End of mainstream Windows 7 support

T

the_servicer

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Mainstream support for Windows 7 will end roughly one year from now, in January 2015. I want to know whether this fact will influence (or has already influenced) your decision to stay with Windows 7 or not. Will you upgrade to Windows 8.1 within the next year just to stay current?
 
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fuck that, if they don't pull their head out with win 9 I will be migrating to linux
 
Best thing to do is to switch to a rolling Linux distro and never worry about end of lifetime operating systems.

Microsoft might be shooting itself in the foot with this, with so many not liking Windows 8, at least on the desktop.
 
I personally find nothing superior about Windows 8/8.1 over Windows 7, even with the half-assed attempt by Microsoft to make DX 11.2 (and probably future versions) 8/8.1 only.

The half-assed attempt with the start menu just solidified my skipping a generation. Despite the numerous third-party tools to alleviate that issue there is something I just dislike about it. The Explorer window just looks like a clusterfuck for no good reason.

Anywho, they aren't ending support for Windows 7 even if it was SP1 in 2015. Just isn't going to happen. I'd say 2017 would be the earliest serious attempt they could try with that.
 
Well, I guess shills must be anti inflammatory then, eh? If you like something, that is great, if you do not, that is fine as well. News flash, Operating Systems are not life and death contrary to how some may want to make it be.

Moving along, nothing here to see, these are not the androids you are looking for. :D
 
How many times did they have to delay Vista? And how many problems did Vista have when it was released?
 
I guess I just don't understand what the big deal is for most consumers? Microsoft is only stopping standard support in 2015. This includes improvements, and hotfixes... How many consumers, or businesses even, are asking for improvements or hotfixes to a fairly stable OS after 5 years? Sure, there will be a few instances where someone might require a hotfix a couple years from now, but that's a pretty rare occurance.

Microsoft will continue to provide security updates through the extended support, which doesn't expire until 2020... This is what most consumers want / need, so I don't see any reason to upgrade or move away just to stay "up to date" for at least a few more years.

If you're a business who still purchases PCs with Win7, or uses downgrade rights to install Win7; AND have a 4-5 year PC replacement cycle, then you probably should start looking at options for Windows 8 / 8.1 in the coming year.... But even then, there's no need to rush to upgrade existing systems...
 
jojo69 said:
fuck that, if they don't pull their head out with win 9 I will be migrating to linux
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LOL why wait that long? All you need windows for is gaming. And even that is changing rapidly.

I use a macbook pro for all my work and my music production and daily browsing. At home I use puppy linux for desktop stuff and win7 for games. I don't use the Win7 desktop for anything else except playing Steam/origin games. That way I don't even need an antivirus on it.
 
jpochedl said:
I guess I just don't understand what the big deal is for most consumers? Microsoft is only stopping standard support in 2015. This includes improvements, and hotfixes... How many consumers, or businesses even, are asking for improvements or hotfixes to a fairly stable OS after 5 years? Sure, there will be a few instances where someone might require a hotfix a couple years from now, but that's a pretty rare occurance.

Microsoft will continue to provide security updates through the extended support, which doesn't expire until 2020... This is what most consumers want / need, so I don't see any reason to upgrade or move away just to stay "up to date" for at least a few more years.

If you're a business who still purchases PCs with Win7, or uses downgrade rights to install Win7; AND have a 4-5 year PC replacement cycle, then you probably should start looking at options for Windows 8 / 8.1 in the coming year.... But even then, there's no need to rush to upgrade existing systems...
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A lot of the businesses I work with are waiting, hopefully, for windows 9.

There is absolutely no need to rush, with extended support ending in ~7 years. So hopefully MS gives them something to upgrade to with 9.
 
XOR != OR said:
A lot of the businesses I work with are waiting, hopefully, for windows 9.

There is absolutely no need to rush, with extended support ending in ~7 years. So hopefully MS gives them something to upgrade to with 9.
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Based on Microsoft's track record, they will. If they end up running into problems like they did with Vista, they will extend support like they did with XP.
 
B00nie said:
I don't use the Win7 desktop for anything else except playing Steam/origin games. That way I don't even need an antivirus on it.
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Does this computer connect to the internet without antivirus, or do you use it strictly offline?
 
Tsumi said:
How many times did they have to delay Vista? And how many problems did Vista have when it was released?
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the problem with vista upon release was a company called NVIDIA

since I ran and still do run ATi/AMD hardware, this was not a problem for me.

http://cybernetnews.com/nvidia-the-cause-of-vista-complaints/

The other problem is that A LOT OF MANUFACTURERS were lazy about writing Vista drivers and it bit them in the proverbial rear end.
 
Microsoft won't be able to end 7 support until they release a new desktop OS.

Even if 8 was worth using on the desktop they've already ruined the brand name. Vista was great by SP1 and nobody cared.
 
I've tried playing around with 8 on demo laptops at stores and I just don't like it. I'm not trying to be a 8 hater and have genuinely tried to like it because I like having the newest and best stuff usually (my CPU not withstanding) but I just do not like it.

However this news does make me kinda think I might go ahead and switch sooner than I thought .
 
Until recently I ran Vista Ultimate on one of my PCs. It felt bloated and clunky. Win 7 made it feel like an interim OS, part XP and part something else. Also, networking security was too restrictive. Pissed a lot of people off and turned them into Vista haters. MS still hasn't learned the lesson Vista tried to teach them.
 
jojo69 said:
fuck that, if they don't pull their head out with win 9 I will be migrating to linux
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I still hold the slimmest hope that MS will make a corporate edition of Windows that leaves out all the retarded tablet junk. It's going to be a very long time* before Windows 7 stops getting security updates, but my plan B is to move to OS X.

* over 6 more years of Windows 7 receiving security updates, but Win 7 will long be a second class citizen by then
Go47Tmm.png
 
Everybody saying that if things don't change you'll move to X platform: We all know you won't. If you were going do it, you'd have done it by now instead of complaining non-stop for the past year and a half. It's already been this long and Microsoft hasn't changed anything. But you can't put OS X on your gaming rig and you don't want to pay another $1,600 for Apple branded hardware just so you can switch to OS X. And you don't want to put up with the lack of commercial software and games for Linux. And in either case, you'd rather slap on a $3 start menu replacement so you can sit there and keep using Windows and pretend that people care about your whining than learn how to use a completely different ecosystem.

We all know the old UI isn't coming back. If you really are going to jump ship, you might as well do it now. Putting it off for another 6 years isn't going to do you any good if the end result is going to be you switching to something else anyways. So switch now if you're that displeased and get a 6 year head start.

Empty threats from a sliver of the market are meaningless, and Microsoft isn't going to take any notice. At least 90% of Windows users are still going to be Windows users when it's all said and done anyways.
 
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Dogs said:
Empty threats from a sliver of the market are meaningless, and Microsoft isn't going to take any notice.
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lol

The large majority of Windows license sales (closing in on 75%, due to consumers fleeing from the traditional Windows desktop/laptop market and the very tiny share Windows has in tablets) are in corporate/small business segments. That is exactly where Windows 8 is doing worst, with less than a 1% adoption rate. Windows 7 in the same time frame had a nearly 20% adoption rate. The largest change, a UI convergence between desktop and tablet, is the primary factor keeping businesses away from the Win 8 upgrade.

Arguably, MS needs to do something to attract corporate users to newer versions of Windows, and the stupid desktop/tablet convergence strategy is either something MS will swallow its pride over and release an OS without an unneeded tablet interface, or allow the XP-ization of Windows 7 as a 10+ year OS. MS, while still enviously profitable, is otherwise in a messy state of flux, where its strategy is still based on a delusion of aping Apple's consumer product successes (despite failure in every measurable way, for years), when its bread and butter revenues are stuck in things which are not Win8 or consumer devices-and-services related.

We'll see what the next MS CEO does, and whether Windows will improve after JLG's departure as the head of Windows.

I only expect to possibly benefit from MS waking up from its disastrous tablet convergence strategy, not to cause a change.

BTW, Windows has been steadily losing share for years. Windows sank below 90% market share almost 3 years ago, and it has continued dropping since. Those aren't empty threats of people leaving; people are really leaving. But I do LOL @ people who claim they're moving to Linux. Linux has had a very tiny amount of growth for the past 10 years (barely more than the market as a whole has grown) and Win 8 and a Linux Steam client did nothing to significantly increase it.
 
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pxc said:
lol

The large majority of Windows license sales (closing in on 75%, due to consumers fleeing from the traditional Windows desktop/laptop market and the very tiny share Windows has in tablets) are in corporate/small business segments. That is exactly where Windows 8 is doing worst, with less than a 1% adoption rate. Windows 7 in the same time frame had a nearly 20% adoption rate. The largest change, a UI convergence between desktop and tablet, is the primary factor keeping businesses away from the Win 8 upgrade.

Arguably, MS needs to do something to attract corporate users to newer versions of Windows, and the stupid desktop/tablet convergence strategy is either something MS will swallow its pride over and release an OS without an unneeded tablet interface, or allow the XP-ization of Windows 7 as a 10+ year OS. MS, while still enviously profitable, is otherwise in a messy state of flux, where its strategy is still based on a delusion of aping Apple's consumer product successes (despite failure in every measurable way, for years), when its bread and butter revenues are stuck in things which are not Win8 or consumer devices-and-services related.

We'll see what the next MS CEO does, and whether Windows will improve after JLG's departure as the head of Windows.

I only expect to possibly benefit from MS waking up from its disastrous tablet convergence strategy, not to cause a change.
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Personally I think it's more like that most companies can't afford to keep upgrading with every itineration of Windows, upgrades and training cost money. Windows 7 hit at good time as most were still on XP and skipped Vista so 7 was a hit there.

Funny thing is we kept hearing the same shit when Vista came out. Until something comes along to replace Windows in the corporate world then MS will always be there no matter what version they are running.
 
03grandam said:
Personally I think it's more like that most companies can't afford to keep upgrading with every itineration of Windows,
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Large system manufacturers make most of their money off corporate/small business sales. This is an ongoing process where new systems are purchased all year long, every year (yeah, I know there are quarters which have higher sales than others, but still many businesses purchase all year long).

It's not unusual to have a mix of systems, although the ability to order systems with a particular OS or downgrade rights can simplify administration. The jarring transition between METRO START SCREEN* and the classic desktop does make Win8 non-downgrade rights purchases less appealing for a mixed OS environments.

Historically, XP was integrated in businesses using NT4 and 2000 and 7 was integrated into businesses using XP, with the new systems running the current OS displacing most or all of the older OS systems (plus, sometimes licenses of older systems were upgraded instead). Windows 8 virtually halted that trend due to MS's really stupid convergence delusion. It's easily fixable, but whether MS decides to do so is unknown.

* I am reminded of ALL CAPS by MS's equally stupid UI guidelines, seen in such annoying places as VS2012's MENU BAR, which I'm completely thankful has not been replaced with an unusable "touch enabled" ribbon.

03grandam said:
Funny thing is we kept hearing the same shit when Vista came out.
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Vista is funny for a different reason: Vista did far better than 8 is doing after a year in corporate/small business. And Vista was considered a total failure for that market. :p

Consumers who didn't like Vista generally stuck with XP, and the same is happening with those who dislike 8 are staying with earlier Windows versions again.
 
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pxc said:
Large system manufacturers make most of their money off corporate/small business sales. This is an ongoing process where new systems are purchased all year long, every year (yeah, I know there are quarters which have higher sales than others, but still many businesses purchase all year long).

It's not unusual to have a mix of systems, although the ability to order systems with a particular OS or downgrade rights can simplify administration. The jarring transition between METRO START SCREEN* and the classic desktop does make Win8 non-downgrade rights purchases less appealing for a mixed OS environments.

Historically, XP was integrated in businesses using NT4 and 2000 and 7 was integrated into businesses using XP, with the new systems running the current OS displacing most or all of the older OS systems (plus, sometimes licenses of older systems were upgraded instead). Windows 8 virtually halted that trend due to MS's really stupid convergence delusion. It's easily fixable, but whether MS decides to do so is unknown.

* I am reminded of ALL CAPS by MS's equally stupid UI guidelines, seen in such annoying places as VS2012's MENU BAR, which I'm completely thankful has not been replaced with an unusable "touch enabled" ribbon.

Vista is funny for a different reason: Vista did far better than 8 is doing after a year in corporate/small business. And Vista was considered a total failure for that market. :p

Consumers who didn't like Vista generally stuck with XP, and the same is happening with those who dislike 8 are staying with earlier Windows versions again.
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I hear what your saying, I really do.:)

While the company I work for isn't as large as some of the ones others here work for, they are still on Xp with all of their machines. They had Vista and 7 setup on test machines but never migrated any of the floor machines over to either one. Cost was the biggest factor. Yes they buy a few, very few, machines every year to replace any failing ones but they seem to refuse to leave XP and I think it's at the fault of management and not the IT department.

As for consumers, well many people just don't feel like they have a need for anything more than a tablet or smartphone. Heck most only look at FB and YouTube or some other site and for them they don't need a desktop or laptop for any of that. Out of me and my 3 siblings I'm the only one who still used a desktop, they all use tablets and their smartphone. I know that's just my personal experience but I'm sure many others see similar things. I'm on 7 as I tired Windows 8 and had a program that didn't seem to work well on my machine and it did on 7. Installed my copy of 8 on a computer I fixed for 2 70 year old ladies and put classic shell on it and they couldn't be happier.
 
Dogs said:
Everybody saying that if things don't change you'll move to X platform: We all know you won't. If you were going do it, you'd have done it by now instead of complaining non-stop for the past year and a half. It's already been this long and Microsoft hasn't changed anything
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Other than firing Ballmer and reshuffling the entire company leadership... yeah, nothing has happened. :rolleyes:

We all know the old UI isn't coming back.
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How do we know that? Julie Larson-Green and her team are out. It's been leaked by supposedly reliable sources that Aero is coming back, though 'not in the way people might expect.' Whatever that means. The same source also claimed that RT would be killed off (which appears more and more likely). There haven't been any leaks to the contrary.

The desktop has been overshadowed by the explosive rise of mobile devices, but but it's still massive. Microsoft cannot afford to decline in that so called 'sliver of the market.' Windows 8 sales have been terrible. The situation is so bad that hardware companies and analysts are actually saying Windows 8 depressed sales even further than they would have been otherwise. Microsoft is in the business to make money, they're clearly adjusting their strategy. What they end up doing we can only guess.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
The situation is so bad that hardware companies and analysts are actually saying Windows 8 depressed sales even further than they would have been otherwise.
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I don't think many are saying that now in light of the fact that Mac sales in the last year have decline almost the same as PC sales overall.

DeathFromBelow said:
Microsoft is in the business to make money, they're clearly adjusting their strategy. What they end up doing we can only guess.
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I don't really think at this point they are adjusting their strategy as much as executing and defining it better along with their OEMs. Last year a huge problem for Windows 8 touch devices from laptops to tablets was price and availability. That's not a problem this year as some lower end Windows 8 tablets are now even lower in price than many iOS and Android devices. As far as Windows 8 sales being terrible, no other desktop OS is coming close Windows 8.1's growth. The latest numbers from StatCounter have a .14% drop in Windows 8 and a .7% increase in 8.1 from October to November for an overall growth rate of .6% for 8.x from October to November which is much better than anything else out there.
 
pxc said:
The large majority of Windows license sales (closing in on 75%, due to consumers fleeing from the traditional Windows desktop/laptop market and the very tiny share Windows has in tablets) are in corporate/small business segments. That is exactly where Windows 8 is doing worst, with less than a 1% adoption rate.
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And as literally any credible professional knows, businesses have finite budgets and wouldn't have upgraded to Windows 8 regardless of anything in the world. Mirgrating complex systems from one operating system to another costs a lot of time and a lot of money, and most companies can't afford to keep up even with a very long release cycle. Plenty of places are still wrapping up their migration to Windows 7 and Windows 7 is how many years old? Trying to pass business adoption rates off as an argument against Windows 8 is a fools tactic and only demonstrates your lack of understanding of the topic.

Sorry, but you better start saving up for your Mac.

DeathFromBelow said:
How do we know that? Julie Larson-Green and her team are out. It's been leaked by supposedly reliable sources that Aero is coming back, though 'not in the way people might expect.' Whatever that means. The same source also claimed that RT would be killed off (which appears more and more likely). There haven't been any leaks to the contrary.
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There are no credible sources which say that. Only rumors, speculation and gross misinterpretations of out of context press release quotes.

DeathFromBelow said:
The desktop has been overshadowed by the explosive rise of mobile devices, but but it's still massive. Microsoft cannot afford to decline in that so called 'sliver of the market.'
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Did you not read? Nowhere did I state that the entire desktop market as a whole is a sliver of the market. The sliver of the market is the people threatening to switch, and Microsoft doesn't care about those people whatsoever.

DeathFromBelow said:
The situation is so bad that hardware companies and analysts are actually saying Windows 8 depressed sales even further than they would have been otherwise.
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Which ones? Care to link to them? Because I haven't seen a particularly competent and credible analyst say such things; Only sensationalist, headline-driven bottom of the barrel journalists have been saying things like that.

Analysts who have been looking at the actual numbers have had other things to say.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/wind...nes-amid-shrinking-pc-sales-apple-get-whacked

Even pessimistic articles from Windows 8's early days have had silver linings about the impact Windows 8 has had on sales.
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/...f-to-a-slow-start-according-to-the-npd-group/

The objective, factually rooted statement is that Windows 8 couldn't save the already sinking x86 market that was already on a downhill slope since before Windows 8 could have had anything to do with it, not that Windows 8 is the cause of poor sales.
 
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Dogs must work for MS or he's the worst fanboi I've ever seen lol.
 
B00nie said:
Dogs must work for MS or he's the worst fanboi I've ever seen lol.
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If I posted in the same fashion you do (completely irrational, unsupported statements about how everything sucks), that might be a reasonable conclusion. But, my statements are based on numbers and economics, not fanboyism.

...And no, I do not work for Microsoft. Though the company I do work for does at least exist and isn't a made up vehicle for talking about why people should through IT security out the window.
 
We are in the process of moving all our machines to Win 7.

Doubt Win 8 will see the light of day for us.
 
CaffeineMan said:
10 bucks say they extend it.
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I doubt it. I really do.

As it gets closer to the end of extended support and people are still clinging to 7, I could see them putting out a 7-like gui clone on whatever the latest build is and calling it "Business Edition" ( if not sooner ). But they won't break their support cycles.

And before anyone argues with me, remember it was me that said that the "boot to desktop" option would be back by 9. And, at the time, I was mocked and argued with.
 
XOR != OR said:
I doubt it. I really do.

As it gets closer to the end of extended support and people are still clinging to 7, I could see them putting out a 7-like gui clone on whatever the latest build is and calling it "Business Edition" ( if not sooner ). But they won't break their support cycles.

And before anyone argues with me, remember it was me that said that the "boot to desktop" option would be back by 9. And, at the time, I was mocked and argued with.
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Agreed. The only way that is happening is if they majorly screw up the 9 and 10 release. They don't want another Vista happening, and no, Windows 8 is nowhere close to Vista in terms of actual problems.
 
XOR != OR said:
A lot of the businesses I work with are waiting, hopefully, for windows 9.

There is absolutely no need to rush, with extended support ending in ~7 years. So hopefully MS gives them something to upgrade to with 9.
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We aren't even looking at 8 at this point. We plan on killing our last 4-6 XP boxes at the support end date next year. I could see Win 7 support clear to 2020 or beyond. It really depends on what they bring in 9. But I agree with you there is no need to rush or even really concern with at this point, support will be around for a long time.

03grandam said:
Personally I think it's more like that most companies can't afford to keep upgrading with every itineration of Windows, upgrades and training cost money. Windows 7 hit at good time as most were still on XP and skipped Vista so 7 was a hit there.

Funny thing is we kept hearing the same shit when Vista came out. Until something comes along to replace Windows in the corporate world then MS will always be there no matter what version they are running.
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True statement.
 
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