MS support for Windows 7 ending Jan '15

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I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.
 
Why is it a joke? Do you know the difference?

Are you talking as a consumer of the product or as a developer?

Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.


No, the vast majority of users will be fine on extended support. It's not a "joke" at all. You still get security patches---the biggest thing by far---and program updates for IE and other MS bloat, er, software.

I run Linux more than Windows, but I plan to keep Win 7 on this PC as long as the PC lasts or until Win 7's EOL in January 2020. As long as MS ships security patches for it, all is well.

For the record, MS support policy has been five years of full support followed by five more years of extended support. They extended that---twice, I think---for XP, so it got support for 27 months "extra." Also, extended support now includes Home Premium (and I think Home Basic) versions, not just Professional and Enterprise.

Not shilling for MS here. As noted I run Linux more than Windows. But their support policy is reasonable, I think.
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Why is it a joke? Do you know the difference?

Are you talking as a consumer of the product or as a developer?
[/quote]
Let me have my little dramatic flourish here.
wink.gif
 
As long as the patches and any crucial updates happen until 2020 I'm good. I demanded a 7 computer from my employer in November so if it goes bad next month, things won't be good.............
 
I work at a massive corporation that just upgraded us(500k ish) from XP>Win7 internally last April. Not seeing them going to Win8 anytime soon.
 
i have windows xp and love it and dont plan to change it
i have used newer versions and really dont see an improvement for my needs
 
Everyone who held on to XP up until April of 2014 was on extended support. XP came out in 2001, so thats about a 13-14 year life-cycle. Win 7 came out 2009, so it will have had about 5-6 years of mainstream support then another 5 years of extended support putting the OS at 11 years old. As most of you would agree, thats a long time in the electronics/computing world.

Main difference, which most end users won't see, is that MS won't take into consideration any changes or ideas/input from users on OS updates or changes. OS should still get updates and who knows... maybe they'll extend extended support like XP. 7 sure is shaping up to be the defacto business OS from what I see.

Last thing... don't shoot me for saying this...

I don't hate Windows 8 with Classic Shell and am somewhat looking forward to it on my new laptop. OK I'm done.
 
Originally Posted By: redhat
maybe they'll extend extended support like XP. 7 sure is shaping up to be the defacto business OS from what I see.

Yup. From what I've read, businesses are not flocking to Win 8 like crazy, so Microsoft might have no choice but to play along and extend Win 7 support. Unless Win 10 comes out and is so brilliant that enterprises will just jump on it.
 
As mentioned in previous threads, users of linux on the desktop look to upgrade to the next version with anticipation, users of MS products search to the end of the world to avoid it.

W7 will be the corporate standard for years to come; 'no one' is going to 8 AFAIK
 
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Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.


Please tell us where you read this? Many corporations are just getting to Win 7.
 
Originally Posted By: redhat
.

Last thing... don't shoot me for saying this...

I don't hate Windows 8 with Classic Shell and am somewhat looking forward to it on my new laptop. OK I'm done.



Please don't shoot me either.

Windows 8 with StartMenu8 is my favorite OS of all times. For non hard core use it is great. It networked seamlessly, and what I put on one shows up on the other, plus it is fast! I have Windows 8.1 on both my laptop and desktop.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.


Please tell us where you read this? Many corporations are just getting to Win 7.


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

They are ending mainstream, but it sounds like updates will continue until January 14, 2020. Mainstream vs extended support is in a chart about 1/3 of the way down on this page: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy


So, if I'm reading it right, they will no longer provide Service Packs, but they will patch holes as needed until 01/14/2010. That will give it an 11 year supported service life. Where as XP had a nearly 13 year supported service life.

I think the main reason why this is much of an issue is because so many places didn't want to switch to Win7. So they switched 5 years into it's life, but they really only get 6 years of supported service life out of it.
 
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Don't shoot me either but I did not start using Windows 8 (and later 8.1) until I found out about Start8 software. About $5.00 worth of software makes Windows 8 (81.) completely useable. I have been using Windows 8.1 for a while with completely no problems. And my photo printer and scanner both work.

It was goofy for some people in power at Microsoft to drop the Start Menu from the desktop version of Windows 8 (8.1). I will agree with that 100%. I think they have probably learned their lesson.

I liked Windows 7 but Windows 8.1 is even better in some ways and starts up faster and shuts down quicker. It runs just fine. I like Mac OS X also but I don't like how my photo printer will not work properly in Mac OS X at this time. So apparently Microsoft does a few things right. But don't shoot me.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
I just read that Micro$oft is ending mainstream support for Windows 7 in less than a month, January 15 2015. Extended support (a joke) goes until 2020.

Whats up with that? I'd used Windows XP until 2010 and only upgraded to 7 out of necessity. Now 7 is already old news?

Planned obsolescence at its worst. Thanks Microsoft.


Please tell us where you read this? Many corporations are just getting to Win 7.


http://support2.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows+7


I was wrong on the date - I stand corrected. It doesn't end January 15. It ends two days EARLIER!!!
 
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Well if they continue to support Win 7 till 2020 I'll worry about it then. If they stop before then I will be using Linux on everything I own. I don't see myself paying for Windows anymore.
 
This is normal. The SP1 version of Windows 7 will end "regular" support in January (think consumer support). The product already saw EOS status quite some time back to force consumers to buy Windows 8. However it is still being sold on Business/Enterprise hardware.

It is covered quite well in this link:
http://support2.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

Which even gives a nice graphical break-down on the difference between mainstream and extended support.

Quote:
Microsoft will offer a minimum of 10 years of support for Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System (consumer or business) Software Products. Mainstream Support for Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating Systems will be provided for 5 years or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer. Microsoft will also provide Extended Support for the 5 years following Mainstream support or for 2 years after the second successor product (N+2) is released, whichever is longer. Finally, most Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System Software products will receive at least 10 years of online self-help support.
 
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