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Windows 10 Will Cut Off Devices With Older CPUs (pcworld.com)
Reader Baron_Yam shares a PCWorld report: No Windows 10 Creators Update for you, Microsoft says -- at least, not if you happen to be the unlucky owner of certain older Atom-based Windows devices, and other aging models in the future. After stories arose of failed attempts to upgrade such hardware to the Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed late Wednesday that any hardware device that falls out of the manufacturer's support cycle may be ineligible for future Windows 10 updates. In the case of the four "Clover Trail" processors (part of the Cloverview platform) that have fallen into Intel's End of Interactive Support phase, they will be ineligible for the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft confirmed. Instead, they'll simply be offered the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, plus security updates through January, 2023, the end of the original Windows 8.1 support period. The problem, however, is that Microsoft's language opens up the possibility that any unsupported hardware device could be excluded from future Windows 10 updates. "Recognizing that a combination of hardware, driver and firmware support is required to have a good Windows 10 experience, we updated our support lifecycle policy to align with the hardware support period for a given device," Microsoft said in a statement. "If a hardware partner stops supporting a given device or one of its key components and stops providing driver updates, firmware updates, or fixes, it may mean that device will not be able to properly run a future Windows 10 feature update." The reader adds, it's not a case of "feature updates are not recommended and may not work", it's a case of "we will block feature updates to your device".
No such thing. Windows has sucked ass since Windows 2000.
Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux. Linux.
Seriously, though: Bite the bullet and put Linux on it. Make the effort to learn how to use a Linux system properly, and you will reap benefits in privacy, security and protecting your identity that far outstrip the effort you put in.
Linux is not perfect, but it's far better than an "operating system" that reports all of your personal information and activities on the Internet just so M$ can make money off you, while still charging you a "subscription" for the privilege of being abused.
Encryption back doors.
Hardware surveillance code.
Any other questions?
The pretext is to ensure better compatibility but it seems a lot more likely this is to ensure that if you're in a Windows environment, you're on an upgrade treadmill.
It absolutely is. I used the small open source patch that lets you continue to install updates, everything has drivers from the manufacturer and everything works. Maybe Win7 isn't doing everything optimally, but there's no compelling reason for Windows to refuse to run.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
This isnt a hardware support issue.
When a piece of code asks what hardware its running on and refuses to continue to run when it doesnt like the answer... thats not a hardware issue... thats a software issue.
This isnt about supporting hardware at all. Its about sabotaging it.
"His name was James Damore."
Rememebrr, Apple does exactly this.
But they won't.
Which brings us to the rub of the nub: Why would anybody still bother to use that crap?
No, not the crappy and backdoored hardware. The software.
Does Amazon prime video and Netflix work on linux yet?
Yes both work on Linux. Outlook compat depends on what you need from it. I've used DavMail plus Thunderbird+Lighting to do pretty much everything I needed to get done from an Exchange 365 server. I've not been disappointed by Steam on Linux so there's that, but I'm not exactly "MUST HAVE AAA GAME!!" so my opinion may not count.
I think some of the gas from the grey breads in Linux has left and moved on to BSD ever since the reckoningd. Also with mobile basically smashing desktop, there's not much home (hey bro this is cool) interest in "Linux-the-desktop" either. So if you do hit up a corner of Linux you'll either get what grey beards are left fighting with young whipper snappers about "Unix-mentality-is-GOD!!" or you'll get a quiet place where the last activity was three months ago letting everyone know that a project that's not been updated in the last two years isn't dead.
Point being, don't expect any magical massive shift to promote Linux desktop. Most people are "meh" and use it and don't care, are too busy fighting the "enemyd", or they've just moved on out of Linux/desktop-all-together.
Trying to get a new OS to work with an old driver is hard. In fact it's so hard, that Linux pretty much requires drives to be compiled for your exact kernel. Trying to do this without assistance from the manufacturer of the device seems like a fools errand. The policy here seems quite reasonable. MSFT will provide updates for as long as the device manufacturer supports the device. After that you still get security updates but no high-risk feature updates. This makes Microsoft's job a lot easier. But it also helps the device manufacturers. The hardware business is somewhat commoditized and the margins are razor-thin. This allows vendors to differentiate and make a few more points of margin by supporting the hardware for longer. That should be easier if the hardware is of higher quality so it also prevents a race to the bottom. Sure there are a few people out there who want to try to run Windows/10 creator on their 386/33. And those people will figure out how to obtain and install the latest version of Windows whether Microsoft provides it via the update mechanism or not. Some people will complain about everything Microsoft. But it's really hard to find valid complaints about Windows as a consumer OS. Mac OS and Linux are out there but it's not a case of them being better and people not knowing. They are probably about equal to Windows but not enough of an improvement to compel a switch. Obviously in the data center, Linux is eating Windows' lunch but that's a different situation. Nobody runs unsupported hardware there. Well, at least they shouldn't.
Windows 10 has to be the single best example of how NOT to roll out an operating system.
Forcing people to migrate their hardware out of fear that their OS will simply stop running arbitrarily, is complete and utter bullshit. Where do they get the right to arbitrarily change their license/support terms on the fly like this?
And why hasn't any governments slapped them into next year for it?