's not that big of a deal.
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoThe big reason why rolling release works so well on Arch is the assumption that the user is smart, so there are several difficult tasks which are pushed over onto the user (like handling non-trivial conflicts of software that the user may not have directly installed, e.g. libgl, handling exceptional circumstances, being able to recover after a failed update, ensuring the system is updated regularly, knowing when a reboot is needed etc.) A more mainstream OS has to automate these things.
- velodrome 11y agoAgreed. Arch requires a lot of maintenance. Ubuntu, just click update and you don't have to worry about it (until the next LTS). Personally, I like the rolling model. Chromebook is probably best example for regular users.
- 1_player 11y agoI moved to Arch because just clicking update on Ubuntu more often than not botched the upgrade somewhere. And I'm a power user. If I had a penny every time I had to help a friend with a failed Ubuntu upgrade...
- 72deluxe 11y agoYou "CLICKED" on upgrade? And you call yourself a power user! Why did you not type it into the CLI? If not a runlevel 3 perhaps with a tiling window manager. I jest :-)
- snissn 11y ago...until the next version where they had to do a clean break to add in whatever new feature it will be maybe a better take away is that microsoft will be maintaining their code and regularly pushing patches, as opposed to the very discrete service pack updates
- patrickmclaren 11y agoOff-topic rant: I used to live in a remote area, with very little connectivity. Upgrading tech used to involve traveling to a retailer, and buying the latest version off the shelf. More recently, it involes traveling to a solid internet connection, downloading incremental updates and distributing them on location. In Australia, satellite internet was subsidized in the 2000s (and easily eligible). Now, although still subsidized to some extent, you're on your own if you're on a supported line but your telco doesn't have the capacity. It's a damn nightmare when large software is distributed in this manner for people with insufficient network access. Note, this experience is from a small family business point of view, without dedicated tech support.
- bgilroy26 11y agoIf you all can be 'squeaky wheels', microsoft et al will see that for relatively little overhead, they could have a lot of Austrialian people buying physical media.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y agoWell, this is part of why Microsoft has Service Packs. These consolidate existing updates as well as adding new features.
- patrickmclaren 11y agoIndeed! The frequency of Service Packs post-Windows 10 will be key for remote users. I haven't looked into this recently, I wonder how easy it is for end-users to roll their own.
- gnopgnip 11y agoYou can download WSUS updates "offline" and send them via tape or other media to remote locations.
- voltagex_ 11y agoI came to the conclusion last year that Australia will be left behind as developers make assumptions about fast connections. I think it was around the time of the Win8 to 8.1 upgrade which was about 2GB and not immediately available as an ISO/disc - it failed repeatedly overnight and consumed 50+% of my download quota for that month. Australians: vote for a government who will build 21st century infrastructure. It's going to get ugly when we run out of shit to dig up and sell to China.
- Redoubts 11y agoThis was news around January, I thought. Why are all the tech sites playing this up now? I feel like i could reply to half the top level posts with this link: http://blogs.windows.com/business/2015/01/30/windows-10-for-enterprise-more-secure-and-up-to-date/ http://blogs.windows.com/business/2015/01/30/windows-10-for-... >January 30, 2015 > this is much more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current via Windows Update for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. >We think of this as Windows as a Service >we are introducing a new approach for business customers, which we are referring to as the Current branch for Business. By putting devices on the Current branch for Business, enterprises will be able to receive feature updates after their quality and application compatibility has been assessed in the consumer market, while continuing to receive security updates on a regular basis. This gives IT departments’ time to start validating updates in their environments the day changes are shipped broadly to consumers, or in some cases earlier, if they have users enrolled in the Windows Insider Program. >Based on what we are hearing from customers, we expect most will take a mixed approach in how they keep their Windows 10 systems up to date. They will likely target a different pace of updates for different users and systems, depending on the specific business needs of each group. etc.
- protomyth 11y ago> This was news around January, I thought. Why are all the tech sites playing this up now? It's Sunday and it finally got picked up. It happens. I submitted it a while back and its just when people see it.
- wongarsu 11y agoI remember this "news" being on the front page of HN a few times already. The change is radical enough that we want to talk about it over and over again.
- kozukumi 11y agoIt was known but never confirmed until Microsoft mentioned it at Ignite this week.
- ThinkBeat 11y agoI can see this in the consumer space perhaps. They would need a lot of marketing to get people to pay up for a monthly / yearly subscription though. I figure that is how they will make money. I can see consumers being annoyed have to pay every month to use the computer now. With the current versioned releases the consumer has a choice whether to pay for the upgrade or not. In the enterprise space I dont see how this will work. There are plenty of reasons that some companies are still clinging to Windows XP. For a large company to give up control over exactly what is on each computer and be able to plan long term is a non starter. Would we then see yearly "cumulative packs" being offered that can be tested prior to release? Would there be a central tool provided by Microsoft for the enterprise customers that will allow them to control the exact feature versions, fixes etc for every computer centrally and that way to cumulative upgrades? I would love for Microsoft to come out with a new Next Generation Operating system that breaks compatibility even more than Windows NT did back in the day. I think its long overdue but unfortunately i don't see it happening anytime soon. They are investing a lot now in trying to use as much of the codebase as possible across all of their targeted devices. I
- davidgerard 11y ago> I can see consumers being annoyed have to pay every month to use the computer now. With the current versioned releases the consumer has a choice whether to pay for the upgrade or not. Yeah, I'm wondering if Canonical's marketing department is readying the champagne.
- PebblesHD 11y ago>2016 >Year of the linux desktop?
- davidgerard 11y agoSeriously, the year of the Linux desktop was 2007. That's when netbooks came along and Microsoft actually had to compete on price for Windows.
- mark_l_watson 11y ago
- comex 11y agoApple's move a few years ago towards yearly OS releases has drawn a lot of flak on HN for allegedly decreasing software quality. I don't know to what extent this is an inevitable result of the cadence versus simply Apple not having a good process at present (and to what extent the effect is mere confirmation bias...), but I wonder if people will start saying the same about Microsoft.
- cmelbye 11y agoThis isn't what OS X is doing, though. Some OS X updates are shipped too early, in order to hit a WWDC deadline. Apple is getting better at that though, by shipping major new features in OS updates throughout the year. Previous Windows updates were shipped too slowly, due to having to amass enough updates to justify a three digit price tag. Now, updates to Windows will be shipped to consumers when they're ready. No predetermined release schedule. I would compare this strategy more to evergreen browsers like Chrome.
- EGreg 11y agoSo a bit like Chromebook's constantly updating Chrome. If people can opt out of automatic updates, the only difference I see here is the update mechanism and its default setting. Apple has to change 1 thing on its iOS updates to do the same.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- beloch 11y agoThe obvious question is, how are we going to pay for this? With no periodic releases of new versions, it seems that Windows 10 will either be a subscription based service or, in all likelihood, a collection of subscription based services and extra features with a free, but spartan, core. It's an interesting move, but I suspect MS is severely underestimating the backlash that will exist against monthly OS subscription payments.
- Eyaluth 11y agoThe article says they make most of their money off new computer sales anyways.
- monk_e_boy 11y agoHow could you buy someone a laptop with windows on it? They'd have to pay a subscription forever? Or would it be like a phone, where it'd seem odd not paying every month. Once steam boxes are out and popular, I doubt I'll be using windows again.
- ethana 11y agoStream boxes run on Windows...
- nightpool 11y agoThe parent was referring to "Steam boxes", i.e. http://store.steampowered.com/steamos http://store.steampowered.com/steamos
- jethro_tell 11y agoI thought they switched to debian or ubuntu.
- monk_e_boy 11y agoNot sure, but you can get Windows to boot to Steam anyway, so the OS kinda disappears so you'd be fine with windows 8 or something for a few years.
- everyone 11y agoI tried windows 8.1 for a while on my gaming desktop pc. Aside from the awful metro garbage thrown on top of the OS (which can be removed / turned off) It was quite unstable, all my games would randomly crash, even the mouse exhibited weird behaviour and bugs. I went back to 7, everything is fine now. I get the impression windows 10 will be more of the same, this is just pushing me more and more towards using linux all the time, now that linux gaming is becoming more and more viable also. Also MS are starting to act like apple, intentionally crippling their software. For example to develop windows store apps, you need windows 8 or higher, you cant just download the sdk for windows 7 even though it has the same kernel as 8 and is essentially the same OS. Also the development process for windows store is horrible and unnecessarily complicated (compared to say android development which is very developer friendly). Also in order to force people to move to windows 8 MS have made some optimisations to directx that they have not released for 7 even though once again there is absolutely nothing preventing it except for their attempt to manipulate their users.
- huac 11y agothis is very much the same as apple gating ios development to apple products. playing video games on windows 8 (not 8.1) is fine anyways.
- everyone 11y agoYeah, windows store development is as bad as iOS development. A very low bar. I've developed for iOS and I get the impression MS are following apples lead here. I cant abide when something pragmatic has its design intentionally made less useful for arbitrary reasons. As I said, I'm fine, I'm just going more and more towards linux, where the goal is to make the OS as useful as possible and most importantly empower the user rather than the other way around. I just still have to use windows 8 and osx in work.
- orionblastar 11y agoThe trick to Windows 8.1 is getting the correct drivers from your OEM and not using the built in drivers. For me I had to go to my motherboard maker's website and download the 8/8.1 64 bit drivers, update the BIOS, and then get the Nividia drivers for my GPU and make sure they always update. GPU drives can break Windows 8.1 when it comes to video games. There are always updated drivers that fix issues with video games. This is because video game makers do mistakes with DirectX and other APIs and the updated drivers fix the issues with workarounds to avoid crashes. Windows 8.1 changes the way DirectX 9 works, for classic video games like Civilization II Gold Edition I had to apply the 64 bit patch and then extract the 2010 version of DirectX 9 drivers into the Civ2 directory to get DirectPlay support to play the game. It takes a lot of JiggeryPokery like that to get some of the classic games to work, and sometimes you have to choose the compatibility mode of a previous version of Windows to force it to work. The average person can't always figure that out.
- s_q_b 11y agoWell done. It is very impressive to see the shift.
- mholt 11y agoSo this refers just to the branding of Windows, right? Unless they've figured out a way to replace versioning, surely there will still be "versions" to hint at compatibility and mark certain upgrades for the sake of developers.
- neolefty 11y agoFor sure -- Microsoft needs to keep Windows advancing, but businesses will remain cautious and delay rollouts of major upgrades. So there will still be major versions, each with their own security patches etc. -- I don't think there's any way around that. At least this lets Microsoft keep more people up to date and minimize version skew -- "You want to upgrade, we want you to upgrade ... by all means go ahead and upgrade!"
- TwoBit 11y ago"The developers would be locked away and out would pop a product based on what the world wanted three years ago." The world did not want Windows 8.
- orionblastar 11y agoMicrosoft is getting into the software subscription model. Remember Office 365? You don't own a copy of Office, you only rent it per year and when updates come out you get the updates as long as you keep paying. Windows 10 is going to be a software subscription model. They'll most likely have a free upgrade version but it is limited in features. If you want more features you will have to buy a subscription. They already announced a Windows 10.1 codenamed Redstone. So each Windows update will have a 10 in front of it for now on. Will Microsoft charge for upgrading to 10.1? Who knows? Instead of service packs, they just do what Apple does and add a new number after the 10 and call in a minor version or whatever. I got a feeling pirated Windows users will get a free update that is basically a Starter Edition with limits on it, and they have to buy a subscription to get out of the limited version.
- diminoten 11y agoIt's much more likely they'll follow the OS X model of free updates forever, once you buy the OS.
- orionblastar 11y agoApple bundles the OS with the hardware. Once you buy a Mac, you get free OSX updates until they no longer support your model for the new OSX versions. The cost of OSX is bundled in the price of the Mac, which is why Macs cost more than PCs. Microsoft cannot do that because OEMs sell PCs and bundle Windows with it. A totally different business model than Apple has. Steve Ballmer tried to copy the Apple Business Model with Surface Tablets and the Microsoft Store, and he failed.
- wvenable 11y agoI don't see it as totally different. The vast majority of Windows users get their license with their PC purchase. That's where Microsoft makes the bulk of their money. I suspect most users never upgrade from that version unless they buy a new PC. So giving free upgrades is not a big loss for Microsoft; it was never a big income generator.
- singold 11y agoAny ideas on how this is going to work for new machines some years from now? Would you install the current win 10 and then a bulk of service packs?
- OWaz 11y agoI'm thinking of this as something similar to how OS X releases work. There's a way to get the distribution you need without having to start from OS X 10.0 Cheetah and upgrading all the way.
- wongarsu 11y agoIf you bought Windows XP in recent years, the DVD already installed Windows XP together with the latest available Service Pack. If you buy Windows 8 right now it automatically installs Windows 8.1 from the disk. It will work similarly for Windows 10, regardless of the nomenclature they are going to decide on.
- insulanian 11y agoDoes this mean I should stop expecting ground-breaking inovations in OS space from MS? How they dare to consider it done? I want Windows Next Generation! I want you to blow my mind! Edit: I hope HP Machine OS will bring something interesting and new to stagnating OS research field.
- gdonelli 11y agoThis sounds like a subscription based service to me
- peter303 11y agoYou should rename software before it reaches a double digit version. Otherwise it's too stale.
- seanp2k2 11y agoOr start prefixing the versions with something and start the numbering back at 1, like Adobe did with Photoshop CS :) (I know, Creative Suite contains a lot more than Photoshop, but still).
- bkurtz13 11y agoSo are we going to be seeing just Windows 10 minor versions from now on? Maybe they could just shorten the name to WinOS 10, and in a year they can release WinOS 10.1. Maybe the minor versions could all be named after something interesting, like different species of large cats, or Washington area landmarks? WinOS 10.10 Rainier?
- cm2187 11y agoThe only thing that worries me with this approach is what if the great minds behind the Windows 8 UI strike again? Right now I could try windows 8 and 10 in a VM and make a decision on whether I want to switch from Windows 7. With that approach everyone will be Microsoft's Guinea pig.
- na85 11y agoThat's what they want. A unified user base paying monthly fees.
- hackuser 11y agoWith the entire stack from the OS to browser changing on a frequent basis (with the exception of some Internet protocols), with the changes being uncoordinated between stack components (e.g., Windows may change its video codec on Monday and the game's video subsystem might be updated on Tuesday, with no coordination between them), what will developers target? How will Microsoft deliver reliability to customers?
- simoncion 11y agoOh, I dunno. Folks who write Linux software seem to cope well enough with rolling-release distros. Moreover, MSFT's SxS assembly stuff means that they can keep old versions of software around for back-compat. Anyway, devs will know what was components were released on a particular date, and target those components. It's not rocket science. :)
- garrylemmkr 11y agoI hope they stop making Windows entirely. What a sad company.
- 72deluxe 11y agoDo you really? What about all the checkouts in shops you go to? What will they run on? What about all the ATMs you get your money from? What will they run on? What about all the offices in the corporations you rely on? What will they run? What about your schools, hospitals and police forces? Will they all revert to paper? EDIT: I didn't mean this maliciously, but I was genuinely asking because a comment like "I wish it would go away" is clearly not rooted in reality given the widespread use of Windows and the millions of users, happy or not.
- fiatjaf 11y agoThey will abandon Windows and work on a new operating system based on Linux.
- 72deluxe 11y agoDo you really believe this?
- Luyt 11y agoI don't think they will do that, since the Linux kernel is GPLed.
- ascagnel_ 11y agoThe kernel is GPLv2 -- they can rewrite big portions of it to fit their needs and push as little code back out to the community as possible. That said, this "new" MS is focusing more on cloud than anything else, so a MSLinux is probably more a question of "when" than "if".
- quotemstr 11y agoWhat will GetVersionEx start returning? dwMinorVersion is 32 bits wide, so Windows 10 can live for quite a while. I look forward to Windows 10.34124.
- tonyedgecombe 11y agoGetVersionEx is broken from Windows 8.1 onwards, they want developers to query the OS for functionality rather than check a version number. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724451%28v=vs.85%29.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms7...
- xg15 11y agoLike this? https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724832%28v=vs.85%29.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms7... Are they seriously deprecating a vital API and replacing it with a few vague suggestions on what patterns might somewhat reliably indicate whether a feature exists or not? This anti-pattern in API design is annoying enough in HTML5. Awesome to see it's now leaking into the OS world.
- Udo 11y agoGood. I'm not a Windows person, but I think discrete major versioning is an anachronism left over from pre-internet times, especially if a company's internal processes are bound to those major releases there will be a lot of friction from that factor alone. Continuous development and deployment is probably the more rational choice for a lot of software, including operating systems.
- silverbax88 11y agoActually it was a great marketing tactic to get people to think their existing Windows was 'old' and they needed to get the newest one. That's why they went to using years (Windows 95) because every consumer knows if they have the current year or not. But Microsoft started missing those 'year' deadlines and then went back to numbers, and THEN more people starting getting hip to the fact that some Windows versions were worse than than the version they already had, and here we are - Microsoft still splashing around trying to figure out how to make their mobile OS work on desktops and how to charge people for it. They've been trying since the 90s and haven't figured it out yet.
- bitJericho 11y agoI will say right now I will never pay a subscription to windows. I'll switch back to Linux even though I feel like as a whole Linux has stagnated for at least the last decade in the desktop arena.
- antod 11y agoThe Linux Desktop has many problems, but I'm not sure stagnation is one of them. If anything things are churning a little too much, and this is before the Wayland/Mir transitions have started to kick off yet.
- bitJericho 11y agoYeah all Linux offers us is more libraries and more APIs. Where are the applications? Why are there so many cli tools with no GUI interface. Desktop Linux is so far behind. I used Linux for about a year primarily and when I finally got frustrated enough I switched to windows 8 and realized that the Linux desktop experience is garbage in comparison. As a server os I have no complaints though.
- castell 11y agoKDE 1-3 and Gnome 2 were great. But then something went horrible wrong in their UX- and UI-designer-mindset. Similar to Windows 95-Vista/7 had a really nice UX and UI, but the Metro/Modern-UI (WinPhone7+ and Win8+) is just tasteless, awful and with crazy color choices.
- pjbrunet 11y agoIt's official, Windows 95 is the version limit of Windows. http://pjbrunet.com/95-new-windows-limit/ http://pjbrunet.com/95-new-windows-limit/
- coherentpony 11y agoThe title is a little misleading. They're not going to produce numbered versions. It's very possible they may name their versions with words, or just roll out updates as they become available a little bit like Arch Linux does.
- someear 11y agoEntirely an enterprise play - gone are those firms that essentially say "we'll stick with XP". They'll either be forced into a subscription model or will switch off to another platform. This is also a huge win for not having the need to support super old OSes, which is a huge tax in not just support cost, but also testing and designing for backward compatibility.
- dzhiurgis 11y agoThis is also a significant driver development cost increase for OEMs.
- nly 11y agoPresumably they won't be breaking driver compatibility often.
- bjwbell 11y agoI'm not so sure. The changes on the graphics side from say Windows 8 to 8.1 were minor, leaving out new features such as directx tiled resources. The windows driver model had its last major revision in XP -> Vista.
- macspoofing 11y agoThis is an anti-enterprise play. There are significant costs to OS updates, including retraining, downtime, and legacy (working) software compatibility. Most enterprises are pretty good at applying security patches but rightly balk at full OS upgrades. >This is also a huge win for not having the need to support super old OSes Who wins?
- golergka 11y agoTraditional Windows version updates, as in, from 95 to 98, from 98 to XP, etc — yes. But that's exactly what they're trying to eliminate, and use a modern update mechanism that is supposed to be easier than applying patches.
- raverbashing 11y ago
- Karunamon 11y agoAnother unanswered question is how the "supported lifetime of the device" is going to work for people who build their own systems. Is the freebie license that people are going to get for upgrading only going to be good on that one machine? If that's truly the case, I'm not at all looking forward to having to re-buy a license for a different machine when the one I'm on finally lets out the magic smoke, moreso given Microsoft's previous arbitrary activation rules on what constitutes a "different machine".
- jcoffland 11y agoThat's great Microsoft. Debian has been doing this for over a decade now. I have Debian 'testing' installs which I've been using regularly now for over ten years and they are still up to date. Don't even reboot sometimes for a year. Nice to see the comercial guys catching up.
- venomsnake 11y agoThe big windows deployments admins will be thrilled, thrilled I tell you. I can't get the "piss off your real powerbase to get traction in device market" strategy ... oh well.
- T3RMINATED 11y agoNever Say Never - Justin Bieber
- mavidser 11y agoHow will they deal with increasing requirements? At some time, the system requirements will increase, will the user be notified or what? Or will he have to figure out that the PC's getting slow, or things aren't working; it's time to upgrade.
- EvilBanshee 11y agoLooking forward to the government-mandated Windows update cache servers implemented by every ISP. I'm sure surveillance agencies are thrilled at this decision.