The "End of Windows".

[VirtualLarry]

https://stratechery.com/2018/the-end-of-windows/

Apparently MS re-org'ed again, and now, there is NO LONGER a "Windows Division".

 

[JackMDS]

This is a Good prediction about the Future of Windows (You can Skip the first 10 Min).

https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly/episodes/562?autostart=false

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, I'm not sure how to react to your initial post there, Larry.

There are several flavors of "Windows" and notably the "Server" editions. Will desktops become obsolete? Will servers become obsolete?

I haven't kept up enough with all the new "devices" that "other people" use. I like a full-sized keyboard. I'd rather do my computing at home. I don't have substantial "mobile" needs.

Let's just say I feel "insecure." How will I manage my money, or do things that have become routine for years? Will e-mail become obsolete? Will I have to learn to use Zelle -- on my [blanking] cell-phone?

And all it takes to rouse this insecurity is a story about how there's no longer a Microsoft "Windows Division."

It's bad enough when every Creators Update or Feature Update precipitates a minor crisis . . . .

But we're really trying to guess what's in the "black box" of a huge organization. Anyone have a Microsoft organizational chart as recent as this article's announcement? Maybe they just plan on changing the name from "Windows" to something else.

But what would they call it?

 

[whm1974]

I doubt Windows will go away anytime soon as it is well entrenched. And wither a notebook or desktop, PCs are way too useful to disappear.

 

[JackMDS]

There are several flavors of "Windows" and notably the "Server" editions. Will desktops become obsolete? Will servers become obsolete?

Server versions will "Ditch the Desktop aspects and will be good only to keep a LANs and connect to the Azure. It will be not sold but be moved to a Subscription product like Office 365

Desktop Windows will be Win10S only and be Closed and maintained similar to the way that Apple manages OSX.

Names (Verbiage) are Nothing to do with Tangible reality. The functional reality would Dramatically changed.

 

[C1]

The reality is that, like the many many software development companies which we've all seen come and go over the decades, after a certain point a software development applications simply evolves to become unappealing if not unusable.

The issue is that, in most cases, it's driven by money (ultimately needed for survival) and not human need.

An operating system should, for the most part, be transparent to the user. And as most have experienced, agencies in software development for profit, ultimately disappear because their stuff simply evolves into an unappealing monster. We've seen this with databases, word processors, graphics systems, multimedia and even with games.

Basically, to maintain profits, software keeps getting expanded with stuff fewer and fewer people use or need till it becomes problematic for typical users (ie, effectively "keep fix'n it till it's broke").

It's just simply easier as a sales tactic to add more than it is to continually make something better.

MS Office is also at such point. One pulls up the latest office on a public library computer and what one sees is so much screen trash of buttons, menus, boxes, ribbons that the average user is simply overwhelmed and 95+% of users only ever need 0.1% of what the software is capable of.

The first thing I do using a public library computer is make available on the desktop the old MS Paint, Notepad and WordPad from WinXP because all the equivalent apps in the supposed latest & greatest OS are just too busy/cluttered with unnecessary trash (that 99% of users never use) and thus simply hampers use-ability.The aforementioned WinXP apps handle 99+% of what I need done during the typical library session and they do it quickly, cleanly with ease on the eyes.

Having worked in design of very involved command and control systems, there's a good amount that could be done to improve things and make software more desirable, hence marketable, but organizations (eg, like MS) typically just get so huge that they become effectively ossified and inflexible.

The top down structure instead typically focuses on other strategies such as market cornering attempts and/or becoming sole source to deep pockets such as nationstate governments, in order to be able to feed the corporate behemoth.

 

[jkauff]

Windows has to be compatible with hundreds of thousands of combinations of hardware. MS would love to be rid of that burden (Apple envy again) and so are envisioning a future where the OS is running in the cloud, not on individual boxes.

That's going to require "always connected" machines, though. I guess they're anticipating that 5G wireless broadband will make that happen.

 

[whm1974]

Windows has to be compatible with hundreds of thousands of combinations of hardware. MS would love to be rid of that burden (Apple envy again) and so are envisioning a future where the OS is running in the cloud, not on individual boxes.

That's going to require "always connected" machines, though. I guess they're anticipating that 5G wireless broadband will make that happen.

Meanwhile I will still be building real computers running Linux.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I doubt Windows will go away anytime soon as it is well entrenched. And wither a notebook or desktop, PCs are way too useful to disappear.

Well . . . that thought raises my spirits. But in another ten years, I'll be 80. If something disrupts my routine approach to managing my life, it will be much more disruptive -- even if I remember what I'm doing from one moment to the next.

I figure that if I'm going to eventually punch out into the next life, I want to do it gracefully, and some new paradigm that I'll have even more trouble accommodating will destroy that grace.

 

[whm1974]

Well . . . that thought raises my spirits. But in another ten years, I'll be 80. If something disrupts my routine approach to managing my life, it will be much more disruptive -- even if I remember what I'm doing from one moment to the next.

I figure that if I'm going to eventually punch out into the next life, I want to do it gracefully, and some new paradigm that I'll have even more trouble accommodating will destroy that grace.

One of the best things about the PC is how open the platform is, unlike tablets and smartphones. From where I sit it sure does look like Microsoft is trying to come up with a closed PC platform like Apple has has done.

 

[jkauff]

One of the best things about the PC is how open the platform is, unlike tablets and smartphones. From where I sit it sure does look like Microsoft is trying to come up with a closed PC platform like Apple has has done.

Yes, I imagine they have visions of something like an Xbox Surface Pro.

 

[whm1974]

Yes, I imagine they have visions of something like an Xbox Surface Pro.

It will be a sad day for users if Microsoft manages to come up with a closed platform and it becomes widespread.

 

[mikeymikec]

It will be a sad day for users if Microsoft manages to come up with a closed platform and it becomes widespread.

IMO if they do that, then there's a chance for a more open platform to take their place.

Personally I don't think MS is going to forget at any point soon that their cash cow comes from general purpose computing, so while some of their people will squee when they look at Apple's general-purpose computing environment and MS will continue doing PITA things like pushing MS accounts on people unnecessarily and making MSO/DX12/etc Win10 only, as things are I think it would require them to try and pull off an astoundingly stupid tactic like demanding all the data that Windows users have on their systems to have it stored in the cloud.

As for me, I think I need to spend some time before 2020 looking into adopting Linux for my own mainstream use (and also plan a potential home server migration for that timeframe), and then having Win10 as my gaming OS. Hopefully before Windows 7 goes EOL, Win10 will have settled down a bit.

 

[whm1974]

IMO if they do that, then there's a chance for a more open platform to take their place.

As for me, I think I need to spend some time before 2020 looking into adopting Linux for my own mainstream use (and also plan a potential home server migration for that timeframe), and then having Win10 as my gaming OS. Hopefully before Windows 7 goes EOL, Win10 will have settled down a bit.

At this point the best ways for end users to ensure that the PC stays open is to migrate over to FOSS OSes and build their own systems. Or at the very least refuse to buy non-standard closed PC hardware.

As for gaming, Linux Gaming is now a thing with a flood of games thanks to Valve.

 

[repoman0]

As for me, I think I need to spend some time before 2020 looking into adopting Linux for my own mainstream use (and also plan a potential home server migration for that timeframe), and then having Win10 as my gaming OS. Hopefully before Windows 7 goes EOL, Win10 will have settled down a bit.

This is what I've mostly done/am trying to do. My server runs all free / open source (including Proxmox/Debian in place of ESXi) and has been incredibly reliable. Sharing my data store with Windows took a small amount of work but is rock solid once everything is configured properly. I can do pretty much everything I need in Linux Mint on my desktop ... it works just as well or better than Windows. Unfortunately I still spend most of my time in Windows 10 anyway because the games I play are Windows only, Adobe products are Windows only, etc. and it's a pain to reboot.

I would love it if MS kills Windows and forces more software companies to create Linux binaries. Wouldn't miss it at all if it weren't for games and Lightroom.

 

[hardhat]

If MS moves all windows products to the cloud with effectively a subscription management system, even if that subscription costs exactly $0 in perpetuity, I will abandon the OS. There is absolutely no practical reason for MS to move Windows from a desktop OS to a cloud based model. It would cost MS lots of money to maintain servers providing their service, and the practical implications from that change in terms of ownership of a computer system is horrible.

As was pointed out, MS has become a bloated behemoth that has basically lost it's very simple purpose. This problem has been studied extensively; see corporate lifecycle. Taking into account the many anti consumer changes MS has made recently, I don't see a positive future. But windows is incredibly important to the world. It is very possible that some changes will be forced on the company before it runs it's course, which may change the trajectory.