Discuss - you think Windows 7 will live longer than Microsoft intended

[Alduins Khajiit]

when Vista came out, everybody downgraded to Windows XP, thus Windows XP support was extended for several years longer than what Microsoft intended. with Windows 8 and many other people downgrading to Windows 7, do you think the same will happen for Windows 7?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While the reasons you gave for XP being extended, M$ has made it pretty clear it has no intention of extending Win 7. It won't even make a SP2.

 

[Alejandro85]

Definitely, not only it may happen, it's already happening!
Ideally, for MS, each Windows version should cease to exist as soon as the next is released, so people buy the newer and pay again for software they already have. Both Vista and 8 were failures, let's face it, most copies that were "sold" are in fact part of the Windows Tax you pay when purchasing a new computer. On the contrary, XP and 7 were successful in their own right and merits.

MS would love to immediately kill both so all people buy whatever they begin to sell next, but the reality is that changing of stable systems is not so frequent, specially in businesses, so both may live for a looooong time, much longer that MS would like, and possibly longer than MS officially "supports" it, as it's the case right now with XP. I guess the same would happen to 7, unless 9 becomes really good and offers improvements, restores deleted functions and allows easy compatiblity with existing programs.

M$ has made it pretty clear it has no intention of extending Win 7. It won't even make a SP2.

Maybe MS doesn't plan to support it anymore, but if the OS continues to be used, the community will for sure provide help! Just look at the unofficial XP "SP4". And from MS point of view, that's equally damaging as providing support themselves, as the users will not buy the latest crapware they release.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Definitely, not only it may happen, it's already happening!...

Horsefeathers! Win 7, from pretty much the word go, was given an EOL (End Of Life) date of 01/14/2020 and will be supported until then.

...Maybe MS doesn't plan to support it anymore, but if the OS continues to be used, the community will for sure provide help! Just look at the unofficial XP "SP4". And from MS point of view, that's equally damaging as providing support themselves, as the users will not buy the latest crapware they release.

Again, M$ is still supporting Win 7 and it will continue to provide security updates through the EOL.

 

[Alejandro85]

Yes, sure, Win7 will be "supported" until 2020, nobody doubts that. I'm referring to a different thing.
2020 is just when the official supports end, when MS basically shouts "I don't care anymore about Win7, buy something newer", and maybe begin spreading self-FUD like they did on XP. That is the official position, and seems reasonable (except the FUD part, of course).
Now, for the real, end user, those events are to any practical extent utterly irrelevant. The user will only care that his machine does work, and Win7 (or anything else really) can perfectly work and do its job well past that date, even though they might not be up to the last standard of the time.

And finally, why already happened that Win7 already lived so long? Not because it has been superseded by a superior system, but instead because it's hindered sales of Win8. MS just want to sell its newest toy, not people sticking with the older ones, because that way they sell more. For them, making a good OS is a bad long term move, that's why I make my supposition. Win7 has already lived so long for MS business policy (which they now call "rapid release cycle" and all that crap), the very same that happened to XP. The fact that XP got its official support extended, again, is irrelevant for the end user.