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Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

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Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#31

Post by dvdkon »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #19
bgorman wrote: post #16

Can anyone explain to my why people are creating new embedded systems with Windows? It seems to me that the developer experience, ecosystem and driver support is worse in literally every single way, not to mention you don't have control over the OS code.

Working video support (without hardware acceleration) out of the box without any external drivers for all current and future graphics cards because they actually implement the “core” vga spec (plus all the official and unofficial revisions to get higher resolutions working). We have to ship updates to our bootable Linux and BSD applications every six months just so customers don’t get stuck in text mode, or worse yet…

My go-to solution to booting an older Linux version on a newer GPU is `nomodeset` and possibly other flags that force-disable the use of device-specific drivers. I don't see how this is different on Windows.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#32

Post by fooqux »

varispeed wrote: post #25

What Microsoft is doing should be illegal. If you buy a product, you should be able to use it throughout your lifetime or until the product naturally cease to operate. In this case, Microsoft should release an open source tool to cross sign the drivers if they don't want to support it or add an update that disables checking for signatures. If a company can disable software features in the future, then you are no buyi…

>If you buy a product...

Ah, but you don't buy this, you license it. That's where they get you. I agree it's very anti-consumer, but it's going to get worse.

> Imagine if you bought a car and then 5 years later company rep would come in and welded the wheels so that you wouldn't be able to upgrade your tires.

Did I mention it will get worse? Maybe not with the silly welding tires example, but we're basically there. John Deere, Tesla, Apple, and others are all deploying clever tactics to lock the consumer out of the things they buy so that they can rake in even more cash.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#33

Post by Kranar »

varispeed wrote: post #25

What Microsoft is doing should be illegal. If you buy a product, you should be able to use it throughout your lifetime or until the product naturally cease to operate. In this case, Microsoft should release an open source tool to cross sign the drivers if they don't want to support it or add an update that disables checking for signatures. If a company can disable software features in the future, then you are no buyi…

Is it not possible to install unsigned drivers on Windows 7?

You won't get support from Microsoft in doing so, but you'll be able to continue using Windows 7 and will have to find an alternative way of validating the drivers.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#34

Post by simion314 »

doikor wrote: post #21
fartcannon wrote: post #15

It's painful to repeatedly witness people voluntarily buy into ecosystems maintained by people with perverse incentives. You can't fault MS, making more money is their raison d'etre. If you care at all, even the smallest amount, explore the alternatives.

Microsoft did (still?) offer a free upgrade path from Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 for years so I doubt this is really for "getting money from our customers" but more "we want to stop supporting these old platforms at some point"

Not all computers could be upgraded , plus Windows upgrades is not 100% guaranteed to just work. I have a Win7 machine that is used sometimes by my son, I don't want to waste my time to attempt some upgrade or reinstall Windows then all the drivers and programs/games so that PC will run Win7 until it dies.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#35

Post by judge2020 »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #28
doikor wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft did (still?) offer a free upgrade path from Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 for years so I doubt this is really for "getting money from our customers" but more "we want to stop supporting these old platforms at some point"

Windows Server 2012 R2 is impacted by this decision. It's still under support until 2023-01. They made the decision when they wanted to stop supporting the old platform already.

If it's still supported, surely it'll receive updates then?

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#36

Post by pulse7 »

fooqux wrote: post #32
varispeed wrote: post #25

What Microsoft is doing should be illegal. If you buy a product, you should be able to use it throughout your lifetime or until the product naturally cease to operate. In this case, Microsoft should release an open source tool to cross sign the drivers if they don't want to support it or add an update that disables checking for signatures. If a company can disable software features in the future, then you are no buyi…

>If you buy a product... Ah, but you don't buy this, you license it. That's where they get you. I agree it's very anti-consumer, but it's going to get worse. > Imagine if you bought a car and then 5 years later company rep would come in and welded the wheels so that you wouldn't be able to upgrade your tires. Did I mention it will get worse? Maybe not with the silly welding tires example, but we're basically there. J…

You buy a copy of Windows binary code. In Germany you can even resell your copy of Windows binary code - for example when selling your old computer to somebody else.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#37

Post by m463 »

doikor wrote: post #21
fartcannon wrote: post #15

It's painful to repeatedly witness people voluntarily buy into ecosystems maintained by people with perverse incentives. You can't fault MS, making more money is their raison d'etre. If you care at all, even the smallest amount, explore the alternatives.

Microsoft did (still?) offer a free upgrade path from Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 for years so I doubt this is really for "getting money from our customers" but more "we want to stop supporting these old platforms at some point"

Not only free, but forced!

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#38

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

TheSoftwareGuy wrote: post #23
Someone1234 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no commercial vendor without "perverse incentives" if "making money" is on the list. Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Google, or anyone else. Essentially you're arguing that it is Linux or nothing, but in a very roundabout way.

Linux is not the only OSS Operating system. OpenBSD, FreeBSD exist, just off the top of my head

It isn't a real alternative if it is a bad fit for what you're trying to do with it, which those are for many many people.

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#39

Post by m463 »

bigbubba wrote: post #5
tupac_speedrap wrote: post #3

I'd like to read the article but the sidebar keeps moving up and down the page and it's really irritating.

As is often the case, the article renders fine with JavaScript and CSS disabled. This sort of scenario is why I run uMatrix in whitelist mode, with JS/CSS always disabled by default. These technologies are net negatives to me, I only enable them on select websites and my browsing experience is more pleasant on average because of it.

I disable javascript like you do- completely different experience. Some sites seem to manage sort of pops though - I believed it must have been html5, but now I'll try css

Re: Microsoft: No Driver Updates Allowed for Win7 and Win8

#40

Post by interestica »

varispeed wrote: post #25

What Microsoft is doing should be illegal. If you buy a product, you should be able to use it throughout your lifetime or until the product naturally cease to operate. In this case, Microsoft should release an open source tool to cross sign the drivers if they don't want to support it or add an update that disables checking for signatures. If a company can disable software features in the future, then you are no buyi…

Adobe now prevents the reinstallation of CS2 and CS3 (even with original install discs).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24865450

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