Windows 8, 8.1 & 10 versus Windows 7

paulsalter · 07 Jul 2015

BunnyJ said:

I don't think that will occur. But I could be wrong. It would be bad if MS did allow that to happen.

Agree, at some point I can see major updates to the OS stop being installed if the H/W cannot handle them (at which point it would stay as it is)
but security updates should continue for the life of the machine

BunnyJ · 07 Jul 2015

paulsalter said:

Agree, at some point I can see major updates to the OS stop being installed if the H/W cannot handle them (at which point it would stay as it is)
but security updates should continue for the life of the machine

You could be right.. but it would be suicide if MS did do that. They have to support hardware that used Win7.

paulsalter · 07 Jul 2015

BunnyJ said:

You could be right.. but it would be suicide if MS did do that. They have to support hardware that used Win7.

wouldn't that stop advancements in features?

not sure what the lowest spec machine is for win 7, but if win 10 has to fully support this then nothing is going to improve/advance along with features
10 will still work on the older hardware, but after so long newer features will not be available or possibly not upgradable

pure speculation anyway at this point, so a while before we know what will happen

BunnyJ · 07 Jul 2015

paulsalter said:

wouldn't that stop advancements in features?

not sure what the lowest spec machine is for win 7, but if win 10 has to fully support this then nothing is going to improve/advance along with features
10 will still work on the older hardware, but after so long newer features will not be available or possibly not upgradable

pure speculation anyway at this point, so a while before we know what will happen

Not sure either.. But luring people who use Win7 to Win10 and then change the hardware requirements would be.. well stupid. IMO But MS did that with Win8/Win8.1 so I could very well be wrong on this,.

Personally I got a new PC just so I could use Win10 properly.. my previous PC couldn't run Win8 due to chip set issues.

Lee · 07 Jul 2015

If you are going to hold onto a computer past ten years then you should expect to start having problems with an OS. Apple did it with one of their upgrades to OS X several years ago. This upset quite a few users, albeit Apple stuck to their guns, and did not change the OS for the older systems. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and upgrade or just live with what you have. . .:)

iWindows · 07 Jul 2015

HippsieGypsie said:

10 is indeed the last OS, just as MS has stated. I'll have to disagree that it'll take 10 years to stablize it. That'll be accomplished within the first year or less, especially with the Insider program being extended.

I have seen this mentioned frequently on this thread (that Windows 10 is going to be the last Windows operating system). Would it be possible to provide a source from which you ascertained this information? An article by a Forbes contributor contradicts this notion and states that Windows 10 is going to be the "last numbered version" of Windows. According to the article, Microsoft intend to supersede Windows 10 with a product simply entitled "Windows", which will no longer be a purchasable product; it will probably be a subscription service like Office 365. Here is the aforementioned Forbes page: 'Free' Windows 10 Has High Cost To Windows 7 And Windows 8 Users - Forbes

bobkn · 07 Jul 2015

Windows said:

I have seen this mentioned frequently on this thread (that Windows 10 is going to be the last Windows operating system). Would it be possible to provide a source from which you ascertained this information? An article by a Forbes contributor contradicts this notion and states that Windows 10 is going to be the "last numbered version" of Windows. According to the article, Microsoft intend to supersede Windows 10 with a product simply entitled "Windows", which will no longer be a purchasable product; it will probably be a subscription service like Office 365. Here is the aforementioned Forbes page: 'Free' Windows 10 Has High Cost To Windows 7 And Windows 8 Users - Forbes

It's an interesting article, but it's mostly speculation. The title is not justified in terms of factual content.

groze · 07 Jul 2015

Lee said:

If you are going to hold onto a computer past ten years then you should expect to start having problems with an OS. Apple did it with one of their upgrades to OS X several years ago. This upset quite a few users, albeit Apple stuck to their guns, and did not change the OS for the older systems. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and upgrade or just live with what you have. . .:)

Hmm, Interesting that I still have an old windows 98se system that still works without issue and uses clamwin (Old version) as a virus protection. My point is there nothing wrong with my windows 98se operating system. I am not talking about parts, just the operating system. I do need a few parts, network card do to a electrical surge, CD/DVD being warn out it still works some. I could use a hard drive because it also warn out but it still keeps on running.

CountMike · 07 Jul 2015

As long as it's physically sound it will run anything from that era but don't expect anything new to run on it. I have repaired and maintain an 386 Sx 16 for a friend, and it's still used as controls for industrial band saw. It has windows 3.11 on it but nobody's expecting it to run 64 bit programs or to go to internet. It would be just too unrealistic to expect W 10 to work on it. A computer is not only HW but OS and SW, any of those missing and it's a door stop.
For OS to go a generation of HW back, OK but anything older than that would just drag down newer stuff. Why should I be expected to pay for somebody else to be able to run some museum belonging computer with newest OS.

Mystere · 07 Jul 2015

groze said:

Hmm, Interesting that I still have an old windows 98se system that still works without issue and uses clamwin (Old version) as a virus protection. My point is there nothing wrong with my windows 98se operating system. I am not talking about parts, just the operating system. I do need a few parts, network card do to a electrical surge, CD/DVD being warn out it still works some. I could use a hard drive because it also warn out but it still keeps on running.

I would disagree. There's MUCH that's wrong with Windows 98se. Although, it was probably the best version of Windows 9x. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many large apps that would run on it though. You can't (for example) run a recent version of Office on it. You probably can't run a recent version of Photoshop, or even iTunes on it. I doubt a recent version of Firefox would work, and Chrome is right out.