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

I think that Win10 will by far be the biggest thing Microsoft has ever shipped, bar none. The pent-up demand in the PC market will explode sales there (Metro was not a PC-friendly GUI and predictably threw cold water on the PC OEM market for a couple of years.) PC's have already recovered to the tune of ~35M sales a month as Microsoft continues to make Win8.1 a far stronger PC OS than it was when 8.x shipped--look for 35M-40M+ PCs sold per month in 2016. Anyway...for the majority of people, Win 10 will be a must-have upgrade, both for those still using Win7 and those using 8.1--not to mention a *free* upgrade during year #1--which is quite a motivator.

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.)

The advantage, according to Microsoft, is that when they get new features done they can roll them out *immediately* and consumers won't have to wait 'till the next giant Windows version ships. Also, this will undoubtedly mean some changes in the Windows authorization routines (we may have seen the last of "phone activation" and the like) that will positively affect Microsoft's bottom line and go easier on consumers. I don't think there will be a Windows 11,12, XIII, etc. I think that Microsoft is set for some banner sales, as the larger the Windows installed base, the larger the market for other Microsoft software--and the larger the market for Windows developers (like Mozilla and Google) whose largest markets today are the Windows markets. That's really ironic as heck when you think about it...*Wink Weird how some of the wealthiest companies today, whose fortunes and corporations were built largely by the installed Windows base of consumers, are the first to try and can Microsoft...Such is life, I guess.

 

I would agree there. Maybe in a year, you could get an OEM DVD-ROM installation that has the complete OS with the last seven revisions built right in. And then you'd have to download the last two builds to completely update your system. The DVD is already listed on Newegg for sale. So I suspect it will come out when the new OS is released. Don't forget that XP/Vista/OS X/Linux users will have to pay some up-front price for Win10 this year when it ships, should they opt to buy it this year. I have a strong suspicion that it will cost quite a bit less up-front than Windows has traditionally been priced. I could be wrong about that, but I don't think so. Win8.x direct from Microsoft was $39.99 for the first four months or so; Win10 will be *free* for all Win7/Win8.1 upgraders for the first year, with free life-of-the-device upgrades, and those two groups make up the largest group of Windows users.

Microsoft is already making the builds of the Win10 previews available in .iso format, so I think this will continue to be the case at RTM and beyond for Win10. Maybe Microsoft will make an updated RTM Win10 .iso available every quarter or so, but that is just a guess of course. This will be very interesting to watch. I think every aspect of Windows distribution will be affected--from authorizations on down.

 

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.

 

It wouldn't be surprise to me too.

~edit~

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*Huh

 

You talking to me? good one *Roflmao2

 

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.

 

then they will have buy an apple ,or Linux,or chrome

 

then they will have buy an apple ,or Linux,or chrome Not necessarily, there's been no news on how updates after the RTM has been released will be handled. I doubt if anyone can skip an update but we really don't know.

Jeff

 

*Thumbs

*Doh 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.

 

Yeah, my post is just a what if post really.

 

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

 

*Thumbs

*Doh 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

 

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 *Smile

 

then they will have buy an apple ,or Linux,or chrome I suspect that people will start blocking Windows Update (just like in the current versions of Windows).

If it can't be disabled, 3rd party programs will appear that will block it using the host file or firewall.

Linux has problems with "rolling updates", so I'm not sure how "rolling updates" will work out for MS.
For example, my friend got some sort of Network Manager update for his Arch install and then spent several days battling with it as the new "improved" version was rubbish.

 

Someone else beat me to it...but "life of the device" has nothing to do with manufacturer's warranty...*Wink 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.