Who could have predicted that Microsoft's "last system" Windows 10 would have a successor.
People thought that Microsoft would launch major updates to the Windows 10 system in the second half of the year, as it had done in the past 5 years, with its internal codename Sun Vally (Sun Valley) and officially codenamed 2021H2 (meaning the second half of 2021 update). Who would have thought that this time Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella personally disclosed the news[1], the internal beta sneak run, various warm-up short films and promotional posters, making things different...
Big Sheep, a cute author
Yi Meng 丨 Editor
Magnifying light team 丨 planning
The update was met with extraordinary courtesy — Microsoft held a separate web conference on June 24 (in fact, Microsoft hasn't held a major conference for the operating system since Windows 10 was officially launched in July 2015) and has a separate name: Windows 11.
Wait, something doesn't seem right.
Back in 2015, when Windows 10 was released, people were told that Windows 10 would be Microsoft's last generation operating system, and there would only be updates in the future, not upgrades. But the events of the past month have made people feel that Microsoft's "renaming department" is brushing the sense of existence again.
Why do people think "Windows 11 shouldn't exist"? Microsoft changed its name to the ministry unjustly? Did you really punch you in the face?
Probably not this time.
A "oolong" who deceived all of China
People have always believed that "Microsoft will no longer launch Windows 11, 12 and other follow-up systems" from Terry Meyerson, then microsoft's executive vice president of Windows and devices, but this is a typical "Mandela effect" (referring to the public's collective memory is inconsistent with historical facts), and no one has ever seriously examined what Myerson said.
Let's look for answers from Microsoft's tech blog.
In January 2015, Terry Myerson wrote on Microsoft's official technology blog, "We will release new features when they are ready, rather than waiting for the next major release." Windows 10 will be like all Internet services, and the version will be meaningless. "Once you upgrade to Windows 10, you'll keep it up-to-date throughout the lifecycle of device support." [2]
Since then, Myerson has made similar remarks on many occasions, and as for whether Windows 10 has a follow-up system, he has never made a clear statement.
It wasn't until May 2015 that the definitive scene came when Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development technician, uttered the widely circulated phrase at the Microsoft Ignite conference: "Windows 10 is the last version of Windows." ”（“Windows 10 is the last version of Windows”）[3]。
LinkedIn information shows that Nixon's title at that time was Microsoft Senior Technical Evangelist and Microsoft's official "Windows Evangelist", but he was neither a "developer executive" in the mouth of the Chinese media, nor could he be regarded as an official spokesperson for Microsoft with internal influence.
Nixon's LinkedIn biography, Figure 丨 LinkedIn
However, some people really believed.
Steve Kleynhans, vice president of research at market research firm Gartner, said in an interview with the BBC that there would be no Windows 11, and the BBC also made big news, directly headlined "Microsoft stops developing a new generation of Windows systems".
Listening to the wind is the BBC of the rain
Of course, there are media do not believe in evil, such as the technology website The Verge, which first reported Nixon's "final version" remarks, its senior editor Tom Warren (Tom Warren) has long tracked Microsoft dynamics, he judged: Windows 10 may be the "last major version", Microsoft may choose Windows 11 or Windows 12 in the future, but if people upgrade to Windows 10, and regular updates can achieve their goals, Then everyone will be satisfied with "Windows" and not even have to worry about the version number.[3]
In China, the media such as Fast Technology and IT Home are also influenced by Warren, and some even directly quote The Verge's reports to relay his judgment [5].
As for whether it is going to be permanently updated? Nor is it.
A week before the release of Windows 10 (July 20, 2015), PCMag mentioned the longevity of Windows 10 based on the latest page released by Microsoft on the Windows lifecycle: 5 years of mainstream support (until October 13, 2020), 10 years of extended support (until October 13, 2025) [6].
In short, the truth is -
Microsoft executives, represented by Terry Myerson, have never said that "Windows 10 is the last version of Windows";
The "last version" of the remarks, from the mouth of grassroots employee Jerry Nixon, in his role and responsibilities at Microsoft, his statement represents neither the top nor the official official attitude;
The Verge, the tech site that first reported Nixon's "last version" remarks, did not give up on expectations for Windows 11 or even higher;
Microsoft has never promised "permanent support for Windows 10", but has set a timeline for its end of life before it is released.
Despite a large number of media reports, things are still out of control - in the muddy water stirred up by some unreliable media at home and abroad, the "last generation of Windows" not only faked it, but also zhang Guan Li Dai gave Myerson, hoodwinking the Chinese people for 5 years, so that Chinese netizens, including many online media, fell into the Mandela effect.
However, after such a coincidence, Microsoft's Windows 11 is like a surprise to users.
Step into the night of Windows 11
According to common sense, Windows 110,000 liters is not allowed.
Since 2000, Microsoft's operating system has also begun to follow the "pendulum effect", a generation of transition gods - "God" Windows 10 after Windows 11, what kind of product is it? It has been 5 years since the release of Windows 10 in 2015, which is inevitably reminiscent of from XP to Vista, which also spans nearly 6 years, but it turns out that Vista, like Windows 8, is a transitional product.
At the press conference, we finally saw the true face of Windows 11.
Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, brought Windows 11 and said it was a system that would "bring you closer to what you love."
The first big change in the new system is the UI design.
The three-dimensional windows logo on Windows 8 and Windows 10 was "pressed" into a square plane. This is also the second time since 1985, after Microsoft released Windows 1.0, that it has used a flat logo design.
Previous windows system logos
System logo for Windows 11
In addition, Windows 11 also abandoned the tough right-angled edge window and used a large number of rounded corner designs; the window background such as cards and status bars used the effect of frosted glass; the start menu and taskbar moved from the left to the middle.
The interface of Windows 11
However, because these designs are suspected of "borrowing" Mac OS, they are jokingly ridiculed by preview users as "fruity".
There are also many novelties in terms of functionality.
Carmen Zlateff, Microsoft's product partner director, introduced that Windows 11 has optimized the split-screen interaction, not only can quickly choose their favorite split-screen form, but also supports three-page split-screen, which is more convenient for users to create. (But in fact, in the Windows 10 system, Microsoft has also provided the official gadget PowerToys, which can achieve an approximate effect)
Windows 11 supports multiple split-screen formats
Phillip McClure, Microsoft's head of product marketing, showcased Windows 11's rich forms of interaction. The new system opens up keyboard and mouse and touch operations, and thus cuts the tablet mode. When using the tablet, users can interact and input with touch, stylus, and even voice.
Use the virtual keyboard to type on Windows 11
Although Windows 11 removes many people's favorite live tiles, it adds a widget function to let the gadgets on Windows Vista and Windows 7 "borrow the corpse and return the soul".
Widget for Windows 11
Next, Sarah Bond, vice president of Xbox, introduced the optimization of the new system's game features, including better image quality (Auto HDR), faster loading speed (DirectStorage API), and support for Xbox cloud games.
Sarah Bond introduces the Auto HDR feature
Finally, Panai reappeared and announced one more thing — Windows 11 supports the Android app. (MacOS next door: obviously I supported the iOS mobile app first)
He took the overseas version of Douyin - TikTok as an example to show, and mentioned that in the Microsoft Store, there are already Kindle reading, war games, Uber and other products settled, equivalent to bringing an Android simulator, so that there is another reason to go to work to touch the fish.
Android app on Windows 11
Overall, the Windows 11 displayed by Microsoft this time has a lot of long-prepared but cut Windows 10X shadows. For example, it is compatible with Android applications, such as the new Start menu, centered taskbar, and so on.
Oh, and also: some of the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11 are:
1GHz/64-bit processors (32-bit processors completely abandoned)
4G memory, 64G storage (twice as much as Windows 10's basic requirements)
9-inch/720p resolution (Microsoft still has no plans to kill back the phone operating system, no Surface Phone)
Microsoft also announced the upgrade rules: as long as users install windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 of the genuine system (note that XP users are abandoned this time), they can upgrade to Windows 11 system for free through the Update function, and the preview version can be downloaded from next week, and the official upgrade period is from the beginning of this year's holiday to 2022, as for the specific time, the official has not yet been announced.
But in order to let users obediently upgrade the system from stable Windows 10 to Windows 11, Microsoft still needs to work hard, after all, in the past few years, Microsoft's attitude to the upgrade of the operating system is slightly perfunctory, which makes many users heartbroken.
Salvage Microsoft's "giant hard" reputation
The deteriorating reputation of Windows among users is completely "made" by Microsoft.
On the one hand, users have had enough of Microsoft's capricious "micro-innovations."
In addition to the aforementioned widgets that "borrow corpses to return the soul" on Windows 11, the function of "cutting on the cut, cutting on the" in the Windows system adds to the blockage of old users.
In November 2017, Microsoft officially announced the launch of the Sets window management function, which is hailed as the largest window UI change since Windows 95. Users are not fresh enough, Microsoft in the new version half a year later offline this feature.
In October 2018, Brandon LeBlanc, a senior project manager at Microsoft, revealed that the Sets feature was still being worked on, but that it was not ready. Half a year later, Rich Turner, another senior project manager at Microsoft, poured cold water on users, saying that there would be no more Settings window management.
When launching new features, they hesitate, and users like to see the features that are not soft on cutting. In recent years, Microsoft has abandoned features such as Groove Music, People, Books, and OneNote Desktop. In 2020, Cortana also withdrew from China, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries, and four months later, Microsoft added an "uninstallable" option to Cortana.
And in the face of the slashing function, it is dragging and dragging. A typical example is the control panel, the mode of "uninstalling software through the registry", which has long lagged behind the dumb uninstall mode of the mobile system "delete icon is delete program". As early as 2015, there was news that Microsoft would cancel the control panel, but 5 years later, the control panel is still alive.
The Microsoft old cow that is circling around in the Windows system breaks the car, allowing users to have aesthetic fatigue of the "micro-innovative" system. So that the professional media also has some PTSD, in the last night Before the Start of Microsoft Conference, The Verge editor Tom Warren published a slightly harsh article "Microsoft needs to prove: Windows 11 is far from Being As simple as Windows 10.5", which mentions that compatible Android applications may be the biggest difference between Windows 10 and 11, but it is not enough, there are many problems [9].
On the other hand, Windows system bugs are frequent, and the user experience is really not good enough.
Nadella, Microsoft's current CEO and chairman, is to blame for this. After Nadella took over as Ceo of Microsoft in 2014, he announced a massive restructuring of Microsoft and the elimination of the entire testing team for the operating system.
In addition, due to the limited effectiveness of the automated test system and the weakening willingness of Windows Insider users to feedback, Microsoft could not eliminate bugs before the official version was launched. As a result, the official user became a guinea pig for Microsoft to test human flesh.
The reason behind this may be that on the outside, Microsoft, from the top down, seems to be despising the Windows business.
In July 2014, Nadella, who had just taken office, mentioned Windows in only a few words in a memo to Microsoft employees. Independent analyst Ben Thompson, after analyzing the memo, said: "Nadella did not even mention Windows in the first 2,000 words of the memo, which indicates that Microsoft's strategy has changed significantly. ”[10]
At that time, Windows contributed 25% of the revenue to Microsoft.
Thompson's words became a proverb, Microsoft's business gradually turned to cloud services and Office, and Windows's revenue share began to decline. By the fourth quarter of 2015, the Windows business accounted for only 10% of Microsoft's total revenue, and revenue fell by 5% year-on-year. In contrast, the cloud computing division and Azure sales increased by 5% and 140%, respectively[11].
In 2018, Tim Snead, a former employee who had worked at Microsoft for 17 years, posted on Medium that the Windows business was no longer a core business for Microsoft.
In the second quarter of 2019, Microsoft's cloud computing revenue surpassed the Windows business for the first time, and the status of the operating system business declined again.
Microsoft's desktop operating system business revenue is declining, and the mobile operating system has not had a sense of existence (we all know what Microsoft has tossed out in the field of mobile operating systems).
At the 2019 Surface new product launch, Microsoft showed a system for tablets and computers - Windows 10X. Two years later, though, the Windows 10X development project proved canceled. In this era when mobile scenarios dominate hardware use, losing a mobile operating system is tantamount to losing a large chunk of the market — and now, Microsoft thinks of Android.
After five years, Nadella once again appeared on the platform for the Windows system, which seems to have the intention of promoting. In Microsoft's official blog, Panos Panai also stated that Windows 11 was "built for productivity, creativity, and ease of use" and encouraged the public to buy a PC,[14] a detail was that at the web conference, Microsoft officially demonstrated Windows 11-related features with a combination of HP notebooks and Dell monitors, rather than Surface (there was nothing to suggest).
Will Windows 11 allow users to stick with or return to Microsoft? Next, the choice is left to the user.
References：
[1] ZAC BOWDEN. Satya Nadella teases major updates coming soon to Windows during Build 2021 keynote 2021-5-25
[2] Terry Myerson. The next generation of Windows: Windows 10 2015-1-21
[3] Tom Warren. Why Microsoft is calling Windows 10 'the last version of Windows' 2015-5-7
[4] Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions 2015-5-8
Wan Nan. shocked! Windows 10 will be the last edition of Windows 2015-5-8
[6] Windows 10 Home and Pro
[7] Mayank Parmar. Windows 10’s highly anticipated Sets feature is not ready for testing yet 2018-10-25
[8] Windows 10’s “Sets” App Tabs Are “No More” 2019-4
[9] Tom Warren. Microsoft Needs to Show Windows 11 is More Than Just Windows 10.5 2021-6-24
LIU Yanqing. In the eyes of Microsoft CEO Nadella, the importance of Windows has been greatly reduced 2014-7-16
[11] Steven J. Vaughan. Microsoft no longer needs Windows. Learn why 2016-3-7
[12] Tim Sneath. From Windows to the Cloud 2018-3-29
[13] Microsoft's second quarter 2019 earnings
[14] Panos Panay. Introducing Windows 11. Windows Experience Blog. 2021-6-24