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The end of Windows 7 is the real end of the PC era


steven36

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The certainties that Windows 7 embodied have long gone, and that's no bad thing.

 

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In just a couple of days Windows 7 finally goes out of support, which means no more bug fixes or updates for the millions who are still using the operating system, which first launched back in 2009.

 

In many respects the success of Windows 7 was the high water mark for the PC and for Windows. It has been much loved by PC users and admins in the past decade -- and not just for replacing its reviled predecessor, Windows Vista.

 

It's had plenty of staying power, too: Windows 7 users largely (and probably rightly) ignored Windows 8 when it appeared, and only with Windows 10 maturing (and old hardware giving up) has migration from the reliable and comfortable Windows 7 finally gathered pace.

 

But even with the clock ticking down towards the end of support, Windows 7 fans have proved stubborn. Although businesses have mostly made the move, there are still plenty of consumers hanging on to their old favourite.

 

My colleague Ed Bott has done some smart number crunching and reckons there are about 1.2 billion Windows PCs in use around the world, with somewhere around a billion running Windows 10 and most of the rest running Windows 7. As he notes, that means somewhere near 200 million PCs could soon be running out-of-date software, and any new security holes are unlikely to get fixed (unless you are willing to pay for extended support).

End of an era

The Windows 7 era coincided with the high point of the PC era, and the end of Windows 7 marks the end of the PC era, too.

 

When Windows 7 launched, the iPhone and its app store were around but were still novelties, while the iPad hadn't arrived yet. If you wanted to get work -- or pretty much anything -- done on a computer, you needed a PC.

 

Just over a decade later, the picture is much more complicated.

 

PC sales have been in decline for the last seven years; a slide which only ended with a small increase last year, largely because businesses needed to buy new PCs to run Windows 10, after bowing to the inevitable and upgrading.

 

In many scenarios and use cases the PC has been superseded by the smartphone, the tablet or digital assistants embodied in various other devices. And it's not just the PC -- Windows is no longer the defining product for Microsoft that it once was.

 

That's not to say the PC is dead, of course: I'm typing on one now, and it will remain the primary device I use to do my job for the foreseeable future. Many office and knowledge workers will feel the same.

 

But there are now plenty of other options: I could be using a tablet or dictating to my phone. I can't think the words onto the page, but even that's probably not too far away. And outside of work I barely touch a PC at all.

 

And even the definition of the PCs is getting blurry. PC makers have come up with a late burst of creativity that has delivered all manner of weird and occasionally wonderful new shapes and sizes.

 

Microsoft's Surface is a PC that looks a lot like a tablet; Lenovo's X1 Fold is a folding screen that can be a tablet, or a mini laptop or a desktop. Folding and detachable PCs are now mainstream. There is an optimism and a confidence around design that was lacking for a long time.

 

All of this is good, and long overdue. None of these innovations will mean the return of the PC's heyday, but they do suggest that, whatever operating system it runs, the PC will have a useful niche for years to come.

 

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when has windows 7 had to say it automatically uninstalled a driver because windows said it wasn't supported or automatically start cleaning because a hard drive space was getting low, automation is gonna be a real headache

and the worst of it microsoft keeps putting in new features they don't tell you what they are.😠

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When Windows 7 launched... If you wanted to get work -- or pretty much anything -- done on a computer, you needed a PC.

Steve, was using a mac in the early 90's, all needed was possible on that machine, there was no point to wait win7 for nearly 20 years.

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2 hours ago, mp68terr said:

Steve, was using a mac in the early 90's, all needed was possible on that machine, there was no point to wait win7 for nearly 20 years.

Comparing PCs  that were made before 2006 have nothing to do with now . 2006 was the last time PCs  seen a big boost .

 

Quote

The reason PC sales have declined is because there's been no compelling performance improvements to the same extent that existed between 1992 and 2006. The speed of cpu's roughly doubled every 2 years, that hasn't been true since 2006. From 2006 onward we'd be getting 5-10% every two years if we were lucky. Because heat, leakage and multicore means gains are limited  PC's will get a spurt once some new technology enabled an increase in singlethreaded performance again but that will most likely require new materials that allow increases in clock frequency. Which are decades if not a century away. The reality is with companies moving software to servers in their offices because the public is stupid there's even less of a reason to upgrade pc's if you're just going to get extorted for money with software as a (service) scam.

 

Linux is free and easy to use as a Mac OS and it works good on old PCs and dont cost 1000s of dollars for outdated hardware but none of that matters when most people uses Windows as tools  only for production  and use smartphones for consumption   . People used Apple 1 and 2 before they had Mac OS and people went 1000s of years  with no  internet what so ever but that has nothing to with the decline  of  the PC  in 2020 and beyond .

 

Price has a lot do with  it too  it's  like  NVIDIA SHIELD TV is a top end  Android Box that play 4k it's only $200 ;you can get  them cheaper  even. The cheapest 4k PC you  can build is around a $1000 and still the Shield  is going to play back 4k better  so if your not a PC gamer  you going to pay the $200  or less  to watch videos in 4k thats even if you know how to  build a PC  . Many Windows users dont know how to do nothing but use there PC  and they been taught no different because even in the work place IT's do all the system admin stuff.  So many people will use there cheap Android devices instead.

 

People who grew up using smartphones never had to take apart a PC and replace something like we use to do back in the day.  My nephew went to  collage too work on PCs  and due to lack of jobs in the industry  he does something else. So only the business part of his degree was any benefit too him.  ;)

 

 

2 hours ago, aum said:

Windows 7 was (is) overrated.

Regardless if it was are not don't matter . Back  when they made Windows 7  Microsoft Windows was the most used OS  because smartphones  were niche . Now Android is the most used OS  and Windows 10 PCs are niche .  They  still have there user cases  but  it's not  something everyone has to have anymore.

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24 minutes ago, Edward Raja said:

end of win 7 is not even end of the world tho.

Who said it was ? I've not used Windows 7 as my daily driver since 2013 and I'm a  devout PC user .  I went 20 some years of my life with no internet and  my world was just fine without it.  If it was the end of the World  nothing would matter no more . Does it matter Windows 7 is ending?  Yes it do to millions of people on it or they would of  moved on by now, but it don't matter to the billions who moved on or never used it.

 

In my country we have more IOS users than Android even and back in July 2019  IOS passed all versions of Windows  combined IOS has 33.27 %  and Windows have 27.99% market share for Jan , 2020. :lol:

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11 hours ago, steven36 said:

Comparing PCs  that were made before 2006 have nothing to do with now . 2006 was the last time PCs  seen a big boost .

 

 

Linux is free and easy to use as a Mac OS and it works good on old PCs and dont cost 1000s of dollars for outdated hardware but none of that matters when most people uses Windows as tools  only for production  and use smartphones for consumption   . People used Apple 1 and 2 before they had Mac OS and people went 1000s of years  with no  internet what so ever but that has nothing to with the decline  of  the PC  in 2020 and beyond .

 

Price has a lot do with  it too  it's  like  NVIDIA SHIELD TV is a top end  Android Box that play 4k it's only $200 ;you can get  them cheaper  even. The cheapest 4k PC you  can build is around a $1000 and still the Shield  is going to play back 4k better  so if your not a PC gamer  you going to pay the $200  or less  to watch videos in 4k thats even if you know how to  build a PC  . Many Windows users dont know how to do nothing but use there PC  and they been taught no different because even in the work place IT's do all the system admin stuff.  So many people will use there cheap Android devices instead.

 

People who grew up using smartphones never had to take apart a PC and replace something like we use to do back in the day.  My nephew went to  collage too work on PCs  and due to lack of jobs in the industry  he does something else. So only the business part of his degree was any benefit too him.  ;)

 

 

Regardless if it was are not don't matter . Back  when they made Windows 7  Microsoft Windows was the most used OS  because smartphones  were niche . Now Android is the most used OS  and Windows 10 PCs are niche .  They  still have there user cases  but  it's not  something everyone has to have anymore.

android is just as bad as windows when it comes to security.

much like toilet paper to stay safe you need to purchase a new

roll to have the best security.

 

android only benefit is its price point and how usefull they are

streaming / playing / tweaking. 

 

battery life on phones and tablets not limited to android has

taken over the sales ower windows desktops.

 

professional world has already adopted to linux or apple

just because the most common fix for a windows pc is to

restart it up to 5 times.

 

 

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I'm 

2 hours ago, halvgris said:

just because the most common fix for a windows pc is to

restart it up to 5 times.

 

Rock solid on all three of my completely different machines here, zero issues I'm aware of.

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