
Next-Gen CPUs Will Only Support Windows 10 - neverminder
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2498097,00.asp
======
Mithaldu
That article is horribly written. Technical details in MS' blog post under
"Our Commitment":

[https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/15/windo...](https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/01/15/windows-10-embracing-
silicon-innovation/)

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DominikD
Click-baity, misleading title discussed previously in response to equally
laughable article from Verge.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10917473](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10917473)

Why is something so atrocious voted up, I really don't know.

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Strom
The title & the article are worded so badly that I would go as far as to say
it's just flat out wrong.

This isn't about CPUs supporting anything. This article is based on
Microsoft's policy of adding support for fancy new CPU features to their
kernel. Microsoft has decided to build the new kernel features into Windows 10
and either delay or even skip adding them to their older kernels.

The new CPUs will still be usable with older Windows versions, and with other
OSes.

For Skylake, with the Speed Shift tech, the performance difference is about 2%
according to tests made by AnandTech. [1]

[1] [http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-
skylake-s...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-skylake-
speed-shift-more-responsive-processors)

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opless
"CPU does not support Windows XYZ" != "CPU Will not work with Windows XYZ"

~~~
Synaesthesia
True, we will have to see. If Windows 7 really doesn't work we might see some
kernel hacks.

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cauterized
I could imagine that being problematic for large corporations that have long
software upgrade cycles (for instance, because it takes them two years to
certify that everything they need runs on the new OS and then another year and
a half to develop an image to use for the new OS on all machines in the
organization, and then another year to polish the upgrade process.) What are
they supposed to do when old desktops break down and they need to replace the
hardware?

I assume that the new hardware will still run old operating systems under
virtualization?

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awinter-py
this article isn't really about microsoft breaking their policy of 'support
everything from all time', but that policy is breaking and it's going to get
worse. Drivers (especially printer drivers) are the first straw, followed by
lots of old industrial control programs written for XP.

Cross your fingers that businesses who need to plan 10 years out will learn
this lesson well and remember that the best way to do long support is shared
source application code (even if behind an NDA) on open source platforms.

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TimWolla
What about alternative operating systems? Looking at Linux: Will a random
Linux distribution work? Will a recent Kernel be required?

~~~
anta40
Bad wordings, I guess. Should be: "In the case of Windows, all next-generation
processors built by Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, or others, will only support Windows
10"

I think...

~~~
dkersten
Or maybe "Microsoft will only support the latest processors in Windows 10 and
beyond"

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chillingeffect
Probably lots of folks here are too young, but I remember Windows. That was
the one I used to run until they integrated spyware... Some of my co-workers
are stuck on it until legacy programs get ported, but I only run Ubuntu now.

I know they were trying to integrate Ubuntu into Windows, but it's a hack and
now that they're introducing CPU restrictions, why would I go back?

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smt88
Misleading title -- the CPUs will _not_ support Windows pre-10. They _will_
still support Linux as well as they did before. It's not like they're blocking
non-Windows operating systems.

~~~
cptskippy
I would argue that CPUs don't support operating systems at all. The operating
system runs on the CPU therefore it's the operating system's responsibility to
support the CPU architecture.

The title is flat out wrong and nothing more than clickbait.

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andrewvijay
So as long as the user is not a programmer or a geek who messes around with
different OSes, this shouldn't be a problem for anyone I think!

~~~
vdfs
99% of Windows users

~~~
andrewvijay
yes exactly. They are users not builders

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FussyZeus
I think this is a good spot for this rant I've had brewing awhile...

<rant>

I get so tired of Microsoft's continual half assing of literally everything,
but especially when it comes to things like this, where they're trying to move
forward across multiple avenues to keep everyone happy. They do this
constantly, it compromises their software quality, compromises driver stacks,
because they are simultaneously trying to have new features AND legacy
support, and they do this for EVERYTHING.

Apple does things all the time that I don't like (especially as an iOS
developer) but my experience has taught me that though whatever they've done
may suck in the short term, that there's a larger plan at work and it will
probably benefit me in the long run. I have NO such trust in Microsoft,
because every time they have a moment where they need to say "hey, this is
fucked, we need to move on to something better" it's ALWAYS followed by "but
don't worry we'll still be supporting all the old garbage to the detriment of
our OS as a whole."

I have little love for Windows 10, I don't like the phoning home every ten
minutes, I think the UI is ugly as sin, etc. but that is the future and I
accept that. At some point I will need to make that leap in all likelihood,
and this continued "well you really should upgrade but it's ok if you don't
want to" crap just makes me terrified as to what kind of pandora's box is
awaiting me when I decide to make said leap. Exactly how much stuff is going
to be broken because they had to make DOS applications from 95 work on their
NEW operating system?

Microsoft: Shit or leave the toilet. If you're going to bank hard on Windows
10 then make sure it's something WORTH BANKING ON.

</rant>

~~~
cptskippy
I would argue that Microsoft's greatest weakness is also their greatest
strength.

My 13 year old scanner works just fine in Windows 10 with it's XP drivers, the
same can't be said of my Wife's 5 year old scanner on her Mac. I didn't dare
tell her it worked fine on Windows too for fear she might throw her Air
through a window.

~~~
FussyZeus
To be fair, printers and scanners in OS X are much like they are in linux:
They either work perfectly immediately, or they'll never work no matter how
much you try. There is no middle ground in my experience.

I don't know enough about how print services/drivers work to make any
meaningful statements, I'm just happy I got a printer/mac combination that
works well.

~~~
cptskippy
That's generally been my experience as well with Macs but I've never had much
trouble getting a printer or scanner to work on Linux. That might just be a
function of when I tried however because I remember around 2008-2009 when it
was pretty futile to get WiFi working reliably on Linux, that is no longer the
case.

