Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will be their last ever operating system, with the company set to instead add software updates to the OS rather than opting for traditional releases in the future.
The new direction for the company was announced by Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon at its Ignition conference over the weekend, stating that the company is now viewing “Windows as a service” and not something that will benefit from incremental releases. This is a huge and undoubtedly risky move, with the future of Microsoft’s software now firmly reliant upon the success of the upcoming OS. However, it’s also a great way of getting people to make the jump to the new OS, and should ensure that the vast majority of Windows users will move on from their current version of the OS in order to follow Microsoft into the next generation.
Also See: Tesla Energy Batteries Have Made $803 Million in One Week
Windows 8 was in many respects a failure for Microsoft. Though its updates eventually made the OS far more user-friendly than it was at launch, the number of people who jumped on the bandwagon paled in comparison to those who were present during Windows 7’s release, with statistics released last year highlighting that even Windows XP has a larger user base than Windows 8, with only Vista and Linux falling below it.
Making Windows 10 the last Microsoft operating system is a great way for the company to achieve parity between all of its existing and future hardware, along with giving customers a great reason to move on from their existing OS. Microsoft offering Windows 10 for free for existing Windows 7 and 8.1 users for an entire year is also a surefire way to ensure Windows 8’s shaky launch will be all but a distant memory when the new OS arrives.
Traditional releases for operating systems are swiftly becoming a thing of the past, with downloadable updates proving to be a much more effective way of improving upon an OS rather than going back to the drawing board and starting all over again. Take Windows 8, for instance – at launch the OS was widely criticized, but come Windows 8.1 a number of its most glaring flaws were removed, with it then proving to be arguably the most impressive OS Microsoft has put on the market to date. If Microsoft makes Windows 10 impressive from the get-go and enough people hop on board, we should expect to never have to see a Windows 11 or Windows 12 in the future.
