Reply 20 of 155, by SquallStrife
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There's a lot of vagueness around the term "support". This issue has nothing to do with ringing up for technical support, or Microsoft "killing off" the OS prematurely.
Going forward, CPUs (or rather the platforms that support them) will stop being compatible with the bootloader and HAL that Windows 7 requires. This isn't a new occurrence. Remember when Windows wouldn't work on 286s any more because it required protected mode?
In that sense, Microsoft isn't "adding support" for new hardware to Windows 7. This was always to be the case, Windows 7's "end of mainstream support" date was January 13, 2015. Extended support lasts until 2020, this means that the OS will continue to receive security updates and critical bug fixes until that date. Extended support doesn't include adding new features or supporting new hardware.
Windows 8 has received the Windows 8.1 update, which they appear to consider as a service pack. Windows 8.1 has mainstream support until 2018, meaning it will receive new features and new hardware support until that time.
There are no surprises here for anyone with half a brain. Which is apparently not Forbes magazine, which has gone from a prestigious business print publication to Buzzfeed in recent years.
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