Why Windows must die. For the third time

etienne_marais

etienne_marais

Honorary Master
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
16,253
Reaction score
19,743
Location
Centurion
Why Windows must die. For the third time

Last week, a key event occurred in the history of personal computing. It marks the beginning of the death of the operating system that we recognize today as Microsoft Windows.

This euthanizing of Windows has been planned for at least five years, and Microsoft knows that it is necessary for the company's software business and for the PC industry to evolve and stay healthy.

In order for the Windows brand and Microsoft's software business to live, Windows -- as it exists today -- must die.
More Windows 10

It is important we have some historical perspective of what "death" actually means for Windows, because it's already happened twice
Click to expand...

The first of Windows' lives occurred in the period between 1985 and 1995. During this time, Windows was a bolt-on application execution environment that ran on top of the 16-bit DOS operating system, which was introduced with the original IBM PC in 1981.

That OS "died" in 1995, when Windows 95 -- the first 32-bit version of the OS -- was released.
Click to expand...

The commonality that the consumer version of Windows and Windows NT had was that they shared many of the same APIs, which are collectively known as Win32.
Click to expand...

Shortly after the release of Windows XP, in 2002, Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework, which is an object-oriented development framework that includes the C# programming language.

The .NET Framework was intended to replace the legacy Win32. It has continued to evolve and has been slowly adopted by third-party ISVs and development shops. Over the years, Microsoft has adopted it internally for the development of Office 365, Skype, and other applications.

That was 16 years ago. However, Win32 still is the predominant legacy programming API. More apps out in the wild use it than anything else. And that subsystem remains the most significant vector for malware and security threats because it hosts desktop-based browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Chrome.
Click to expand...

Microsoft introduced a new programmatic model with the introduction of the Windows 8 OS. That framework, which is now commonly known as Universal Windows Platform (UWP), is a fully modernized programming environment that takes advantage of all the new security advancements introduced since Windows 8 and that are in the current Windows 10.
Click to expand...

Welcome, Windows 10 S

Microsoft's only choice to move forward is to throw the Win32 baby out with the bathwater. And that brings us to the introduction of Windows 10 S.

Windows 10 S is just like the Windows 10 you use now, but the main difference is it can only run apps that have been whitelisted to run in the Windows Store. That means, by and large, existing Win32-based stuff cannot run in Windows 10 S for security reasons.
Click to expand...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-wi...7ce1dc9&bhid=22226770484748291244556378768223
 
Windows 10 S isn't "Windows". It's just a restrictive version of it, in order to promote a specific feature of the OS (namely the Store). There are still other perfectly fine versions of Windows 10.

So no, this one version won't mean any "deaths" in the Microsoft family.

But 11/10 for drama.
 
Microsoft's only choice to move forward is to throw the Win32 baby out with the bathwate
Click to expand...

There are Win32 Apps in the Windows store. Windows 10 S will be able to run said apps. So there goes that theory.
 
AlphaJohn said:
There are Win32 Apps in the Windows store. Windows 10 S will be able to run said apps. So there goes that theory.
Click to expand...
As far as I know there's really no way to get rid of Win32 within the Windows platform if you want high performance programs running close to the metal for, e.g. games, data analysis, heavy duty number crunching, etc...

The overheads introduced by managed code (i.e. JIT compilers, byte code, garbage collectors) on platforms like .NET and Java will by necessity make them slower than the equivalent compiled code.

Apparently UWP programs can compete with standard C \ C++ Win32 programs when it comes to raw speed as long as they're happy to run in a sandbox without access to other processes. This means that you won't be able to e.g. write high performance Excel addins within UWP using the Excel C interface - a large number of finance \ investment companies depend on this functionality.
 
Ho3n3r said:
Windows 10 S isn't "Windows". It's just a restrictive version of it, in order to promote a specific feature of the OS (namely the Store). There are still other perfectly fine versions of Windows 10.

So no, this one version won't mean any "deaths" in the Microsoft family.

But 11/10 for drama.
Click to expand...
Not really. The Store is just an adjunct to the real reason.

It's all about getting beyond Win32's Wild West Show. Something Msft was talking about when I left in 1997.
 
Arthur said:
Not really. The Store is just an adjunct to the real reason.

It's all about getting beyond Win32's Wild West Show. Something Msft was talking about when I left in 1997.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you're talking about.

But it's clear that this is, above all else, to get the store more prominent.
 
What a stupid title. I wish there was a neg rep button sometimes.
 
Arthur said:
Not really. The Store is just an adjunct to the real reason.

It's all about getting beyond Win32's Wild West Show. Something Msft was talking about when I left in 1997.
Click to expand...
The real reason (as for now AD2017) are botnets injected by forced automatic updates. Botnets work for Microsoft and Microsof's partners on user's machines as clearly specified in T&C.

To advance to the next stage Microsoft needs to understand it cannot upset customers. If they neglet it, Windows 10 will share a fate of Windows RT.
 
Ho3n3r said:
I have no idea what you're talking about.

But it's clear that this is, above all else, to get the store more prominent.
Click to expand...
You're missing the whole point. UWP apps will be delivered via the Store. But that's actually incidental to the real reason: migrating away from Win32 as fast as possible without upsetting customers, esp large corporates. As UWP rolls out and the move away from Win32 proceeds, corporate apps will be available via other repositories properly architected and curated.
 
Last edited:
Arthur said:
You're missing the whole point. UP apps will be delivered via the Store. But that's actually incidental to the real reason: migrating away from Win32 as fast as possible without upsetting customers, esp large corporates.
Click to expand...

How do you get from "use store only apps" to "getting rid of 32 bit Windows"?
 
sajunky said:
The real reason (as for now AD2017) are botnets injected by forced automatic updates. Botnets work for Microsoft and Microsof's partners on user's machines as clearly specified in T&C.

To advance to the next stage Microsoft needs to understand it cannot upset customers. If they neglet it, Windows 10 will share a fate of Windows RT.
Click to expand...
Bots are the future of apps, especially for mobile.

If Msft, Google and Apple have their way, in a decade we'll be looking back at AD 2017 and chuckling at the apps we had. Almost all our work will be done with bots, and they'll largely be platform-independent.
 
Ho3n3r said:
How do you get from "use store only apps" to "getting rid of 32 bit Windows"?
Click to expand...
Much, much, much more important to Msft is deprecating Win32 and moving to UWP. Right now, the Store is the main way UWP apps are delivered, but that's not necessary, just prudent in these early days.
 
Arthur said:
You're missing the whole point. UWP apps will be delivered via the Store. But that's actually incidental to the real reason: migrating away from Win32 as fast as possible without upsetting customers, esp large corporates. As UWP rolls out and the move away from Win32 proceeds, corporate apps will be available via other repositories properly architected and curated.
Click to expand...

Exactly!

The title of the article is sensationalism at its best designed to inflame those that use Windows and designed to bolster the anti-MS brigade's mostly pointless arguments.
 
Last edited:
Arthur said:
Bots are the future of apps, especially for mobile.
Click to expand...
I wrote botnets. Botnets are already present in Windows 10. With botnets working in the background for the benefit of Microsoft and Microsoft's Partners (as per T&C and injected into the operating system) there is no point of talking about store, as operating system is a main problem. Let Microsoft ignore this fact, then public acceptance of Store will suffer the most and Windows 10S will share a fate of Windows RT.
 
Geoff.D said:
Exactly!

The title of the article is sensationalism at its best designed to inflame those that use Windows and designed to bolster the anti-MS brigade's mostly pointless arguments.
Click to expand...

No it is not, and I suspect others who had criticism regarding the title made the same mistake. It is a clever ploy to bait readers, the sentiments are not anti-Microsoft, it is pro evolution of Windows.
 
Windows 10 S is just a stupid plan to force people onto their store. Won't work.

"properly architected and curated" - Do NOT want!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X