Windows 10X will not ship in 2021 - or possibly ever

[gjsman]

 

Summary

In a report from The Verge and Petri, Microsoft has essentially shelved Windows 10X (their Chrome OS competitor) and will not release it in 2021 as planned, or possibly ever. This is the latest setback in an OS that was originally announced in 2019 to compete with Chrome OS by being a thinner, more secure, more locked-down version of Windows that only supported UWP (with Win32 support being containerized and for release after the eventual launch) and by being designed for dual-screen devices. 

 

Quotes

Quote

The Surface Duo, Surface Neo, and Windows 10X grabbed all the headlines; Microsoft was shoved into the limelight with a folding phone, a folding PC, and a new OS. But as time moved forward, the reality of these ambitious projects turned sour.

 

Of the three projects, the Surface Duo did arrive in all of its Android glory. Running a Google-created OS, the Surface Duo delivered on its promise to create a foldable device made of the same premium-lineage of the Surface brand but the highlights were short lived.
 

Not long after shipping, Microsoft stopped promoting the device, updates were slow to arrive, and the future of significant software updates (moving to newer versions of Android) is unknown.

 

But the Surface Neo was met with a different fate. The device that was going to run Microsoft’s new 10X operating system was delayed and the OS was pushed down a different path. Instead of initially be designed for dual-screened devices, Microsoft would develop 10X for single-screened experiences firstand that was the end of the Surface Neo shipping anytime soon.
 

As we head into the spring of 2021, the plans are changing again for the OS. According to people familiar with the company’s plans, Microsoft will not be shipping Windows 10X this year and the OS as you know it today, will likely never arrive. The company has shifted resources to Windows 10 and 10X is on the back burner, for now.

Quote

There are many reasons why 10X isn’t coming to market including the fact that the timing and market conditions are working against Microsoft. It’s already hard enough to find new PCs and introducing a new type of device, with a new OS, to a market that only wants traditional Windows 10, is a tough pill to swallow. There are other realities as well, many inside the company didn’t believe that the OS was ready to start shipping and that customer feedback was not aligned to the product that they were producing.

 

 

My thoughts

A version of Windows 10, that only ran UWP, would just confuse and anger customers and was doomed from the start in everywhere except the education market, which due to the Chromebook dominance, the fact that students are mostly learning from home, and that Microsoft didn't announce any low-cost education devices to use Windows 10X but instead announced a luxury PC named the Surface Neo, meant moving 10X into this market was also doomed. 

 

Sources

https://petri.com/microsoft-shelves-windows-10x-it-is-not-shipping-in-2021

[jaslion]

The main issue was that the windows store that has uwp apps is just so barren, filled with utter garbage or just has really really old versions of apps. The only way they can ever even hope to do anything is to do a major overhaul of everything as windows in it's current state is such a disjonted mess held together by office tape and paper glue. They have neigh infinite money so use it already.

[Nowak]

People always give Google shit for canning projects repeatedly, but how many times has Microsoft tried to revolutionize Windows only to end up scrapping all that work later?

[Tieox]

Good.

[gjsman]

3 minutes ago, Nowak said:

People always give Google shit for canning projects repeatedly, but how many times has Microsoft tried to revolutionize Windows only to end up scrapping all that work later?

Countless times. As a developer, it's ridiculous. It started with Windows 8 apps. Then it was Windows 8 apps with two projects in them to share code between Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Except if you did that you couldn't use Silverlight, which was what most Windows Phone apps were written in, and had to move to the new Windows-8-but-for-Phone thing. Then it was UWP for both but threw Windows-8-but-for-Phone and Windows 8 apps basically in the trash. Then we didn't adopt UWP so you lucky citizen get Project Centennial with MSIX. But nobody adopted that either so we add app islands so you can embed Edge frames inside your Win32 app. But sike, we scrapped edge so we made a new component for you which uses the Chromium Edge, but you need to adopt Centennial and MSIX to use it or you're stuck with Internet Explorer. But then nobody used that either so we threw out MSIX and now it's Project Reunion everybody!

[gjsman]

Frankly, if you were a developer who decided to _100% ignore_ everything that the fanboys said about writing UWP and supporting Project Centennial and being in the Store... you saved a lot of time and frustration from something that ultimately amounted to almost nothing. Those who bought into the hype were burned over and over. Who wants a UWP developer, right now? There is a niche but it is super small. 

[TempestCatto]

Pirate Enterprise edition of Windows > Disable/remove bullshit > Disable updates > No longer give a shit about news like this > ? > Profit

[Sauron]

Good, it's a stupid idea.

[suicidalfranco]

Something I can agree with MS.

Now focus on making  windows actually good for once

[Brooksie359]

17 minutes ago, Nowak said:

People always give Google shit for canning projects repeatedly, but how many times has Microsoft tried to revolutionize Windows only to end up scrapping all that work later?

That because windows is great just the way it is so it's hard for them to innovate yet they still try. They should just focus on making the current windows better and fixing existing issues rather than trying to appeal to markets that frankly windows doesn't really make sense in. Sure they could try to fight crome os but tbh I think that is a dumb idea and a huge money hole. Android has been around for a very long time and had apps developed for it for decades now. If you want to fight that with ump apps then you are going to inevitably lose. Honestly a big reason why windows 10 is so popular is that it has so many programs that are compatible with it. You get rid of that then why even run windows at that point? 

[jagdtigger]

38 minutes ago, gjsman said:

Microsoft has essentially shelved Windows 10X (their Chrome OS competitor) and will not release it in 2021 as planned, or possibly ever.

What a surprise.... /s Guess someone wizened up and realized they wont be able to make the spaghetti monster called windows to run efficiently on low-power hw like chrome-os does......

 

3 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

windows is great 

[Nowak]

1 minute ago, gjsman said:

Countless times. As a developer, it's ridiculous. It started with Windows 8 apps. Then it was Windows 8 apps with two projects in them to share code between Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Except if you did that you couldn't use Silverlight, which was what most Windows Phone apps were written in, and had to move to the new Windows-8-but-for-Phone thing. Then it was UWP for both but threw Windows-8-but-for-Phone and Windows 8 apps basically in the trash. Then we didn't adopt UWP so you lucky citizen get Project Centennial with MSIX. But nobody adopted that either so we add app islands so you can embed Edge frames inside your Win32 app. But sike, we scrapped edge so we made a new component for you which uses the Chromium Edge, but you need to adopt Centennial and MSIX to use it or you're stuck with Internet Explorer. But then nobody used that either so we threw out MSIX and now it's Project Reunion everybody!

That's not even where it began. Remember WinFS, which was supposed to ship with Vista but scrapped soon after it was announced?

 

22 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Many, but you know what? They did that without launching the thing, preventing people from investing money/time or relying on it. Very different from Google, that launches the thing, doesn't like smaller success and tries to look for the next thing while leaving customers behind time and time again.

Not quite.

[RejZoR]

Frankly, I'm not mad or surprised. Windows 10 has enough problems that Microsoft should focus on it more. Now just bloody do it like you mean it Microsoft. Fix the stupid broken language selection in Windows 10 that I've been ranting for almost a decade, fix Microsoft Store the way they said they will and then we can talk.

[jagdtigger]

12 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Now just bloody do it like you mean it Microsoft.

Not to sound negative but that is not their MO, the OS is full of bugs but what they are doing? Replacing a font...........  Like thats magically going to fix the ugly UI and bugs as well.

[Master Disaster]

47 minutes ago, gjsman said:

Countless times. As a developer, it's ridiculous. It started with Windows 8 apps. Then it was Windows 8 apps with two projects in them to share code between Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Except if you did that you couldn't use Silverlight, which was what most Windows Phone apps were written in, and had to move to the new Windows-8-but-for-Phone thing. Then it was UWP for both but threw Windows-8-but-for-Phone and Windows 8 apps basically in the trash. Then we didn't adopt UWP so you lucky citizen get Project Centennial with MSIX. But nobody adopted that either so we add app islands so you can embed Edge frames inside your Win32 app. But sike, we scrapped edge so we made a new component for you which uses the Chromium Edge, but you need to adopt Centennial and MSIX to use it or you're stuck with Internet Explorer. But then nobody used that either so we threw out MSIX and now it's Project Reunion everybody!

I'm guessing you're quite young because its happened many times going back to some of MS's earliest releases.

 

A few examples I can think of without using Google. DOS 2.0 has a hidden UNIX compatibility mode because MS intended to unify UNIX & Windows. DOS 4 was never fully released because MS wanted to revolutionise DOS with full multitasking and failed REALLY hard. OS/2 was, at one point, the future of Windows until MS & IBM fell out. There was a planned build between 95 & 98 (codenamed Nashville) that was cancelled. They got halfway though creating a 9x kernel based version of Windows 2000 (called Windows Neptune) before abandoning it in favour of what would become XP.

 

By far the most famous example though was Longhorn. Bill Gates talked about how he was going to change the world of computing forever with his revolutionary WinFS. It ended up being so bloated that they srapped most of the code for the entire OS and started again.

 

WinFS really is fascinating though, I'd suggest you hit Youtube and watch a few videos about what MS tried to do (if you're into that kind of stuff).

[Master Disaster]

13 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Not to sound negative but that is not their MO, the OS is full of bugs but what they are doing? Replacing a font...........  Like thats magically going to fix the ugly UI and bugs as well.

Yeah, because the people responsible for design are the same people as the ones fixing bugs.... /S

[jagdtigger]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Yeah, because the people responsible for design are the same people as the ones fixing bugs.... /S

No, because if you have a buggy mess you should hit the brakes and fix your sh!t before moving on. But now that you mention it MS is in severe need for some real designer, because the current UI looks like a rushed rock-bottom cost bodge-job.

[Master Disaster]

5 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

No, because if you have a buggy mess you should hit the brakes and fix your sh!t before moving on. But now that you mention it MS is in severe need for some real designer because the current UI looks like a rushed rock-bottom cost bodge-job.

I mean, it was. They clearly intended to do a comprehensive redesign but realised it was going to take too long to finish and decided to launch with a half finished UI. There are rumours that the 2nd big update of 2021 will include a huge overhaul with a new design and the settings panel finally finished.

 

Why should designers stop doing the job they're being paid for because of totally unrelated software bugs?

[jagdtigger]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I mean, it was. They clearly intended to do a comprehensive redesign but realised it was going to take too long to finish and decided to launch with a half finished UI. There are rumours that the 2nd big update of 2021 will include a huge overhaul with a new design and the settings panel finally finished.

Or they just could release the OS with the old UI so ppl wont get frustrated fron an OS that has an indentity crisis....  As for the settings panel it still has a long way to go until it can fully replace the cp.

[Nowak]

tbh

 

I think that Microsoft needs to realize that they can't separate Windows from Win32, or many other legacy components. Without it, Windows won't sell, as they've seen four... five times already. They can't make Windows into a combined mobile/desktop operating system. They can't rely on brand recognition to sell either.

 

There's a reason why Google and Apple offer separately branded desktop/laptop and mobile operating systems. Because trying to combine the two just doesn't work.

[Guest]

What do you mean 'ship' it comes over the airwaves now. 

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, jagdtigger said:

What a surprise.... /s Guess someone wizened up and realized they wont be able to make the spaghetti monster called windows to run efficiently on low-power hw like chrome-os does......

 

While windows does have its issue it gets the job done and fairly well at that. I honestly rarely have times where I wish windows would do something that it currently can't currently do. It runs all the programs I want to run smoothly. I can play all the games I want. It's also is very responsive. If there is any complaint i have it would be that windows updates are buggy sometimes and it sucks that you can't delay it. Tbh there is no better os out there for what I like to do on my computer. 

[jagdtigger]

10 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

windows updates are buggy sometimes

Gross understatement, there no single month were they dont screw up something.... And i wont even get started about the idiocies win10 has, its a bone that got chewed on countless times already......

[Blademaster91]

16 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Gross understatement, there no single month were they dont screw up something.... And i wont even get started about the idiocies win10 has, its a bone that got chewed on countless times already......

I think windows 10 updates have gotten better, but theres still way too many updates that come up that can crash the OS or cause dumb issues. Or windows 10 installing drivers even though I've already install the correct drivers, thats a really annoying one.

But I'd rather Microsoft fix obvious problems with the OS than do things like change icons, or experiment with a version of windows 10 they don't even seem to be seriously interested in. The Surface duo is a neat device though, I like a folding phone that doesn't have the fragile plastic flexible screen, but I'm curious if this means Microsoft is going to kill it off.

[jagdtigger]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

I think windows 10 updates have gotten better, but theres still way too many updates that come up that can crash the OS or cause dumb issues. Or windows 10 installing drivers even though I've already install the correct drivers, thats a really annoying one.

They might moved off a few inch from the rock bottom but they are still at the bottom of the Mariana Trench......  Especially with their lazy solution with bigger updates reinstalling and reverting almost everything back to stock. I just cannot trust nor can take seriously any OS that overwrites settings and forcibly installs/uninstalls things willy-nilly.