Win10 superior to Win7 = "rubbish"?

[George Tyndall]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/01/02/microsoft-windows-7-problems/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix&ref=yfp

Win7 extended support until 2020?

Here is how MS attempts to differentiate mainstream support and extended support?

• Mainstream support—Microsoft will offer mainstream support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability. For example, if you buy a new version of Windows and five years later another version is released, you will still have two years of support left for the previous version.


• Extended support—Microsoft will offer extended support for a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product's general availability.

[Steve Grisetti]

I don't know. Bob or one of our other software experts may have other thoughts -- but I still stand by my belief that Windows 10 is the future. Just like OSX is on a Mac. Ultimately its benefits will outweigh any liabilities.

[Bob]

That definition for mainstream and extended support was certainly mangled.

Per Microsoft, the current policy provides 10 years of support (a minimum of 5 years Mainstream Support and a minimum of 5 years Extended Support). It's clear that mainstream and extended are consecutive, not concurrent. You need to be current service pack level to get the maximum support lifecycle. Older service packs expire 1 to 2 years after a subsequent service pack is released.

When mainstream support ends, you still get fixes for security and reliability issues, but you don't get new features or enhancements. Windows 7 with service pack 1 ends mainstream support January 13, 2015.

When extended support ends, you stop getting security and reliability patches. Extended support will end January 14, 2020.

So, Windows 7 still has a lot of life left in it. In fact, PCs with Windows 7 Professional can still be sold. End of sales for those PCs is October 31, 2016

I'm a firm advocate for maintaining currency with Operating Systems. Windows 10 (at the present) is the future. But, I don't necessarily advocate being on the bleeding edge. If you can benefit from the upgrade now go ahead. If I were running Windows 8, I would definitely upgrade now. But, don't feel forced. We've still got a while before the free upgrade offer expires. Hopefully, the initial hiccups and transition issues will be resolved by then.

[Chris B]

Whilst I understand the sentiment of the article - and agree to an extent that this is largely about getting people onto one platform - they could really do with checking their own facts.

Windows 7 is no less secure than Windows 10

Apart from UEFI boot support, a sandboxed app system (for "modern" apps - coming for win32 apps), inbuilt AV software from install, improved ALSR, inbuilt device encryption and forced updates (contentious I know - but will prevent known security holes being present on systems). I grant that most of those were available in Windows 8 - but the comparison was made from 7 to 10.

Full disclosure - I have not upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 yet - but I do have an insider copy.

[Chuck Engels]

I have upgraded most of my computers to Windows 10 and love it, the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8 and twice as fast to boot and load.