Windows 7 PCs to fade out of view from October 31

[Victorious Secret]

 

Not entirely shocking that Win7 is being put out to pasture in new sales. 

 

Personally, if you're buying new, Windows 7? Really? Might as well go to work in a Model T and make calls using two cans and a piece of string. 

 

 

 

Thinking about picking up a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed? You might want to hurry as Microsoft has announced it will no longer supply certain versions of the OS to hardware partners from October 31.

Post-Halloween, Microsoft will stop sending copies of Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate to PC makers, which will be able to sell off (but not replenish) remaining stock. A cut-off date for Windows 7 Pro is yet to be announced.

Microsoft revealed earlier this year that it is ending mainstream (free) support for Windows 7, which turns five on October 22, on January 21 2015. That date will see it transition to Extended Support (which will end in 2020) and will include security updates and paid hotfix support.

 

 

http://www.appy-geek.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=29336722&m=d

[BonBon Scott]

Personally, if you're buying new, Windows 7? Really? Might as well go to work in a Model T and make calls using two cans and a piece of string. 

 

But...I like the Model T

#Windows7MasterRace

[Misanthrope]

Great MS, this means that if you're not even willing to sell me your product I should immediately consider it abandoware and move into a more gray area when it comes to just pirating it. So yeah, I'll wait for their next move and see if they deliver on WIN9, if not well abandonware it is!

[vorticalbox]

agree minus that mustard new GUI windows 8/8.1 is so much better than 7.

 

It only takes a few to make it boot to the desktop, use the desktop apps. You just put apps you use the most on the task bar and you hardly every have to see the start screen.

[Pugs501]

[Accursed Entity]

I am waiting for the mighty W9.

[Techhog]

ITT people complain yet again about Microsoft following roadmaps set years ago rather than bending over for some disgruntled customers. If MS gave into consumer demands the way some people want, we'd still be on Windows 98.

 

Also, it'll still be possible to buy them with 7 Pro. That costs more, but I'm sure that most of the people complaining would pay any price to avoid ever having to use 8 for more than 5 minutes.

[Misanthrope]

ITT people complain yet again about Microsoft following roadmaps set years ago rather than bending over for some disgruntled customers. If MS gave into consumer demands the way some people want, we'd still be on Windows 98.

 

Also, it'll still be possible to buy them with 7 Pro. That costs more, but I'm sure that most of the people complaining would pay any price to avoid ever having to use 8 for more than 5 minutes.

 

Yeah because fuck delivering a product people want, we must blindly follow our roadmap even if we fucking kill sales because the people obviously hated 8 and 9 is not ready yet anyway

 

Makes perfect sense to me!

[-TesseracT-]

 

 

Personally, if you're buying new, Windows 7? Really? Might as well go to work in a Model T and make calls using two cans and a piece of string. 

 

[Polyvalent]

7 is love, 7 is life.

[Techhog]

Yeah because fuck delivering a product people want, we must blindly follow our roadmap even if we fucking kill sales because the people obviously hated 8 and 9 is not ready yet anyway

 

Makes perfect sense to me!

Like I said, that logic would result in never advancing, and you can still get 7 Pro on PCs. If it were really killing sales as much as you think, they obviously wouldn't do it.

[Misanthrope]

Like I said, that logic would result in never advancing, and you can still get 7 Pro on PCs. If it were really killing sales as much as you think, they obviously wouldn't do it.

 

And your logic would result in never acknowledging one's mistakes and improving: The only reason to completely kill Win 7 right now it's to boost windows 8 sales. I could understand sticking to the roadmap if it was closer or at win9 release but setting up a plan and refusing to acknowledge things well, not always go as planned, it's just setting yourself up for failure.

 

Roadmaps are not to be set in stone, they should change and reflect the realities of things not going exactly as planned.

[totjup5]

Well that kind of sucks considering they haven't released a better os than 7 yet...

[Techhog]

And your logic would result in never acknowledging one's mistakes and improving: The only reason to completely kill Win 7 right now it's to boost windows 8 sales. I could understand sticking to the roadmap if it was closer or at win9 release but setting up a plan and refusing to acknowledge things well, not always go as planned, it's just setting yourself up for failure.

 

Roadmaps are not to be set in stone, they should change and reflect the realities of things not going exactly as planned.

I've seen similar arguments for why XP should still be sold and supported. If they don't stick to their guns, it never ends. Also, again, if they felt that this would have as dramatic of an effect on sales as you insist it will, it wouldn't be happening.

 

Tell me this; what if people don't like 9 either? So, then they should wait until a year after "9" to be sure, right? Then, if that doesn't work, MS is forced to extend sales until at least a year after "10". Both of those delays also means extending support by an equal number of years... until people complain about that like they did with XP. The next thind you know, XP and 7 are still being supported 30 years after release. At that point, it makes more financial sense to just stop making new versions. 

 

The simple fact of the matter is that you can't please everyone. There's still at least a year of 7 Pro PC sales, which seems like a good compromise. 

[Misanthrope]

I've seen similar arguments for why XP should still be sold and supported. If they don't stick to their guns, it never ends. Also, again, if they felt that this would have as dramatic of an effect on sales as you insist it will, it wouldn't be happening.

 

Tell me this; what if people don't like 9 either? 

 

Then you continue to loose money and fail. Sorry but this isn't a government backed project or a socialist company: If you can't convince people to buy your product then by all means you should fail and be run out of business.

 

Trying to trick or force people will only take you so far, at the end of the day there's no way around designing a proper product people want to buy and with good reasons since they're in the software development business, is it not the expectation that they develop proper software anymore?

[sof006]

I haven't used Windows 7 in months now. I actually forgot it existed for a second. I've been loving Windows 8.1, its great with the start menu mod. Can't wait for Windows 9.

[Heisenbleurgh]

I really like 7 but truth is I never gave 8 or 8.1 that good a chance. Once you move past the initial UI interfaces, it's not horrible.

I don't love this decision, but I can see where they're coming from and why it's happening. There's a lot of people that would've kept using XP had they not stopped giving support to it. From a technological standpoint, you can only innovate and push forward so much unless you let go past technologies.

[Techhog]

Then you continue to loose money and fail. Sorry but this isn't a government backed project or a socialist company: If you can't convince people to buy your product then by all means you should fail and be run out of business.

 

Trying to trick or force people will only take you so far, at the end of the day there's no way around designing a proper product people want to buy and with good reasons since they're in the software development business, is it not the expectation that they develop proper software anymore?

Your argument here completely depends on the idea that MS has put 0 consideration into the effects of this, and assumes that everyone hates Windows 8/8.1 as much as you do. Now, take a look at this:

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

 

Look at when Windows XP PC sales ended. Interestingly enough, they ended a year after Windows 7's release, much like how you're saying that 7 should be extended to a year after "9". Your first thought here is that this proves your point, I'm sure. However, it ignores a very important fact; if the end or XP PC sales was delayed, that means that MS took a hard look at the response to Vista and realized that only having Vista available was a bad idea. So, why hasn't the same thing happened with 7? It's simple: their data indicates that the negative response isn't so strong that not having home versions of 7 will greatly hurt them. This is supported by the fact that there's still no date for the end of 7 Pro PC sales set, even though that date needs to be set at least a year in advance. The people who refuse to buy 8/8.1 are willing to go out of their way or spend a little more to get 7 Pro instead, so the loss is likely to be minimal.

 

Long story short, Microsoft has more data than you, and you still have 7 Pro as an option. It's not the end of the world, and it won't kill MS.

[Thony]

They must be very confident about windows 9. Hope it meets the expectations as I want to pick it up next year

[hal9001]

On Haloween Windows 7 ceases to exist in the eyes of oems. Oooooooooohhh! Spooky!

[Misanthrope]

Your argument here completely depends on the idea that MS has put 0 consideration into the effects of this, and assumes that everyone hates Windows 8/8.1 as much as you do. Now, take a look at this:

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

 

Look at when Windows XP PC sales ended. Interestingly enough, they ended a year after Windows 7's release, much like how you're saying that 7 should be extended to a year after "9". Your first thought here is that this proves your point, I'm sure. However, it ignores a very important fact; if the end or XP PC sales was delayed, that means that MS took a hard look at the response to Vista and realized that only having Vista available was a bad idea. So, why hasn't the same thing happened with 7? It's simple: their data indicates that the negative response isn't so strong that not having home versions of 7 will greatly hurt them. This is supported by the fact that there's still no date for the end of 7 Pro PC sales set, even though that date needs to be set at least a year in advance. The people who refuse to buy 8/8.1 are willing to go out of their way or spend a little more to get 7 Pro instead, so the loss is likely to be minimal.

 

Long story short, Microsoft has more data than you, and you still have 7 Pro as an option. It's not the end of the world, and it won't kill MS.

 

Supporting existing customers is very different than selling to new customers. They might seem to correlate but there's imho no direct causation.

 

So with that out of the way: We're talking specifically about new customers here, people buying an OS for their new machines. They will have no option but Windows 8 and Windows 7 will not be an option in the most important selling season for the consumer market which is the end of the year thanksgiving/xmas season. 

 

So you're basically saying "We rather not sell Windows 7 at all and potentially lose sells even though we have no new OS ready and we already acknowledged Windows 8 was not well received (See here)" So basically it's a clear Fuck you, get Windows 8 now or just go to our competitors like Chrome OS or OSX (and for nerds like us maybe even Linux) We know it sucks, something new is coming but for the time being no Win7

Now is that simple enough to comprehend? Or will you still claim that there's plenty of mytical users that love Windows 8 outside of a mobile device? Because I work customer support and I know most people still either run windows 7 or bitch about windows 8 endlessly, and giving the fact that I deal with like 30 or so people with computers daily and this opinion is shared among all my co-workers I think it's more than an educated guess.

[harrynowl]

I guess we'll have to license startisback for customer sales then

[Techhog]

Supporting existing customers is very different than selling to new customers. They might seem to correlate but there's imho no direct causation.

 

So with that out of the way: We're talking specifically about new customers here, people buying an OS for their new machines. They will have no option but Windows 8 and Windows 7 will not be an option in the most important selling season for the consumer market which is the end of the year thanksgiving/xmas season. 

 

So you're basically saying "We rather not sell Windows 7 at all and potentially lose sells even though we have no new OS ready and we already acknowledged Windows 8 was not well received (See here)" So basically it's a clear Fuck you, get Windows 8 now or just go to our competitors like Chrome OS or OSX (and for nerds like us maybe even Linux) We know it sucks, something new is coming but for the time being no Win7

Now is that simple enough to comprehend? Or will you still claim that there's plenty of mytical users that love Windows 8 outside of a mobile device? Because I work customer support and I know most people still either run windows 7 or bitch about windows 8 endlessly, and giving the fact that I deal with like 30 or so people with computers daily and this opinion is shared among all my co-workers I think it's more than an educated guess.

*sigh* You win. You keep ignoring half of my points, so I can't really argue with you.

 

EDIT: Just to be sure, you did scroll down to the "end of sales" table in the link I gave you, didn't you?

[Misanthrope]

*sigh* You win. You keep ignoring half of my points, so I can't really argue with you.

 

EDIT: Just to be sure, you did scroll down to the "end of sales" table in the link I gave you, didn't you?

 

I didn't ignored them I explained why I didn't address them: We're not talking about long term support we're talking about new sales. I explained why I won't be lead astray to what I consider a barely relevant tangent.

[Techhog]

I didn't ignored them I explained why I didn't address them: We're not talking about long term support we're talking about new sales. I explained why I won't be lead astray to what I consider a barely relevant tangent.

I wasn't talking about long-term support either. Here, to save you the trouble of scrolling: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle#section_2