Yeah, Microsoft’s decision to bump up the version number has little to do with Windows and everything to your experience with the OS.
On June 24, Microsoft is set to release the next version of Windows. Back and forth evidence — including leaked builds and teaser videos released by Microsoft in apprehension of the event — indicates that this new upcoming version will be called Windows 11.
Initially the thought was that Windows 10 would be the “final” version of Windows — of course, that’s what Microsoft messaged in 2015, implying that subsequent updates would be more incremental, instead of the “Astonishing” releases we saw previously.
Well then, why is Microsoft giving us a new major version of Windows now?
A Brief History Lesson About Windows Upgrades
Let’s refresh our memory: Before Windows 10 came out, we had enormous achievement delivers that introduced significant changes to the OS. They were huge trouble spots for consumers and associations who were overhauling. For instance, in the consumer space, Windows 95/98/ME went to Windows XP, which utilized the NT kernel and systems architecture we are still using now, and that was a huge deal for consumers.
Before that, while some verticals migrated to Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0, most enterprise businesses went from Windows 95/98 to Windows 2000, implementing Active Directory (and moving from LAN Manager and Novell NetWare to NT in the data-center) and then XP, so that migration was painful and disruptive to them for many different reasons. Then we witnessed that whole imbroglio with Windows Vista, then the migration to Windows 7, and the UX disaster that was Windows 8.
It’s was rough 20 years. Be that as it may, when Windows 10 turned out in the late spring of 2015, it infused some mental soundness into the condition. A couple of years prior, Microsoft changed to switched to a biannual cadence with incremental upgrades to rolling out its improvements. This became not simply not of bug fixes or a service pack, however a pattern of introducing actual new features.
Instead of waiting every five years, give or take, to introduce them, Microsoft did it twice a year. Because of this biannual update regimen, Windows 10 is a very up-to-date OS today, with lots of modern features in it already.
So, what is Windows 11 ? Well, if you read Ed Bott’s latest piece, it appears to be more of a fall update for Windows 10, with a new user experience.
Reasonable Changes Coming at Pace
Microsoft introduces a new Windows architecture based on ARM, containers and everything that makes Windows behave more like Apple does with iPad and MacOS Monterey on Apple Silicon. But does it have the technical expertise and the ability to implement it?
Fortunately, Microsoft may not have noticed, but they’ve been working on this for quite some time. The company has been openly discussing these sorts of changes at its BUILD conference and with partners. Also, the infrastructure for these changes still exists, including the containerized, sandboxed apps that are included in Windows 10X.
All of this is coming to Windows 11 after the new swimsuit and new hairstyle feature is gone. This application sandbox includes the fully documented MSIX open source package format to ensure that application installers do not exceed their limits.
But instead of waiting for all of these to mature and implement them as a major change in Windows 11, Microsoft took a “get customers used to the new look” approach, and then gradually introduced those factors. Like what we’ve seen with Windows 10 over the last 5 years, it should work properly. Can you live with this? Can I live with this? Can businesses and businesses live with this? Of course we can.
Upgrade and Don’t Freak Out
This is not the kind of change that will break applications or make most PCs orphans, although there is an external possibility that some older systems (such as 32-bit machines) will be excluded. Frankly speaking, these machines are very long. . But the reality is that for 90% of us, if we have a PC running Windows 10 today, sometime in the fall, Microsoft will provide us with updates through Windows Update, and it will be like any other Updating is as simple as that. Another fall update. It’s okay. In the past four years, I have had too much excitement. I can tolerate the predictable, boring, and gradual changes in my Windows environment. It will be refreshing.
What do you also think about ? Let us know.
