Microsoft confirms there will be no Windows 11

[Hielena]

Microsoft says that Windows 10 will be its final release of the iconic
operating system that's installed on over 90% of computers.


"Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the
last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10," said
Jerry Nixon, Microsoft's developer evangelist, at the Ignite tech
conference.


Instead of releasing an entirely new and different version of its
desktop OS every few years, Microsoft is taking an Apple-like approach
to subsequent Windows releases, standardizing on Windows 10 as its
Cupertino-based rival has done with OS X. Under this new strategy,
Microsoft will deliver regular improvements to Windows through software
updates.




----------------

is it bad or good news?

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's going to get messy after a while, so many patches on top of patches. Guessing they'll have service packs or something though.

 

[sbpromania]

That's going to get messy after a while, so many patches on top of patches. Guessing they'll have service packs or something though.

I totally agree with you, but as long as Microsoft releases update ISO's that contain all the patches, this problem might be reduced greatly, as many Windows users perform clean installs once in a while.

This might get ugly for companies though, just imagine thousands of updates in hundreds of PCs

 

[sandorski]

Eventually they'll have to release something new. Or PCs might just fade into obscurity.

 

[homebrew2ny]

Is there any other source to confirm that this will be windows last and final release? Somehow, when I read that I think that he may have been wanting to say latest release and not necessarily last...? This is not to say I would not believe that windows 10 will be the last, just want to be sure what I am being told here.

 

[Dahak]

The whole time they have been saying win 10 is the last release, but they have been releasing updated isos during the time

There was the RTM build back in July, they released a newer one at the end of November, Ver 1511.

They have 2 major released planned for 2016 Redstone 1 and 2, which most likely have new isos with them.

Also I believe that the windows updates are cumulative, so you install the latest iso, probably 1 or 2 cumulative updates and done

 

[13Gigatons]

To bad they picked such a lousy version to build on.

 

[nerp]

That's going to get messy after a while, so many patches on top of patches. Guessing they'll have service packs or something though.

It has not been confusing for anyone running OSX all these years.

 

[nerp]

That's going to get messy after a while, so many patches on top of patches. Guessing they'll have service packs or something though.

Oh, also, all updates will be cumulative going forward. Fresh install should only require one update.

The whole idea here is that Windows is now a service. It will be constantly updated over time, but it will always just be "windows" much like the OS on your mobile device.

 

[mikeymikec]

This news is about a year old...

 

[master_shake_]

To bad they picked such a lousy version to build on.

this.

 

[PliotronX]

This is going to be fun: "what version of Windows 10 are you running?"
"Dur, I don't know."

 

[ultimatebob]

This is going to be fun: "what version of Windows 10 are you running?"
"Dur, I don't know."

It will be like Mac OS X, where there will be point releases with new features every year or so.

If you want releases quicker than that, sign up for the Preview program and wait for a new build to wipe out your system settings every few weeks

 

[mikeymikec]

This is going to be fun: "what version of Windows 10 are you running?"
"Dur, I don't know."

The beauty of it potentially is that it shouldn't make any difference, furthermore, everyone should always be on the latest version as WU downloads them automatically.

"shouldn't"... underlined several times. I'm worried about major architectural changes that could result in a given piece of hardware no longer working and either a bricked Windows install resulting or that hardware rendering the whole installation into an "unsupported" state within a year or two (eg. similar to running an older version of Windows without the latest service pack). I'm also worried about MS faffing with the UI of a product that is "live", or say deciding that an app that comes with the OS is going to be chopped despite millions of people using it.

 

[PliotronX]

It will be like Mac OS X, where there will be point releases with new features every year or so.

If you want releases quicker than that, sign up for the Preview program and wait for a new build to wipe out your system settings every few weeks

So we've essentially moved from an easily identifiable versioning to "cute" code names. Even better! Note: rolling my eyes here. It's already annoying asking people what color their power user context menu is to identify between pre/post TH2.

 

[SunnyD]

So Windows is officially "feature-complete" then?

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Over 90%? Ca this be substantiated? Its 0% in my household of multiple computers.

 

[mpo]

That's going to get messy after a while, so many patches on top of patches. Guessing they'll have service packs or something though.

Seeing as Microsoft has released Version 1511, this is probably the route they will be going.

 

[master_shake_]

Over 90%? Ca this be substantiated? Its 0% in my household of multiple computers.

i think they mean 90 percent of all computers are running windows based os'

 

[quikah]

So we've essentially moved from an easily identifiable versioning to "cute" code names. Even better! Note: rolling my eyes here. It's already annoying asking people what color their power user context menu is to identify between pre/post TH2.

Type winver, read off the build number. Not sure what is hard about it.

 

[RampantAndroid]

So we've essentially moved from an easily identifiable versioning to "cute" code names. Even better! Note: rolling my eyes here. It's already annoying asking people what color their power user context menu is to identify between pre/post TH2.

Type winver, read off the build number. Not sure what is hard about it.

I came here to post this...and was beaten to it. People are denoting which build they're on based on the release number (1511 and so on.) Not too hard to figure out. It isn't like this is the end for Windows...it's the end of the version numbers climbing. OSX has done it for a bit already.

 

[taisingera]

With this method of updating, and the bit about MS only supporting Skylake on W10, you can see how Microsoft will force you to buy new hardware every X number of years now. Let's say they release Redstone, and they say all Core 2 and older CPUs (or they base it on chipsets) are not supported in Redstone. This looks exactly like how Apple and Google update.

Oh that Android phone is 2 years old, no more updates for you. Go buy a new phone.

 

[RampantAndroid]

With this method of updating, and the bit about MS only supporting Skylake on W10, you can see how Microsoft will force you to buy new hardware every X number of years now. Let's say they release Redstone, and they say all Core 2 and older CPUs (or they base it on chipsets) are not supported in Redstone. This looks exactly like how Apple and Google update.

Oh that Android phone is 2 years old, no more updates for you. Go buy a new phone.

Except this isn't MS not supporting Skylake. It's Win7 being on extended support (out of mainstream last year) - that's roughly 6 years of support, right? And it isn't the same problem even that you're suggesting.

1. Buy apple iphone 10, running iOS 31.
2. Get free updates to iOS 32, 33, 34.
3. iOS 35 which has apps you want no longer supports your iPhone 10, time to buy a new one.

With Windows7, it's something very different. Put in iOS terms:

1. Buy apple iPhone 10 running iOS31.
2. Decide you only like iOS31, and everything after it is worse than Hitler! (for some reason I imagine this being said in Futurama Nixon head voice)
3. Buy iPhone 10S, 11 and 11S and install iOS31 on them
4. Buy iPhone 12, and find out that while iOS31 does support MOST of the iPhone 12 features, it doesn't support a couple of the features (which you probably don't even care about.)
5. Go crazy

Windows also has the driver support issue that may limit your use of old hardware on NEW Windows, you're still able to use pretty old hardware with Windows 10 (there are a few instruction sets Windows 8 required that were missing on some Athlon XP processors, iirc) but by and large, old hardware isn't too limited...and if you've got old hardware, all you need do is old hardware + old OS.

 

[taisingera]

Buy apple iphone 10, running iOS 31.
Get free updates to iOS 32, 33, 34.
iOS 35 which has apps you want no longer supports your iPhone 10, time to buy a new one.

This sounds like what MS is doing with incremental W10 updates, but at some point the features in W10 will make older hardware obsolete. The question is, will they provide security updates only for the older hardware, or drop support entirely. MS claims 10 year support cycle for W10, but I don't think they want people to have 10+ year old hardware still receiving current W10 updates. And if MS gets bold, that 10 year cycle may start shrinking.

Buy apple iPhone 10 running iOS31.
Decide you only like iOS31, and everything after it is worse than Hitler! (for some reason I imagine this being said in Futurama Nixon head voice)
Buy iPhone 10S, 11 and 11S and install iOS31 on them

You can't do this with iOS anyway, and after W7 and W8.1 are EOL, W10 will be the only choice, plus with forced and automatic updates for the majority of users.

 

[SparkyJJO]

So Apple does this sort of thing years ago and it is A-OK
Microsoft does it and it is end of the world!

....k