May 15, 2015

The Last Version of Windows

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Windows Logo

It’s official. Windows 10 will be the last, final, ultimate version of Windows. You’ll never see Windows 11 or Windows Optimus Prime or — even if Google’s immortality project is successful — Windows 3000.

From what I read here, Microsoft’s Windows 10 philosophy is that it will suffer the scourge of major updates but never a new version. The idea is brilliant.

Consider the conundrum of buying a new PC. Because PCs last longer than they once did (I remember long ago buying a new computer every 18 months), odds are good that your next PC sported a newer, more unusual version of Windows.

So you retired your old Windows 98 system and you were suddenly blessed with Windows Vista. O, those were happy times!

Under the Windows 10 update philosophy, say you get a new Windows 10 PC. Then 8 years down the road, you buy a replacement PC. If the theory holds, then both systems would be running the same operating system, same version/release/whatever.

That strategy sounds solid. It also removes Windows from the endless update cycle. And it should: An operating system isn’t really a big deal any more. As Apple has seen with its annual OS X updates, such a model isn’t sustainable. I’d rather have maintenance releases than a developer trying to foist Yet Another Way of doing something just to call it a new release.

Here’s what I see as the downside:

Hardware advances always keep pace several steps ahead of software. Even with the current, dull status of the PC industry, innovation still happens. To assume that systems in the future will offer the same architecture is presumptive. An operating system must adapt to such changes.

Granted, Windows 10 will supposedly have regular updates. I assume they would address things like new storage devices, copious amounts of memory, whacky new peripherals, malware, and such. Eventually, however, the architecture might need some dusting off. Again, a regular update could handle it, but what if the entire PC/desktop philosophy changes?

If Microsoft is smart (and please refrain from laughter), then perhaps their new Windows 10 model can handle such changes. I hope so. The alternative is bringing a new OS update to an unsuspecting user base. My guess is that such a move would be met with massive resistance, even more so than is seen now.

Bottom line, it looks like a good move. As someone who, thanks to my work, has adopted every new Windows release since Windows 2.0, I welcome the move.

2 Comments

  1. Mmmm…. I heard this and thought well that’s nice but how will it work…as hardware changes 16-32-64 bit the OS has to change to make use of it. Also in some of those changes it’s not just the busses get extra bits the way the bits are processed (big edian to little edian) change and change back extra ports come and go (Firewire) these all need to addressed by the OS its the interface that will stay the same(!) under that it will change as you say there could be a Linux style separate core and gui. I think the GUI will be updated just not at the same speed. I will be glad to get rid of Win 8, why didn’t they just keep Win7 as a model?
    Glenn

    Comment by glennp — May 15, 2015 @ 5:16 am

  2. The move also frees Microsoft from the imperative of having to re-think, rearrange, and re-design the interface every blasted time. They don’t need to present a new way of doing things just as an excuse for a new release. That’s awesome.

    Comment by admin — May 15, 2015 @ 5:53 am

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