back to article Microsoft promises twice-yearly Windows 10, O365 updates – with just 18 months' support

Microsoft's explained how often it intends to offer “feature updates” to Windows 10: twice a year in March and September. That schedule will bring Windows 10 into line with the update schedule already used by Office 365 ProPlus. Knowing when updates will land is useful. But Microsoft's announcement says “Each Windows 10 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Office 365 ProPlus...

    ... as recommended by sysadmins when working late into the night.

    https://www.proplus.co.uk/ProPlus

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Office 365 ProPlus...

      "you're now looking at the prospect of having to refresh and re-deploy your standard operating environment every eighteen months"

      No need to "re-deploy" - it's just an in place update each time. This is great because it means no more complete desktop refresh exercises are needed every few years - which will significantly reduce the long term TCO of Windows on the desktop.

  2. Lord_Beavis
    Pirate

    Dear gods...

    Apparently they don't know how long it takes for some organizations to vet their software against major OS changes.

    If this doesn't drive some people to Linux, I don't know what will.

    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Dear gods...

      My thoughts exactly.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Lord

      Well... Linux also has its issues depending on your distribution. I still recall upgrading from one Ubuntu LTS version to the other, it was a total nightmare because I was actually skipping 3 major releases at once and it didn't go smoothly.

      But I do agree: this move is bound to push more people away from Windows. Once again Microsoft doesn't take note of the past. Because although not directly comparable I see direct comparisons with Firefox back in the days: one of the things which drove plenty of users mad was its almost constant stream of updates where tons of stuff changed.

      And then there's the big one: what if you don't want a certain change. For example: I despised Windows 8 so I completely skipped it. With this new update model that would be completely impossible.

      Replacing Windows with an open-source environment and using Wine for whatever Window needs you have is getting more tempting every month.

    3. bazza Silver badge

      Re: Dear gods...

      For a lot of engineering and creative outfits, Linux is simply not an option, currently. All the major CAD packages had migrated to Windows, what, 20 years ago? And they're not going anywhere for a good long time...

      The reasons why CAD packages migrated from *nix to Windows was that 1) Windows was powerful enough, 2) Windows was cheaper, 3) *nix as a graphical workstation was becoming very out of date and unusable, and 4) Windows grew a reputation for supporting software for a long time (amazingly you can still just about run Windows 3 software, on Win10 32 bit).

      Then there's the usual MS Office dependency problem. It's still way better than what is available on *nix. There's also MS Project, Active Directory; the list goes on. There's a ton of software out there that 99% of the world's computer users haven't even heard of, never mind use. Yet without that software, 99% of what gets made wouldn't exist.

      As far as I can see there's no real prospect for large engineering outfits to migrate away from Windows unless a seriously significant percentage of applications are ported elsewhere first. One wonders, ported to what?

      MS themselves have done something interesting, in putting SQL Server onto Linux. The way they've done it is interesting; rather than re-write SQL Server for *nix, they've done a Windows system call shim for Linux. With a lot of effort on MS's part, the same shim could be developed further so that any Windows application or library could run unmodified on top of Linux. It's a lower level thing than Wine, and if MS actually did do it, would come with a bunch of guarantees that it worked. Wine, whilst it is admirable, is always going to struggle to be completely right. Anyway I can't see MS actually making something like that into a universal Windows App runtime for Linux.

      But the Linux desktop is something of a stability nightmare too. Which distribution? Which desktop? Which package manager? And if you need kernel level driver support for licence dongles, which kernel version? It doesn't even do sound properly. Linux anarchy is very off-putting.

      How about Apple MACs? Well clearly Apple has no interest in pursuing the desktop market, it no longer gives a damn about the creative types.

      Ported to Web Apps? I don't think that's an option. Google Docs is a nasty horrible pile of ghastly Javascript, and is something of a toy (a slow one at that) compared to a properly sorted desktop application. The idea of implementing a major CAD package as a Web app is laughably unworkable at present.

      I genuinely fear for the future for creative people. It's going to become expensive and difficult to host and support the types of software tools that creative people use, and now even MS is looking like walking away from them and their needs.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dear gods...

        >All the major CAD packages had migrated to Windows, what, 20 years ago?

        BricsCAD is major - BRL-CAD also has a very large user base ;)

        1. bazza Silver badge

          Re: Dear gods...

          BricsCAD is major - BRL-CAD also has a very large user base ;)

          By your definition, Microsoft Paint is a "major" graphics application simply because it's installed everywhere... Talking of graphics, everyone seems to think that Adobe's suite is best run on Windows these days, not Mac.

          Whilst I'm sure it's fine, you would not use BricsCAD to design an airliner, or a ship, or a car, or a skyscraper. For that you need something like CATIA. They do not do Linux versions of their software. According to Wikipedia they do nominally support Solaris, AIX and HP-UX, but since no one runs these as desktops these days it's Windows all the way.

          It's a similar story with other major CAD packages like SolidWorks, the major parts of Autodesk's portfolio. Casting an eye round Mentor Graphic's suite suggests that Linux support is old / out of date, and that they're predominantly Windows these days.

          1. Hugh McIntyre

            Re: Dear gods...

            Most or all of the Integrated Circuit CAD packages run on Linux (only or at least mostly). It's true that package and board level design may run on Windows but IC tools use Linux. This includes Mentor's LVS/DRC and similar tools which are definitely up to date on Linux.

          2. oldcoder

            Re: Dear gods...

            You wouldn't use windows to try an test those designs... That is on on Linux.

            And there are a number of aircraft design tools for Linux. Even from NASA.

          3. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Dear gods...

            >For that you need something like CATIA. They do not do Linux versions of their software.

            RHEL is the most common platform for 3DEx R2016x - it's Windows 2012 otherwise. Forget about Windows 8 or 10.

            >t's a similar story with other major CAD packages like SolidWorks, the major parts of Autodesk's portfolio.

            More your speed I suspect - and BricsCAD is used across industries in their stead daily.

          4. Snake Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Re: Dear gods, if we say it, it must be true

            The people who downvoted you and, assuredly, will probably downvote me as well, do so without a scrap of knowledge about the actual businesses that involve the use of 3D CAD software; they do so simply out of hair-trigger reaction to anything that says "Linux can't do this".

            Go ahead, folks, actually research and learn before you downvote something. Entire industries use 3D CAD systems, some with specialized plugins...that are Windows only.

            Go take a look at production - that is, not hobbyist but actual pro-grade - equipment. Go ahead, we can wait here. In 3D printers, milling machines and laser design, you may want to start with:

            - www.solid-scape.com/products/3d-software/

            - www.3dsystems.com/software#3d-printing-software

            - www.rolanddga.com/support/drivers

            - www.cncmasters.com/master-software.html

            - www.epiloglaser.com/tech-support/epilog-drivers.htm

            - www.bosslaser.com/laser-machinery/

            and industry-specific CAD plugins and software, try out

            - The entire Siemens CAD suite, www.plm.automation.siemens.com/store/en-us/index.html, using specs from www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/solid-edge/design/system_requirements.shtml

            - www.stuller.com/matrix/

            - www.progecad.us/progecad-professional/

            and I could go on and on...

            RUN ONLY ON WINDOWS. End of story.

            So to say "Oh, look, you can run BricsCAD on Linux" is very much saying, "Oh, look, I can make a CAD mesh and file that I can't do anything else with!"

            It is NOT what the rest of the CAD industry is using. That makes it, fundamentally...useless. You don't want to hear that but that's hard-core, irrevocable truth. Every 3D printer in my office (three printers from 3 different companies, plus a 3D milling machine), every piece of product specific software that is required to operate and interface to those devices, every driver for those devices and every piece of industry-specific CAD software used to create files for those devices runs on Windows. Period.

            1. bombastic bob Silver badge
              Linux

              Re: Dear gods, if we say it, it must be true

              "RUN ONLY ON WINDOWS. End of story."

              and there are NO competitors for these things?

              I've heard of large industrial equipment, that use things like Win 98 for the control software, that's still operational. So yeah, it's not surprising. However, that doesn't justify the argument that there are no Linux (or even OSX or BSD or whatever) alternatives, even more cost effective ones.

              Given that I've already written two (yes two) device control prototypes using a $50 Android slab [in one case, controlling via a custom web server; in the other, just the 'droid application via bluetooth], it might not hurt to look a bit further into the future...

              (As a reminder, Android is also Linux)

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Dear gods...

        "*nix"

        Why don't you just write "Unix"? It's not difficult and might give the impression that you're not indulging in a rant.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Dear gods...

          "Why don't you just write 'Unix'?"

          it's a brand name. but you could also say 'Unix-like' or 'POSIX' - but '*nix' is shorter.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Dear gods...

            "it's a brand name. but you could also say 'Unix-like' or 'POSIX' - but '*nix' is shorter."

            It's owned by the Open Group and is a registered trade mark in upper case. Here's what they say on their site: "Over twenty years ago, a number of companies came together to acknowledge the value of the UNIX® platform, but more importantly, the need for all UNIX® implementations to be interoperable." So it's a platform with multiple implementations which fits the way in which Bazza was using it: CAD running on Unix workstations.

            BTW I'd not rate any systemd equipped Linux as Unix-like.

          2. bazza Silver badge

            Re: Dear gods...

            @Bombastic Bob

            it's a brand name. but you could also say 'Unix-like' or 'POSIX' - but '*nix' is shorter.

            Indeed, and saying Linux is POSIX is very nearly, but not quite, accurate. Linux isn't quite POSIX compliant (strictly speaking it is LSB), Solaris HP-UX and AIX are all slightly different and comply with POSIX in different ways, and various embedded OSes implement POSIX to varying extents.

            These differences show up in Auto tools, with configuration building scripts having to test a variety of system calls to see what they actually do.

      3. Cynic_999

        Re: Dear gods...

        "

        All the major CAD packages had migrated to Windows, what, 20 years ago?

        "

        Yup - but a great many have since started offering Linux versions. While my company currently uses Windows workstations, I have for some years not considered any new CAD/CAM product for my department unless it will run on both Widows and Linux. Since the last major change to a new schematic capture & PCB layout application that can run on both platforms (as well as Macs), I now have only a few fairly minor applications that are Windows-only, and they could be replaced & migrated without too much pain. With the direction Microsoft is heading it is a relief to know that I am at last in a position to switch to a different OS without leading to an unreasonable loss of productivity. We would still need at least one Windows machine to provide support for legacy products, but fortunately in my case it is very rare that such support is needed. They in any case also need a legacy engineer (me) to provide such support, and so once I am obsolete in a few years' time, so will be those products!

      4. Mage Silver badge

        Re: CAD

        Eagle is on Linux and Windows.

        Though the Windows version runs on Wine too.

        My older windows CAE programs have no replacements and some don't work on Win7 64 bit. They all work on Wine on Linux.

      5. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Linux

        Re: Dear gods...

        "All the major CAD packages had migrated to Windows, what, 20 years ago? And they're not going anywhere for a good long time..."

        It probably wouldn't take them long to:

        a) dredge out the old code base as a new starting point

        b) as needed, migrate back to OpenGL from whatever DirectX schtuff they're using

        c) wrap everything GUI in a nice cross-platform toolkit (Qt, GTK, ?)

        Seriously, it's not all that hard, just requires some motivation. A tad time-consuming perhaps, but so would Micro-shaft changing their APIs and *FORCING* everyone to use "UWP". And don't think that's NOT in their plans...

      6. Polardog

        Re: Dear gods...

        Tldr but But the Linux desktop is something of a stability nightmare

        My fedora desktop the last 3 years, not a single crash.

    4. geaou

      Re: Dear gods...

      You are so right, have used windows ever since it started. But I've had it up to here with sodding updates and all the other crap. Gone over to Linux Mint, working perfectly for me.

    5. Mine's a Large One
      WTF?

      Re: Dear gods...

      Indeed... and the other software and hardware that needs to interface/integrate.

      In the past, updates to Windows or Office have required a lot of testing here primarily because we have a lot of users with screen readers, screen magnifiers, specialist mice & keyboards, etc, some of which has had to be upgraded or even replaced because it now doesn't work with the new version... cue more testing, effort and expense on top of what's required for the base OS & Office.

      And that's over and above any effort to test & make changes to our in-house applications.

      And now we get to do it every 6 months. Joy.

    6. Korev Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Dear gods...

      It took us about two years to migrate from RHEL5 to 6. The OS upgrade was the easy part, it was the myriad of applications that needed to be recompiled and getting the users to test the stuff that they claimed to care about!

      1. alain williams Silver badge

        Re: Dear gods...

        It took us about two years to migrate from RHEL5 to 6.

        And now you don't need to do it again for 10 years - which is how long RHEL 6 is supported for (or longer if you want to pay a bit). Then you jump to RHEL 8 (or whatever is new then) and get another decade of stability.

        1. Sandtitz Silver badge
          Stop

          Re: Dear gods... @alain

          "And now you don't need to do it again for 10 years - which is how long RHEL 6 is supported for (or longer if you want to pay a bit). Then you jump to RHEL 8 (or whatever is new then) and get another decade of stability."

          It was 10 years when RHEL6 was released - back in 2010. It is supported until November 2020, so there's less than 4 years left!

          People here are forgetting (or unaware) that the Windows Servers have a similar 10+ year support cycle, and the enterprise users can use the Windows 10 LTSB versions which also have a ~10 year support policy.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Dear gods... @alain

            >It is supported until November 2020, so there's less than 4 years left!

            That's the Production Cycle - RHEL6 ELP actually ends November 2023 - and they'll still support you beyond on an individual basis - which might apply in rare circumstances (I can't think of any sensible examples).

      2. Jay 2
        Happy

        Re: Dear gods...

        Have you started looking at your migrations to RHEL 7 yet? :)

        In some cases we had to purchase extended support for 5.x servers as there was no way they could be moved. However we put in a pretty big effort to get (mostly) everything onto 6.8, but I'm not looking forward to have to get it all to 7 in a few years...

      3. Timmy B

        Re: Dear gods...

        "it was the myriad of applications that needed to be recompiled" and this is the problem. If you recompile an application like this then you're essentially not using the same application. No wonder it takes so long. Why not just update the OS and leave the application executable files there to use?

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dear gods...

      "If this doesn't drive some people to Linux, I don't know what will"

      Why are we still talking about been 'driven to Linux',.

      Linux is a real and perfectly acceptable (and time saving) alternative for a lot of use cases. Take off those rose tinted glasses and stare a bit harder at the Microsoft deceitful practices been used against you.

      18+ Hours of deceitful broken "Checking for Updates" on Windows 7 which "just happened to get a fix" after the 12 months of Windows 10 GWX "take a card, take any card, but fcuking take one" trickster opportunism.

      How was this done?

      Prioritising bandwidth to Windows 10 updates over Windows 7 updates, in terms of bandwidth allocation from Microsoft Cloud facilties.

      Breaking Windows 7 updates on rolled back (from Win10) / restored images / new installs of Windows 7 SP1.

      Back peddling telemetry into Windows 7, to take away its Privacy advantages.

      Generally, just making life hell and miserable as possible for those determined to stick with Windows 7. This was no "mistake".

      1. quxinot

        Re: Dear gods...

        >Back peddling telemetry into Windows 7, to take away its Privacy advantages.

        The difference is that you could bypass those particular updates. Much different from being forced to take a plate with one of everything at the buffet. Most of the complaining is from people with allergies to certain things they're being force-fed, it seems.

        Fortunately, the big strength of Windows is being shown here and there, and that's the very large community of people who can develop applications that fix some of these problems. Look at Classic Shell, for example, as a lovely fix for the windows 8 "You wanted a tablet interface, right?". For a more recent variant, see the Rizen/Kaby Lake tweaks for non-10 Windows.

        It would be lovely to see more legacy software being ported cleanly to linux (and even BSD!). CAD stuff, photoshop (though I wonder how many people could be fooled with a different interface on GIMP...), various games, and so on.

        The users want the same thing they've always wanted: The choice to use software on their computer in a way they decide to, not necessarily in the way the software giants want them to.

        1. 2Nick3

          Re: Dear gods...

          "The users want the same thing they've always wanted: The choice to use software on their computer in a way they decide to, not necessarily in the way the software giants want them to."

          That's a small handful of users, where most users want their machine to work without having to learn a bunch of new stuff, or perform extra steps, or type in something in a highly specific context. They don't want the power to do something in multiple different ways, they want it to work in one way, reliably, every time they do it. Why are there so many Windows XP systems still running out there (~7.5% based on https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0) - users don't want to change.

          Microsoft is aiming for the masses, and is more than happy to let some percentage of the population leak out around the edges.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: Dear gods...

            "most users want their machine to work without having to learn a bunch of new stuff, or perform extra steps, or type in something in a highly specific context. They don't want the power to do something in multiple different ways, they want it to work in one way, reliably, every time they do it"

            I'm one of "most users". You've just described why I don't use Windows.

            1. Wensleydale Cheese

              Re: Dear gods...

              "They don't want the power to do something in multiple different ways, they want it to work in one way, reliably, every time they do it""

              Memories of a Windows Server 2008 course. According to the lecturer there were "Two ways to do everything" and he was only talking about the GUI.

              And don't get me started on the never ending reboots.

              I'm one of "most users". You've just described why I don't use Windows.

              Resounding ditto, but I'll add that financially it was not unlike being a blackmail victim. There was always some demand or other on my wallet.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Dear gods...

        "Linux is a real and perfectly acceptable (and time saving) alternative for a lot of use cases."

        You know that, I know that but the usage levels of Windows suggests a lot of people don't. They have to get there somehow so "drive" isn't that inappropriate word.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dear gods...

        Linux is just fine for technical users but I doubt very much a lot of non technical users would welcome it's arrival on their desktop/laptop unless it's skinned.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Linux

          Re: Dear gods...

          "Linux is just fine for technical users but I doubt very much a lot of non technical users would welcome it's arrival on their desktop/laptop unless it's skinned."

          Have you ever seen a Mac? You know that OSX is basically UNIX, with a FreeBSD userland and bash shell, right? 'non-technical users' indeed.

          With the right desktop and preloaded software, "gramma" will be up and going in 5 minutes or less...

          I vote Mint/Cinnamon for a nice gentle transition for the average Windows user.

          1. jonfr

            Re: Dear gods...

            MacOs (I guess it also applies to iOs) are NeXTSTEP based, not FreeBSD based. What Apple used from FreeBSD is the driver base for the main system, nothing else was used far as I'm aware of. NeXTSTEP is Unix based like many other operating systems.

        2. Polardog

          Re: Dear gods...

          Cinnamon is more like win 7 than win 10 is.

          At least the settings are in one logical place for starters.

        3. Soruk

          Re: Dear gods...

          I got someone on to Linux, who has less technical knowledge than a teaspoon. After their WinXP system collapsed irreparably (and the manufacturer restore DVD loaded an image that bluescreened on boot) I gave them CentOS 6 with LibreOffice (which they were already using on WinXP).

          They have needed far less help with their system, indeed the only time they needed help was wgen the hardware died. One replacement box and hard drive transplant they were up and running. A very painless experience for all involved!

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

            1. Chemist

              Re: Dear gods...

              "But Linux falls apart the moment you need to support anything ever-so-slightly non-standard."

              Basically that is nonsense. I've used it since ~ the beginning and it as only got better. I used it professionally from ~2000 until I retired for all manner of scientific computing running software at ~100% cpu for days at a time, and the graphics workstation I was using was still usable and responsive. It never crashed Some software did ( it was often edgy stuff) but the core system never did. We tried porting some of our in-house software to W2000 which was the company system at the time and it fell over all the time. I've not used Windows since ~2008 and I certainly don't miss it. I also never have experienced problems with LibreOffice - I get lots of Word/Excel/LO files from other scientists and don't seem to have any problems. All my other interests - video editing, RAW photo development, electronics are covered by adequate to wonderful programs. Others maybe will have a problem with one or more areas, but IMO Linux is the OS of choice for "anything ever-so-slightly non-standard" esp. with the vast range of compilers, libraries etc.

            2. Pompous Git Silver badge

              Re: Dear gods...

              "We should ask him to upgrade to a proper Office suite, as there's no point using software that generates files that can't be read by other users."
              Alternatively you could upgrade everyone to Libre Office. OTOH if you need compatibility with Word and Excel docs from outside the firm...

            3. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Dear gods...

              " I often deal with one colleague in my firm who insists on using LibreOffice to edit spreadsheets, and nobody else can open them - even when he saves them in compatible MS Office format. We should ask him to upgrade to a proper Office suite"

              Another way of thinking about that is that your colleague is using open standards and others in the org are paying a huge amount of cash to use a weird proprietary formatted productivity suite from the 90s that only works with itself, and not even different versions of itself... and that vendor intentionally breaks standards so you need to keep paying them. Sounds like you need a new productivity software vendor.

              Google has actually nailed the formatting issues with MSFT. How did they do it? The MSFT way - they cut them a check to not intentionally screw up formatting.

        4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Dear gods...

          "I doubt very much a lot of non technical users would welcome it's arrival on their desktop/laptop unless it's skinned."

          There are quite a few Linux desktops which can be - and are - skinned to look pretty Windows-like depending on which Windows you want them to look like.

          What's better, once you've got it looking like you want it to look you don't have to worry about MS coming along in a year or two & making it look like something else although to be fair I understand MS have finally caught up with multiple workspaces.

          So on the whole, that's one up to Linux.

          1. Pompous Git Silver badge

            Re: Dear gods...

            "I understand MS have finally caught up with multiple workspaces.

            So on the whole, that's one up to Linux."

            Er... I had multiple desktops on NT4, but never found them particularly useful. I had more fun with the Mac OS Theme 'cos that used to annoy the fuck out of the Mackerels :-)

        5. Maventi

          Re: Dear gods...

          "... doubt very much a lot of non technical users would welcome it's arrival on their desktop/laptop unless it's skinned."

          Speaking as someone who once lived and breathed all things Microsoft, I have real world experience with this and you might be surprised! I've maintained a few Linux desktop networks, both small and large scale.

          In most cases that has been either CentOS or Ubuntu (yes, with Unity), mostly stock except for some basic branding and additional shortcuts and things to common stuff like network shares. Sure there are some under-the-hood tweaks for such environments, but they are invisible to users.

          Does anyone care? Not a bit. Hundreds of happy users from technically savvy to the most technology illiterate you can imagine. Contrary to what you would expect, folks find their way around documents, network shares, browsing and email just fine with virtually no training.

          In fact it's easier to support than Windows because everything keeps itself patched with little intervention, the office suite doesn't dramatically change in look and feel with every version change, and stuff generally doesn't break.

          Subtle differences from Windows like the lack of network drive letters doesn't bother anyone non-technical because they don't understand that stuff anyway.

          Of course it's not completely perfect, but I've never kidded myself that Windows was either.

          1. Pompous Git Silver badge

            Re: Dear gods...

            "Of course it's not completely perfect, but I've never kidded myself that Windows was either."
            That's worth more than one upvote, so have another...

        6. Cynic_999

          Re: Dear gods...

          "

          Linux is just fine for technical users but I doubt very much a lot of non technical users would welcome it's arrival on their desktop/laptop unless it's skinned.

          "

          A completely non-technical friend who used Windows7 found it easier to use my Linux Mint PC than his own after he "upgraded" to Windows 10. So I installed Mint on his PC and he's perfectly happy - I get very few support queries.

    8. quxinot

      Re: Dear gods...

      Isn't this what they did with windows 10 in the first place? Marketing said "IT WILL BE RELEASED <date>!" And thus, so it was. Unfortunately, it was clearly not quite done with testing and the fiddly bits of being completed first.

      It'd be nice if they'd change tactics and claim that the next big feature update would be released when it's good and damned well ready, and not a moment before.

    9. Brian 39
      FAIL

      Re: Dear gods...

      Cynic mode always on.... If you are not Windows, you are jack shit,

    10. Daniel von Asmuth
      Windows

      From 13 years (XP) to 18 months

      Now companies will need three teams of system administrators: let's say the A team starts testing the 201704 release for nine months, performs a migration in three months and supports its users for six months, while the B team waits for the 201710 upgrade and a year after the A team, the C team starts testing the 201804 version, when the A team takes a short holiday before tackling the 201810 release, etc.

      Since they are only minor updates, 12 months for testing and migration should suffice.

    11. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dear gods...

      I bet this will give the already fast growing Chromebook market a huge boost.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Chromebook

        i doubt it. Chromebooks are just as pushy in a Googly way. At least with Windows you can block undesirable updates by pulling the network cable out. On a Chromebook, you can't even do that.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Chromebook

          "At least with Windows you can block undesirable updates by pulling the network cable out. On a Chromebook, you can't even do that."

          Yeah, you can. You can control which updates are applied and are not applied from the Chrome management console in an enterprise set up. It is pretty awesome. You can set it up where devices are shipped to users wherever they might be directly from the OEM or VAR and when the devices hit the internet the policies are pulled down and the device is automatically enrolled at log on.

    12. Updraft102

      Re: Dear gods...

      To paraphrase Homer Simpson... "Heeey! Just because they don't CARE doesn't mean they don't understand!"

    13. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dear gods...

      "Apparently they don't know how long it takes for some organizations to vet their software against major OS changes."

      Presumably that's why the enterprise versions can get 10 years support.

      This announcement is about twice a year cross product aligned feature releases - IF you want them. Otherwise you use the LTSB Windows 10 versions with 10 years support.

    14. azaks

      Re: Dear gods...

      >> If this doesn't drive some people to Linux, I don't know what will.

      it absolutely will drive some people to Linux. And they will both be dearly missed...

      1. geaou

        Re: Dear gods...

        But the two of us won't be missing windows, just think of all the time we can save not doing updates, or anti-virus scans, not having to change all our defaults back again etc. Quite boring really, have to go down the pub instead,,Cheers!

  3. thames

    Timed Releases?

    Twice yearly updates and 18 months between major "releases"? It sounds like Ubuntu, except Ubuntu also has 5 years support on the LTS releases.

    Major software projects that have gone to a successful timed release system find that there is much less chance of pushing out dodgy code than there was with a feature based release system. With a feature based release, the code tends to go out whether it's ready or not because the next opportunity may not be for another 5 years. With a timed release system, if a feature is not ready it gets held back until the next release window, which is often no more than 6 months away.

    If Microsoft are really going to a timed release system, they will need to overhaul their software development, management, and marketing processes in a very major way. This will not be an easy task for a bureaucracy as large and entrenched as Microsoft's. I won't be surprised to see them fail at it.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Timed Releases?

      And RedHat has 10 years with RHEL. Yes you pay for that but CentOS is built from the same sources and is free.

      MS is really trying to force its hand and get everyone locked into this perpetual upgrade cycle.

      All it needs is a few major business orgs to say No and MS will have to come up with another plan.

      MS clearly has no idea at all of the costs involved in just keeping still. With more and more support being offshored to India, it won't end well.

      This

      https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/04/20/128224/95-engineers-in-india-unfit-for-software-development-jobs-report

      makes interesting reading.

      It won't end well for some businesses and their employees.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Timed Releases?

        "MS is really trying to force its hand and get everyone locked into this perpetual upgrade cycle."

        Just like they've always done.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Timed Releases?

          ""MS is really trying to force its hand and get everyone locked into this perpetual upgrade cycle."

          Just like they've always done."

          Who downvoted this? That is common knowledge. Are people not familiar with MSFT EAs? Are people not familiar with MSFT intentionally breaking formatting between different versions of Office, not to mention alternative productivity suites.... so that you not only need to use Office, but the latest version of Office?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Timed Releases?

      My experience is far different - with frequent releases companies push out much more shit because "we'll fix it if it doesn't work in the next one". And usually they need to push out something to justify the release, even if a feature is far from being completed and tested, but has been already promised.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Twice yearly updates and 18 months between major "releases"?

    That's not what the article said. It simply said new releases every 6 months, with every release supported for 18 months. There was no "major" or "minor" mentioned.

    What this means is, if you are running release n, you can potentially skip n+1, and still have a 6-month period to test and migrate to n+2. You can then take a break while n+3 comes out, and then have another 6-month window to migrate to n+4, and so on.

    But you are forced to upgrade every 12 months. You can't do an upgrade every 18 months; that would require migrating from n to n+3 the very day it comes out, which would be madness.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It will be interesting to see how much these updates break things...

    On the bright side, software developers will be in continuous elevated demand.

    Because, all old code will need to be rewritten to run on Win10, because nothing else will be supported, then patched continuously....forever.

    I can see CFO's yelling at CTO's while crunching numbers and cursing : )

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      >Because, all old code will need to be rewritten to run on Win10,

      But Win10 is only a marketing label. Remember MS's previously released Win10 release cycle and LTSB, where effectively each LTSB release is equivalent to major version change, which prior to Win10 would be announced as a new and improved version of Windows eg. XP, Windows 7.

      So code will need to be constantly 'rewritten' (and recertified in some cases) as MS keep moving the goalposts of Win10 compatibililty.

      >I can see CFO's yelling at CTO's while crunching numbers and cursing

      Maybe not a bad thing, maybe what's needed are a few Enterprise Linux success and TCO articles in Accountancy magazines...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Maybe not a bad thing, maybe what's needed are a few Enterprise Linux success and TCO articles in Accountancy magazines..."

        I recently watched this happen. CIO came into the new CFO's office and handed him a $7m per year renewal of a MSFT EA. The CFO, not understanding MSFT EAs (therefore taking a common sense approach), asked why they would pay $7m per year for software which they already own, bought the licenses, for commodity stuff like spreadsheets and word processing and operating systems and email. Seems a little excessive. Long story, short. He brought MSFT in, told them to cancel the EA. MSFT was astounded... like the laws of motion were being violated. CFO explained that he was just going to stay on Windows 7 and the current version of Office for years to come, didn't need the upgrades. MSFT told him that they would kill him when he needed to upgrade and it would eventually cost him more. CFO said 'whatever, if you do that I'll just move it all over to Google in a few years.' Done and done.

  6. Captain DaFt

    Anybody else?

    Or is it just me getting the impression Microsoft is throwing random darts at a board to generate company policy lately?

    (And if they are, seems more than a few players have been struck in the head by said darts!) ☺

    The past few months have seen an increasing number of WTF? policy shifts and announcements. It almost seems like they want customers to leave.

    1. bazza Silver badge

      Re: Anybody else?

      Not just you.

      Since Windows 7, MS has completely lost the plot.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Anybody else?

        "Since Windows 7, MS has completely lost the plot."

        It's not so much losing the plot, it's just that the old plot stopped working.

        Windows 7 was their problem release. People liked it. They didn't want something different. MS has always depended on forcing something new on people because that way they have to buy upgrades or new H/W with the new version pre-installed. When the customers decided they wanted to stick with W7 that broke the business plan.

        They could always try a new plot: delivering what customers want.

        1. bazza Silver badge

          Re: Anybody else?

          It's not so much losing the plot, it's just that the old plot stopped working.

          Windows 7 was their problem release. People liked it. They didn't want something different. MS has always depended on forcing something new on people because that way they have to buy upgrades or new H/W with the new version pre-installed. When the customers decided they wanted to stick with W7 that broke the business plan.

          They could always try a new plot: delivering what customers want.

          People certainly did like it, and to every normal person that is a sign of "being onto a good thing". MS were mad for not building on that. Instead Bonkers Balmer decided that a unified desktop / mobile strategy was the way forward which was odd because their competitor (Apple) was making a ton of cash doing the opposite... And they still are.

          Part of that was down to shareholder pressure - MS had to do something in the mobile market. Anything but Win 8 would have been ok...

          There's a lot of talk these days about the decline of the PC and how we've got no use for them these days. A large part of the decline is down to Win 8, 8.1, 10. I don't buy the argument that people don't want a laptop, desktop type machine in their lives; hipsters in coffee shops with MacBooks are (nearly) living proof of that. People want and need that type of machine, they just don't want it to be Win10.

          MS like to claim Win10 is a market success, but I'm not convinced that they've actually sold that much beyond pre installs. The figures MS give out are strikingly similar to the number of PCs the world sells each year...

          Anyway, how can something be a market success when that market is shrinking? Win 10 ought to be growing the PC market, not taking over a shrinking market.

          In a way MS are like the American car manufacturers vs Toyota. Toyota worked out that what most people want is reliability, comfort, good value for money, economy and high quality, with sporty performance being a distant irrelevance. American auto makers tried to apply the same systems engineering process that Toyota used, didn't believe the results, and ended up making the same old rubbish. Toyota are the biggest car maker in the world, dull/boring can sell really well...

          What We Want

          We want a well sorted, easy on the eye, familiar, properly supported desktop OS with strong hardware support, no advertising, with a bog standard WIMP interface. Just like Win 7 in fact. We'd even be prepared to pay retail for it.

          I don't buy the argument that Linux can be / is this thing. There's too much diversity, hardware support is patchy, GNOME 3 is diabolically bad (file manager?), it doesn't even do sound consistently, there's no good office suite, there's no decent email / contacts / calendar tool, etc. And then there's the whole APT, YUM, tarball, Auto tools thing. It's a horrible mess. It's no surprise that RHEL gets picked by the big software manufacturers as the one distro they support. It's just impossible to support all of Linux in a way that doesn't require the end user to be prepared to do a lot of command line administration.

          Apple Mac isn't a bad option, except they've really dropped the ball on their hardware. Mac books, iMacs and Mac Pros are very antiquated these days. Mac Pro is now, what, 4 Intel CPU and 5 GPU generations behind the curve?

          Microsoft have left a yawning chasm of an opportunity for Apple to supply Just a Desktop OS (tm) on decent hardware that isn't an Ad platform. OS-X has yet to succumb to ad funded trend being pursued by MS with Win 10. If Apple update their kit, I'm sorely tempted.

          1. Chemist

            Re: Anybody else?

            "It's just impossible to support all of Linux in a way that doesn't require the end user to be prepared to do a lot of command line administration."

            Sorry, but that's not not my experience. I install OpenSUSE every year or two as a new release come out, administer it with the GUI tools and it just works. I also have a lot of Raspberry Pis networked together - now they are a more work due to the lighter weight desktops and the more experimental uses I put them to but still most admin. is done with the GUI tools.

    2. Updraft102

      Re: Anybody else?

      The idea that MS wants people to abandon Windows is the only one that really makes any sense in light of their recent behavior. It's been noted that MS only gets ~10% of their profit from Windows, and no doubt this is forecast to decline. With the support and development costs of Windows being quite high and relatively fixed, it's possible that they have predicted Windows to be a money loser within a few years. In light of this and their cloud-first aspirations, it's possible they are seeking an exit from the general-purpose OS market, and this is their exit strategy.

      Of course, MS could simply decide to quit without the shenanigans, but then what? They're still on hook to support 7 for three more years, 8.1 for six more, and 10 for about eight more. Unless they spin off the Windows division to another company, it's not a burden they can easily dispose of. In addition, their monopoly in the PC market is an asset of tremendous (but declining) value, and to simply cast it away would be violating their fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders.

      If that's what MS is doing, they will continue to "monetize" Windows however they can. They will be converting the remaining good will of their customer base to cash in doing so... but even then, there are issues of inertia and vendor lock-in to keep the customers in the line of fire. Only when nearly all of the customers get so exasperated that they see no other choice than to leave Windows will MS have fully extracted and liquidated all remaining value from their OS monopoly.

      My guess is that at this point, they'd sell Windows to another company, obligations and all, or spin it off into a new company. They could do that now, but I am guessing their forecasts indicate they'd make more money "monetizing" Windows customers now and selling the desiccated husk of what was Windows afterwards.

      Nothing else really makes any sense to me as an explanation of how MS is managing to alienate so many of their customers so quickly. If they really want to remain in the OS business, this is a very strange way of showing it.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Anybody else?

          "I thought that Microsoft were already making vast amounts of money selling your data collected by telemetry ?."

          No, you must be confusing Microsoft with Google.

          Slurp sells your data. Microsoft does not.

    3. Vladimir Nicolici

      Re: Anybody else?

      It's not just you. Nadella just confirmed their strategy is basically throwing shit against the wall and see if it sticks:

      https://mspoweruser.com/satya-nadella-says-microsoft-embraces-failure/

  7. leexgx

    so gotya 2 times a year a feature upgrade will brake a bunch of PCs (so i can keep my calendar clear for them 2 months when people be calling me alot)

  8. Hans 1
    Pint

    Each Windows 10 feature release will be serviced and supported for 18 months

    DEARLY BELOVED, we are gathered here to say goodbye to Microsoft Windows...

    Me? I'm having a pint as the Champagne in the fridge is not cool, yet!

  9. Shufflemoomin

    I hate what Microsoft are doing with Windows 10 and, although I'm using it now, I'm actively looking to switch away. In the history of Windows, the OS stayed essentially the same and updates only fixed bugs and occasionally added small features. If I didn't like the way things like Windows ME or Windows 8 did things, I could just choose to skip that OS and wait to see what the next version is like. Now, Microsoft can just say "Hey, you know that update we just installed without giving you a choice? We made major UI changes and there's nothing you can do about it". I went through that crap on the Xbox 360 with them changing the interface completely and I had no choice.

    Well, they're not doing that to me any longer. It's MY computer and I should choose which software and which version runs on it. Not Microsoft. I'm going to leave my current PC as a gaming PC and use Steam streaming to play games from it on the new mid-level Linux PC I'm about to build. If software and games publishers took Microsoft's cock out of their mouth and made more of a push to Linux for gaming, they could sound the death knell of Windows with a decade.

  10. Dwarf

    Support for Windows 10 soup of the day edition

    I can see how this will pan out

    You bung Windows 10 on a machine, install a 3rd party product, hit a problem and call up for support.

    Support: Which OS/version version are you using ?

    Customer: clackity clack. um, it's Windows 10, 21st April 2017 09:05:03 AM edition with .Net 25.19.3421.231554

    Oh, hang on, no it's just updated to 10:05:15 edition and it's rebooting,

    Windows is updating your computer

    Support: Sorry, we only support Windows 10, 1st April 2016 15:45:23 edition. With .Net 22.123.4322.94763

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Support for Windows 10 soup of the day edition

      Well with the frequency of updates and shortness of the 'support period', I don't see the need for the MS support organisation, just use Cortana to route all support calls directly to the relevant developers, reward said developers as per call centre staff. A small company I worked for back in the 1980's did this, did wonders for code quality, documentation and developers respect for support staff.

  11. ilmari

    As for Office365, does anyone else experience every single desktop getting logged out and forgetting their credentials?

    Anyone else experienced having every account in a company scrambled, licenses randomly reassigned between accounts?

    Happens about quarterly. Luckily small business with around 20 users, and luckily I'm not the one that has to sort out the mess when suddenly nobody's excel will run.

    1. Peter2 Silver badge

      Yes. Happened twice now.

      I think Microsoft is trying desperately to encourage me to just give up and phone up Discount/Value Licensing and buy a bunch of old office VLK's and axe 365.

      Which is weird, since I thought they'd intended to get me to migrate the remaining old VLK's to 365 rather than vice versa, but hey.

  12. stephanh

    Relax, it is only this week's policy

    Next week, based on the feedback of Fortune 500 CIO's, who will, in no uncertain words, explain that forced yearly Windows updates == full-company RHEL desktop rollout, we will be surprised with the new Windows 10 LTS. (Enterprise SKU only, of course. Not for you, lowly Windows Professional peon.)

    And who can conceive what unfathomable wonders Microsoft policies will bring two weeks from now?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Microsoft also hints that this new regime should mean less work, overall, as Windows 10's improved security and frequent updates have "made large-scale, costly wipe-and-replace Windows deployments every few years a thing of the past.""

    Certainly true - if you stay with W7.

  14. DailyLlama
    FAIL

    It wouldn't be a problem

    If they were just updates installed in the normal manner, but these are complete OS reinstalls, which is a such a fantastic pain in the arse.

    1. alain williams Silver badge

      Re: It wouldn't be a problem

      A boon to hardware vendors -- "your wifi no longer works with the latest MS Windows; we do not support drivers for hardware more than 3 years old from time of first sale of that model"

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: It wouldn't be a problem

        re: "we do not support drivers for hardware more than 3 years old from time of first sale"

        Already encounter this to some extent, with component manufacturers, saying xyz is out of support, you need to get support from whoever built the board/system with their component integrated into it.

  15. alain williams Silver badge

    Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

    Now that Microsoft has got a large number of machines being upgraded when it wants it can start to roll out code that breaks other systems; be they those who are still running old versions of Microsoft Windows (ie not 10) or those who run non Microsoft operating systems or applications. Eg Linux or LibreOffice. They roll out applications that handle a new file or wire protocol in March and then make it default in September, removing use of old protocols next March, so software more than 1 year old will then not interoperate with the latest stuff.

    They will claim that this is all in the name of progress or fixing security vulnerabilities; but the real reason will that they will start saying how non Microsoft software is incompatible, not good enough, ... So LibreOffice (and similar) developers will have to waste a lot of time playing catch up while Microsoft sniggers.

    Other software vendors play this game, eg Autocad is continually updating file formats which makes it hard for users of old versions to read files from a user of the latest versions.

    This will also help with forcing people to take out a subscription: no subscription so you don't get the latest Microsoft Word ...

    1. Chemist

      Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

      "start to roll out code that breaks other systems; be they those who are still running old versions of Microsoft Windows (ie not 10) or those who run non Microsoft operating systems or applications. Eg Linux "

      Eh ? (Please explain how they're going to break Linux)

      1. alain williams Silver badge

        Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

        Eh ? (Please explain how they're going to break Linux)

        How about change details of the SMB protocol and thus mounting of SMB shares no longer works.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

          "How about change details of the SMB protocol and thus mounting of SMB shares no longer works."

          didn't that happen already, with some of the newer Active Directory [insert profanity here] back when Micro-shaft first added all that? Good thing NT4 domains still worked for XP. Samba eventually got it all working anyway, despite them.

          So if Micro-shaft decides to play those games, they've already got a history of losing that particular strategy.

        2. Chemist

          Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

          "How about change details of the SMB protocol and thus mounting of SMB shares no longer works."

          Well it might give you problems IF you use SMB but it won't actually break Linux

        3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

          "How about change details of the SMB protocol and thus mounting of SMB shares no longer works."

          As part of their getting out from under a monopoly investigation they had to make undertakings about publishing that to Samba will be able to track it easily.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Twice yearly roll out of incompatabilities

      "Now that Microsoft has got a large number of machines being upgraded when it wants it can start to roll out code that breaks other systems"

      That used to be their MO except that "other systems" were previous versions of Office. Then they had a panic attack when Open Office formats became ISO standards. Big organisations like specifying ISO standards so they were in danger of seeing OO formats being specified by customers. They reacted by getting their own "me too" ISO standard. That left them stuck - they couldn't play the old game any more and it also left their own formats a sitting duck for OO, LO, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and All to work on.

      So I don't see quite how they can revert to the old game as you suggest although, of course, Charles Simonyi has re-entered the building... https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/18/microsoft_charles_simonyi_intentional_software/

  16. Jeroen Braamhaar
    Facepalm

    Astounded ...

    I knew MS was good at shooting themselves in the foot, and getting (a lot) better at it ever since W10 ...

    ...but this isn't just "accidentally" shooting yourself in the foot anymore, this is more akin to pulling pins from hand grenades and intentionally dropping them at your feet!

    I can't even think of a better way for MS to lose the desktop market advantage they had - this might end up driving adoption of thin clients (and face it, a console or phone/tablet is really a (moderately smart but still very dependent) thin client connecting to a server farm elsewhere) so very hard.

    1. quxinot

      Re: Astounded ...

      >...but this isn't just "accidentally" shooting yourself in the foot anymore, this is more akin to pulling pins from hand grenades and intentionally dropping them at your feet!<

      Major Kong would be proud indeed (from Dr Strangelove).

  17. DaddyHoggy

    My work laptop still refuses to install the Anniversary update. It secretly keeps trying to in the background but gives itself away then it throws up a 'Can't install updates' blue box that steals focus and refuses to give me control until I click the 'More Info' box.

    None of the solutions offered by MS have worked and they have helpfully suggested I backup my personal data and then nuke the machine and start again...

    Will that be their advice to anybody, twice yearly, who can't get an update to install?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      My work laptop still refuses to install the Anniversary update.

      That's most probably because you are running a third-party AV product, such as Norton - which <sarcasm> because Win10 is so secure compared to previous versions of Windows is unnecessary </sarcasm>.

      None of the solutions offered by MS have worked and they have helpfully suggested I backup my personal data and then nuke the machine and start again...

      Will that be their advice to anybody, twice yearly, who can't get an update to install?

      I've got a Win10 tablet which has had to be factory reset to allow a clean install and update to the major releases - the "Creators" update being installed now is the third time since last November I've had to do this...

    2. 40k slimez

      "Re-install from scratch"

    3. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

      can't install the Anniversary update?

      consider yourself lucky.

    4. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      "refuses to install the Anniversary update"

      There's no rush. I have a test PC (so it is an almost pristine installation with no apps) that successfully installed the Creators Update and promptly refused to shut down. Whether it be shutdown, restart, safe mode, whatever, any attempt to turn the system off just got stuck at the annoying circle of dots, requiring a hard power-off (and consequent disc corruption) to actually turn off.

      So it's unusable and I've reverted to the previous disc image. I don't care, because it's a test PC and I *have* the previous disc image. But if I were a normal user, with valuable data on my PC and probably inadequate backups, the Win10 policy of forced updates would have borked the machine and there is frankly almost nothing that Joe User can do about this because a PC that isn't connected to the internet isn't useful to Joe User.

    5. Captain DaFt

      "None of the solutions offered by MS have worked and they have helpfully suggested I backup my personal data and then nuke the machine and start again..."

      Oh pshaw. Just call them back about an hour later, and say, "Thanks for the advice, Backed up my data, nuked the system, and installed Linux Mint. It works great now!"

      Then hang up.

      (BTW, don't really have to install Linux, just say you did.) ☺

    6. TheVogon

      "Will that be their advice to anybody, twice yearly, who can't get an update to install?"

      Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter from here:

      https://aka.ms/wudiag

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Two machines on windows 10. The one on virtual box won't update at all, just gets stuck during the update with no error message. The other on its own ssd, updated but left a 58gb temporary file mini dump, and kept loosing the panel.

    Linux mint - no update problems ever on 3 systems. Says it all really.

  19. bitten
    Coat

    It's about money right? Nothing technical to those updates it's just a way to implement a Microsoft tax.

    Already today, for a small company updating computers make 50%+ of the money go to Microsoft. But people could wait 7 years to do that, not anymore.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Brilliant

      "It's about money right? Nothing technical to those updates it's just a way to implement a Microsoft tax.

      Already today, for a small company updating computers make 50%+ of the money go to Microsoft. But people could wait 7 years to do that, not anymore."

      Exactly ! They'll divide the effort of generating patches for the 100s of holes of their code base by probably 10, while "streamlining" the flow of Revenue for W10 and whatever paying add-ons (add-blockers ?) are coming.

      Meanwhile, on the field, all customers will spend shit load of Money updating their apps for the next cutover.

      Fucking brilliant.

      /sarcasm

  20. johnnyblaze

    Don't worry, the next Windows 10 update will ship in September. MS don't care about quality anymore - they'll push any half-finished crap out the door. One of the side-effects of this 'as a service' delivery is that it also keeps them at the forefront of tech news. Some websites exist just to get all gooey over the 3 Insider builds a week they get, thinking MS actually care. Trust me, they don't.

    1. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

      so twice a year..

      we get the fun and excitement of having various drivers not working quite right? Play Guess The Failure twice yearly! yay!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm conflicted.

    on one side, I'm hearing Microsoft say "we don't care about the stability of business users or the expenses and effort they'll now waste to keep even their base OS current."

    on the other side, as an IT employee,I'm thinking "whoo hoo! regular paid overtime!"

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    costly wipe and replace

    "made large-scale, costly wipe-and-replace Windows deployments every few years a thing of the past."

    *cough*bullshit*cough*

    1. stephanh

      Re: costly wipe and replace

      Well, the "every few years" will indeed be a thing of the past. It will be "every f*cking year" from now on.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsucks is comical

    Apparently Microsucks falsely believes they will still exist as a company in 2020. NOT !

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Microsucks is comical

      They'll probably exist, since they have a very large cash pile to run down. (Hey, if SCO can keep coming back years after the money ran out, MS will probably outlive all of us!)

      What they won't have is any real products, just the fat-client-as-a-service thing. And since business likes to amortise hardware over more than a few months, they will soon find that they have a fat-client-for-thinning-customers thing.

  24. TRT

    I'm sure that our director of change management...

    will be loving this. He loves a bit of change for change's sake.

  25. Polardog

    Urgh Microsoft are just so scummy.

    When i can be bothered i am deleting my final win 7 machine.

  26. tygrus.au

    Endless cycle of break it and we might fix it

    Updates in them and of themselves are not the problem but why does Microsoft have a habit of "First break it and then we might get around to finishing the fixing later". Why do they delete and re-write code of products aiming for big changes then leave it looking like unfinished Uni projects prior to release? They should adopt the doctors' oath of "First, do no harm". A lot of the Linux community are more careful and acknowledge the benefits of keeping backwards compatibility and leave beta testing for beta releases not production releases. If Linus was in charge of Microsoft could you imagine the verbal spray each engineer would get if they continued the same poor MS coding behaviour.

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