Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Windows 7 - You Have Five Years Left

Start the drum beating.

Microsoft reminded us that yesterday, January 13, 2015, that they stop all support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.

Now for most people they will yawn and move on.  After all they will wear out the cheap $250 laptop they are using now and move onto another cheap $250 laptop by then, sliding it under the bed or into the closet and forgetting about it until cleaning day.

"Hey!  I need to do something about that old computer!".

For large businesses who haven't even migrated onto Windows 8, they will look at the notices and hopefully begin to plan.  It is five years in the future, and while you still can get Windows 7 today, the machines they buy today will still be in use in three years, and possibly five.

Most people just shrug and accept the operating system that comes with the computer anyway.  It's easier and you don't have to worry about it until it gets too many viruses and you start looking for an answer.  At $200 per "In Store" virus removal at a big box store's "Squad", it is probably cheaper to just "move on" and get new at the low end.

It's not one of those doom and gloom things, after all.  You have five years.  The machine you are using to read this blather will most likely be "recycled" but it is something to consider.

If you are one of those poor folks who has soldiered on with Windows Vista, you have until April 11, 2017 - a mere two years and a bit.  Then the most hated operating system since Windows 8.0 will be completely unsupported, just like the dearly departed Windows XP.

To be fair, once you get all the Service Packs, Bug Fixes, and Additional Changes installed in Windows Vista, it works fairly well.  It's just bloated, slow, and you'll be better off on Windows 8.1 as well.

But for Windows 7, this means that you will still get patches, just no new features.  Virus updates, bug fixes, and any other patches will get sent along as usual, but nothing really new.

Oh, and about that old computer?  If it runs Windows 7, it probably can run Windows 8.  If it runs Windows 7, I am certain it can run some variation of Linux, and if you really are nervous about support, some of those server versions of Linux are supported for another 15 years while others get another 5 with easy upgrade paths.

After all, that is what this blog is written on - Linux on a hand me down computer.  But Linux isn't for everyone, even if I did train a 69 year old lady and her 35 year old son how to use it. 

Great story for an interview, though!

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