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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."
That's still not safe enough. I run Windows inside a virtual machine on Linux inside a virtual machine on OS X.
Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support.
If Windows 10 is required for support, it means Windows <10 is unsupported. Whether that means it will simply be unsupported and any problems you run into will be your own or if it simply won't run, ask Microsoft. But it won't be supported and it certainly won't use all the bells and whistles - though I don't think anyone asked for that.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Skylake chips support some new power management features that allow the chip to throttle based on load far more efficiently than older chips. Microsoft is not adding special support to that to Windows 7 for example. The chip will still work on Windows 7 but not all features will work.
If you use a Debian install from 5 years ago it also won't support any of those new power management features and they are not going to backport those features. You can install a new kernel and a new version of some of the power management libraries, that will probably involve rebuilding a lot of user space and in the end you are probably going to break something else. What you would have to do is just use a distribution new enough to support all the features on your new processor.
OSX is going to do EXACTLY the same thing. Apple is not going to backport skylake power management to a 5 year old version of OSX and all the risks that could have. They are going to take the newest version, work out the details on that, validate it and support it.
Intels and AMDs new processors will continue to work on older Windows and Linux versions just like before. It is just that Microsoft has officially announced they are not going to backport new processor features to older operating system versions.
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"I believe Microsoft is perfectly entitled to drop support for newer processors in old versions of Windows."
Even more: that's not dropping support. "Dropping" implies something was supported and it is supported no more. If doing something, like being able to boot up on processor X, was never in the feature list, you are not "dropping" anything by still being unable to boot up on processor X.
A different issue, and one that, given Microsoft history, wouldn't surprise me, would be if Microsoft were to go out of their way to add an "update" to test for the new processor and refuse to boot on that.
So here's the problem with that: it's none of their fucking business unless we opt in.
I don't give a shit what Microsoft wants. It should be up to me if my computer sends any fucking data to Microsoft or not.
I am stuck using their OS for some stuff. I should not be forced to send them any fucking data about my fucking usage patterns.
Microsoft is accelerating the rate at which people are going to aggressively look for alternatives, but they don't seem to give a shit.
Basic telemetry my ass. Trash talk my ass.
Go ahead, be a fanboi apologist. But don't downplay that Microsoft has decided they don't need our fucking permission to do things to OUR fucking computers.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Ya know, NT used to run on Sparc, PowerPC, Alpha and MIPS.
If those versions had sold, Microsoft would have kept selling them. The market spoke. The users made their choice.
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The XP effect is what you missed.
People got used to 12 year old operating systems on new hardware and are flabbergasted and shocked that a 6 to 7 year old OS before UEFI, USB 3/type-c, nvme ssds, NFC printers, dynamic storage acceleration, advanced power states, ddr 4 ram, can't support these without hacks and significant work by Intel with drivers bolted on to an old platform.
Shit you needed a proprietary sata driver for freaking XP as the install CD couldn't even a hard disk for its last 6 years of life??! Windows 7 is heading into this territory folks now.
Historically PCs needed a OS upgrade every 3 years.
I know I will be modded down and flamed but come on folks. This is Slashdot for those that love technology. Not a forum that is anti technology that fears change. You can still run Windows 7. Your old PC is fine and haswell still is made and fully supports 7!
If you want new things it makes sense a newer OS from this decade should support it. FYI the pro version has hyper-v and you can run old software fine.
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You must be pretty thick if it took you two days to do that. It's a piece of piss. Linux could've taken Microsoft to the cleaners had the holy warriors been prepared to work together but instead we have fragmentation, drivers that break from version to version and now systemd. I used to love using Linux but I got sick of trying to get it to do what I want. I probably could figure out but I can't be arsed to spend hours or days dicking about with something that should just work.
Yeah, When I tried Linux mint, My truck engine blew up, My dog ran away, my wife left me for the neighbor's son, the bank repossessed my house, the south 40 caught fire, and all my milch cows went dry. And systemd ate my balls.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.