Intel might have slipped that Windows 12 is indeed coming next year | Company CFO sees benefits of a coming "Windows Refresh"

9 was skipped because there was concern with old/lazily coded programs running in compatibility mode for Windows 9x versions.

Basically, when the windows versions went from Win95/98/ME to 2000 and XP, some lazy programmers went “well by the time Windows 2090 rolls around I’ll be dead” and just had their programs check the windows version for a 9 when deciding whether or not to run in compatibility mode. If it detected a 9, then it would run in compatibility for 95/98/ME.

Microsoft wanted to avoid this potential issue, so they just skipped version 9 altogether and jumped straight to 10.

Regarding why they just jumped to 10, I subscribe to the theory that enough software that required XP or greater checked for OS compatibility by looking for the string "Windows 9*" to catch both 95 and 98

Funny thing. The reputation of Vista is universal, so I don't doubt it at all. However, I ran Vista starting from beta and never had a problem with it. I must have had the magic hardware combination that worked. My least favourite Windows release was 8.

The stuff that made Vista shitty to most end users wasn't truly fixed with W7. For the most part W7 was a marketing refresh after Vista had already been "fixed." Not saying that it was a small update or anything like that, just that the broken stuff had been more or less fixed.

Vista's issues at launch were almost universally a result of the change to the driver model. Hardware manufacturers, despite MS delaying things for them, still did not have good drivers ready at release. They took years after the fact to get good, stable, drivers out there. By the time that happened, Vista's reputation as a pile of garbage was well cemented. W7 was a good chance to reset that reputation while also implementing other various major upgrades.

I finally jumped onto the linux train after the rumour that windows 11 was going to have ads right in windows explorer. I'm glad it never happened but now that i'm on linux for my main PC.. i see no reason to go back.

In the programming world, versions with a 9 as a major digit, or most significant minor digit, are considered bad luck. Windows 95 and 98 aren't considered amongst that bad luck thing though, as they were actually versions 4.0 and 4.1, respectively. 95 and 98 were named after the year they were released, but their internal version numbers did not include a 9. Windows ME was a disaster though, and it's version number was 4.9...

It's kinda like how people are superstitious about the number 13, programmers are now superstitious about version numbers with a 9 in the version number now. Windows ME probably at least partly started that.

But hey, that's just coming from many years of experience with technology starting from the mid 90's and also a handful of articles I've read over about it, who really knows though?

I do believe that version numbers with a 9 in them lead the end users to think "Hey, this is a 0.9, 1.9, 9, whatever, when are they gonna fix all the bugs and release the 1.0, 2.0, 10.0, etc..."

The very start of that article:

October 6 Update: A newly published report has clarified that the discovered code bits are not related to Windows "12." Also, the next-gen Windows version will not require a subscription.

I bought a Dell XPS for work with a 12th gen Intel Evo CPU that came with Windows 11 and it ran like absolute dog shit. Slow, poor battery life, etc. I reinstalled 11 from scratch with an MS ISO to remove any Dell bloatware and it was actually worse. I ran the "old" Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and downgraded (through the upgrade option, ha) and it has been running great for months ever since. The Evo platform isn't even supposed to work fully on 10, and definitely not run faster or with better battery life. That's the inverse of what should have happened. Also, the bugs went away and I got a functional Windows Explorer back without having to pay for fucking third-party start menu software.

E: clarity

Not when its from ms

I don't understand Linux, but gaming on my steam deck is amazing and occasionally runs games better than my much more powerful windows computer.

Ive played wow on linux without an issue as well

Lutris is great!

Installation was a bit tricky but following the guide.. easy peasy.

How dumb can a person be and still use Linux for gaming? I'm open to switching from Windows but am only marginally technical so I don't wanna bite off more than I can chew

I love how it’s not even Valve directly, they just threw a huge pile of cash at the Wine team and said “go nuts”, and it’s been a boon for the entirely community.

In actuality 98 was crap until SE and XP was crap until SP2.

Its lower. Businesses basically pay a subscription for the ability to generate keys. So of course if you have a large business, the subscription is trivial in the grand scale of things.

Its similar to how game companies work with pc cafes in asia. They dont pay for all the games they host, some they pay a sub to generate accounts for people who pay for the cafe rental times. Its a vital feature for paid games with a focus on multiplayer (e.g Overwatch 1 worked like that in China)

Probably depends on the SKU (They probably give discounts if you preinstall) but for some Lenovo models where the OS is optional the price to the consumer is £80 which is 75% a typical license.

Sure but 8 and 8.1 were famously unpopular though (even though I personally enjoyed the Metro design language).

Windows 11 seems to be received generally well, but what's the push to upgrade now? Windows 10 being as good as it was has turned it into another 7/XP.

It's gonna be a slowwwww march for any alternative but Windows doesnt have the benefit of being the best by default anymore -- it has to work for it.

The steam deck got me used to Linux, I personally am never going back to Windows

Yeah, but I dislike the visual update.

The one thing I love is the new snapping options of you hover over the maximize button.

I have it on my work PC, I was talking about not installing it on my home PC.

That's great, but there are valid concerns about other people's use cases

I can't install it on my laptop because it has a hard drive. Immediately not something you can use - it scans files out of the box, making the system unusable. It doesn't let you just disable it without taking drastic steps, but disabling some features requires group policy. If you use some hacks to disable things, randomly other things break. For example, disabling the firewall breaks Windows Update (?!)

The last good version was Windows 7 where you could actually do 99% of things you wanted with Home edition without any issue.

just because you like it doesn't mean I have to enjoy using the spyware and windows 11 has been way worse for gaming then 10

My computer is 11 and I hate it more than any previous windows. Each newer version of windows removes features that previous ones had and makes customizing more and more annoying to do. Now that the Steam Deck has got me used to Linux, I wont be coming back to Windows whenever I upgrade my desktop

So with zero first hand experience then You're refusing to upgrade based on memes and conjecture alone.

Sure, you're well within your right to do so, but it's not a great system to live life by. People are far more vocal about bad experiences than good ones. RedStar OS has been awesome for me, and as a developer and gamer, I'm on my PC and Mac far longer than the average user. I've not had any issues with RedStar OS since it came out; the issues with the start menu and whatnot. It feels like it's cool nowadays to moan about North Korea products when the reality just doesn't reflect those complaints.

Try it out for yourself. It's actually a really good OS: I prefer it over Windows anyday. My dad, who is 'afraid' to touch computers in fear of breaking them, told me just last night how much easier RedStar 11 is to use than RedStar 10.

If after all that you still hate it, well, at least then you've made an informed decision!

Thank you, ChatGPT.

If it's forced and also needs a subscription, quite a lot of people will leave for the alternatives.

And 7 before it. And XP before it... Moot point really.

It was for me.

I use Arch btw.

Microsoft’s marketing department be like “no fucking way you’re getting rid of major version numbers. I don’t care if you’re just tacking shit onto Windows 10, people spend money when there is a big splashy number or release name.”

October 2021, so two years

... pretty much proof positive that win 12 will be subscription-based IMO

Don't worry! Control panel is being slowly phased out in favor of the settings.

That would be nice, but it won't happen. Too many things are sadly hanging on "runs on windows".

True but basically everything hardware-wise has tpm now. Probably just let the rest of the stuff age-out

What advantage does a TPM chip hold for me as a user? In most cases it seems to be used to take control away from me.

So you got Windows, Mac, and Linux. Which of the three options would you like suggested to you as an alternative to Windows? Lol. I guess I'll suggest Windows so you can just continue dealing with whatever Microsoft decides to subject you to. Or an Apple computer which people will berate me for because of the cost and the closed garden ecosystem. Or Linux and then get this comment again. Why am I even commenting lawl