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Windows 7 Will Get Updates for Four More Years -- If You Pay (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet:
With the Windows 7 end-of-support clock slowly winding down to January 14, 2020, Microsoft is announcing it will offer, for a fee, continuing security updates for the product through January 2023. This isn't the first time Microsoft has done this for a version of Windows, but it may be the first time it has been so public about its plans to do so.
The paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) will be sold on a per-device basis, with the price increasing each year. These ESUs will be available to any Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise users with volume-licensing agreements, and those with Windows Software Assurance and/or Windows 10 Enterprise or Education subscriptions will get a discount. Office 365 ProPlus will continue to work on devices with Windows 7 Extended Security Updates through January 2023.
The paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) will be sold on a per-device basis, with the price increasing each year. These ESUs will be available to any Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise users with volume-licensing agreements, and those with Windows Software Assurance and/or Windows 10 Enterprise or Education subscriptions will get a discount. Office 365 ProPlus will continue to work on devices with Windows 7 Extended Security Updates through January 2023.
That puts you on the embedded track?
Windows is not securable. It is riddled with fundamental design flaws. If you're using it for any mission-critical systems, you suck at your job and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Because you have some crappy bit of unsupported proprietary software that doesn't run on windows 10 and will cost a bucket load to replace.
The big difference is in Windows 7 updates aren't basically force installed, so you can just not install telemetry and other non-security updates.
IE is going on until least 2026 thanks to Windows 10 LTSB. also Windows Server 2019 betas still come with IE. IE is still required for legacy enterprise apps and businesses would rather pay for Windows 7 updates than update their apps.
I knew Terry Davis wasn't really dead.
because they don't want to give up control of THEIR hardware or the software they've PAID FOR
because they don't want to be 'the product' forced to view advertisements, have sponsored apps shoved up their asses, or be spied on BY A FUCKING OPERATING SYSTEM, or have that same operating system download updates willy-nilly, which OFTEN IRREPARABLY BREAKS THE SYSTEM or uses up precious data quotas resulting in overage charges.
an operating system should, i dunno, OPERATE THE SYSTEM.. and JUST THAT.. i know, what a novel and retro concept... nothing else; not be a damn revenue stream and avenue for spying.
Also in the linked article:
another link to a new support policy for Windows 10:https://wwwmicrosoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/09/06/helping-customers-shift-to-a-modern-desktop/. Quote:
All currently supported feature updates of Windows 10 Enterprise and Education editions (versions 1607, 1703, 1709, and 1803) will be supported for 30 months from their original release date. This will give customers on those versions more time for change management as they move to a faster update cycle.
All future feature updates of Windows 10 Enterprise and Education editions with a targeted release month of September (starting with 1809) will be supported for 30 months from their release date. This will give customers with longer deployment cycles the time they need to plan, test, and deploy.
All future feature updates of Windows 10 Enterprise and Education editions with a targeted release month of March (starting with 1903) will continue to be supported for 18 months from their release date. This maintains the semi-annual update cadence as our north star and retains the option for customers that want to update twice a year.
All feature releases of Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, and Office 365 ProPlus will continue to be supported for 18 months (this applies to feature updates targeting both March and September).
So if you develop anything using "feature updates", your guaranteed support time on Windows 10 shrinks to 30 months on Enterprise and 18 months on Professional and Home. The Microsoft website does not say if security updates will be supplied longer than 30/18 months for those features. I guess the original promise of 10 years' updates for Windows 10 LTSB keeps the change in policy away from the feature set at release for now.
For comparison, Canonical is promising 5 years of "security and maintenance updates" for their LTS versions of Ubuntu.
Red Hat even promises 10 years as part of the "basic" product, although Red Hat Linux appears limited to enterprise environments. Plus even longer support for extra money.
It seems Microsoft is finally less willing to promise long therm stability than at least two prominent Linux vendors.
One might argue that this was already the case in practice, but now it is official in the support policies of Microsoft vs. Canonical and Red Hat.
C - the footgun of programming languages
I wasted SIX HOURS updating a laptop yesterday.
And yet, you're still using Windows. At this point, Microsoft knows that they own you and your laptop. Why should they care what you want when they know you will keep paying and promoting them regardless of what they do to you?
the low producers somewhere. May as well use them to keep obsolete stuff alive. Can you imagine working at MS and being in a department whose task is to keep Win 7 running? I wonder if they'll be putting suicide netting around the buildings like Foxconn did...
Maybe that's how MS gets rid of people they decide are finished. Instead of firing them, they just put them to work on Win 7 and let nature take its course.
Well, that would break quite a lot of laws in quite a lot of countries, as well as putting them in direct conflict with quite a lot of governments. So no, I'm pretty sure Microsoft aren't really going to do that.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
We stopped patching Win7 2+ yrs ago when the EULA changed to allow their spying and when MSFT stopped saying what each patch was for.
It just became too hard to deal with MSFT.
We had little choice. MSFT decided to fire us by forcing things into the agreement we just couldn't agree with.
You nailed it. I run Monte Carlo simulations of electron induced X-ray microanalysis spectra. These can run for hours. I want control of my CPU cycles and don't want some update starting without my explicit permission. I have a friend who runs a big microanalysis lab. A rececent MS update broke DCOM and won't let his microanalysis computer talk to the microscope computer. We know of at least one other system with this problem. These are $1M+ systems...
My community does CPU-intensive work and we want control of OUR computers. We understand the need for antivirus/spyware software and are willing to use it. We don't want our OS to treat us like idiots and BE the spyware... We want to give explicit permission for the OS to phone home...
Not even close the reason. Because Windows 7 is better.
I have a "crappy bit of unsupported proprietary software that doesn't run on windows 10 and will cost a bucket load to replace" is something that I wrote for my company that requires Bluetooth data support with proper com port operation which was rewritten for Windows 10 and was not fully tested. I complained for literally years to Microsoft (https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware-winpc/how-do-i-delete-the-unused-com-ports-in-windows-10/9f25e5ca-35a7-4c9c-a892-a4be660eb2fe being the main thread).
This app by the way, runs fine of:
- Windows XP
- Windows 7
- Windows Vista
- Mac OS X
- Linux with Blueman
- ChromeOS
Why would/should I use an operating system that doesn't run *my* software, I'm probably going to have to pay a monthly fee for, requires a login and just feels sluggish (I know that's subjective but Windows 10 has never felt "crisp" to me like Windows 7 and some of the others)?
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
"The fact that people continue to use Microsoft products is mind-boggling."
Not nearly as mind-boggling as the folks who can't seem to grasp the fact that not all professional software runs on Linux or Mac OS.
Talking about software that costs more than the hardware it runs upon. Yanno, stuff you can't easily replace because it's cost prohibitive.
Thus, the reason folks continue to use what they use and will continue to do so until ALL of their daily use software applications have a native Linux or Mac OS choice.
It's really not that difficult.
That is a sad state of affairs. After all, security updates fix defects in their product. It is not as if they are improving anything, it is that they fix the mess they created. To ask for money for that is unacceptable, and to exclude ordinary users is even more unacceptable.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I paid handsomely for the OS I am running.
Now I have to pay them again to fix their fuckups?!!!
That is not how it works for cars, if there is something wrong with a car they recall it.
This aligns with M$'s intended income path and converts a product that was paid in full for into a subscription.
Just like cable TV told us there would be no commercials.......
*SPIT*
Rick B.
My community does CPU-intensive work and we want control of OUR computers. We understand the need for antivirus/spyware software and are willing to use it. We don't want our OS to treat us like idiots and BE the spyware... We want to give explicit permission for the OS to phone home...
Why do you even need spyware and virus protection on systems like this. These systems should be self contained and not connected to a public network. The only updates and software installs should come through a dedicated channel and not just off the net. Just anyone shouldn't be allowed to install and run software on systems like this.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Okay, I'll bite. What makes you say "windows 7" is better? Better than what?
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Well USB and built in firewall for one :-)
Old geeks remember only the good times of the good old days. Not NT4 required a ps2 to USB adapter and Windows 2000 required a reboot when you unplug a mouse as it's not plug n play or that your system was 0wned without blackice firewall software etc.
XP was a security nightmare too!
Windows 7 was gorgeous and had improved security and was light enough to run on an atom.
http://saveie6.com/
Jan 2020 to Jan 2023 is not 4 years.. For fuck's sake.. Look at it..
Jan 2020
Jan 2021
Jan 2022
Jan 2023
That is 3 years.
Jan 2020 to Jan 2021 = 1 year
Jan 2021 to Jan 2022 = 1 year
Jan 2022 to Jan 2023 = 1 year
I'm very interested in your situation. Buggy in WINE too? Also, have you considered building up a minimalist Win7PE environment to run in a VM in Linux? It's quite possible to construct a purpose built Windows environment that can be isolated in VM that never needs to be updated or run antivirus.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
It works and it keeps working. Changing is expensive and time consuming - training, upgrading machines, getting new software, finding replacements for old software, etc. So Microsoft needs to supply a REASON to upgrade here, something in the new version that is worth the time and effort.
Especially for those who aren't Enterprise or Pro who have to put up with all the nasty tricks Microsoft loves to pull on its customers.