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New Intel and AMD Chips Will Only Support Windows 10 (pcworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Buried in the announcement of the new Kaby Lake (seventh-generation) processors and a rash of incoming notebooks set to use them is the confirmation that they will have a Windows 10 future. Microsoft has been warning people for ages that Kaby Lake will not run on anything older than Windows 10, and it looks like AMD's upcoming Zen chip will be going the same way. Microsoft said, "As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support. This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon." "We are committed to working with Microsoft and our ecosystem partners to help ensure a smooth transition given these changes to Microsoft's Windows support policy," an Intel spokesperson said. "No, Intel will not be updating Win 7/8 drivers for 7th Gen Intel Core [Kaby Lake] per Microsoft's support policy change." An AMD representative was equally neutral. "AMD's processor roadmap is fully aligned with Microsoft's software strategy," AMD chief technical officer Mark Papermaster said, via a company spokeswoman. Slashdot reader MojoKid via HotHardware has some more details on Intel's Kaby Lake 7th Gen Core Series Processors for those yearning to learn more.
It will be illegal to run any other version than Windows 10.
It doesn't matter. I would imagine 95% of all Windows licenses are sold with hardware, anyway. We are going to keep buying refurb machines with Windows 7 licenses, because that's the OS we need. The hardware really hasn't mattered for workstations for a decade or so, anyway.
I don't respond to AC's.
Their notebooks are DOOMED.
Wow, Microsoft must be paying a fuckton of money to AMD. Windows 7 is still 47% (down only about 5% from Q1 2016 and probably not moving any farther now that free upgrades are over). If my competitor stood up and said "we are walking away from half of the market" my response would be "We are committed to supporting the half of the market our competitor just abandoned."
Is AMD independently wealthy enough to also ignore half of the market, or is Microsoft making them wealthy enough to do so? Stockholders ought to be asking that question right now, especially given the weak position that AMD is in.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Hello Linux
Goodbye Windows. Hello Linux
Why? This affects no existing hardware. Its just that future hardware will not support Windows 7 and 8.
And frankly this is pretty much what happens under Android too, a chip vendor developing some new chip's drivers only for the current Android version. Will that make Android/Linux fans flock to iOS when they learn their Samsung Galaxy S8 can not run Android 4.4?
What about Linux? Microsoft's Kaby Lake support or lack of it appears to be based on detecting the processor version, and not any lack of backward compatibility in the chip architecture.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
To give you some perspective. I use Win7 as my home/gaming OS and Linux as my work/dev OS. I went to Win10, tried it for a month, grew to hate it. Went back to Win7 to wait for Win10 to improve in a few more years. But if MS doesn't want to give me the option to avoid Win10 then I'll just start finding a way to work Linux into being my full time OS.
I already use Linux as much as I use Windows already. So luck has nothing to do with it.
Replying on my CI20 running Debian 8.
I use this machine mostly as a home jukebox system (Attached to the PA system.) And sometimes for lite web browsing if I'm in the garage (where it sits by the main for the PA system.)
MIPS is trying to become relevant again. There are a couple of Russian workstations coming out on the Baikal T-1 and Imgtec is still trying to establish their footing in the embedded board arena. (Thus the CI20 i'm on.)
For general desktop use, this baby can handle websites like /. (but not much more javascript.) IRC, Pidgin, Email, Nethack, etc. What more do you need? All kidding aside, the hardware technology is there, what MIPS lacks however is developers, optimized drivers, and scale production to bring down costs. In that order. Judging from the GIT repos, ImgTec devs moved on to IoT ci40 and abandoned ci20... Without improved drivers/browsers I believe this won't be the decade of the MIPS desktop.
*Note speaking about desktop mips and not networking mips.
*Slash dot Captcha: Idealism >.>
Intel already tried to break the Windows 10 installer with their latest chipsets.
They forced the USB controller into XHCI mode for no reason, so when you get to the point in the Windows 7 installer where you need to interact with it, you're fucked if you're using USB installation media or a USB keyboard. Using an optical drive and an unattended setup answers file or an optical drive and a PS/2 keyboard works. Guess which things modern Intel platforms tend not to have.
Of course, the Taiwanese mobo manufacturers all released the workarounds (use a DVD and a PS/2 keyboard, use USB ports 7 and 8 which are powered by the non-Intel controller, etc.) and even published tools to patch the Windows 7 installer to just make it work. Intel and MS responded after much outcry by releasing official versions of those same tools.
Fuck both Intel and MS. If AMD goes the same way, fuck them too. Windows 10 is the worst thing to happen in computing this decade.
Then the Linux distros resubmit their code to the MS signing system. Again, it was a *one time* $99 fee, it won't cost them anything to resubmit.
Linux users then download a new ISO.
The Linux world then continues as before.
UEFI doesn't have anything to do with what OS you can install and run (aside from compatibility issues one might encounter when trying to run legacy software). If you're thinking of things like Intel Boot Guard or UEFI Secure Boot, those are meant to prevent modification to the firmware image stored on the motherboard's ROM chip, not lock down the OS. The only way to restrict what OS you can load would be to add in very specific code outside the scope of the UEFI spec that probes the boot media and says yay or nay to different OSes. Basically, Intel, UEFI/BIOS devs, and motherboard manufacturers would all have to conspire together against Linux and I think they all know it would not be in their best interests to do so, given that so much of the IT infrastructure and technical community of the world runs it. This is Microsoft just trying to suck in even more people to Malware 10. There aren't even any real differences between the Skylake chips already out there and the Kaby Lake chips according to several articles I've seen. The difference in driver code (which is ostensibly the reason for the lack of support) would essentially be the difference of a #defined version number, not any actual implementation differences.
This is an incredibly shrewd move by Microsoft.
All the millions of copies of pre-W10 Windows still in use are essentially "dead" to Microsoft: they are in fact an overhead, since MS have to continue to host all the patches and update materials for these releases, but can't generate revenue from them once the product is sold and installed. However, from a Microsoft perspective, W10 is the product that keeps on giving. It's incredibly intrusive SpyWareOS(TM) capabilities mean that the moment you have installed it, you become a Microsoft Product again. At any point in time they can send an update to your machine [because you can't turn off auto-update] that reverses any privacy settings you have made. They're not obliged to tell you that they have done it.
In other Words, this move will prevent people from moving their personally-owned Windows 7/8/8.1 Licenses to newer hardware in the event of a hardware failure, so that, over time, those people will be forced to upgrade to SpyWareOS and become part of the Microsoft Product.
Microsoft's defence against any potential future investigations by Monopoly/Market Abuse investigators will be: "It is unreasonable to expect us to continue to offer support for legacy software forever Additionally, we have not only made upgrading to Windows 10 incredibly simple, but we have actually made it free for all existing users for a considerable period of time. Lastly, anyone not happy can go buy a Mac..." And certainly, in most of the world, that will be enough.
What this does is force anyone happy enough to run older Windows versions to upgrade, whether they like it or not. Or migrate. One thing that wasn't completely clear from either this post or the linked articles though: will the new CPU actually prevent say W7 from running at all? Will it's ID string be so alien that older versions of Windows simply won't recognise it and refuse to install? HP tried something like this by putting tiny ICs into their original toner cartridges, such that 3rd party cartridges would not work in their printers. That got overturned in court, though, because it was shown that the IC served no purpose other than to act as a barrier to entry. Could this be shown in a similar light? i.e. Could it be argued that some sneaky microcode work-around serves no purpose other than to enforce the hegemony?
Anyone fluent in legalese lurking today?
The push to force Windows 10 has now reached absurd proportions. Windows 7 is going to be my last version of Windows, and that means I won't be buying new Intel or AMD processors if they are going this route. Windows 10 is not particularly popular in its current form, so I am not at all sure why other companies would want to jump on that shit wagon.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.