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Microsoft Ends Support For Internet Explorer 8-10 and Windows 8 (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft today ended support for old versions of Internet Explorer, including IE8, IE9, and IE10, as well as Windows 8. For the browsers, the company has also released a final patch (KB3123303) that includes the latest cumulative security updates and an "End of Life" upgrade notification. In short, the final patch will nag Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users to upgrade to Internet Explorer: A new tab will automatically open the download IE page. It doesn’t appear Microsoft has plans to push similar notifications for Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2 users, but this isn’t too surprising: They can’t upgrade to IE11 or Edge without upgrading their operating system. While support for Windows 8 has ended, Windows 8.1 will have Mainstream Support until January 9, 2018 and Extended Support until January 10, 2023.
You cant say Microsoft is no longer supporting Win8 in the title and later in the article clarify that they are supporting Win8.1, they are the same fucking thing, one just has more updates to it.
I mean it literally: Thanks, MS, for having the longest (free) support time for OS's of any commercial vendor today.
I don't respond to AC's.
Finally we can start building proper websites without IE8 hacks.
The actual article is though, which is a nice change from a lot of recent articles on this subject:
"Microsoft announced the old IE version cutoff date back in August 2014. At the time, the company said it would only support the following browser-operating system combinations: IE9 on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2; IE10 on Windows Server 2012; and IE11 on Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2. Since then, Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge have, of course, been released, so they’re supported as well."
Then it would finally be the year of the Linux desktop.
They needed to call the updates 8.1 8.11 8.12 8.2
Guess it's time to upgrade to 9. What?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Perhaps you would be more amused if they turned Windows into a web os with AJAX, that changes every day like Facebook or Amazon..
Unfortunately rearranging the furniture is pretty much all MS have left to milk money out of windows. Updates stopped providing serious improvements to useability over a decade ago, most of the show-stopping problems have been sorted, so all they can do is keep on with the meaningless "New! Shiny! Steering wheel relocated!" and hope no-one notices.
When I buy a car, I don't expect that I wake up one day and the steering wheel moved to the back sit. Yet that's what Microsoft expects me to do to simply keep using my computer and running same apps and games as I always have.
And if you say "it's for security", wrong again.
Nope, not wrong. Your computer will work just fine without updates...
You don't have to update anything, you can run RTM Windows 8 to your hearts content.
Just don't complain if you get infected/botted or other stuff on the web no longer works.
So run an alternative shell/customization environment like Litestep, Cairo, RainMeter, etc... You already said you do it to solve the problem on Linux so why not do the same thing on Windows?
Which desktops are you looking at? You can have a simple desktop in Linux, a fancy bling bling (way better the aero) and everything in between. You can choose the want you want, you know
This is actually good news. We finally have a security vulnerability card to play for reducing the number of browser versions we have to support in business apps. My team has been trying drop "older" browser support in our partner (B2B) applications. 25% are still on IE7/8/9. This really restricts our ability to deliver certain types of functionality. Maybe now our and our partner security teams will gain enough leverage to force an upgrade...
the past decade has brought [...] the ability to try [GNU/Linux] in a VM or even LiveCD/USB to try it on your hardware.
Does this include trying it on a laptop before buying the laptop? Not everybody is satisfied with the limited selection of laptops sold by System76.
I was wondering the same thing...maybe they meant SP2 instead of R2 the second time, but then that still doesn't explain why they'd list Windows Server 2008 followed by Windows Server 2008 SP2...it's a pretty safe bet that if SP2 can't upgrade then neither can the non-SP2 version.
It'd probably take one of these forms:
Why should applying security updates require also applying user interface changes?
Then complain to the hardware makers that they should include Linux-drivers also on that disk?
RESOLVED WONTFIX
Historically, hardware makers are more open to complaints about missing functionality in Windows than about such in Linux. If it doesn't say Linux on the box, the manufacturer is not obligated to support its use under Linux.
Not like the makers behind Linux can help it if the hardware makers don't make drivers and don't give specs.
This is why increasing the install base of free operating systems is so important: it makes hardware makers less likely to just write off GNU/Linux users as acceptable collateral damage.
Who says it does?
All this is saying is that Windows 8 is no longer going to be supported.
That isn't any different than Windows XP no longer being supported.
If you install Windows XP RTM, then patch it all the way to April 2014 EOL, the UI doesn't actually change THAT much. Service Pack 2 was the really big change, but that was a long time ago.
Windows 8.1 is a different OS than 8.0. 8.1 is not a "security update", it is an OS upgrade.
As for Windows 7, it largely looks the same RTM vs fully patched.
So really, I'm not sure what your point is.
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Side example, since you bought up cars... Look at Ford MyTouch in 2011 era cars. It looks very different to the one in 2014 cars. You can actually patch and upgrade the 2011 cars to look like the 2014 cars, and it works MUCH better overall, far fewer bugs. (I know, I owned a 2011 Explorer and MyTouch was a mess the first year or two until it got fixed).
But you DO lose features in the upgrade, there are some things that it did at launch that they had to remove to make it more stable.
So this does happen in cars sometimes.
You'd have to be as much of a Windows fanboy as the typical Linux fanboy. And face it, Windows users typically don't have the same tweak's enthusiasm as Linux users.
when the alternative comes with several nice UIs to choose from for free?
Because the alternative can't run my programs...obviously. You realize that is the whole point of an operating system?
Normal people use an operating system not because they are a "fanboy" but because it does what they need. I run Linux but not exclusively because it can't run most of my programs, so I need Windows as well. Windows - like Linux and OSX - has its problems and limitations, I suppose I could complain about it but it's more productive to just find a solution to the issue.
Microsoft is the only one that is THAT bad
When children speak it can be funny. This is. According to you logic, we should still be using the UX from Windows 3. Ugh! You are too young to remember the vitriol the "Toys 'R Us" UX of Windows XP received. People hated the Windows XP UX every bit as much as they hated Windows 8. Your comment is complete nonsense, and factually wrong too. Apple has dramatically changed its UX over the years, and they have even split it in half where the UX on OSX is dramatically different from the UX on iOS (though the two share a lot of the core).
Yes, Windows 8 - making the desktop like a tablet, was a serious mistake, but even then I was able to enjoy the many benefits of Windows 8 (less resource usage, better performance etc) by simply investing a tiny amount of money and time to make Windows 8 and Windows 7 indistinguishable. Should I have had to, not really, no, but I would rather actually fix the problem then whine about something that was entirely inconsequential.
Bovine manure.
How much of a fan-boy would I have to be to use an OS with a user-hating UX and no usable applications just to spite Microsoft? Or, let me put it differently, what kind of a MORON would do that?