If you’re a fan of the number 11, then Microsoft has some bad news for you. The world’s largest software company recently confirmed what many people had suspected for a long time: Windows 10 will be the final Windows operating system ever released. There will be no Windows 11.
Microsoft has confirmed that it is switching to the “Apple” model of operating systems. So instead of releasing a new version of Windows every three years, Microsoft will release major updates every few months – with smaller updates coming daily.
Ultimately, this means there are two giants in the desktop operating system field: Mac OS X, and Windows 10. And that sentence will probably be true 5 years from now, because neither company seems to have plans past its flagship OS (although Chrome OS could continue gaining ground).
Here’s the official quote from The Verge’s interview with Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, by the way:
“Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.”
Jerry was speaking at the Microsoft Ignite conference this past week.
To give that quote context, Nixon was explaining how Microsoft was releasing Windows 8.1 last year while also actively developing Windows 10.
Ultimately, this means we’re getting Windows as a service.
Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t explained how that service will work. Will new users need to pay an annual subscription fee? Will there be a free and premium version of Windows? We’re only 2 months away from the release of Windows 10 – but we still don’t know the answer to these important questions.
Windows 10 Updates will Occur Every Day
In addition to the news above, Microsoft announced that it was ending its infamous Patch Tuesday, where it would release forced-restart updates on the first Tuesday of every month.
Instead, Microsoft will release daily updates for Windows 10. The updates can take place at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Business users and server admins, however, will be able to choose when and how a patch rolls out. So Microsoft still plans to keep downtime to a minimum.
The First Update Will Be Called Redstone
We already know what the first major Windows 10 update will be called. Microsoft has already started working on it (or at least that’s the rumor). The update is called Redstone and will arrive in 2016.
Redstone will bring Windows 10 support to more devices than just desktop computers – including the Microsoft HoloLens.
The only real losers in this situation are the people who bought Windows 9 and Windows 11-related domains hoping to capitalize on the hype in the future.
For now, those people look like they’re out of luck.
