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Good evening fellow forumites!! It's been quite some time since I had something to share with the forum. I decided to start back off with a bit of news that I am pretty sure will effect a large portion of our community, and perhaps a large portion of people that our forum dwellers may know and love. Enjoy! Beginning on January 1st 2020, Microsoft will no longer offer Security Patches and Hotfixes for Windows 7 OS's. This is common knowledge for many of us, who were warned of the imposing EOL (end of life) cycle for Windows 7 years ago. But this time, the EOL has taken a slight turn for the worst. In a recent publication this week, Microsoft has confirmed that it will be charging a "monthly" subscription fee for Windows 7 beginning in January, to supply ongoing users of Windows 7 with monthly updates and critical fixes. While this may not be that big of an issue, as pricing has not yet been released, it does beg a few questions. 1. How many vulnerabilities and exploits are there currently, that Microsoft has yet to fix? 2. How many bugs and exploits does Microsoft plan to fix before their "payday" kicks off? 3. Given this type of instance, how can we the consumer be guaranteed that ANY fix we obtain before 2020, isn't a way to increase or generate the need for the subscription? Many users of Windows 7 have refused to make the switch to Windows 10 (OS as a Service) due to it's limited compatibility with older software, issues with various Direct X elements of older games, and it's overall UI and service type features. While Windows 10 is a great way to breathe new life into aging technology, for those who rely on a stable solid OS to run various older editing softwares, video captures and general work within older archtypes of applications, Windows 10 is a crawl and in most cases, the things you wat to do cannot be done without constant crashes. On top of that, Windows 10 is an ongoing operating system that completely changes the way it handles almost everything, everytime an update or feature is released. Some even have rendered the OS unusable at times. Generally speaking, Microsoft has always had a good relationship with consumers regarding it's OS's and fixes for issues. However, the main issue SHOULD be, is that Microsoft is expecting to get paid for fixing shotty software issues for a product YOU ALREADY PAID FOR! To put that into perspective, a car manufacturer would NEVER expect the consumer to turn their car into a dealership for a malfunctioning part and expect you to pay for it. Even if the car is 25 years old, the manufacturer guarantees that any original equipment that is found to be malfunctioning due to manufacturing, is covered and you pay nothing. They pay for it, cause it's their critical error. Since when has it become the fault and burden of the consumer to pay for a fix to something that was broken or incomplete? I understand that all vulnerabilities and exploits are not readily identified. Most take years or decades to uncover and find only once a system has been compromised. But why should I pay Microsoft to fix a security or code issue that I had nothing to do with? And if I am a small business owner (some forum peeps might be) what am i supposed to do about the software i already bought? Should I allow MS to strongarm me into upgrading to an OS that most likely won't support my older POS applications or busniness configurations? And at what point can I sue or seek damages if there is a breach in my system, and that Microsoft failed to issue a fix, because they were greedy and wanted to get paid for it ahead of time? It makes no logical sense. Microsoft had initially tried spitballing this idea with Windows 10. initially trying to sell upgrades and updates for the service ats a charge. That idea was quickly snuffed. Again, I understand that january 2020 is the hard deadline for fixes and patches, I really do get that. And at that point, it becomes our problem if we choose to continue using a product that they no longer support. But my concern is that Microsoft has a backlog of fixes and exploits that they have not yet properly fixed and obviously have no team currently working on uncovering as many as possible before the deadline. 40% of the market still uses Windows 7 for christ sake! Anyway if you want to learn more about the service that is coming, follow the link below. I would love to hear your comments and feedback on this! https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/09/08/microsoft-windows-7-monthly-charge-windows-10-free-upgrade-cost/
