Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Zen processors to only support Windows 10 and Unix

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 09/02/2016 08:12 AM | source: | 98 comment(s)

News hits the web on multiple websites today that it seems likely that both AMD ZEN and Intel's Kaby lake processors are to only support Windows 10 and Unix compatible operating systems. That would be bad news for the guys still on Windows 7 looking forward to an upgrade.

The news hits the web today through PC Gamer. Microsoft already announced this news earlier this year, but we didn't know about ZEN on this one. It makes sense though but yes, Microsoft is planning to only support the new processors on Windows 10 (so this is not an AMD or Intel thing). Basically Microsoft will not support the new processors on older operating systems. While I do believe the standard instruction sets should be supported, the niche multi-media functions etc thus should not be. So it remains to be seen how compatible these processors are going to be.

"Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming 'Kaby Lake' silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming '8996' silicon, and AMD's upcoming 'Bristol Ridge' silicon," Microsoft stated in a blog post earlier this year.

"As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support,” a Microsoft spokeswoman stated. "This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon."

So, what happens if you install a Kaby Lake processor in a desktop PC running Windows 7? Good question—nobody knows outside of Microsoft and Intel, and until the CPUs are out in the wild, no one will have the opportunity to try it out. One unnamed source told PCWorld that without support and security updates, his guess is that the experience would be "a bit glitchy." Another surmised that certain apps trying to use features built into the chips could crash. Even if you can get the OS installed, it would likely be a sub-optimal experience at best.

There's not a whole lot Intel and AMD are saying about this. Both chipmakers provided canned responses when asked for thoughts on the subject, with Intel confirming it has no plans on updating Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 drivers for Kaby Lake "per Microsoft's support policy change."

Obviously everything not Microsoft will support the processors like *nix distributions such as ChromeOS, SteamOS, and OS X.

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fontana
Junior Member

Posts: 13
Joined: 2015-12-20

#5329906 Posted on: 09/02/2016 06:24 PM

PS: Words like Microtard and Crapple have stopped making people sound cool since the mid 90s.

It's not to look cool. It's only appropriate given that as boris said it would be easy to patch and w10 has been around for over a year and so far nothing has been done to address the issue

Kaill
Senior Member

Posts: 113
Joined: 2015-12-10

#5329910 Posted on: 09/02/2016 06:42 PM

I think this is less about Us (people who build there own computers) are more about Companies like HP, Dell and so forth that build Computers it forces them if they want to install a new Skylake or Zen they have to put windows 10.

labidas
Senior Member

Posts: 327
Joined: 2013-03-06

#5329917 Posted on: 09/02/2016 07:01 PM

I call BS. I'll stick with modded W7 as long as possible.
All I've heard of W8 to W10 has been bad.

PrMinisterGR
Senior Member

Posts: 7656
Joined: 2014-09-27

#5329920 Posted on: 09/02/2016 07:05 PM

I find it hilarious how some of u trust your lives to 20++ years old planes but think a 7 years old OS is ancient stuff...

AFAIK there's been no game changing break through in kernel design nor hardware paradigm in the last decade. Any OS of that age can be properly maintained for a long time, it's just a marketing decision, not a technical problem.

It's true that by itself is not a big deal unless u hate win 10 (I do), but in the context of all bs decisions MS has taken in the last years, overreactions are more than justified....

Why aren't the Linux kernel maintainers backporting drivers then?

I call BS. I'll stick with modded W7 as long as possible.
All I've heard of W8 to W10 has been bad.
What are "modded" Windows 7? You have the source code around?

I find it hilarious how some of u trust your lives to 20++ years old planes but think a 7 years old OS is ancient stuff...

AFAIK there's been no game changing break through in kernel design nor hardware paradigm in the last decade. Any OS of that age can be properly maintained for a long time, it's just a marketing decision, not a technical problem.

It's true that by itself is not a big deal unless u hate win 10 (I do), but in the context of all bs decisions MS has taken in the last years, overreactions are more than justified....
In the last decade there have been numerous new design and attack paradigms invented. Meanwhile the laws of aerodynamics tend to be more stable

schmidtbag
Senior Member

Posts: 5753
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5329921 Posted on: 09/02/2016 07:05 PM

I find it hilarious how some of u trust your lives to 20++ years old planes but think a 7 years old OS is ancient stuff...

Not really a good example. Computer hardware and software has evolved a lot in 7 years. Meanwhile engine technology hasn't really improved all that much in the past 30 years, maybe more.

It's true that by itself is not a big deal unless u hate win 10 (I do), but in the context of all bs decisions MS has taken in the last years, overreactions are more than justified....

And there in lies the problem. There is nothing fundamentally worse about Windows 10 than 7. Yet you hate it - why? Because you don't like change?

I hate MS, but decisions like this aren't BS. It isn't sustainable to keep supporting outdated hardware. It is hard to progress technology when you are stuck with software or hardware that acts as heavy burdens or complete roadblocks. Why do you think it's taking Windows so long to ditch 32 bit software? Why do you think DX11 (or 12 for that matter) took so long to get adopted? Why do you think HTML5 is still a minority? Why do you think Intel is struggling to compete against ARM? Why do you think we're still stuck on IPv4?

In order for computer technology to progress, certain hardware and software support must be dropped. Sometimes it's just a matter of manpower for maintenance, or customer satisfaction.

A couple years ago, the Linux kernel dropped support for the original Pentium CPU. I saw that as a good thing - nobody using such an old CPU will ever be able to run a modern kernel smoothly. Such a person would not be able to take advantage of the features it has to offer. If we just indefinitely support older hardware like this, the kernel will get indefinitely large, and proper maintenance will break.

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