- Nov 17, 2016
- 1,242
"Recently, Microsoft announced they will not support pre-Windows 10 operating systems on the new generation of Intel and AMD processors, known by their popular names Kaby Lake and Ryzen, respectively.
If you've never worked in the enterprise space, you may think this is a rather radical decision. The thing is, even in the Linux world, large vendors like Red Hat and SUSE have a very strict hardware support policy for older versions of their operating systems. If you try to install them on new systems, they will not officially support them, and will not vouch for any performance impact you get from this.
Why? Well, it comes down to the kernel - scheduling and memory management. New processors come with new architectures, new caching technologies, new interconnect technologies between cores and sockets, new extensions.
And it's not just blanket works/does not work situation. The issues are far more subtle. Everything could be fine until you fire up a multi-threaded application, and under certain conditions with memory interleaving and hyperthreading enabled, it suddenly starts to lag. Or you may experience a much higher battery usage than expected. All sorts of weird things. I've seen this happen lots of times.
Conclusion
New processors + Windows 10 combo. Yes, makes sense. There's no argument around Windows 7 at all. Windows 8.1, that's a different legal and moral story, but we're talking a very short span of time to nail it perfectly right. Not worth it. After all, Microsoft did go back on its previous decision around Skylake, and it did extend the support to this generation of processor for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
Kaby Lake and Ryzen are for all practical purposes outside the Mainstream support for Windows 8.1, and if you really are buying a new computer now, Windows 10 makes the most optimal choice. It is retarded, yes, you may hate it yes, but then don't buy it! Use Linux if you want. Or something. If you must use Windows, for whatever reason, then that's your best option. Don't hate the software. What you should hate is the reality that brought you into a situation where you are forced to use an operating system and have no alternative.
So if you ask me, my next gaming PC will be running Windows 10, the same way I switched from XP to Windows 7. New box, new OS. I won't like it, but it will serve me better than clinging to old operating systems. NEW hardware, mind. Old systems will continue running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 of course! Whining about it won't make my life any easier. And if you need a way to un-retard Windows 10, then please take a look at my ultimate privacy guide. You see, happy times.
Cheers."
Make sure to visit the site.
If you've never worked in the enterprise space, you may think this is a rather radical decision. The thing is, even in the Linux world, large vendors like Red Hat and SUSE have a very strict hardware support policy for older versions of their operating systems. If you try to install them on new systems, they will not officially support them, and will not vouch for any performance impact you get from this.
Why? Well, it comes down to the kernel - scheduling and memory management. New processors come with new architectures, new caching technologies, new interconnect technologies between cores and sockets, new extensions.
And it's not just blanket works/does not work situation. The issues are far more subtle. Everything could be fine until you fire up a multi-threaded application, and under certain conditions with memory interleaving and hyperthreading enabled, it suddenly starts to lag. Or you may experience a much higher battery usage than expected. All sorts of weird things. I've seen this happen lots of times.
Conclusion
New processors + Windows 10 combo. Yes, makes sense. There's no argument around Windows 7 at all. Windows 8.1, that's a different legal and moral story, but we're talking a very short span of time to nail it perfectly right. Not worth it. After all, Microsoft did go back on its previous decision around Skylake, and it did extend the support to this generation of processor for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
Kaby Lake and Ryzen are for all practical purposes outside the Mainstream support for Windows 8.1, and if you really are buying a new computer now, Windows 10 makes the most optimal choice. It is retarded, yes, you may hate it yes, but then don't buy it! Use Linux if you want. Or something. If you must use Windows, for whatever reason, then that's your best option. Don't hate the software. What you should hate is the reality that brought you into a situation where you are forced to use an operating system and have no alternative.
So if you ask me, my next gaming PC will be running Windows 10, the same way I switched from XP to Windows 7. New box, new OS. I won't like it, but it will serve me better than clinging to old operating systems. NEW hardware, mind. Old systems will continue running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 of course! Whining about it won't make my life any easier. And if you need a way to un-retard Windows 10, then please take a look at my ultimate privacy guide. You see, happy times.
Cheers."
Make sure to visit the site.
