Microsoft is making some terrible changes to the Windows support
policies. For the first time, older versions of Windows won't be
supported on new hardware.

Specifically, you won't be able to run Windows 7 or 8.1 on
Skylake CPUs or later. Well, there are a few get-out-of-jail-
free cards for a short time, but this just seems like the latest
Microsoft blackmail to get enterprises onto Windows 10.

In IT Blogwatch, bloggers can't disguise their disgust. Your
humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your
entertainment.

What's the craic? Ed Bott reports—Microsoft updates support
policy: New CPUs will require Windows 10:

In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says
PCs based on new CPU[s] will require Windows 10.
…
Historically...Microsoft's support lifecycle [offered] a
generous ten years of support for each Windows release.
Effective today, that policy is changing.
…
In a series of "clarifications"...the company announced that
support for...Windows [7 and 8.1] will be available only for
"previous generations of silicon."
…
New consumer-based Skylake devices must run Windows 10. [But]
Microsoft will publish "a list of specific new Skylake devices
we will support to run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1." [But only]
for 18 months.

[It] doesn't mean that Windows 7 and 8.1 are no longer
supported. ... The two operating systems will continue to get
updates through...2020 and...2023, respectively. But that's only
if you're using hardware that was contemporaneous.
…
[But] Intel's current, sixth generation processors, known as
Skylake, are the first that won't support either of the older
versions. [You] can still buy older PC hardware...the last
generation of supported Intel processors are known as Broadwell,
and those chips are still widely available.
…
While Microsoft will fullfill its legacy hardware obligations,
it won't be expending resources to help users steer clear of its
latest and greatest.

We’ve seen...over 200 million active devices already running
Windows 10 and unprecedented demand from...enterprise customers.
…
For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and
firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations...which is
challenging.
…
Windows 7 will continue to be supported...through January 14,
2020 on previous generation silicon. Windows 8.1 will receive
the same...through January 10, 2023.
…
Windows 10 will be the only supported [version] on Intel’s
upcoming “Kaby Lake”...Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996”...and AMD’s
upcoming “Bristol Ridge”.

Ouch. Gordon Kelly cuts to the chase, with Microsoft Makes
Windows 7 And Windows 8 Support Worse:

Refusing to honour
Think your copy of Windows 7 is supported? ... Think your copy
of Windows 8 is supported? ... Think again.
…
Microsoft is...refusing to support Windows 7 and Windows 8 on
Intel’s current generation ‘Skylake’ processors, with the
exception of a “list of specific...devices.”
…
Yes, you read this right: Microsoft is breaking from 31 years of
Windows history by refusing to honour its promised Windows
lifecycles.

Double ouch. Paul Thurrott cuts to the chase—Microsoft Finds
Another Way to Force Windows 10 Upgrade on Businesses:

Any means necessary
This behavior is mostly hard to justify, and is a far more
serious issue than the non-existent Windows 10 privacy issues
that others carp about.
…
And I am reasonably sure this has never happened before.
…
There isn’t a business on earth that would go to the trouble of
deploying on Skylake hardware now only to have to upgrade to
Windows 10 in the near future.
…
In other words, this is more of the same: Microsoft pushing
customers to Windows 10 by any means necessary.

AMD sales should be going up. :-)

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3023533/microsoft-
windows/microsoft-support-windows-10-new-hardware-itbwcw.html

According to the release of M$, they DO support Skylake, they will not, however, support CAnnonlake.

Remember when Windows Vista dropped support for half the scanners in existence? Just like that?

Why are people always supprised when microsoft tries to force it's crap onto on to it's users? It's like being suprised that the sun came up this morning.

Cool, a new feature.

http://i.imgur.com/bZwoCxO.png

Is the pic a joke.?

Just wanted to make sure you did not go back to Windoze.

The Dark Side is strong. :-)

Remember when you could buy a non-apple computer that ran mac OS?

It's all a part of the Matrix. It's just another form of control.

The intel management engine has gotten ludicrous and there is no telling what is in it:

What's the point of secure software if you can't trust your CPU?

Intel is in bed with the NSA:

Are we owned by NSA? Bitcoin Experts Discuss How to Evade Hardware Hacking

(But then again, all the chip markers are in bed w/ somebody.)

We cannot trust them anymore: Engineers abandon encryption chips after Snowden leaks

And the NSA has unlimited resources. Attacks such as this are not beyond the reach of an agency who's budget reaches in to the billions:

Researchers find new, ultra-low-level method of hacking CPUs and theres no way to detect it

The sandybridge had some wonderful little toys tucked in to it:

Secret 3G Intel Chip Gives Snoops Backdoor PC Access

Only God knows what will turn up in skylake. It probably comes out at night, crawls up your nose and plants your Borg chip in your frontal cortex.

Intel CEO Refuses To Answer Questions On Whether NSA Can Access Processors

Personally I'll be using hardware from pre-2010 from now on on any purchase. If I need more power I can always build a cluster.

And, of course, MS is in bed w/ the NSA:

Microsoft and the NSA

There is spooky stuff headed our way. We are having back doored tools and toys forced on us.

It is just another jack-booted lock step in the march towards an omniscient surveillance state.

Orwell didn't go far enough.

And, with the economic crash that is coming this year the govs are trying to kill two birds with one stone: "Stimulate" the economy by forcing corps to spend for IT upgrades and ram more spying crap down our throats.

(Snyder tends to be shambolic, apocalyptic and single-minded to the point of OCD in his conclusions, but he is an accurate reporter / aggregator of info that is hard to find in the main stream media. He also got a lot of stuff about the 2007/8 collapse correct. And by all rights it looks like this one is going to be a lot worse.)

And of course the coming "collapse" is all theater as well. It is all being engineered. None of this stuff is happening in isolation or by chance.

We've got ~15 years before it will get really bad.

A quick search of the net will show you a not insignificant consensus that by 2030 tech will be so ubiquitous and cheap enough as to enable real time surveillance of everyone in a metro area.

Co-ink-e-dink-ally enough that is also the same year that the UN wants to have mandatory biometric ID for every human on the planet:

The UN Plans To Implement Universal Biometric Identification For All Of Humanity By 2030

In the mean time systems like the coming Chinese citizen "sincerity" score will be implemented world wide.

Of course the final step in the whole poop bang will be to get you to take the mark on your body. Then it will all really hit the fan.

I honestly don't know when that will happen. I hope some time after ~2080; given my family's propensity to longevity that should still leave me enough cushion to be well in the ground and gooey by then!

Thanks Steven.

I copied your post to another website, but the links did not show.

What is up with that ?

Pretty much this.
Well that and why are businesses expecting to run an OS two generations behind the current one on hardware one generation newer than the current one? That seems like pretty poor planning to me. Yes, I know Windows 10 brings with it a lot of concerns but that's not a valid excuse -- the MS upgrade path is pretty darn clear and they're your supplier so do as your supplier advises and upgrade. Don't like it? Then why the hell are you paying for Microsoft in the first place? It's like going to an S&M convention and complaining about the whips chains.

I'm very glad that Steve Jobs (RIP ...) put an immediate stop to that! As Steve put it, "Microsoft licensed their system promiscuously," and therefore never had any control over the hardware that could run their system. (Google did the same thing with Android ...)

Apple always knows, and tightly controls, the entire user experience, and they always have. Which is the key difference between them and what Microsoft is now trying to do ... and will not be successful in doing.

Microsoft still has millions of installations out there which are running "Windows XP," and they're still being forced to support it on whatever hardware their customers have. (Or, they're simply "no longer supporting it, but it's running anyway.") They're stretched over 7, 8, Vista, god-knows-what version on the-devil-knows-what "box," and they can't do anything about it. If they try to force the issue, to compel users to abandon billions(!) of dollars' worth of hardware and to switch to "the version of Windows that Microsoft wants them to run, whether or not they want to," Microsoft will just get sued, and maybe regulated. That's all. Because these Windows installations are running hospitals, utilities, and many other things that are "of vital public interest."

Hmmm... "still writhing in its newly imposed status as a public utility, Microsoft applied to the newly-formed Federal Department of Software for permission to ..." Ugh.

There are valid reasons to do this. One example: Music production with digital audio workstations. I have seen many people in that business complain about compatibility problems with their expensive professional soundcards and Windows 10. Audio production is one of the use-cases that is very heavy on the CPU, so it is not uncommon to upgrade the CPU while keeping the expensive sound hardware. This decision by Microsoft now puts them between a rock and a hard place: Either they upgrade to Windows 10 for more CPU power with loosing the proper functionality of their sound hardware, or they keep Windows 7 and their hardware functionality, but can't get better CPU performance. Regardless how they decide, they are screwed by Microsoft.

This is only a problem to people who use Microsoft based Operating Systems. I don't use Microsoft Operating Systems anymore so this does not afect me. Microsoft are so out of the game now, it's unreal. PS4 has sold 10x the amount of Xbox One. Windows Phone has about 2 or 3% of the Mobile market share.

Also as for Microsoft's share of the Desktop Market.........I wonder still how many people out there are using computers with Windows XP STILL installed on it?

Many people now are installing various GNU/Linux Distributions on their Windows XP machines now as well. Unlike Windows, GNU/Linux is constantly evolving and cis supported by just about every Hardware platform.

GNU/Linux, Mac OS, BSD and UNIX for the win

Me personallly, If I was doing Music Production I would use Garage Band & Protools on the Macintosh. Far superior to Windows.