Re: No More Windows/Xbox Franken-Handheld?

On Jun 8, 2025 at 8:16:23 PM EDT, "Lawrence D'Oliveiro" <ldo@nz.invalid>
wrote:

Instead of worrying about stopping other vendors adopting SteamOS,
perhaps Microsoft should concentrate on offering an attractive
platform for bringing out better Windows-based devices.

Microsoft has tried this before.  Remember the Surface Neo? 

The problem here is that every time MS announces a "new Windows"
mode/product/whatever, the response from the Windows fans is always the same.
 "It has to run all of my 40 year old software.  I won't buy it if it doesn't,
because I won't buy new software".

The Surface Neo was going to be all new.  Running a new, streamlined version
of Windows.  It ended up HAVING to run on Intel and HAVING to run ALL Windows
software.  Thus it was killed.

Thus, no progress is ever made.  Every version of Windows HAS to carry 40
years of baggage. 

I said this a few years ago when Windows 10 was The Standard and Windows 11
was on the horizon. MS should put Windows 10 (or 11 now) into permanent
maintenance mode.  This will make corporate users happy because they will no
longer have to deal with the constant updates. BTW, corporate users are the
only Windows users that MS cares about.  For obvious reasons.

Then, make Windows 11 (or 12 now) the new, lightweight, stripped down version
that could actually have a chance of running on handheld hardware. Remove all
the baggage and make it a touch only interface. Most importantly, don't call
it Windows. Do they actually have marketing people who can come up with a new
name?

Of course, this assumes that Windows is modular and portable. The reality is,
it is neither.  MS actually needs a new OS. They need to forget Windows and
move to a Unix/Linux base, like the rest of the world has done. It is already
proven that the APIs can be moved and have better performance. See Steam. 
Plus, Office is already running on Unix (Macs and iPads) and Linux (Android).
 

A little-known fact is that MS had Xenix 45 years ago. BEFORE Windows. 
BEFORE OS/2. By the late 80s it was the largest installed base of Unix
computers in the world. Also, Azure today is mostly Linux.  So MS CAN do it.

Apple was smart endough to dump their proprietary crap MacOS 9 and move to
Unix as the base for MacOS. iOS and iPadOS are forks of MacOS and thus are
also Unix.  Google was smart enough to go with Linux as the base for Android.
 

Why?  Because Unix/Linux is modular and portable.