Windows 10 is Microsoft's newest operating system. It was officially released on July 29, 2015. The first presentation of Windows 10 took place on September 30, 2014, while the trial version was released a day later, on October 1, 2014.
During its first year, Microsoft offered a free operating system for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users.
After the first year of release, the company changes its mind and continues to offer its operating system for free despite the end of the offer.
Windows version | Eligible upgrades for Windows 10 |
|---|---|
| 7 Windows Starter | Windows 10 Home |
| 7 Windows Home Basic | |
| 7 Windows Home Premium | |
| Windows 8.1 with Bing | |
| Windows 8.1 | |
| Windows 7 Professional | Windows 10 Pro |
| Windows Ultimate 7 | |
| Windows 8.1 Pro |
Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, as Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft developer, said . From version 10 onwards, there will only be upgrades as Microsoft plans to turn its operating system into WaaS (Windows as a Service).
But what does Windows as a Service mean and how does it differ from the old traditional Windows release model?
Windows as a service is actually a new approach to how updates are delivered to users, reports ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, noting that Microsoft is delivering different versions to each user.
Basically, Microsoft created subgroups of users who can download different operating system updates, based on their needs and the activities they perform on their computers.
Five years ago in 2015, Windows 10 seemed like a very interesting idea. What we all understand today is that it is a functional that is constantly upgraded, offering a lot of emotions to its friends, and not always positive. It is an operating system in progress.
Thus the Microsoft clientele was formed based on the needs of Windows as a Service. So we have two-speed customers, those who pay (Enterprise and Education versions) and those who do not pay (Home and Pro versions).
From the second category, the Pro version is somewhat more favorable (updates can be postponed for a while), but it continues to receive updates the way Home receives them.
The Windows 10 release model (intermittent updates) allows Microsoft to test its operating system first on Home and Pro users, detect telemetry issues, and do so.
If there are reports of more problems after installation a new patch is released to repair the system. Finally, when all goes well, he has the information in the Enterprise and Education editions.
The repeated patch updates that do not fix anything, the release of an operating system that deletes files , and the different use of Windows Update, have made many users reconsider the opinion they had about Windows since the Windows 7 era.
Windows 10 continues to be advertised and promoted by Microsoft as the best operating ever. With the help of telemetry the company creates and develops the future of an operating system and a world looking at the cloud, while the computer continues to be operated by the end user. The idea is amazing, maybe not so innovative, but it really excites, especially with the Microsoft ads that present it in its ideal form.
But Windows as a service so heavily advertised does not seem to satisfy everyone, especially those who have gone through the experimentation phase and want a stable system to work with.
Microsoft has transformed Windows from a big-bang-release model every three years to something like a big-bug-release every six months or less.
I will not compare Linux distributions that use a rolling update system because although they look alike, the philosophy is completely different.
But I could look back at an operating system developed by the same company, Windows 7.
Windows 7 survived the release of Windows 10 despite the aggressive practices used by Microsoft, and although the company had repeatedly announced that no one would be able to receive security updates after January 2020.
Why
Because updates to a new version (XP, VISTA, Windows 7) were developed for years . In the meantime, Service Packs were released, but even these were much more careful, without the telemetry that exists today.
Meanwhile, during the time that a new system needed to be developed, there were no huge differences in the hardware that was circulating.
A single operating system (Windows 10) that is constantly being developed using the same foundation and kernel will eventually encounter problems on older hardware. So far , only one category of computers has been incompatible with the Windows 10 upgrade: Some 2-in-1 computers from the Windows 8 era (2012-2014), running on Intel Clover Trail CPUs, were unable to install any feature updates after the July 2016 Anniversary Update.
In 2020, everything is moving at the speed of light, just like the Internet. What can not go hand in hand we throw away and take another. But I find it hard to believe that the speed of updates will sacrifice quality. Microsoft will probably have to rethink the system it has adopted, because as a dominant player in the market, its mistakes affect a lot of people.
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
