As of now, Microsoft seems to be holding fast to its promise to end support for Windows 10 in October this year. Old tech heads like me are skeptical as to whether Microsoft will keep its word as the clock ticks down, as we still remember when these same promises were made about Windows 7, for which support and updates lingered for years after its scheduled demise. In case you were worried, the October deadline doesn’t mean that Windows 10 will suddenly stop working, but if Microsoft sticks to its guns, the nearly 10-year old operating system might get the boot much faster than the previous deadline-defying champion, Windows 7.
Hang on, what happened to Windows 8 (or 9)?
For those of you paying attention, you may have noticed that only certain of Microsoft’s operating systems seem to enjoy more staying power than other versions. Since the early ’90’s Microsoft has been infamous for releasing alternating generations of good and bad operating systems, and if you ask any IT professional around long enough to experience at least 2 waves of this, they are pretty much in agreement that the current pairing of Windows 10 and 11 matches the previous cadence of Windows 7 and 8, and Windows XP and Vista, eg. good, then bad, then good, etc. The pattern actually goes back even further but I think you get the point.
What’s changed this time around isn’t that Windows 11 is better than 10. Most folks who have gone through the transition already would probably agree that regardless of what may have been improved under the hood, the Windows 11 experience is not an upgrade over 10. What has changed is the pace of security updates. Windows 10, through most of its early years, was updated on a monthly basis, with a few patches sprinkled throughout, and many companies would hold updates back from being applied upwards of a full 3 months so as to not disrupt operations. Likewise, many software developers would match Microsoft’s slow cadence with their own reserved pace, oftentimes exhorting their customers to delay applying new Microsoft updates too quickly lest they break their own software (which they did, regardless of your pacing).
Today, that’s just not going to fly. The pervasive onslaught of cybercriminal activity has forced Microsoft (and everyone else, to be fair) into an absolute frantic pace of updates. On top of this, the insurance carriers providing what meager safety nets they can for the inevitable cyberattack are now requiring that everyone manage these risks at a rigor previously only applied to much bigger organizations (and budgets). And if Microsoft makes good on their promise to stop updating Windows 10 – let’s face it, they have no good reason to do otherwise – then we will all have very little say in the matter. Windows 11 is what’s for dinner, and a Windows 10 peanut butter sandwich is not an option.
