back to article I don't want to go on the cart! Windows 10 Mobile hauls itself from the grave one last time

Microsoft unloaded some festive cheer on the last remaining Windows Phone user by apparently extending the life of the doomed platform for another few weeks. Twitter user Longhorn gave a hat-tip to @wenti_man for spotting that the release notes for the very last patch issued to the moribund operating system now show the death …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    End times.

    Aare truely apon os.

  2. redpawn

    Sad

    But at least windows 10 mobile won't be alone anymore.

  3. Not Terry Wogan

    For what it's worth...

    They appeared to give this month's 'final' Windows 10 Mobile update a deliberately round build number - 15254.600 - so I don't think there'll be a January update coming.

  4. arctic_haze

    The end of Ballmer's dream

    You know. The one about world domination on the mobile market.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: The end of Ballmer's dream

      Perhaps there are still some MS Folk in deepest Redmond still believing that Windows is he one and only true OS and that one day it will run everything in the world.

      Deluded?

      Sure.

      But...

      Their recent change of heart over Linux could well see them adopt the Linux kernel in the future (embrace) and adapt it (extend) and hope that pur Linux becomes a thing of the past (extinguish)

      1. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
        Windows

        Re: The end of Ballmer's dream

        I have a feeling that they're considering pulling the plug on Windows if and when the consumer market becomes unprofitable. After all, they're making enough on the cloud services, and if they can get SQL Server a good toehold in the Linux server market, and Exchange / AD in Azure means nobody needs on-prem Windows servers any more, then why not just chain people to those and empty their pockets that way?

        I'm not saying that's the way it'll definitely go, just that I'd be surprised if that wasn't an option they were considering.

        1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

          Re: The end of Ballmer's dream

          Microsoft makes huge amounts of money from corporates using Windows OS, I can't see MS ditching it anytime soon.

        2. Carpet Deal 'em

          Re: The end of Ballmer's dream

          Workstations are still big money, which would be threatened by the driver breakage a kernel switch would entail.

      2. Dave 15

        Re: The end of Ballmer's dream

        If Microsoft get hold of Linux they will turn it into the same crock of shite as windows 10. After all a messdos wasnt actually too bad despite its nickname and lack of documentation. Windows 3 was okish, NT wasnt too bad but it has been a down hill slide since then. Not sure what the problem is but if they actually used their own stuff they would fix it

  5. Cheapy

    Stuborn to the bitter end

    I am going to try and stretch mine out for another 12months until the Surface Neo is finally here.

    1. Timmy B

      Re: Stuborn to the bitter end

      I'm doing exactly the same with my OP 5T.

  6. JamesMcP

    Sadly, it was a good phone UI, just crap everywhere else.

    I picked up an incredibly cheap WinPhone a couple years back (US$25 maybe) just to play with it on wifi. It was surprisingly snappy, even more so for having around 1GB of ram and a Snapdragon 200 or so. The UI was easy to see and interact with, especially on the smallish screen. I could have happily used a WinPhone with a better camera as my daily driver if I hadn't already seen the writing on the wall. I had already rode the good ship WebOS all the way to the breakers, wasn't going to do it twice.

    Sadly, MS had burned all potential bridges and by applying a phone UI to PCs, servers and laptops, had effectively salted the earth. No consumer wanted anything to do with Windows on the one form factor that it actually made sense. (Ok, tablets were good with metro but the tablets didn't have enough horsepower or battery life so even if the UI made sense, the experience was blech)

    Multiple form factors require multiple interaction modes. Until someone figures out a highly flexible, scalable UI framework and can strong-arm the app devs into using it, we'll remain with balkanization between form factors.

    1. Chromanin
      Thumb Up

      Re: Sadly, it was a good phone UI, just crap everywhere else.

      I still say that to this day having tried all the alternatives from Symbian to iOS, Windows phone has been the best. Shame it never got to fulfill its potential....was like a disappointing gifted kid in the end.....

  7. Franco

    Microsoft are going to have to give new phones to the cast of Hawaii 5-0, who STILL all use Lumias. They used to do loads of Surface product placement as well.

  8. NuffSed?
    Joke

    Oh crap!

    Oh crap! My Microsoft Advent Calendar just crashed when I opened another Window!

    Apologies.

  9. Phil Kingston

    Still the best phone UI out there. And reasonably-well replicated in Launcher 10 if anyone's moving to Android and fancies it.

    1. RyokuMas

      And, compared to Apple's "Fort Knox" approach or the myriad of Android permutations, still the best phone to develop for. I still reckon that, had Microsoft branded it something other than "Windows" (or "Microsoft") and thrown money at it as happened with the Xbox, we would now have at least three mobile ecosystems out there.

      Alas that so many in the tech/dev spheres at the time still saw Google as the saviour of the IT world, and were unable to get past a grudge that was already a decade old, even then...

  10. Dan 55 Silver badge

    "It really is time to move on."

    iOS and Android, what a grim choice. Sailfish anyone?

  11. Dave K

    On the 12th day of Christmas, Nadella gave to me:

    12 Apps-A-Crashing

    11 Office Updates

    10 Different GUIs

    9 OneDrive Sync-Fails

    8 Outlook Lockups

    7 Windows Adverts

    6 Product U-Turns

    FIVE BLUE SCREENS!

    4 Calls on Skype

    3 Browsers

    2 Surface Books

    And an update that bricked my PC

    (sorry).

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  12. Alan Bourke

    I had a WinPho

    As a phone OS I liked it well enough. What killed it really for me was the lack of 'second tier' applications. Yes, your FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr and all were there. But your local transport and utility providers, banks and the like only ever really did iOS and Android. They had two do two versions of their app already, why would they do a third for a much smaller player?

    Was glad to get back on Android by the end.

  13. david 12 Silver badge

    MS has never been able to get their dates right.

    I've been a MS customer for 30+ years, and, apart from a few well known media events like Win98, their ability to correctly identify release or unplugging dates has never been any better than it is now.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Disconnect and keep using!

    Even without an app store I will keep on using my Lumia 1020 as a high end feature phone.

    Being online is overrated anyway. To me the social apps have brought so much bad stuff that it outweighs the benefits: cyber bullying, WhatsApp lynchings, decapitation videos and live-streamed mass murders on Facebook, content moderators suffering from PTSD, etc. etc.

    I remember the good old days when snuff movies were an urban legend. Today it couldn't get much worse.

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