Microsoft is Digging its Own Grave With Windows 11, and It Has to Stop
upstart writes:
Look, Microsoft, we need to talk. It's no secret that you've been nagging me (and everyone else) to upgrade to Windows 11 for a while now, with everything from ads to in-OS reminders pushing me towards the settings menu to check if my PC is eligible for an upgrade. But here's the thing, Microsoft: this path you're on isn't sustainable.
I mean this in a few different ways. Firstly, the extremely literal sense; Windows 11 forces a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 requirement, which for the uninitiated is a specific chip on your laptop or desktop's motherboard enabling enhanced security features. No TPM 2.0? No Windows 11. Yes, I know you can technically upgrade to Windows 11 without TPM 2.0, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Is that enhanced security good? Yes, absolutely - but it effectively means that many older computers literally can't run Windows 11, which combined with the impending Windows 10 End of Life is eventually going to result in a lot of PCs headed to the ever-growing e-waste pile. That's a real problem in itself. But I'm not here to rant about e-waste (though it's really bad). I want to talk about how users perceive Microsoft's nigh-omnipresent operating system, and how its current trajectory could result in serious issues further down the line.
See, Windows is constantly evolving - from humble beginnings as an MS-DOS interface in the mid-Eighties to beloved iterations like Windows XP and 10 (and widely panned versions, such as Vista and RT). But over the years, there have long been whispers of a 'final' version of the OS; a 'Windows Perfected' if you will, designed to last forever with continual updates - or at least, designed to last for a very long time.
In a sense, what those hunting for this 'last' Windows iteration want is the same experience that macOS users get: an operating system that just continually gets free updates adding new features, rarely changes in a hugely significant way, and isn't chock-full of annoying ads. Of course, it's not quite that simple for Microsoft; Apple has incredibly tight control over the macOS hardware ecosystem, while Microsoft theoretically has to make Windows run on a near-limitless selection of custom- and pre-built PCs as well as laptops from numerous different manufacturers. Then again, keeping ads out of Windows should be as simple as it is for macOS, and that hasn't happened...
At the end of the day, Microsoft doesn't need to keep creating entirely new versions of Windows - it does so because outside of an Apple-esque closed ecosystem, that's profitable, as system manufacturers will need to keep buying new OS keys and users will need to keep buying new systems.
Sure, there might need to be major overhauls now and then that leave some people behind - the TPM 2.0 debacle is perhaps one such example. But there are cracks in this methodology that are slowly starting to show, and I suspect it won't end well unless Microsoft changes course.
If upgrading to a new OS is a lot of hassle for an individual (I've personally been putting it off for years, still using Windows 10 on my personal desktop), imagine how much work - and how much money - it takes for a large business to do it. Although Windows 11 adoption is finally on the rise, plenty of private businesses and public sector organizations are still stuck on Win10 or older, despite Microsoft's insistence for us all to upgrade.
A 2021 report by Kaspersky suggested that 73% of healthcare providers globally are still using equipment with an outdated OS for medical purposes. Now, this isn't just talking about Windows computers, but it's a damning figure - a more recent investigation by Cynerio claimed that 80% of imaging devices are still using operating systems that have been officially EoL'd and are now unsupported, like Windows 7 and XP.
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