Slashdot Mirror
Windows 7 Enters Its Final Year of Free Support (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Windows 7's five years of extended support will expire on January 14, 2020 -- exactly one year from today. After this date, security fixes will no longer be freely available for the operating system that's still widely used. As always, the end of free support does not mean the end of support entirely. Microsoft has long offered paid support options for its operating systems beyond their normal lifetime, and Windows 7 is no different. What is different is the way that paid support will be offered. For previous versions of Windows, companies had to enter into a support contract of some kind to continue to receive patches. For Windows 7, however, the extra patches will simply be an optional extra that can be added to an existing volume license subscription -- no separate support contract needed -- on a per-device basis. These Extended Security Updates (ESU) will be available for three years after the 2020 cut-off, with prices escalating each year.
We've been actively investigating alternatives since the point where you could no longer buy new machines with Windows 7 preinstalled. Running smaller businesses, you're typically on Pro rather than the enterprisey/volumey alternatives, so 10 doesn't look like a viable option and the paid ongoing support for 7 is of limited relevance. However, the need for everyone to run the exact same thing on every computer is also much less than organisations with hundreds or thousands of staff. Everything is customised to each user's needs anyway, so having people with newer machines running different software isn't necessarily a problem in this sort of environment.
Currently we're erring towards Linux but also keeping around some Windows 7 machines. We do use a few very expensive specialist packages that are either only available on Windows or expensive if we wanted to acquire further licences on other platforms, so retaining some Windows systems is important. However, based on watching what's happened in recent years, both in terms of actual behaviour of Windows and the strategy/attitude of the leadership at Microsoft, our judgement is that the risk of bad things happening to our businesses on Windows 7 even with no further security patches after this time next year is much lower than the risk due to Windows 10 compromising or breaking something.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Except that Microsoft has always made most of its Windows revenues from volume licensing and preinstallation on new PCs anyway, and neither of those is particularly affected by the current version being stable because big organisations still want updates and new computers still need an OS. In my entire life, I think I've bought an off-the-shelf copy of Windows on physical media exactly once, and the staff looked at me all funny like.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Hmmm, which shit sandwich will I eat today?
I skipped Win8 for a very specific reason: by seeing how shit Win10 is I decided that any tinkering with Win8 was a waste of time as the next progression will only lead to a dead end.
So my use of Windows ends with Win7. I do keep a couple of Win10 VMs for testing and developing software for my customers that request it. But everyone I supply software to is asking whether *I* can fix the problems they're having with Win10. I am suggesting Linux for desktop programs and web-apps for everything else. The consumer sentiment is already here, and Windows is dead. Well done Microsoft.