Microsoft provides details on Windows 10 21H1 upgrade with new Hello feature – Computer – News

The versioning idea has been abandoned because it causes too many problems in the always online world.

After all, because the entire IT world is moving faster than ever, where everything has to talk to each other, even the simplest user is constantly making new demands on his OS. For example, Windows 7 does not support Ryzen, the first Win 10 versions do not support Ryzen either. And there are 101 things that need to be adapted or added, whether it is for security, hardware support, printer support, new sleep states to save battery better or something else.

The versioning idea had its heyday with XP and Vista, because enterprise customers were not keen to roll out every version due to a lot of hassle, they had taken XP for a long time to release a gigantic new version in one go. The problem with this kind of big bang is that people suddenly changed a lot, user was no longer admin, the entire driver model was changed, the entire audio model was adjusted, 64 bit support (there was already an XP 64bit but it never got off the ground come), and keep going. The OS itself was pretty ok when it came out, especially compared to XP on release but everything around it, third party drivers & third party software, by the time they finally got along with all those innovations, Vista had already cursed its name to the worst OS ever and MS promptly decided to turn it into Windows 7, because the difference between Vista and 7 is very small.

Coupled with this, people have to respond faster and faster to the always-connected world, the versioning idea no longer works, you can no longer wait for years to properly cover a security leak because it requires heavy adjustments where you used to have to come up with a new OS. Windows 10 should really just become Windows just like you don’t have Whatsapp 2014, whatsapp 2016 or whatsapp 2018, you just have Whatsapp getting small updates continuously. MS therefore continuously releases small upgrades for Windows 10 so that people can quickly respond to new requirements where they do it step by step, then the printer support is addressed, now hello is addressed and the next time they tackle something different, but always in small steps so that it all remains manageable for both MS and third party.

Android is moving to the same model, more and more modular, whereby more and more parts are run through the Playstore with the ultimate goal of doing the same, you have Android and no longer Android 9 or 10 or 11. Apple is still fully in the versioning story, if one wants to do an update of the “call app” one is obliged to roll out a full IOS update with all the trimmings although I suspect that Apple is also working behind the scenes to move away from this but at my know nothing publicly known about it yet.

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