I have to say, that feels like a significant change from Ballmer-era Microsoft.
1 Like
Well, not anymore! 
If we are talking about businesses and diehard Windows 10 lovers, then yes. Otherwise, I think most consumers will update to Windows 11 or buy a new computer in order to run Windows 11.
From what I can tell, there were still many changes under the hood. The minimum requirements would definitely suggest so.
The average consumer will certainly not find a way around the TPM requirement.
True, the average consumer doesnât even install security updates so they probably wonât try to install Win11 when the installer says they canât. OTOH there are already âHowtoâ articles online describing ways to bypass the TPM requirement.
Yes. I think Satya Nadella is a far better leader than either Balmer or Gates. I was impressed with him the first time I heard him speak in 2014 when he introduced Office for iPad.
He spoke of the intersection of cloud and mobile, of ubiquitous computing, of providing services on whatever devices a person chose to use. Now seven years later Microsoft is ready to roll out their Cloud PC which I think has the potential to replace traditional Windows PCs in a lot of businesses.
And if MS can provide a full Windows workstation on whatever device I select how hard could it be to provide smart phone services on an inexpensive device?
Iâve seen personal computers overtake mainframes and mobile devices disrupt the PC business. Now itâs looking like the cloud may be ready to take on mobile in the next few years. That should be interesting to watch.
4 Likes
The tpm 2.0 and 8th gen Intel requirements are a bummer for people like me who buy old workstations to get power, multicore and high memory capacity affordably. That said, itâs not a huge deal to look around to ebay later this year and move over data. Iâd like to get one with an onboard m2 slot anyway.
The minimum requirements are very high. Are you absolutely sure that the average consumer actually has a computer that is capable of running Windows 11?
Microsoft will find a way. Knowing how the minimum requirements are so high, Microsoft will try to upsell new computers to most people (probably through marketing).
Then why is Microsoft marketing Windows 11 so hard? I donât see why the average consumer wouldnât care.
Even âhow-toâ articles wonât work. Consumers cant be bothered to bypass such requirements.
Also, Windows installs security updates automatically.
Unless weâre talking about very very old people here, I think thatâs a stretch.
Thereâs a second part there - âor doesnât careâ. And that carries the implied extended statement of âor doesnât care enough to make it worth buying a new computerâ.
I think the average consumer will likely not have a Win11 capable computer if Microsoft doesnât relax the requirements a bit.
If they really feel they need Windows 11 for some reason, and the alternative is to buy a new computer, odds are good that theyâd pay their neighborhood computer person (or reasonably-competent relative, child, etc.) to handle the bypass / upgrade for them.
Microsoft is marketing because they want people to buy it. But the fact that they want people to buy it doesnât mean the public at large cares.
Iâm not sure how many âaverage usersâ you know, but Iâm in and out of a lot of businesses. And I have a number of personal contacts that ask me about their personal computers when things go wonky. The talk we have about their computers / technology almost never focuses on having âthe new shinyâ, but rather whether what they have meets their basic day-to-day needs.
In those circles, upgrades are almost always driven by a compelling need or an old computer becoming glitchy / problematic enough that using it isnât really feasible anymore.
I would wager Microsoftâs marketing will be most effective for two groups of people. The first is the tech enthusiasts who want âthe new shinyâ. The second is for home / business users who are buying their next computer anyway and could potentially be lost to a competitor like Apple. The second case is especially true now, with Appleâs recent release of the M1.
Getting the existing user base to upgrade - especially when that upgrade is free, and thus gains Microsoft no additional revenue - probably isnât as high of a priority.
4 Likes
I feel itâs due to a massive reduction in installed software (with more SaaS solutions in use via Web or electron style apps) which is also down to the 64 bit transition on Wintel hardware.
Windows XP had something like 30 Million lines of code to workaround issues in software from enterprise creators like Sage and Adobe, as that older software has gone web based or transitioned to newer technologies, itâs (hopefully) reduced that burden on Microsoft and allowed them to move more quickly.
There may also be a policy (rightly so) from Microsoft that Developers needs to move forward instead of releasing software once and never updating it.
Thatâs a factor in a lot of businesses. We went from a Windows shop in 2000 to 70% Mac by 2012. By 2018 the majority of our Mac users only needed a browser to do their job.
1 Like
The Verge says that itâs a hard floor requirement.
Children must not be as tech-savvy as I originally thought⌠
I guess it really depends on the age though.
Well, we will have to wait and see if that actually happens. Did people do that back when Windows Vista was released?
Microsoft heavily advertised the event all over Twitter with the hashtag â#MicrosoftEventâ and through promoted tweets. Maybe I just dont understand why they would want to let the whole world know. 
Windows 10X was built as a Chrome OS competitor, but Microsoft ended up canning it recently. I do not think they care about the rise in web applications.
Tell that to Reddit. It is a complete disaster over there! 
I do not know who to trust anymore, even Microsoft. The poor communication in regards to minimum requirements is inexcusable. Even Windows Vista had very clear minimum requirements, even if they were also very high for the time.
That is enough proof that Chrome OS is a viable alternative for most people now. Whether or not it will slowly take over the consumer market in the next several years is yet to be seen. Yet another missed opportunity by Microsoft!
What are your statistics for 2020/2021?
Are they not being sarcastic?
Yeah, Windows 10 will be supported until October 2025. By then, most people will have a computer that is compatible with Windows 11. The same argument could be made for Windows XP when Windows Vista was released.
Ive noticed the âright to repairâ finatics use that argument a lot. Theyre acting like every single incompatible computer is going to be thrown into some landfill once Windows 11 is released. It hurts my brainâŚ
Not everybody has the money to do that. Besides that, with Windows PCâs lots of people only upgrade certain components. The ability to do that is one the reasons why some people choose PC over Mac.
Microsoft building a browser has absolutely
Nothing to do with what I wrote. Iâm getting to the point @anon78316750 when it seems like most of what you write appears to be trolling. Enjoy the forum, I wonât be responding to you any longer.
3 Likes
When I wrote my first line of code Steve Wozniak was studying at Berkeley. I still do a bit of consulting but I retired in 2018.
I donât have current numbers, but my previous employer is still going strong and still buying Macs.
Yes. 
For home and small biz users with XP, they werenât exactly flocking to the stores to get Vista. As long as there wasnât some compelling reason to upgrade (âXYZ app now only works on Vistaâ), they typically didnât upgrade at all.
Regarding extended support and computer lifecycles, a number of people skipped Vista entirely and intentionally kept using XP until Windows 7 was both released and proven. I had some end-user friends who disliked Vista enough that they called me to find out if they could revert Windows Vista to XP.
Yeah, they heavily advertised the event. Thatâs their job. They need to push the image that theyâre an innovative tech company, and theyâre releasing something new.
But ad spending has nothing to do with whether people will upgrade - especially when itâs ad spending about an event rather than a specific ad with a CTA encouraging people to upgrade.
The average consumer does that?
I am not talking about a web browser? We must be on the wrong page here. I am talking about Windows 10X. Does it not look extremely similar to Windows 11? That is literally the original question I was trying to pose.
Wow! That is actually quite impressive.
There seemed to be a lot of hype surrounding the launch of Windows Vista.
They did the best they could to persuade people to update, but I guess that did not go over so well. 
Their marketing for Windows 7 must have worked though. I wonder whyâŚ
Yes, this was a real advertisement in AsiaâŚ
Those eyes are going to haunt me for the rest of my days.
I would wager that the average consumer weighs the cost of replacing their whole computer against the cost of repairing / replacing a given component. They donât do the repair themselves, mind you, but they weigh the costs. And the nicer the computer, the more likely they are to upgrade parts rather than replace it.
Of course thatâs not also not what @McWimmish was saying. He was saying that âlots of peopleâ upgrade components, which is absolutely true - whether or not theyâre average consumers.
Sure. But youâre confusing âhypeâ with âimpactâ. Two massively different things.
You have this thoroughly bizarre lens where you seem to think that the result of consumer product decisions is based primarily on a companyâs marketing. And itâs just not.
Windows XP was, by Windows standards, a fabulous operating system for its day. Vista wasnât. Windows 7 was great again. Windows 8 (at least the original release) was horrible. Windows 10 was back to being decent again.
Consumer adoption follows both the quality of the OS and whether or not their computer absolutely needs to be replaced. If the current OS is horrible, and they hear horror stories from their friends about it (Vista, 8) theyâre less likely to get a new computer at all.
Microsoftâs marketing is far more about top-of-mind awareness, a general âpositive vibeâ, and a story for the new computer salesperson to tell these consumers, rather than pushing individual features that create a compelling case for them to move to the next version.
6 Likes
So youâre basically saying that Windows releases are like Star Trek movies 
5 Likes
Eerie, that. 
And 20 characters.
What is the point of marketing then? Is it just pointless? I am not following your lead hereâŚ