As of today Microsoft has stopped its free support for Windows 7. Less than a year after stopping their total support for Windows XP, one of the most popular Microsoft OS's ever, Windows 7 was sidetracked. By this, Microsoft is trying to make way for their brand new product, Windows 10.
Windows 7 is estimated to be used on half of the world's computers. It is generally stable, user friendly and with acceptable system requirements. These attributes kept it a favorite, although Windows 8 has been on the market for a long time now. There were many users who bought Windows 8 and reverted (downgraded) to Windows 7 after testing it. This will still be possible in the future.
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| image credit NetMarketshare |
The end of free support means that no more improvements will be made and users with software problems will have to pay if in need of assistance regarding their OS. It doesn't mean that Windows 7 will be vulnerable, unsafe or impossible to use, security patches will still be available for free.
Probably most of the software makers will stop creating programs with Windows 7 support and new hardware already comes, in most cases, with drivers only for Windows 8. There are solutions to circumvent these problems but most home users will find it easier to buy the new OS.
Windows 10 will be announced soon, and probably will be released in the second half of 2015. Beta testers say it is stable, but not in any way revolutionary. I bet that most users will be happy to stick with stable and user friendly versus revolutionary and unpredictable. In my opinion Windows 7 is here to stay for a while longer, no matter how good Windows 10 will prove to be, if only for the lesser system requirements. In today's economic depression buying a new PC only to be able to use a new, and not much better OS, will be an unwise decision. But let's give Microsoft some credit and wait to find out.
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