Skip to footer

Windows 10 is 'the last version of Windows.' What does that mean?

With Windows 10, Microsoft is moving away from big operating system releases and toward 'Windows as a service.'

|
Jeff Chiu/AP
Windows 10 will be "the last version of Windows," Microsoft developer evangelist Jerry Nixon said this week. Here, a Microsoft sign is seen at the company's BUILD conference in San Francisco on April 29, 2015.

When Microsoft released Windows 8.1 in 2013, the company was already looking ahead to Windows 10. But as Microsoft prepares to release Windows 10 this summer, it is not secretly beginning work on the successor operating system, Microsoft developer evangelist Jerry Nixon said at the Microsoft Ignite conference this week.

“Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” he told the crowd.

That doesn’t mean Microsoft won’t offer operating system updates in the future. Instead, it means the company is moving away from large, whole-numbered Windows releases and toward small, regular updates to the operating system. Think of it as “Windows as a service.”

Evidence of this approach is available in the way Windows 10 is built. System components can be updated independently, so Microsoft can keep them cutting-edge without having to push out an update to the entire operating system. The Calendar and Mail apps in the Windows 10 Technical Preview builds have been getting regular updates to add features and fix bugs ahead of the official OS release this summer, and Mr. Nixon says, Microsoft will follow that “small but often” approach to updating from now on.

This move benefits Microsoft by helping to end the fragmentation currently plaguing the Windows world. For a few months in late 2013 and early 2014, Microsoft was actively supporting five different operating systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Even today, a substantial number of the PCs out there are running 13-year-old Windows XP. That’s because many people didn’t see a reason to pay money to upgrade to a new operating system when it comes out – why pay $100 or more when the OS that came with the computer still works?

Microsoft aims to change the situation with Windows 10. Since anyone currently running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 will be able to upgrade for free, Windows 10 should see substantial adoption right out of the gate. And once those users have Windows 10, Microsoft says, they’ll receive regular software updates for as long as their computer, tablet, or phone lasts. The number of PCs running legacy versions of Windows will dwindle, allowing Microsoft to stop supporting that software and developers to stop worrying about supporting old Windows builds.

Microsoft will still make money on Windows 10, since each new PC bought or built will need an operating system. But the company is forfeiting its revenue from license upgrades in favor of a consolidated approach that will allow it to spend less time supporting legacy software.

“Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers,” a Microsoft spokesperson told tech site The Verge in response to Nixon’s explanation. In a few years, we might get to the point where the operating system version number doesn’t matter much – people will just be running “Windows,” receiving regular updates without having to worry about paid upgrades.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Windows 10 is 'the last version of Windows.' What does that mean?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/0508/Windows-10-is-the-last-version-of-Windows.-What-does-that-mean
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe