They have tried exactly that with Windows 10 LTSC. And killed it off quite qucikly.

It was gimped from the start, LTSB/LTSC was never available to the general public

>And killed it off quite qucikly.

Evidently not, considering there were 4 such releases. The earliest was on July 29, 2015, and the latest was on November 16, 2021 and will be supported until January 13, 2032.

It hasn't been killed off. Microsoft has confirmed publicly that Windows 11 will have an LTSC release.

Curious what they will do about Microsoft Store apps in such a release. It's becoming more of a pressing concern. Maybe Windows 11 LTSC will have a "filtered flathub" situation similar to Red Hat / Fedora?

> [..] Windows 10 LTSC. And killed it off quite qucikly

They really didn't.

Full disclosure: I installed Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 on a brand new laptop earlier today :)

For this specific device, my wish is a Windows-compatible OS that's going to shut up and stay out of the way, and it seems the LTSC variant of Win10 is the closest Microsoft are willing to provide at the moment.

That LTSC doesn't come with Edge, Cortana or the Windows Store, well that's just the icing on the cake.

Or just have two Desktop Environments. One for the hoi polloi where the designers can go wild and the bean counters can push MSN "news", and one for Enterprise/Professionals that is more or less "Classic".

Like the good old times with Windows ME and 2000!

NT4 and 2000. Please leave Windows ME behind closed doors, thank you.

No NT4 is of the same lineage as 2000. I was referring to the other lineage of Windows with ME being the last one. The unification that XP provided was good for stability, but the eventual result is this whole Windows 11 ordeal.

I meant the UI; NT4 and 2000 were the nice and clean ones, for enterprise and professionals; ME had already first signs of the cartoon world, that XP continued on.

Looking back at the comment, yes, you are right. Both lines could share under the hood stuff, the NT/2000 line with clean UI and the ME line the colorized cartoon one. Or, they could split the line with Home and Pro, both of them they still have.

Only very rich corporations like FOSS community can simultaneously support two DEs (especially when one of them never changes too much). Microsoft has neither budget nor enough staff for that.

Sarcasm noted, however when looking at WinUI 3.0/WinAppSDK/... progress, one really wonders who's left.

> Enterprise/Professionals that is more or less "Classic".

Yes - I’ve been wondering since win10 why Microsoft thinks the enterprise edition needs an xbox app preinstalled.