Microsoft unveiled its plans for a free copy of Windows 10 for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users yesterday, but it looks like Windows RT is being left out in the cold. In a statement provided to The Verge, Microsoft confirms the Surface Pro 3 and “entire Surface Pro lineup” will get the update to Windows 10, but Windows RT won’t get the full OS. “We are working on an update for Surface, which will have some of the functionality of Windows 10. More information to come,” says a Microsoft spokesperson. This means tablets like the Surface RT and Surface 2 won’t get Windows 10.
Windows RT is dead.
I borrowed a friends surface RT. It was an okay tablet. But it had no really compelling use case, no stand out software and a crippled desktop.
My surface 2 and Linx 8 both run full Windows on Intel hardware. They have a complete point. The RT is acjoke compared to my Linux, which is fairly sad really, as it easily could have been an awesome tablet.
Reminds me of how Windows NT had versions for MIPS etc in the 90s, but never got a foothold.
Wintel is really solidified (or perhaps ossified) platform…
There were ports for MIPS, Alpha, PowerPC, even SPARC (for Intergraph IIRC). Initial development was done on the Intel i860.
Microsoft tried to support various architectures accross the time: MIPS, PowerPC, DEC Alpha, Itanium, ARM. They didn’t have much success because everybody and their mom from the big data centers to tiny tablets owners, want their Windows to run on X86.
Wow, those RT tablets were being sold directly by Microsoft only two years ago. They seem like the exact sort of devices that Windows 8 was designed for (it sure as hell wasn’t aimed at desktops!).
Were the RT tablets assembled from crap hardware that don’t meet the minimum specs for Windows 8 or 10? Or is it simply a lack of ARM support, so Windows 8/10 won’t be compatible with any ARM devices?
My guess is that Microsoft considers RT tablets dead weight, and no longer wants to support them for this reason. Windows 10 will still be ARM I think as they are planning a phone release of it, and support for existing phones, all of which (I think anyway) are ARM.
Have they made any announcements regarding a full blown windows 10 (with a desktop environment) running on ARM machines? It seems rather than deprecating the devices, it would make more sense to just port the full version of Windows 10 over (even if not much would run on the desktop side). This would mean the end of Windows RT, but there should never have been a Windows RT anyway.
Microsoft has no UI designers. Nothing worth paying anyway. (I.E. the hamburger control everywhere.)
We could have had cheaper PCs. And much better stuff for the consumer.
Edited 2015-01-22 20:33 UTC
Anyone who made any investment into the first line of Windows Phones or Tablets can go f**k themselves. Nice, Microsoft. Way to maintain customers.
It was stillborn, no?
That would be a yes, hope those who foolish bought it can hack it to run something kinda useful.
Relatively low numbers of users on the platform no OEM seems to want to touch. Best thing Microsoft could do is offer a hearty (£200 off) trade-in for the new pros.
Get people off the dead platform, on to where you want them. More surface “sales” and more app/service revenue to recoup the discount value later (eg office)
It appears that Microsoft will not bring Windows 10 to all WP8.1 devices. Lumia 435, 735 and 930 will get an upgrade, for all others there is no confirmation so far.
http://lumiaconversations.microsoft.com/2015/01/22/the-lumia-you-lo… found via http://www.golem.de/news/microsoft-nicht-alle-windows-phone-smartph…
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/preview-faq
Coming soon
The Windows 10 Technical Preview and Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones are almost ready. Please check back.
If the 435 can run it, wouldn’t every phone be able to run it? Maybe the 512 MB devices are in danger but I couldn’t think of anything else that would stop other devices from being supported
then again, my 1020, aka the camera-phone, doesn’t get most of the Denim-features, aka the camera-firmwire. Maybe it is in danger again because of the Snapdragon chipset?
Windows 10 was demoed on a 1520, so that one seems like a given and so should almost every other Lumia. “Our goal is for the majority of the Lumia phones running Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 to join the Windows ecosystem”