Microsoft warns enterprises to upgrade to Windows 10 or be left behind

Yeah, I would also

but the Microsoft blog post https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexp...on-innovation/ bears the name of Executive VP Terry Myerson

so I stopped

and paid attention

Who cares if MS quits supporting an OS. If my accounting departments XP computers still do what they need to do why should I spend the money. Security isn't an issue because they can't get to the internet, they can still calculate spread sheets, run the accounting software, write letters, get to each others files without dealing with security crap and do it as fast as they can type.

MS is using strong arm and marketing tactics simply to increase sales and the bottom line. I chose not to participate as long as what we have works and can do the job.

Just read the blog post in the above link. The first two paragraphs contain so much BS I almost puked.
Microsoft all but forces computer manufactures to install whatever MS's latest OS is, they are not given many options.
"Working on collaborative engineering." = What can we do to make everyone believe they need new hardware and Windows 10.
"unprecedented demand from our enterprise customers." Ya right, not from many of the corporations I do business with. Most are staying with Windows 7.

BReeves said:

Just read the blog post in the above link. The first two paragraphs contain so much BS I almost puked..

It isn't THAT important.

It is interesting (I think) but if it makes you feel physically ill perhaps you should chill-out and go for a walk or something. Get some fresh air.

FrozenCursor said:

You don't care about security updates either?

Windows 7 ENT MUST be supported until at least April of 2020 per the contract we signed for our enterprise agreement. That means full security updates from now until 2020. And then we can buy more support after that if we so choose.

At the enterprise level - things are vastly different than the consumer level. With the amount of money we spent with MS - they are happy to bow to any little whim at any time.

And Windows 10 is not part of those whims for several years yet. Like XP - I suspect we will switch to Win 10 (or whatever is the latest) just before "official" support ends in 2020. That makes the best financial sense for us.

There is no advantage (with the type of work we do) to move to Windows 10 for any reason in the next 5 years.

Finally - regarding "support" in that manifesto - the way I read it - it's support for the chip set specifically (Skylake) - and has nothing to do with security.

The funny part about that post is that Skylake will be another underpowered memory by mid 2017 - everyone will be on the something else by then.

Sonic.

The announcements in the blog post are quite important, especially for businesses.

For example, If a business bought non-supported Skylake silicon today, and for business continuity reasons wipes it back to Windows 7, then they will not get Windows updates, although today is still 4 years until January 2020. Microsoft has essentially renegotiated (and limited) its original commitment to support Windows 7 until January 2020.

There are still Broadcom and similar old silicon around today. If you wipe the OS on it back to Windows 7, then you will get the original Microsoft commitment of support until January 2020. (Microsoft's criteria for getting support or not is based on old or new silicon, BTW, and not on high-end or low-end silicon)

Moreover, the blog post announcements may boost repair business for old silicon with Windows 7 on it until 2020, and to a lesser extent until 2023 to repair old silicon with Windows 8.1 on it.

If a business (or a Windows 7/8.1 enthusiast for that matter) does not heed the important blog post announcements then it could stumble on a planning snag and lose $$$.

SonicMojo said:

Windows 7 ENT MUST be supported until at least April of 2020 per the contract we signed for our enterprise agreement. That means full security updates from now until 2020. And then we can buy more support after that if we so choose.

OK, special contract for $$$, money talks. I still think that you could save $$ if you follow MS' roadmap more closely as you would pay for less exceptions.

FrozenCursor said:

OK, special contract for $$$, money talks. I still think that you could save $$ if you follow MS' roadmap more closely as you would pay for less exceptions.

We are never concerned about what MS has planned. We only care about our plans. Long view - The "exceptions" always cost much less than going full bore into a complete upgrade cycle (for both OS and hardware).

$$$ is all that matters when it comes to upgrading any decent size enterprise. That can range into the millions for a switch to a new OS (and espeically if hardware is involved). But over here - a laptop purchased a month ago will easily see use for 3-5 years - so we are not concerned with not being able to run Windows 7. Or abut Skylake either.

Despite the BS that MS is shovelling with this report - I am fairly certain that we will be able to buy a business grade laptop in 2018 and stick Windows 7 on it with little to no concern about "support". Since our enterprise agreement has a full compliment of "downgrade" rights - MS has to support our hardware choices regardless of what we intent to run. Downgrade rights have been standard for years in these ENT agreements.

Jeez - some oil and gas companies here in town continue to run their primary business on Windows XP - they pay for security updates via their ENT agreements. So it's totally possible to stay put for a long long time if one needs to.

Overall tho - I can almost guarantee our IT department is not suddenly going to drop millions to switch the entire company over to Windows 10 before 2017 just because Microsoft needs to make some "numbers" in some fancy graph next year - due to over-promising their "Win 10 on a billion" desktops crap.

Sonic

machare said:

I would have thought that the Windows 10 strategy of continual updates would be unsatisfactory for business users whose primary need is for a consistent stable platform.

Continuous updates are only for the consumer versions of Win10--the corporate versions are completely different--on an entirely different, separate update channel, even.

I actually didn't see anything in the Microsoft blog "warning enterprise" of anything...not a single word... It's yet another liberty with the truth taken by a website hoping to get hits with an inflammatory article. Besides, if Intel and AMD so choose, they'll write drivers for earlier OSes for earlier versions of Windows and Microsoft cannot stop them.

What Microsoft is actually talking about here are "devices"--not PCs--that will be supported by "Win10" but not by any other Microsoft OS. That is already true. People are not reading what Microsoft says, actually, and are reading a lot of other stuff into what they say that they never actually said. Yawn...business as usual.