To be fair, SMB1 wasn't great from to begin with. It has the same technological status as X.25 protocol by now, maybe.
SMB1 had many features, was quite chatty and the encryption level was low.
It makes sense that Microsoft reacts like it does.
Windows had its technological pinnacle with Windows Vista/7, I think.
Subsequent releases started to remove features and Windows began its transformation process to a service.
I assume it's because the people behind the scene changed.
Also, a lot of the original developers must be in their 60s/70s by now. Or deceased.
So it made sense to remove the older or sophisticated stuff first.
Balmer and Gates also went, that Sinofsky guy took over circa 2010+ and MS started imitating Apple.
The developer's conferences were turned into something remotely resembeling magician shows some would expect in Vegas.
Before, the staff still talked about API functions, new technology, code etc.
Let's face it. Windows has changed. It will depart more and more from Windows NT.
From a philosophical point of view, Windows 1x will leave behind individualism, freedom, customizability.
Gone will be themes, visual styles, custom system sounds etc.
Soon it will be an OS from the imaginary world of Blade Runner etc.
To process didn't suddenly start just now, of course.
It roughly began after Windows 98/Me, when Windows Setup stopped letting users choose which components to install.
Then came product activation in XP, followed by the UAC in Vista and the signed drivers requirement in Windows x64.
However, these versions also offered users useful features in return.
Not so much with Windows 10+.
Even Windows 8.x had some useful features, like USB 3 support or a new task manager.
Windows 1x instead focused primarily at redesigning the interface.
And forcing DRM onto users. That's what the TPM requirement really us useful for.
Content management. Protecting paying commercial customers from Windows users.
Back in the Vista days, TPM already was implemented, but restricted to Bitlocker (drive encryption).
A replacement for a classic password system, so to say.
All in all, it's no surprise really what's going on. I really heartly recommend to acustom to the idea that Windows has its best daye behind.
The route it follows is not in our interest. We, as a community, are a relic of a time gone by.
We're individuals with unpopular ideas and interests, we're self sufficient, still not completely dependent of the internet.
In some ways, we're even more independent than our parents perhaps.
They didn't learn to interact with the digital world the way we did.
They may were pioneers in computing, too, but had a different relationship perhaps.
Computers from the 70s were more like typewriters or cash registers, rather than the magical box we grew up with and learned to love.
I see this with happening in my own family, too.
My father really was/is an computer expert, started with punch cards, CP/M, the fitst micros etc.
However, I feel he became much too dependent of the internet.
He nolonger does things the way he used to.
While I do still visit physical libraries, save/restore VHS tapes, use classic light bulbs and own old flash lights, he seems to have been accustomed to the current state of the technological world.
The rest of the family is similar. My sister nolonger uses her old consoles or physical copies.
She had been completely transitioned to Netflix, Amazon and virtual consoles (Switch).
Anyway, each to his own. It's just an observation.
People around us are completely owned by their online accounts and smartphones.
We who still use real personal computers and interact with physical objects are becoming a minority.
These things have an impact into Windows, too.
Imagine the people working on Windows right now.
They could be your younger sisters/relatives, cultural wise.
Edit: Another thing to consider. What happened to the internet, the web?
What did it stand fir, what does it stand for now?
What happened to diversity in terms of protocols, were's the creativity gone?
The internet used to be a place of innovation rather than standards set into stone.
In the beginning, technology was free to develop, to spread.
Now everything must be blessed by a consortium.
Just look what happened to Shockwave/Flash etc.
The technology was shut down due to political reasons.
Browsers stopped to support plug-ins all together.
This nolonger is the way things used to be. The internet lost its inner child, its soul. It had become practical, useful.
If it was a living being, it would be suffering of Scorbutus now.
Edit: Some typos fixed.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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