Twitter user WalkingCat, famous for finding and sharing this kind of information, has discovered files in the SDK mentioning an “Andromeda device” and “Andromeda OS”. As previously reported, Andromeda OS is just one variant of the upcoming Windows Core OS the company has been working on. WalkingCat has found mention of Polaris as well – the version of Windows Core OS targeted at more traditional PCs.
Windows Core OS is a new, “modern” version of Microsoft’s flagship OS, which strips out most of the legacy compatibility and software, making the operating system lighter and more flexible. Core OS is said to adapt its interface to all different kinds of devices thanks to the new CShell UI.
Eventually, the hammer’s gonna drop: all new laptops and PCs will ship with a Win32-less version of Windows. The signs are clear for anyone to see, and as a Windows developer, you’d do good by preparing yourself.
Win 32 has died more death’s than Boogie has on Youtube.
Not to mention that…
* Win16 won with customers because it was so backwards-compatible with their existing library of DOS applications.
* Macintosh and Linux desktops have always struggled with their lack of guaranteed compatibility with users’ existing DOS/Windows software libraries.
* Every attempt Microsoft has made to ditch Win32 in favor of things like pervasive .NET APIs has ended in failure because software vendors want to reuse their old libraries and code snippets rather than rewriting them.
* Even though Microsoft judged correctly when they decided that not enough clients would care about dropping Win16 support in 64-bit windows as long as they included a hot-patch for 16-bit InstallShield stubs, there were still grumblings about the loss of compatibility with software over 20 years old.
For better or for worse, Microsoft’s greatest competitive advantage is their compatibility with users’ old software and people have come to take that for granted.
I’m skeptical that Microsoft will succeed at competing with Chromebooks unless they offer something completely divorced from the Windows brand.
Edited 2018-05-23 22:05 UTC
Microsoft has massive amounts of respect in the
* Languages
* Tooling
* Servers
* Desktop
They should just concentrate on that tbh.
Microsoft still supports Win16, and they just expanded the presence of Win32 on ARM.