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Microsoft Plans For Single-Screen Windows 10X Rollout in Spring 2021; Dual-Screen in Spring 2022 (zdnet.com) 40

Microsoft officials haven't provided a public update on the company's Windows 10X plans since they acknowledged in early May that they were switching gears by making it available first on single-screen devices. Internally, however, things are taking shape and the team is targeting spring 2021 for a first 10X commercial release, ZDNet reported Monday. From the report: Windows 10X, codenamed "Lite"/"Santorini," is not a new operating system. It's a Windows 10 variant in a more modular form and with a new, simpler interface. Originally, Microsoft planned to ship 10X first on new dual-screen devices such as the postponed Surface Neo. I'm hearing Microsoft's latest plan calls for 10X to debut on single-screen devices designed primarily for businesses (especially firstline workers) and education in the spring of 2021. And in the spring of 2022, Microsoft is aiming to roll out 10X for additional single screen and dual-screen devices, my contacts say. The first release of 10X will not include support for running Win32 apps in containers, as originally planned.
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Microsoft Plans For Single-Screen Windows 10X Rollout in Spring 2021; Dual-Screen in Spring 2022

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  • app store only will kill windows and make Linux king. And if apple wants any hope they better be willing to sell mac os for all of the X86-64 hardware out there.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 )

      What has Linux done in the past decade, that would make you think that it has a chance of being a competitor for Desktop Windows?

      Nothing really. We have some custom OS's that use the Linux Kernel, such as Android that have gotten some traction, but not much on the desktop market but on mobile devices, and integrated systems.

      There are even guys like me, Who had been using Linux as my Primary OS Since 1994 who had switched over to Windows for my primary Desktop System?

      Why?
      Linux stopped innovating, All those

      • I'd be perfectly fine with a moratorium on "innovating" until after they fix some of the bugs. Also, I'd like it if they'd stop trying to force their personal wet-dream interface down our throats.

    • Not if Buntekuh has a say in it. They already include an "app store" additionally to the normal, sane, package manager. Obvioulsy offering mainl Snaps, to make Linux ALL like Windows.

    • And if apple wants any hope they better be willing to sell mac os for all of the X86-64 hardware out there.

      1996 called and they want their talking point back.

  • by xack ( 5304745 ) on Monday July 20, 2020 @11:01AM (#60310679)
    There is just too many apps out there. RT failed, 10S failed, S mode failed, Mocrosoft going for failure 4. Chrome and Steam will be enough for 99% of people not to use 10X.
    • You forgot WinCE and PocketPC.
      • Fun fact: PocketPC is Windows CE, they just rebranded it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Fun fact: PocketPC is Windows CE, they just rebranded it.

          Incorrect.

          PocketPC was an operating environment based on Windows CE, but the two remained quite distinct. Windows CE disappeared in the consumer space in favor of PocketPC (which was rebranded Windows Mobile).

          Windows CE was quite actively used in the embedded community - it was real time and had a reasonably good GUI to hang your controller stuff off of. (Today everyone embeds Android for the graphical interface). CE supports x86, ARM, SH3/4, PowerPC

    • Win32 is here to stay

      There is just too many apps out there.

      You aren't wrong but it's worth noting that most everything is now based on the .Net framework. This means porting the framework would be enough to transition most applications.

      Chrome and Steam will be enough for 99% of people not to use 10X.

      I think the plan is to shift people to using Microsoft Chrome (or whatever they are calling it) and Steam is only used by gamers.

      "single-screen devices designed primarily for businesses (especially firstline workers) and education in the spring of 2021"
      It seems like they are trying to dislodge the competition in these sectors by mak

      • by JMZero ( 449047 )

        You aren't wrong but it's worth noting that most everything is now based on the .Net framework.

        I'm a .NET developer, and I like .NET... but this just isn't even close to right. Even most of Microsoft's software isn't .NET. Very few important/common consumer desktop applications are in .NET.

        I think the plan is to shift people to using Microsoft Chrome (or whatever they are calling it) and Steam is only used by gamers.

        Mostly Steam is used by people to play games, yes - but it's not like "gamers" is a weird

    • by ranton ( 36917 )

      Win32 is here to stay. There is just too many apps out there.

      The failure isn't from unsuccessfully migrating users off of Win32 apps. It seems to be from unsuccessfully creating containers for Win32 apps so they can run in new environments. This is their plan for Windows 10X and is one of the things being pushed back in the announcement.

  • ... and more about the QA. The efforts I'd like to see Microsoft put into the Windows environment is the creation of a viable, working Quality Assurance team.
    • ... and more about the QA. The efforts I'd like to see Microsoft put into the Windows environment is the creation of a viable, working Quality Assurance team.

      Provided "viable" includes "empowered", I agree. A QA team that cannot delay a release until the worst bugs are fixed is not useful.

  • by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Monday July 20, 2020 @12:11PM (#60310949) Homepage

    Windows 10 hasn't been their best effort (though far better than Win 8) and perhaps its time to wipe at least part of the slate clean and start again. IMO they should do an Apple - bin most of the current kernel and go down the unix core route with win32 as a translation API on top of a standard posix API with MS additions as and when required. Unix at core is increasingly the way the world is going in desktop, tablets, phones, network infrastructure, transport systems, and Windows is looking increasingly left field with win32. Yes you can dump cygwin on top of Windows but as anyone who's used it knows - its a long way from being the real thing.

    • by dnaumov ( 453672 )

      Imagine thinking you want to "bin most of the current kernel" of a modern Windows OS in 2020.

      • In heard the Windows kernel's underlying axrhitecture is anything but modern, and could use a modern redesign.

        Of course it would take many years to get the new design up to full-featuredness and fix the majority of bugs. So your probable point probably still stands, that thanks to greedy, such a switch would result in some bad times, at least at first.

    • The problem with this idea is that trying to provide a compatibility layer for Windows is hard. Even Microsoft doesn't understand everything Windows does. So one approach might be to put an earlier windows in a VM. Only, Microsoft isn't good at that either. There's software that doesn't run right in "XP Mode" on Windows 7, which is just XP in a VM. Granted, that was Virtual PC which they bought, and not their current in-house VM, but it's still not a good sign of competence.

    • Devil's advocate: Am I the only one who doesn't want to see a single OS philosophy take over the world? I'm a bit sick of seeing people say that every system should be based on UNIX or Linux and be done with it. Trying a few new things once in a while isn't a bad thing.

      That said, I have no idea why backwards compatibility layers haven't been a thing for a while. MS kept using all these hacks for years to keep 16-bit support working when they should have just made an serious software-only emulation layer

  • Well, lets see you have a threadripper with 24 cores and 3 screens, an old Windows 10 license was $200 But with the new Windows 10x it is 24(cores)x3(screens)=72(units)x10=720 points for that license.

    You can only buy license point packs at 1,000 and they are $1,000...

    Now all those in corporate amreica will have a new issue of trying to undersand the cores and screens in use during an audit or true up to see how many license points we need.

    • You can only buy license point packs at 1,000 and they are $1,000...

      "License point packs"....sounds like it should be used to buy loot boxes.

      I'm happily running Mint 20 so this is all academic to me.

  • So does the brain amputation come standard when you buy it?

    Will it be a big flat blue button with a picture that is supposed to mean "WANT! WAAAH!" for illiterates, that you just have to drool onto? E.g. for when you want a doctor because you tried to put the new larger super-thin Surface onto your shouler like a boom box, and cut your arm clean off?
    And will Apple sue?

    I guess the Black Knight's mentally disabled child will love it ... ;)

  • Really? Didn't they try this with WinRT and Win10S. The key value of Windows is the app base and even with the UWP apps which have been around for years, most of the useful app base has never moved off Win32.

    On ChromeOS, I can at least access the Android app base. With this change to Win10X my choice will have to be to use WSL2, with the GUI support they are adding and run Linux desktop apps or a Win10 VM. And if I do either of those, why do I need Win10X at all?

  • I heard about this a while ago, to me it looks like the first step to eliminate General Computing. From specs I saw, that new 2nd screen is a tiny screen about 1600x400 resolution, which is quite similar to a cell phone screen. So I can see the normal 1600x900 screen will eventually be removed (or split) to make cheaper devices, then what you have left is a cell phone with a physical keyboard inside a walled garden.
    • No. This is the first step in eliminating the desktop OS as we know it. Gone will be windows 32 apps (they call legacy apps), old Windows interlace with start menu, Microsoft accounts will become required to login, all apps installed through the app store. First they test this concept on Windows 10X and the like, the following logical step will be making 10X or its derivative mandatory on all new PCs.

  • Santorini:

    They codenamed it after a Mediterranean volcanic island that blew itself to hell in the biggest explosive eruption in that part of the world going back ten thousand years or so.

    Very reassuring, Microsoft.

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