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Microsoft Operating Systems

Windows 10 Mobile Reaches End of Support (androidauthority.com) 55

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
We've known Windows 10 Mobile has been a dead platform for years now. Even Microsoft themselves have been telling people they need to switch to Android or iOS. But yesterday, we saw the final blow to Microsoft's mobile OS -- it officially reached its end of life and is no longer supported. From a report: There is some good news for the two of you still running Windows 10 Mobile though. The platform's office apps will receive updates and security patches until January 12, 2021. This includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. That means you still have a little more time before you absolutely need to migrate to another mobile platform if you just can')t break your Windows 10 Mobile addiction. Though we still recommend you take the leap as soon as possible.
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Windows 10 Mobile Reaches End of Support More

Windows 10 Mobile Reaches End of Support

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  • Neat. I still use it, and I'm going to continue to use it. It's a great OS. As long as I need to use a smart phone (hopefully, not forever), this is what I'll use. Android and iOS have absolutely awful interfaces, and of course, there's the constant data collection.

    • But what if you need "support" for it? Whatever that means.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        Haha. Yeah. "Support". Oh boy, I'll miss that, all right.

        • Indeed, plus the title is kind of misleading since security patches will be provided until 2021, it says so right in the summary.

          • Security patches but normal bug fixes and upgrade to say new protocols may not be in place.

          • Well, no it doesn't. The summary says security patches for some of its apps will be provided until 2021. Maybe patches for the OS itself will also be provided, but the summary doesn't say that.

          • Also, everyone (using Windows) is still using Windows 10 Mobile. If you have a Windows laptop, desktop, touchpad, whatever, you're using Windows 10 Mobile. OK, there are some still on Windows 7, but Microsoft will be fixing that problem soon.

    • I bet you will still have a smartphone in 10 years and it won't be running Windows 10. Probably even in 5 years, you'll already have switched.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        Uh, huh. Wow, you know me so well.

        • And where are you going to buy a smartphone that still supports a dead OS?

          • eBay? Amazon? The world is awash in new and used smartphones.

            • So, you'll continue to use aging hardware, some of it sitting on shelves for years, looking for replacement batteries.

              The GP is right, sooner or later you're going to buy a phone without Windows on it.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by DogDude ( 805747 )
                I hope by then I won't need a smart phone. I see smart phone users as zombies walking around with a barcode on their foreheads. It's dumb. I'll be free (financially) when I don't have to sacrifice my privacy in order to work all of the damn time.

                • Then get some Android phone and install LineageOS, which includes no Google apps by default.

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by DogDude ( 805747 )
                    A. I don't trust Android.

                    B. The interface is garbage.

                    C. I spent a couple of weekends trying to install Lineage, already, on a couple of different phones. That's time I'll never get back.

          • Have you used Windows phone (no wince is not Windows phone). It is one of the best mobile operating systems ever made. My 2013 $80 Nokia is still more responsive than my current $800 phone and it's far less buggy that Android.

            It's lightweight and can do in 512 Meg's of ram what 4 gigs on Android does.

            WindowsPhone is the OS/2 of the mobile world. Far ahead of it's time as Metro rocks on a surface and phone as MS has done the research long before Apple

          • You can buy mine, it sits plugged in next to my bed as an alarm clock. I just switched to an iPhone 6s last week because of this end-of-life business.

            I suppose there's lots to like about the iPhone, but the built-in weather app on my Win10 phone was far superior to the built-in iPhone weather app. I just downloaded several other weather apps to see if any of them is as good as the Win10 one was. The camera and display in my Nokia (Win10) phone were also pretty good, but that's harder to compare.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DogDude ( 805747 )
              I'm curious... How does the "end of life" in 2021 impact you today?

              • I have to make out my will.

                Oh, you mean the phone. It was just a convenient time to buy a new phone--the price was right.

        • Uh, huh. Wow, you know me so well.

          I'm curious what you use your windows phone for. I've never seen a windows phone in person, but I assume you're at least using whatever web browser it has, and surely that will get outdated to the point of being unusable in a fairly short period of time.
          What about email? In my day job we regularly upgrade the ciphers on mail servers, which over time makes it impossible for old platforms to connect to retrieve mail. If you're just using it like a dumb phone, then it should be fine if you can change out the

    • Which is fine, if the usage requirements of your smartphone doesn't change.

      Over the past quarter century of using a Cell phone, I have found that over time my needs have changed.

      Mid 1990's Only as Emergency calls as Cell phone calls are expensive.
      Late 1990's To be used as your normal phone when in areas that have good coverage as well for long distance calls as Cell phones offered cheaper plans that cover long distance calls
      Early 2000's We are now texting some people, and using the phone as a primary contac

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        Just because other people are using some technology doesn't mean you have to, you know. Maybe you should think a little bit about why you care so much about what "people expect of you".

        • A little OT but I feel this is relevant

          What happens if you lose everything you have and become homeless? Most people are much closer to this situation than they think they are. This is where the real test of those people
          that have these expectations of you begins.

          Will they help you get back on your feet? Will they give you emotional and psychological support, or at least refer you to somebody for the latter? Will they help you at all in any way?

          I ask this because I have seen way more cases o

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by maxrate ( 886773 )
      I own a few Mobile 10 devices. Sweet interface - wish Microsoft kept working at it. A lot of sour attitudes killed the product before it really got a chance.

    • Am I to understand that the Windows 10 mobile does NOT have constant data collection?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        I don't know. But since they're not an advertising company (like Google is), I'm hoping not. And Microsoft doesn't have a history of collecting anything other than telemetry data.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by unity ( 1740 )
      I guess that makes us the two users. My nokia 950xl still does everything I need and I can't stand the interfaces on android or iPhone. I've been thinking of picking up another WP on ebay on the cheap just to have as a backup.

      • I was the third user, until I gave in to the "end of life" mentality last week. When I switched my StraightTalk account over to my new(ish) iPhone, it felt sort of like the scene in Old Man's War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man%27s_War) where his mind is switched over from his old body to a new one, and he looks over at the now mindless old body. Sad.

  • Microsoft should have stayed the course. I didnâ(TM)t use one but it wasnâ(TM)t a bad phone. Three major players would be good. And there should be a version of Continuum for Android and Apple also. I bought an HP X3 on fire sale prices at the end with the dock and man, the potential.

    • Continuum was good, but just out of place for how people use these devices. Samsung has Dex, Google had a similar thing, and even Dell I think had a similar setup. None of them are really going anywhere. For some people it was useful, but just not different enough from having a cell phone and cheap laptop to justify it. I used it and liked it; I picked up an old motorola Atrix (basically a laptop without the processor; screen/keyboard/battery/ports) that I adapted for my lumia 950. It was interesting, b

    • Microsoft should have stayed the course.

      I like to see them fail, too, but I don't think that qualifies as "should"

  • Both of them.

    • I just bought a new phone this week, so one less windows phone user once the case and screen protector get here. My phone is/was still on 8.1 as Microsoft retracted their promise of the windows 10 mobile upgrade. Only problem is I think I went too big, my Nokia had a 4.5" screen, this new Moto Z3 play with 6", while nice, might be too damn big to fit in my pocket properly; no wonder everyone complains of cracked screens as there is so much more stress within the pocket on larger screens. I guess time will t
      • I agree with you on screen size. The last time I went phone shopping, the employee was nice enough to let me put some of those supermassive phones in my pocket (one at a time, and obviously in full view of all the security cameras). Thank goodness I asked, because I found out it was a tight fit.

  • I still don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pikoro ( 844299 ) <{hs.tini} {ta} {tini}> on Friday December 13, 2019 @12:29PM (#59516150) Homepage Journal

    I still don't understand why they just didn't make a launcher for android with the tiles and everything that windows mobile had. From nearly everyone I've talked to who had/has a windows mobile device, they love it. It seems that a launcher would appease those remaining users with a familiar experience, even if the apps would need to be ported.

    • Wasn't Windows Mobile what drives the First lady's VR helmet, allowing first family sex to actually be survivable?

    • I still don't understand why they just didn't make a launcher for android with the tiles and everything that windows mobile had. From nearly everyone I've talked to who had/has a windows mobile device, they love it. It seems that a launcher would appease those remaining users with a familiar experience, even if the apps would need to be ported.

      https://www.microsoft.com/en-u... [microsoft.com]

      • That doesn't do the "tile" interface. Although that's a tough ask since the number of Android apps supporting "live tiles" is say... 0?

    • Because Android is a bloated pig filled with bugs which spy on you. It's the Windows of the mobile world

  • Even if you hated Microsoft, it used to be easy to see that paying the MS tax got you something in return: legitamacy, compatibilty, reasonable support lifetimes. Now what? Why aren't they willing to satisfy paying customers, rather than just pushing us onto the latest flavor of the day? Plenty of places need longevity and consistancy on thier OS / user interfaces. Seems like a good reason to design them out of industrial applications, etc.

    • Microsoft's success has been in backwards compatibility.

      When Windows came out, people picked it because they felt it will run DOS Apps better then OS/2 (despite IBM marketing)
      Windows NT ran the Windows Apps (and still some DOS)

      There are people who have upgraded their PC's from MSDOS early version up to Windows 10. Keeping programs developed 35+ years ago and they still work.

      People chose Windows and the PC/Compatible for decades because they can get a new computer without loosing what they had before.

      Microso

      • As phones get more powerful and as laptops get more phone-like features (like gesture support, LTE radios) I would assume the phone hardware will become capable of running the regular version of the OS and the regular OS will have the necessary features so as not to need a special mobile version.

      • I have an old WIn16 program and the only way I know to run it is under WINE.

    • Microsoft today is alot better than in 1999 during the height of the hate. Even then you ask what Microsoft is known for? They make the best business software in the world and fairly good software development tools. Their operating systems maybe meh, but Foss makes the best OS with meh business software.

      Though gnu and clang and Android studio woke up Microsoft they have responded with making Visual Studio Code (not related to visual studio) as the best coding editor today which they ported to Linux I may ad

  • Wait, do phones actually update now?
  • We are deploying win10 toughbooks/toughpads where I work. Full windows 10 operating system. So when I read this, I went what? Doesn't the Microsoft Surface also come with the full version of Windows 10?

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