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Microsoft: Only the Latest Version of Windows Will Support New CPU Generations (windows.com)
Joe_Dragon sends news from Microsoft about how the company will support Windows now and in the future. The company says PCs built with Intel's Skylake chip, and other new architectures in the future, will require the latest version of Windows for support. This doesn't take effect right away; Windows 7 and 8.1 will be supported on older chips until their planned end-of-life dates, in 2020 and 2023 respectively. They'll also be supported on a list of current Skylake devices for the next 18 months. After that, only the latest version of Windows will support integration between the operating system and new CPU features. "For example, Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming 'Kaby Lake' silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming '8996' silicon, and AMD's upcoming 'Bristol Ridge' silicon." Microsoft also mentioned that for new supported systems, the company will "ensure all drivers will be on Windows Update with published BIOS/UEFI upgrading tools." The submitter adds, "Putting BIOS/UEFI updates in to the Windows 10 auto- / forced-update system may open Microsoft to paying $600-$1,000+ to replace broken laptops. If Windows tries to update BIOS/UEFI at a bad/risky time (like during power instability in a big storm), it could lead to an update loop or worse."
We're currently at the point where Linux is pretty much at the point where it is no longer necessary to run Windows on a machine. The only real reason to run Windows outside of a VM today is, essentially, games and all the other applications that require certain hardware features. Which are few and far between by now.
Linux gaming is gaining steam (you may keep the pun), so that problem should be sorted by 2020. Most applications that are unavailable in Windows (mostly specialized applications that have no counterpart in Linux) will work in a VM.
There is hope that by 2020 saying good bye (or rather, good riddance) to Redmond is quite painless.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Microsoft really wants everyone off Windows 7 ASAP, apparently. They probably just want to make sure there are no more XP-style holdouts like last time. By saying you can't put anything other than Windows 10 on new hardware you get from manufacturers, that's a pretty big stake in the ground for traditional enterprise desktop customers. Traditional desktops are on an 18-month production cycle, but companies typically stick with the same OS version for as long as possible unless there's a real reason to upgrade. This is going to pretty much force enterprises to move to 10 at the next hardware cycle. So, Windows 7 will probably be done on new hardware pretty soon. I'm not a big fan of making PCs appliances, but I'm an old fart so I might as well get with the times. :-)
On the other hand, it might be interesting to see what happens to Windows when the need to support all the legacy hardware falls away. Part of OS design for an open platform is a compromise because you can't use every single cool new chipset feature, you have to provide support for IDE hard disks, you need to allow for 10 year old architectures, etc. Phone manufacturers like Apple write the OS directly for the processor and hardware in the devices which might allow them to take advantage of a very specific feature and assume it will always be available on any system the OS runs on.
I wonder how Microsoft is going to handle VMs.
The preceding is my opinion. Don't like it? Tough, deal with it
Its mine too, I supported/used MS products for 19+ years as a Windows/Linux sysadmin. When I retired in 2010, I decided I'd had enough of Redmond's *stuff* and since I'd been using Linux since 1995 (Slackware, if you must know), I decided ALL of my systems going forward would be running Linux. After seeing Windows 10 (and playing with it quite a bit during preview), I couldn't be happier about my decision to flush MS products. However, since I'm retired and *too* many people in the neighborhood knew I was one of those "IT geeks", I've become the defacto tech support for my church and neighborhood. I've had quite a few people ask me about this new Windows 10 they're hearing about, and I proceed to show them chapter/verse of just how insidious it is. I did testing where I "castrated" a clean install of 10, including local account, and a bunch of stuff turned off in gpedit.msc, then loaded rpcapd on my router and pointed Wireshark at it.. Even "castrated" with all of the obvious spyware crap turned off, the Wireshark packet buffer showed a scary amount of "calling home" still.. Even the folks still on 7/8/8.1 are getting the "telemetry" crap shoved down their throats.. Since my testing, I've had several neighbors come to me with new systems bought over the holidays asking what can they do to minimize the damage. I give them an Ubuntu LiveCD and show them how to boot it, and have them work with it for a week or so and then ask them if they'd like to switch to it permanently. So far, everybody who has tried the LiveCD "preview" has gone for the "upgrade". I normally suggest, on a new-inwarrantee system, that they spend $40 or so for another hard drive to install Linux on, keeping the original in case of warrantee issues. As more and more people find out about Windows 10, I suspect I'd be able to start a small business doing upgrades..
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
...and I suspect they know it, this is their ALL-IN-OR-NOTHING last nail in the coffin investment, too bad they didn't smarten up and joined the club instead of trying to go down screaming and burning.
...with STEAM...as they where true gamers). I bought a system based on their recommendations, and I was NOT disappointed.
I'm an 50 something computer user/programmer/admin/whatever that has been using and coding computers since I was 12 years old, the days when I had to make my own video games because I was an early adopter and nothing was available to us. Didn't stop me from getting what I want. And guess what? That's the way of the world, this is how customers work - they want something? You have it? You can sell it! But trying to shove stuff down their throats doesn't really work well in the long run. History repeats itself.
I've been using Windows alongside Linux since 1998 (before that, it was all about Commodore 64, Amiga / Atari etc. for me). I basically went over to Linux back then in order to rid myself of proprietary stuff and take back the control of my computer - make it do what I WANT to do. Of course, in those days that was simply too much for the Joneses and they would prefer the mainstream instead of messing around under the hood just to get basic stuff up and running - and guess what - we...the Linux users NEVER blamed them for that. In fact, I understand this perfectly, heck...that was partially the Mac's big success - you could just plug it in and no messing around with stupid drivers and whatnot. Normal people just want to use their computers.
But something happened - Google started to support Android bigtime, and Android is essentially Linux under the hood - and then Hardware support EXPLODED. before we knew it - we saw companies like Ubuntu and many others fight like mad against Windows (or rather, run their own course as a decent competitor regardless of losses and support), because they knew - eventually - they'll catch up. And we did - together!
I use Mint Linux today - when I discovered this combo (Ubuntu + Cinnamon) I could basically say goodbye to my Windows partition for good. It was just an annoying liability of worms, constant numerous battles with worms, updates, turning of disk trashing...oh sorry...caching / optimizing or whatever they call necessary to optimize that slow running disk trashing system that took forever to boot each time I wanted to run something that demanded Windows only. It was getting further and further away from me, I had hardly touched Windows for ages.
AND HERE...is where things get fun...
I decided that I needed a new computer, so I went and bought the most BLEEDING edge hardware I could get my hands on, in my big ego...(basically only running Linux) I had totally forgotten that there was an operating system called windows (and curiously so had the people at the computer store, they themselves ran Linux mainly at home
When I assembled the entire computer at home - latest bleeding specs - latest Mint Linux - it all installed in less than 15 minutes WITH EVERYTHING I NEEDED (try that with windows unless you have a Ghosted Image with the EXACT specs of that computer), and it boots in between 3 and 6 seconds from start to finish! And this is just with a STOCK EVO 850 Samsung SSD HD.
Try to imagine the speed if they had the PCI SSD In stock....(gonna get that one!).
And every part of the hardware was supported - straight away - not only that, my setup surpassed EVERY RENDERING TEST done with BLENDER open source 3D software CYCLES (software rendering, not Nvidia GPU) done on tested Windows machines with exactly the same specs as mine.
Bye Windows, may you rest in peace.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Iceland didn't put up with MS bullshit. During their financial crisis, a number of companies went bankrupt. The Microsoft license resellers reported back to Microsoft that they had to void the licenses due to bankruptcies. However Microsoft claimed they had sold the licenses to the resellers and that teh resellers should pay Microsoft for the remaining duration of the already signed license contracts. The resellers (usually competitors) spoke with each other and decided to all declare bankruptcy due to failed payments to Microsoft. They then all started new companies with software support for companies and this time they all went the open source path. They agreed on document standards to ensure that a document written in one company could be read in another, regardless of who they had a service contact with.
The result is that Microsoft lost the Icelandic marked. The companies get software, which works when speaking with other companies and the support companies are back in marked competition against each other, though I assume they speak with each other about document format issues from time to time to ensure they stay compatible. The support guys says they should have done this a long time ago because it's cheaper for the companies, same or better profit for the support companies and they stopped sending money out of the country, making it a bonus for the country's economic situation in general.
I'm not sure if it is directly related to the software situation, but Iceland did things differently from other countries while they had a horrible economy and the result is that they recovered extremely fast.
While on the topic of Iceland and economy. It seems that a lot of people, particularly from the UK are misinformed of the whole bank issue. People from multiple countries put money into IceSafe because it gave 7% interest. The financial experts claimed this to be a high risk investment rather than a bank because they could not return 7% and would go bankrupt. They did and the owners went to the Bahamas to their big houses and boats (at least one of them) while whoever had money in the bank lost them. The UK government then paid money to the people who lost, which effectively was buying I.O.U.s. Next they wanted the Icelandic government to pay and they told the UK public they had this rightful claim. However according to Icelandic law, their claim was with the bankrupt bank IceSafe and for the government to pay, they needed to change the law. They did, but when the president should sign it, protesters gathered signatures to tell him not to sign and they handed in signatures from more than 25% of all voters. He didn't sign, which then automatically would be decided by a public vote. Unsurprisingly the public rejected the proposed law. The government still worked on finding a way to act like the law was approved and they really became history at next election.
I still see UK people being upset about their claim with Iceland. However the claim is in a bankrupt bank, not the national treasury and as we all know, the bankrupt bank can't pay.
It's also worth mentioning "the fishing war". In the 1970s UK fishing ships worked in Icelandic waters. The coast guard kicked them out due to lack of license and since Iceland refuse to give the license when asked, the UK send in the ships with naval protection. Iceland being a small country with no navy couldn't present that. People in Iceland is aware of this and know that the UK claim against their at that time empty national treasury could only be paid with land, or in this case fishing rights. Iceland essentially has 3 sources of income: tourism, lots of carbon free power (geo thermal/hydro) and the fishing industry. Two of them are fairly new, meaning it is a country of people descending from fishermen. This makes it futile to convince the voters that it is in the interest of the Icelandic people to hand over fishing rights to anybody else for any price. The UK price was "if you don't pay, then we will prevent you from joining EU" doesn't really work on voters, who wants to stay out of EU to ensure that EU never gets the right to control Icelandic fishing water.
Google is barely better than Microsoft and only because a user who knows what they are doing can grab the open source projects that Google bases all of its products upon.
For example, I need to change the email address linked to my YouTube account. I've done it before and it wasn't a problem. Now, all of a sudden, I can't do it. They simply removed the option to change your email address without warning and without legitimate reason. My only option is to delete my entire YouTube account, which I've had since 2005 and start over from scratch with a new account.
Both Microsoft and Google seem to be dead set on limiting the user as much as possible. When the world of computing is controlled by these two, then I have to ask "what's the point of having a computer any more?" It used to be you got a computer because it would do exactly what you told it to do. Now there are so many blocks in place that you might as well have a single purpose appliance.