Microsoft's journey with Windows 10 is far from over, and although the latest round of news touches enterprise users more directly, it reveals several details worth our attention. First, they will have a total of 18 months to move their Skylake-based terminals to the new operating system, and second, the next generation of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm chips will only be supported by Windows 10.
The Perennial Hardware Support Problem
Hardware support is a delicate point in any operating system. Linux users have fought for years against rejection or lack of interest from some manufacturers, but in Microsoft's case, the story is much noisier. The web is full of anecdotes about printers, scanners, cameras, and other devices that worked well on one version of Windows only to disappear with the next edition. Both Microsoft and the affected companies argue that these support decisions are always made with the user experience in mind, but if you only hear criticism, you tend to think twice. Recent versions of Windows work quite well on current hardware, but taking into account the most recent announcement by VP Terry Myerson, some changes are coming.
Good and Bad News for Enterprise Users
The first piece of news is that enterprise users with terminals based on the new Intel Skylake architecture will have until the upcoming July 17, 2017 to adopt Windows 10. After that date, Skylake computers still on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will only receive the "most critical" security updates, assuming they don't harm the stability or compatibility of those systems. Microsoft speaks of "a list of supported devices" (three Dell models, two HP, and three Lenovo) that will be covered by the new policy, but the message on the wall is quite clear: Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will cease to be a priority on new computers. The rest of "pre-Skylake" hardware will continue to receive patches as declared in support cycles (January 2020 and 2023 respectively).
Added to this is the confirmation that the next generation of processors, represented by Intel's Kaby Lake architecture, AMD's Bristol Ridge, and the Snapdragon 8996 series from Qualcomm, will only be supported by Windows 10. Another curious aspect of the announcement is that it makes no mention of server versions of Windows. We are completely convinced that many users with Skylake or higher systems will try to install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 anyway, and while they can (after all, the installer should allow it), Redmond's message is that they will not give official support to those configurations. I imagine manufacturers will like the idea, but the enterprise world moves by other rules, other tools, and other times.
Source: Ars Technica
