Yesterday, January 14th 2020, marked the end of support date for Windows 7, and with that came the same cries of anger that came when Microsoft finally killed of Windows XP support back in 2014. All over the internet (especially Twitter) you can find people actually angry at Microsoft for ending support for the decade old operating system as per their support timeline.
It really amazes me that, for as obsessed with the “latest and greatest” that the tech scene acts like it is, constantly upgrading their systems with every new gadget that comes their way, having to have expensive upgrades on day zero, that they would be so in love with a bloated, decade old piece of software like Windows 7.
Oh, confused by what I mean by “bloated?” Let me explain – Windows 7 was, in all reality, just a “fixed” Windows Vista. It really is effectively the same OS, and was a bit of a rush job to get made. A good rush job, but a rush job nonetheless. When Windows 8 came around there had been a enough time and purpose to streamline the mess that was the Windows Vista legacy and the end result was an operating system that actually ran better than Windows 7 — including the System Requirements actually being lower than they were for Vista or 7.
Still, because of the “Start Screen” (a feature the average user., without realizing it, asked for by obsessing over tablets and smart phones like they had over the past few years) adoption of and reaction to the new Operating System was mixed, and many stuck on 7.
Then came Windows 10, and the “Windows as a Service” concept. Under this model, Windows gets regular smaller, but still major, updates, adapting to the ever changing nature of computer hardware, software, and the internet.
Microsoft even gave the upgrade away for free (and still does if you use the media creation tool) but even then people scoffed at it, preferring instead to stick to Windows 7, and they doubled down on that yesterday with some of the posts they made on social media, claiming that Microsoft “betrayed” them by, you know, following the support schedule they do for all software.
Some threatened to move to Linux which, I feel, were they the kind of person who would be happy with a GNU/Linux distro they would have migrated to it already anyway. Others still just lashed out in anger over a decade old, bloated, inefficient and honestly at this stage annoying to work with operating system reaching the end of its life, some making comparisons to how they “still use XP” somewhere. Good for you, I’m sure the second you try to actually browse the web on that thing it chokes to a crawl.
I’ve got machines running all kinds of obsolete Operating Systems. Right next to me right now is an old Power Mac G4 system running Tiger. Am I mad Apple dropped support for that? Hardly. I use it for what it’s good for — legacy applications.
The thing is, Windows 10 can run everything Windows 7 can, and then some — give or take some oddly specific programs that the average user will never encounter. That’s the beauty of Windows — it’s designed with legacy in mind.
From the standpoint of programs you’re using, things will be the same. Hell, they will probably be better given how much more efficient everything at the core of the OS is in Windows 10 compared to Windows 7.
Instead of leveraging the positives in raw performance and compatibility with new computing standard with the inevitable “negatives” of change (we all love familiarity after all) people focus on only those things they don’t like, and treat those aspects as reasons to hate something outright, in quite the childish fashion.
I’m not saying Windows 10 is perfect — far from it. Telemetry can be a bit scary to some, though given most people freely let Google invade their digital lives as it does I think Microsoft gathering basic usage data is trivial by comparison. Yeah, the whole “installing random games like Candy Crush” is pretty stupid and needs to stop. Yes, some people, especially particular power users, really prefer the classic Start Menu and could really take advantage of some tricks in it with some Windows versions but you know what? At the end of the day none of that affects my day to day PC usage. The improvements outweigh any annoyances I’ve had with the OS, and it’s only gotten better for me as time has passed.
As an example, last month I finally upgraded our work computers straight from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and we all noticed an almost night-and-day difference in performance. This was an in-place upgrade as well, done on the fly, and we’ve had zero issues thus far. Hell, one custom piece of software we use actually runs far better than it ever did on Windows 7. Whatever annoyances may be there for some, they haven’t affected us in our production work flow. Quite the opposite has happened, really.
I’ve had zero “reliability” issues with Windows 10, either at work or at home. Hell, I’ve only seen one “BSoD” since moving to Windows 8, and that was when my graphics card failed early in 2019! That’s it. For Windows 7, they weren’t common either, but if Windows 10 is as bad as some claim, wouldn’t I be experiencing more issues regularly?
So go ahead, whine and cry about it all you want. Switch to GNU/Linux if you really think that will somehow make things different. You should see the in-fighting in the Ubuntu community alone, and look at how things have drastically changed over the years (Unity vs Gnome 2 anyone?) You sound just like people 5 years ago crying when Windows XP support finally ended. Hell, even most of the Macintosh community finally let Snow Leopard die as their main OS, save for, again, those wanting to use specific programs on specific hardware. Of course, the Mac scene is quite different in some ways, but some of the childish reactions are much the same.
I get it, if you used a particular OS in a particular way for a particular application. That’s cool. You can still use it that way for that purpose all you want, but don’t expect a company to pour resources into it forever. That simple. Technology advances. You should at least attempt to move with it.
Meanwhile I’m here having abandoned the Windows 7 train personally the day Windows 8 was released, and I don’t look back. I’m the kind of guy who loves using old computers for the fun of it, but if a machine can run Windows 7, then it’s current enough in my eyes to be on Windows 10 and still being used to its fullest potential. Not held back just because you don’t like a few changes. You sound just like the people who hated Windows 95 for the changes it made… like that strange “Start Menu” thing instead of Program Manager.
Get with the times, Grandpa.
P.S. Thanks to PrinceWatercress for finding the above tweets.