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When Microsoft introduced Windows 10 and its "Windows as a Service" model, the company promised Windows users a steady stream of updates to their machines. The days of being stuck on an old version of Windows would be forgotten; once you were on Windows 10, you'd have access to the latest and greatest forever. But that support came with a small footnote: you'd only receive updates for the "supported lifetime of the device" that you were using Windows 10 on.
The old system of Windows development, with substantial paid upgrades every three years or so, had many problems. Not least among those problems was how many people opted to stick with older versions of Windows, which was bad for both system security (old Windows has fewer security protections than new Windows) and software developers (old Windows APIs have wider market share than better, newer ones) alike. But the old system did afford a certain advantage when it came to hardware support: each new release of Windows represented an opportunity to revise the system specs that Windows demanded. A new major version of Windows could demand more memory, certain processor features, or a particular amount of disk space.
Moreover, if a given version of Windows worked on your hardware, you'd be assured that it would continue to receive security updates for a set period of time, thanks to the 5+5 support policy that Windows had: five years of security and feature updates, followed by five years of security-only updates. Exactly how many years of updates you'd get would, of course, depend on how far through that ten-year cycle your purchase was made, but at least the end date was predictable and known ahead of time.
Windows 10, however, doesn't follow that policy in general (there are enterprise-only versions with long-term support that do stick with the 5+5 policy). Instead, Windows 10 offers security and feature updates forever... subject to that ill-defined "supported lifetime" constraint.
It now appears that the first victims of that policy may have materialized.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:11PM (2 children)
they are on a mission to end this product line.
The folks in charge are either bored or clueless, or more likely both.
The funny thing is that the original fear of M was to not follow this path after having seem IBM do it.
Next step for IBM was we'll do anything that makes money, then find a new business model.
I guess hunger cures being bored.
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:30PM (1 child)
Even Microsoft themselves distribute Linux (Ubunto) now so Win10 evicting your machine should not be necessarily a bad change. Not to mention the even better distros out there.
Gaming will be a problem untill most of the folks get there and Big Games start releasing also for Linux. If I am forced to switch I guess I'd stick to indie and 1990 WinE games. Hmm, also Eve Online, FTL, Prison Architect, Minecraft, DF... well...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:43PM
FTFY.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:27PM (3 children)
Clarence Worley: Eliot, do I look like a beautiful blonde with big tits and an ass that tastes like French vanilla ice cream?
Elliot: What?
Clarence Worley: I said do I look like a beautiful blonde with big big tits and an ass that tastes like French vanilla ice cream?
Elliot: No.
Clarence Worley: No. Okay, then why are you telling me all this bullshit, huh? You wanna fuck me?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by edIII on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:29PM (2 children)
I learned something surprising today. Apparently a beautiful blonde with big tits and an ass that tastes like French vanilla ice cream can be offtopic....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:35PM
I think it depends on if you find the topic appealing or not.
Often, those resentful of such things will find reason to change the topic to something more appropriate, like religion or overdue library book fees.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Gaaark on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:46AM
Well it is, unless her ass tastes like Lactose Free French vanilla ice cream.... then we can talk!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:37PM
So, anybody want to make some bets? I'm betting that there are probably enough cisfemales that will be affected by this that it'll become part of the misogynerd narrative. Feminism will say, those evil men and bathroom rapists (latter is me!) are locking womyn-born-womyn out of computing!
I also have it on good word from various feminists that installing Linux or a BSD is not something a womyn-born-womyn can do, because that conspiracy of 3.5 billion people on the planet that don't think womyn-born-womyn should be programmers have made Linux too technical and unusable by cisfemales.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:53PM (4 children)
I can't believe how incredibly dumb this all is. It used to be a distinct version number or name was intended to communicate a level of support. "This will run under Windows 98SE, but not Windows 2000" usually made sense because vendors advertised the versions and there were only a few to choose from. But now, we are going to be left discussing which build is supported for what. "This is supported under Windows 10 build 13,845,523-13,858,329" or whatever. Brilliant.
And some people are going to be in for a bad surprise. They wake up one morning and Windows 10 tells them they are no longer supported and have to buy a new computer. Oh, sure Microsoft had a support bulletin. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.
In comparison, it used to be people could simply look at the badge on their computer and know they needed to get the hell off of Windows ME.
But, you know, we can't have things that make sense any more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:13PM (2 children)
WTF is "Creators Update" anyway? Are the creators of Windows providing this update? Is MS getting religion? Is it an update for creative-types only?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tekk on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)
It's the 'creator's update' because they added paint, but for 3D modelling. Looking at how bundled games went, this means that MS will soon be spinning off Paint as a $9.99 add-on package in the Windows Store.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @11:58PM
You called it. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by WillR on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:57PM
It'll *probably* even be more than 5 years after the last one, unless you did something silly like buy an Intel Atom system. And after 5 years, a computer will be practically worn-out anyway, all the computons inside will be used up, the flash memory will barely flicker, the floating multiply accumulators will be so full of accumulated vectors they're about to sink... don't worry about the details, just bin it (responsibly!) and buy another one.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SDRefugee on Tuesday July 18 2017, @01:54PM (9 children)
It never ceases to amaze me just how much abuse people will put up with from Microsoft. If we had a functioning justice department Microsoft would have been slapped silly for the crap they pulled rolling out Windows 10, AND the abusive spyware aspects of it. But no, its business as usual with them. All I can say is I'm so damn glad I quit the MS ecosystem when I retired, after 20 years of supporting MS products as a sysadmin. Now my computers are soo much more MY computers..... Just sayin'
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @02:15PM
since they've been off the chain the rabid portions of them seem to be kicking in again.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @05:24PM (3 children)
Are the exact people who are supposed to be 'working in their constituents interest' and outlawing things like mandatory telemetry. But since this telemetry can also be used by law enforcement, and since law enforcement ensures they have the finest hookers to have sucked a cops' dick/licked a cops' pussy (or y'know, just those embarrassing arrest records which were SUPPOSED to be have been purged..) big government is pulling a fast one on the little guy and letting this slide, because what is good for big business is good for big authority, and what is good for big authority is good for big politician.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:38PM (2 children)
A while back I had the idea that I could black hole web bugs with my /etc/hosts file:
google analytics.com 127.0.0.1
Safari used to have an Activity window that would display every URL on the page, as well as how big it is. I found lots of gifs that were 43 bytes. If the size didn't make it obvious then the domain did the trick:
hosted-pixel.we-are.evil
The very worst offenders were the websites of political campaigns. For some reason they felt the need to use dozens of distinctly different analytics services.
Had I maintained my hosts file I planned to distribute it just so I could make such analytics result in bogus results.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @11:03PM
Damn shame windows 10 does not honor it. When the software that drives your computer is lying to you it is time to find a new OS
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @07:22AM
You may like Privacy Badger [eff.org]. It automatically blocks high-entropy cookies that seem to follow you around the web.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:48PM (2 children)
First, I just want to comment about the very sad state of this site: your is the only substantive top-level comment here, and one of only maybe 3 substantive comments total (the other two are replies to yours). The rest are all just troll garbage. Is this site going down the tubes?
Anyway, we don't need a functioning justice department for this. Microsoft is not a monopoly now; MacOSX, iOS, Android, and Linux prevent it from being one. If you don't like Windows 10 and its spyware features, then don't use it. There's no shortage of alternatives these days, and unlike back around 2000 when a lot of website wouldn't work right without IE, no website now requires IE or MS software at all. If you're locked into Windows, that's your own dumb choice.
Personally, I'd like to see MS stretch their muscles more and jack up their license prices greatly. There's tons of room there for them to boost their profits by draining their customers' accounts, since their customers absolutely refuse to leave, and they really should take advantage of that.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:56AM (1 child)
Except they do still act like a monopoly (and are ALLOWED to act like a monopoly): there was a computer place near me where you could buy a computer without an operating system. Then they got visited and now it's got a mandatory windows system on it.
Trying to find systems without a windows on it is harder.
My daughter went to college: and was told to use MS office and was purposefully given shite with macros, etc, that (at that time) openoffice had trouble with when this shite weren't really necessary, just to try to push MS products from the school.
Wasn't it Munich that was heading away from MS: then they get a Head Office built there, they spread money around and now they are heading back to MS?
They DO have a basic monopoly in a lot of places (business, schools, games) and they have OOOOODLES of cash in the bank.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:34AM
xcept they do still act like a monopoly (and are ALLOWED to act like a monopoly):
Every company that isn't a monopoly would do this if they didn't think customers would mind. There's no law against acting like a monopoly, you just can't use monopoly power if you actually have it.
there was a computer place near me where you could buy a computer without an operating system. Then they got visited and now it's got a mandatory windows system on it.
There's no legal requirement for them to do so.
My daughter went to college: and was told to use MS office and was purposefully given shite with macros
There's nothing requiring places like that to do so. They do so voluntarily. Pick a better school; that one is obviously shite. Any decent school will let you use Google Docs or LibreOffice.
and they have OOOOODLES of cash in the bank.
So does Apple (quite a bit more than MS, in fact), and no one's complaining about them being a monopoly (because they aren't).
It's simple: stop buying their shit. Especially for games; that's just stupid. Games are a luxury; you don't need them.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Goghit on Wednesday July 19 2017, @12:29AM
It took me a few months after retiring to realize that my paycheck no longer required the use of Microsoft products. Still working out a few bugs with unsupported programs, but damn, does it feel good!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @02:13PM (4 children)
VAGINA LINUX!
Coming soon for all females and males who wish they were females and males who are now females. For females.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @02:34PM
Does it ship with systemd?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 18 2017, @03:30PM (2 children)
Well, Gentoo works fine for me, but I'm not a womyn-born-womyn. You forget that “males who wish they were females and males who are now females” are also part of the grand conspiracy of 3.6 billion people (I've just received a new membership total from the Grand Misogynerd Poobah) to keep womyn-born-womyn out of tech careers, so as far as I can tell Linux works very well for that demographic already.
In fact, if you cater to that demographic, then you're not going to be able to create a Linux distribution for womyn-born-womyn. At the very least, you won't get feminism's stamp of approval that way. You should also name it something like Womb Linux or Goddess Linux, since woman suits can now include vaginas. I'm sure feminism will move the goalposts once it becomes possible for trans women to become pregnant. Why not Vagina Linux? It's because there are so many advanced infiltrator bathroom rapists running around that vaginas no longer matter. Review both of Sarah Connor's rants (see T2 for the generic criticism of people born without a womb, unless they have cisgendered privilege as a woman of course, and a TSCC episode for criticisms leveled against trans women specifically), and that will help you understand why it needs to be Womb Linux. (That character's rants don't touch all of the concerns feminists raise, particularly missing the infiltration as an agent of the patriarchy aspect iirc, but that character captures the basic bigotries feminists display.)
And to address sibling post, it should come with systemd and NetworkManager, because womyn-born-womyn—and again I have this on authority from various feminists—, being superior, complete beings, would never hate handicapped people. It's not the fault of handicapped people they were born without certain body parts or the ability to do certain things. Feminism just believes all cisfemales have a prerogative to hate people who were born without a womb and aren't able to grow a child in their bodies.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 18 2017, @07:12PM (1 child)
Having a bad day, kurenai?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:56PM
Naah. Just wondering what the next iteration of the misogynerd narrative is going to look like. It would be nice to get out ahead of it if this is an iteration with consequences for me personally. Sometimes it isn't.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday July 18 2017, @10:41PM (1 child)
It's interesting that the issue might be GPU related. Not sure why Microsoft would be on the hook for maintaining 3rd party GPU drivers? Makes me think that Intel and Microsoft had a deal back in 2012 for windows 8.
After further research, it looks like the Intel Atom Z2760 is a 32bit cpu. Maybe that is why?
Found a nice snippet on Intel that points back to an Intel & Microsoft arrangement on drivers: "*Intel Atom® Processors (codename Bay Trail) are supported for Windows® 10 32-bit platform with the existing drivers that were delivered for Windows 8.1*. Intel plans to certify Windows 8.1* drivers for the Windows® 10 64-bit platform only."
Could be Intel is to blame here and not Microsoft?
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000006105.html [intel.com]
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/Intel-Atom%20Z2760%20-%20DG8065001313500.html [cpu-world.com]
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @07:54AM
They did. This is the CPU that was specifically supported only on Windows 8+, unlike other Intel CPU's, it had no Linux drivers.
Yet another reason to stick with open standards. If you pick the Microsoft "standard" - this, PlaysForSure,... you are going to get shafted. Even if you never plan on running anything but Windows, if you stick with stuff that is supported by other systems, 1) you have an alternative if Microsoft decides to end support, and 2) Microsoft probably won't end support prematurely, because of 1.