Re:The end of Windows 10 support could turn 240M PCs into e-...
by beeboobaa on Saturday December 23, 2023 @12:48PM
(#38746252)
All your examples are from more than two decades ago when computer hardware was actually still evolving, and like you say, those changes actually had some basis in reality other than greed. The TPM debacle is 100% artificial. This is worsened by Microsoft marketing Windows 10 as "the last Windows you'll need" when they released it.
Re:The end of Windows 10 support could turn 240M PCs into e-...
by toast0 on Saturday December 23, 2023 @12:58PM
(#38746353)
Those examples were just the easiest to lookup and communicate.
Windows 8 and later updates of Windows 7 require SSE2. Windows 8.1 can be ignored. Windows 10 requires SSE2, PAE, and NX for 32-bit or AMD64 with specific support.
Microsoft clearly didn't anticipate Apple switching away from version 10, which necesitates Microsoft switching from version 10 to combat the version number gap. There'a still potential for Microsoft to backpedal on TPM, or deploy something that justifies it. Alternatively, if Windows 10 is the last Windows I'll need, I guess I'll move to FreeBSD.
Re:The end of Windows 10 support could turn 240M PCs into e-...
by jetrink on Saturday December 23, 2023 @12:52PM
(#38746299)
That happened naturally as early Windows developed alongside rapidly improving hardware. The situation today is due to an arbitrary policy decision by Microsoft. Microsoft could easily create a SKU of Windows 11 that runs as well on ten year old hardware as Windows 10 does.
Windows has always had published minimum requirements and actual minimim requirements.
A 286 will run Windows 3, but not Windows 95 or NT.
A 486 will run Windows 2000 slowly, but I'm pretty sure you need a Pentium for XP (wikipedia says Pentium 233 Mhz).
There's plenty of examples of increased requirements over time. The TPM requirement may be different in character, as it's simple to bypass and Windows 11 then reportedly runs fine, but it's certainly prescendented that some equipment that ran the old version can't run the new version.