Could Windows 10 Be the Last Stand-Alone Windows Release?

alphanumeric said:

But what if somebody decides they don't want a particular update? Say it changes the UI in a way you don't like? If it's optional that's all well and good. But if its not, and you have to apply it to get any further updates/patches, what then? Right now you have people that like 8.1 but don't like 10. If 10 is going to morph into another OS and another OS, at some point there will be some that don't like the changes. Even if they are free.

I never really though of that. When I buy an operating system I expect it remain how it looks for as long as I own the computer.

groze said:

waltc said:

The clincher? Win10 will be the last Windows OS version folks will need to install for the lifetime of the device/OEM PC they buy (which I take to mean "according to manufacturer's support duration.") For people who build their own machines, who are constantly buying new peripherals and components in a never-ending hardware upgrade cycle, it would appear that Win10 will provide them with the most current version of Windows in perpetuity, since some/most of their hardware will always be supported by the manufacturer (especially motherboards.)

Waltc. I am not sure I understand you correctly. I don't really see how that is going to work (Highlighted in bold). Most computers have a year warranty, some only have 90 days, others have 30 days and some independent computers shops have no warranty at all. The main reason computers and devices can last for years. My windows 7 computer is out of warranty now. I had it for a whole year.

I take it to mean manufactures hardware driver support ,not warrantee

groze said:

alphanumeric said:

But what if somebody decides they don't want a particular update? Say it changes the UI in a way you don't like? If it's optional that's all well and good. But if its not, and you have to apply it to get any further updates/patches, what then? Right now you have people that like 8.1 but don't like 10. If 10 is going to morph into another OS and another OS, at some point there will be some that don't like the changes. Even if they are free.

I never really though of that. When I buy an operating system I expect it remain how it looks for as long as I own the computer.

it will likely look the same for the most part ,just with added features

caperjack said:

groze said:

waltc said:

The clincher? Win10 will be the last Windows OS version folks will need to install for the lifetime of the device/OEM PC they buy (which I take to mean "according to manufacturer's support duration.") For people who build their own machines, who are constantly buying new peripherals and components in a never-ending hardware upgrade cycle, it would appear that Win10 will provide them with the most current version of Windows in perpetuity, since some/most of their hardware will always be supported by the manufacturer (especially motherboards.)

Waltc. I am not sure I understand you correctly. I don't really see how that is going to work (Highlighted in bold). Most computers have a year warranty, some only have 90 days, others have 30 days and some independent computers shops have no warranty at all. The main reason computers and devices can last for years. My windows 7 computer is out of warranty now. I had it for a whole year.

I take it to mean manufactures hardware driver support ,not warrantee

Thank you for the clarification :)

groze said:

Waltc. I am not sure I understand you correctly. I don't really see how that is going to work (Highlighted in bold). Most computers have a year warranty, some only have 90 days, others have 30 days and some independent computers shops have no warranty at all. The main reason computers and devices can last for years. My windows 7 computer is out of warranty now. I had it for a whole year.

Someone else beat me to it...but "life of the device" has nothing to do with manufacturer's warranty... It's rather how long the manufacturer supports the device with software and/or driver updates. Generally speaking, the "life of the device" should therefore be of a longer duration than the system warranty. But not necessarily--for instance, Samsung just shipped a 1TB SSD with a *ten-year* standard factory warranty. In 3-4 years or even sooner it would not surprise me to see that device EOL'ed by the manufacturer, with no future updates, even though the devices sold to date remain well within their warranty periods. Ultimately, it will be Microsoft who decides what "lifetime of the device" is, and I imagine they'll do so on a case-by-case basis. Or, maybe they'll use some other measure, we'll see.

Remember the "buy your Win7 machine now, get a coupon good for free Win8" days? IMO, that sort of thing is now history. Everything is going to change, but so far, it all looks like it's dramatically slanted towards the consumer.

alphanumeric said:

But what if somebody decides they don't want a particular update? Say it changes the UI in a way you don't like? If it's optional that's all well and good. But if its not, and you have to apply it to get any further updates/patches, what then? Right now you have people that like 8.1 but don't like 10. If 10 is going to morph into another OS and another OS, at some point there will be some that don't like the changes. Even if they are free.

Unless Microsoft makes changes to WU, that's not going to be a problem, as you can already pick and choose what updates to apply, and even uninstall them individually if the need/desire arises. I don't foresee forced updates. Win8.1 has at least another decade of update support, so if you don't like/want Win10, you don't have to use it. 8.1 will continue to update as usual, imo. Win7 still has another five years to go...

waltc said:

groze said:

Waltc. I am not sure I understand you correctly. I don't really see how that is going to work (Highlighted in bold). Most computers have a year warranty, some only have 90 days, others have 30 days and some independent computers shops have no warranty at all. The main reason computers and devices can last for years. My windows 7 computer is out of warranty now. I had it for a whole year.

Someone else beat me to it...but "life of the device" has nothing to do with manufacturer's warranty... It's rather how long the manufacturer supports the device with software and/or driver updates. Generally speaking, the "life of the device" should therefore be of a longer duration than the system warranty. But not necessarily--for instance, Samsung just shipped a 1TB SSD with a *ten-year* standard factory warranty. In 3-4 years or even sooner it would not surprise me to see that device EOL'ed by the manufacturer, with no future updates, even though the devices sold to date remain well within their warranty periods. Ultimately, it will be Microsoft who decides what "lifetime of the device" is, and I imagine they'll do so on a case-by-case basis. Or, maybe they'll use some other measure, we'll see.

Remember the "buy your Win7 machine now, get a coupon good for free Win8" days? IMO, that sort of thing is now history. Everything is going to change, but so far, it all looks like it's dramatically slanted towards the consumer.

Waltc or anyone else
I hardly even update my drivers. I don't tell everyone all my issues with my computer for the most part I can fix even if it means reinstalling windows 7. I had some major issue when I updated the drives using dell auto detect. I had newer driver already installed but dell detect couldn't detect that. That caused me to do another re-installation using Windows 7 re-install disk & dell drivers disk. Now with Macrium I don't have to worry about re-installing windows 7 again. Dell auto detect is not installed.

I am actually hoping Microsoft means the life of your device, when it quits working it will no longer be supported. Not when other parties decided my system is no longer good. I still have a win98se dual boot with windows xp sp3 that barely works it still could be fixed up.