What's next for Windows?

[Dakota Tebaldi]

A couple of days ago, Microsoft's chief product officer Panos Panay tweeted the following:


The link is to a web page for an upcoming event which will be livestreamed on June 24 at 11am Eastern. The page is simply titled, "Join us to see what's next for Windows".

The fact of a livestreamed event along with the...suggestive pattern of light being cast by the "window panes" in the gif in Panay's post has a few people openly speculating about Windows 11.

In retrospect, something weird has been up for maybe a month or two. All of Microsoft's usually very active Twitter accounts have been increasingly low-key and some have gone quiet altogether.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

What to expect? Good question.

I think seeing finally a good Windows version for ARM is quite realistic, given the fact that with the M1 from Apple this architecture finally arrived in the mainstream desktop and laptop world.

Also an overhaul of the UI might be quite realistic.

And of course much more cloud integration, maybe also better out of the box integration with iOS and Android devices.

 

[Free]

Fresh new icons!

 

[Beebo Brink]

Also an overhaul of the UI might be quite realistic.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Sid]

New shades and curtains.
And a Hawaii burger with French fries please.

 

[Noodles]

"We cancelled Windows 10 X, which was like a souped up S Mode, that every immidiately turns off. But we really want this to be a thing so Windows 10 will be Store Only Apps from now on."

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'm actually quite happy with W10's UI right now. There's already been some reveals of updated icons, and I suppose IF what's coming up is indeed another version of Windows those will be in it. But the overall interface is good enough for me. Maybe the only thing I'd really like to see changed is them finally getting rid of all the Windows 7 control panel windows and making all that stuff consistent.

 

[Romana]

"We cancelled Windows 10 X, which was like a souped up S Mode, that every immidiately turns off. But we really want this to be a thing so Windows 10 will be Store Only Apps from now on."

If Windows were just store -only apps on all platforms, people would leave in droves.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

If Windows were just store -only apps on all platforms, people would leave in droves.

Yeah quite the opposite; the present rumors are that the Store is being revamped to allow devs to submit unpackaged Win32 apps to the Store, and a couple of months ago Microsoft dropped its take for apps sold on the Store from 30% to 12%, so I don't think they're planning to walled-garden the Store.

 

[Romana]

Yeah quite the opposite; the present rumors are that the Store is being revamped to allow devs to submit unpackaged Win32 apps to the Store, and a couple of months ago Microsoft dropped its take for apps sold on the Store from 30% to 12%, so I don't think they're planning to walled-garden the Store.

I repeat, people would leave. Anyone who had to use professional software for creating anything would want to be able to continue running it, including me. I couldn't afford to wait til some bowdlerized version of it appeared in the Windows store, and, insult to injury, then have to pay for same.
If they were stupid enough to make their system Windows store apps only, they'd dtive a lot of people to Apple. This writings also cause problems for me, because I just bought my computer last year, and can't shell out for a whole new system, plus new DAW, since the one I use never got ported to Apple. And then there would the learning curve for that. I know I'm not the only one this applies to.
I stuck to PC systems because I like systems where I can go inside the thing and upgrade,fix it, whatever. You can't do that with Apple, unfortunately.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I repeat, people would leave. Anyone who had to use professional software for creating anything would want to be able to continue running it, including me. I couldn't afford to wait til some bowdlerized version of it appeared in the Windows store, and, insult to injury, then have to pay for same.
If they were stupid enough to make their system Windows store apps only, they'd dtive a lot of people to Apple. This writings also cause problems for me, because I just bought my computer last year, and can't shell out for a whole new system, plus new DAW, since the one I use never got ported to Apple. And then there would the learning curve for that. I know I'm not the only one this applies to.
I stuck to PC systems because I like systems where I can go inside the thing and upgrade,fix it, whatever. You can't do that with Apple, unfortunately.

No no, what I'm saying is, there's nothing to suggest that Windows is planning to go "Store apps only".

 

[Romana]

No no, what I'm saying is, there's nothing to suggest that Windows is planning to go "Store apps only".

Sorry, hadn't had enough coffee when I read that, lol.
If they were going to make Windows phone a thing, though, they'd probably do it for that.

 

[Caete]

What's next? Easy. Windows as a service.

I've already seen Microsoft try and claim that my previous employer needed to not just have 1 licence per user but also per machine. That's right. That licence was just for you using the pc at your workstation. If you had to sit somewhere else for whatever reason, MS claimed we had to have a new licence for you to use that other pc. Never mind that the licence was per pc and that about half of the 2500 pc in the call center were dual licenced (NT/Win7) when purchased. I asked if we'd be reimbursed for the unwanted licences, (company was around 100K people at that time) another asked what was the procedure for licences bought for employees that then left the company, would this also be in place for other MS programs w use like Word, Outlook, etc. The best one I recall was if this was to apply to Window powered phones as they were implying that anyone who used your Window phone would also have to have a licence to use it (stretch of the facts but not that far). Shockingly, MS had no answers but would "get back with us".

Afterwards we got the greenlight to aggressively test open source for not just programs but also for an OS. About 6 months later we were told to halt as an agreement had been reached which I took as MS deciding their idea would result in a negative income flow and abandoning faster than a project by google.

So yeah, like paying per month/year/per user for Microsoft 365 or Photoshop? Enjoy paying way more than you used to for your OS.

 

[Romana]

What's next? Easy. Windows as a service.

I've already seen Microsoft try and claim that my previous employer needed to not just have 1 licence per user but also per machine. That's right. That licence was just for you using the pc at your workstation. If you had to sit somewhere else for whatever reason, MS claimed we had to have a new licence for you to use that other pc. Never mind that the licence was per pc and that about half of the 2500 pc in the call center were dual licenced (NT/Win7) when purchased. I asked if we'd be reimbursed for the unwanted licences, (company was around 100K people at that time) another asked what was the procedure for licences bought for employees that then left the company, would this also be in place for other MS programs w use like Word, Outlook, etc. The best one I recall was if this was to apply to Window powered phones as they were implying that anyone who used your Window phone would also have to have a licence to use it (stretch of the facts but not that far). Shockingly, MS had no answers but would "get back with us".

Afterwards we got the greenlight to aggressively test open source for not just programs but also for an OS. About 6 months later we were told to halt as an agreement had been reached which I took as MS deciding their idea would result in a negative income flow and abandoning faster than a project by google.

So yeah, like paying per month/year/per user for Microsoft 365 or Photoshop? Enjoy paying way more than you used to for your OS.

I don't pay monthly or yearly for either. I use alternative software. But with Windows I wouldn't have a choice, because I can't afford a new Mac and new DAW software (which I'd then have to learn, ugh), and my Windows PC is too new to abandon.
So I hope it's not that.

 

[Clara D.]

I'm actually quite happy with W10's UI right now. There's already been some reveals of updated icons, and I suppose IF what's coming up is indeed another version of Windows those will be in it. But the overall interface is good enough for me. Maybe the only thing I'd really like to see changed is them finally getting rid of all the Windows 7 control panel windows and making all that stuff consistent.

Main annoyance is that they insist on gutting Control Panel.

Sure, put more stuff in the crappy-to-navigate "Settngs App" but why gut the Control panel?

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Insert Linux user smirking.

Spoiler

       :-------------------::        ----------------
     :-----------/shhOHbmp---:\      OS: Fedora release 33 (Thirty Three) x86_6
   /-----------omMMMNNNMMD  ---:     Host: HP EliteDesk 800 G1 TWR
  :-----------sMMMMNMNMP.    ---:    Kernel: 5.12.8-200.fc33.x86_64
:-----------:MMMdP-------    ---\   Uptime: 4 hours, 38 mins
,------------:MMMd--------    ---:   Packages: 3838 (rpm)
:------------:MMMd-------    .---:   Shell: bash 5.0.17
:----    oNMMMMMMMMMNho     .----:   Resolution: 1920x1080
:--     .+shhhMMMmhhy++   .------/   DE: Xfce 4.14
:-    -------:MMMd--------------:    WM: Xfwm4
:-   --------/MMMd-------------;     WM Theme: Wallis
:-    ------/hMMMy------------:      Theme: Clearlooks-Phenix [GTK2/3]
:-- :dMNdhhdNMMNo------------;       Icons: Fedora [GTK2]
:---:sdNMMMMNds:------------:        Terminal: xfce4-terminal
:------:://:-------------::          Terminal Font: Monospace 10
:---------------------://            CPU: Intel i7-4790 (8) @ 4.000GHz
                                     GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
                                     GPU: Intel HD Graphics
                                     Memory: 1742MiB / 31996MiB

But I shouldn't smirk too much, don't get me started on how Gnome 3 was/is a clusterfuck of annoyance. I liked Gnome 2, I can't say the same for Gnome 3, it's why I use XFCE. I also liked Win 7 and Win10 better than previous versions of Windows, though I don't dual boot anymore. Here's hoping Microsoft doesn't bork up the next version of Windows too much for those who use it.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

But I shouldn't smirk too much, don't get me started on how Gnome 3 was/is a clusterfuck of annoyance. I liked Gnome 2, I can't say the same for Gnome 3, it's why I use XFCE. I also liked Win 7 and Win10 better than previous versions of Windows, though I don't dual boot anymore. Here's hoping Microsoft doesn't bork up the next version of Windows too much for those who use it.

Why are you not using the MATE desktop environment, which is a well maintained fork of GNOME2 under constant developmentm, and still looks and behaves like just that, but has also support for modern stuff like HiDPI and more?

By the way what also might happen some times is Microsoft using the Linux kernel as base for Windows. I mean they have already replaced Windows with Linux at Dom0 level of their own HyperV virtualization stack. Which is nothing more than an host os switch. So Microsoft already does not want to use Windows in its own cloud business any longer, where it matters. They are fed up with it.

So Windows on desktop might come next, who knows.

 

[Romana]

Why are you not using the MATE desktop environment, which is a well maintained fork of GNOME2 under constant developmentm, and still looks and behaves like just that, but has also support for modern stuff like HiDPI and more?

By the way what also might happen some times is Microsoft using the Linux kernel as base for Windows. I mean they have already replaced Windows with Linux at Dom0 level of their own HyperV virtualization stack. Which is nothing more than an host os switch. So Microsoft already does not want to use Windows in its own cloud business any longer, where it matters. They are fed up with it.

So Windows on desktop might come next, who knows.

Does that mean current Windows software will continue to work?

 

[Free]

Does that mean current Windows software will continue to work?

When has Microsoft ever dumped backwards compatibility? It's their bread and butter (and jam) in the business realm.

 

[Noodles]

Actually the future of Windows may be moving back to terminal server style Operating systems. Your environment exists on the cloud and it doesn't matter what the host is running really.