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Comment by andrepd | Hacker News Reader

Windows 7 is due to stop being updated very soon, all the while the only alternative is to downgrade into Windows 10.j sure don't call that "basically forever".

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1. Windows 7 was supported with security updates for over 10 years (2009-2020). Second to only Windows XP (13 years)

2. They offered free upgrades to Windows 10 for a long time (a year?)

3. Replacement cycles for consumer desktops/laptops are short relative to OS cycles, with some internet stats saying ~5 years on average.

4. You can still run Windows 7, you just won't get security updates. You're free to repair it on your own... If you can.

5. Just because you buy an OS doesn't mean you buy lifetime support and updates.

13 years of support may very well be above and beyond the norm in the software industry, but that doesn't make it "basically forever".

The free update to Windows 10 does though. And despite your GP's rhetorical flourish, it's hardly a "downgrade".

Well, it's definitely not an upgrade. There's no way to maintain privacy with Win10 by simply turning off telemetry once and calling it a day.

Sleazy bastards.

It absolutely fucking is. Ads infesting everything on my desktop. Pervasive tracking. Breaking updates pushed against my will. I'm happy that it doesn't bother you, but for me no f*cking thanks.

I've disabled the lock screen ads and most of the tracking stuff. It's possible it's still tracking me in some way that I'm not aware of, but as far as ads.. I don't recall Windows showing me ads for anything. Where are you getting ads?

Relative to software, it's basically forever. At some point you're still riding a horse and demanding that a highway be horse-accessible. It's unreasonable.

I don't think being better than the rest entitles you to abuse whatever superlative you wish. If the tallest man in the world claimed to be "basically as tall as Everest" I'd scoff at him too.

As an aside the free upgrade still works. You can get it from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=616447. Just updated my grandma's computer two days ago from Windows 7.

It works, it activates, and Windows will say it's genuine if you ever reinstall windows from scratch on that machine but technically you don't have a valid license for Windows 10. It's a complete non-issue for personal use and Microsoft is blatantly still allowing the upgrade process and issuing digital entitlements, but for a business this would cause you to fail an audit and need to pay up to license Windows 10. Basically it's a free upgrade for home users but no different than pirating Windows for businesses.

>You're free to repair it on your own... If you can.

You literally can't. It's proprietary software that you have a limited license to. This isn't like a deprecated Linux distro that you can always jump in and patch the security issues yourself.

Hell I'm sure if these tractors ran on free software, there'd be a business out there competing against the manufacturer by fixing old tractor software if it meant pulling in consulting fees from the farmers. But they can't, because we live in a world where you don't own software, you lease it.

They will also still provide 7 updates for money to corporate users.

>>> Windows 7 was supported with security updates for over 10 years (2009-2020). Second to only Windows XP (13 years)

So basically forever = 10 years as far as you are concerned? I have an elixir of immortality that you might be interested in.

Of course not, but 10 years is a lot better than Google's 3-5 for Chromebooks. Though consistent with their habit of nuking their own products, it seems like a foolish business move by Google--I too was burned by this and will never buy a Chromebook again.

How is your fourth point relevant in this discussion? Nobody is saying that devices are bricked as soon as they're unsupported, just that they become increasingly insecure without support and they contrast this with free and open OSes that keep working forever.

4. seems wrong. It would be illegal to repair it on your own for copyright reasons.

"They FORCED free upgrades to Windows 10 for a long time (a year?)"

Fixed that little lie for you. I still have two hard drives with Win10 still half-installed because I sure as fuck did not authorize Microsoft to change my computer, yet somehow they re-enabled automatic updates and forced that shit onto my systems..

Windows 7 is a 10 year old operating system and pretty much any hardware that ran it can also run Windows 10. Windows 10 was a free upgrade for Windows 7 users for years as well. This is wholly different from something like a phone or Chromebook that has no upgrade path at all when the OS support ends.

I have a game written for windows in 1999, and the same exe runs on my Dell xps. That's support.

Would you bet your house on the same happening on any other platform?

Android drops APIs left and right, apps just a couple years old stop working. MacOS is even worse, and Linux graphics stack is beyond comprehension.

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