[kowsheek]

Though in name it's not a new OS, Windows 8, 10 are new experiences for anyone who uses them since Windows 7.

I think you're right about momentum, MS isn't able to come out of it's momentum of the old into the new.

For example, Apple transitions to a new OS with confidence and takes the ecosystem with it in a blink of an eye because they are trying control their momentum instead of being driven by it.

Edit: Windows can maintain backward compatibility with its ecosystem if they did it well, like Apple has done.

[octorian]

> Edit: Windows can maintain backward compatibility with its ecosystem if they did it well, like Apple has done.

Backwards compatibility with the ecosystem, especially the enormous ecosystem of software that doesn't have active maintainers chomping at the bit to test/patch/update with every single OS change, is a HUGE part of why people use Windows.

Apple really doesn't have this. Instead, they have a critical mass of software that is inside their RDF and actively updates to every breaking change they roll out. They have the "luxury" of not having to care if they break random bits of old software* in the process.

(* software that may be niche, may not have large individual user bases, but which might actually not have modern up-to-date drop-in replacements)

[kowsheek]

That's fair. I don't mean that Windows should be replaced. I mean that Windows should do what Windows is good at.

Trying to introduce Linux into Windows isn't one of these things. Doing a UI refresh is fine but trying to make Windows UI conform to spatial computing isn't going to help it or the ecosystem in the long term.

If you look at their app building documentation, it's extremely disconcerting. This much compatibility overhead isn't helping the ecosystem grow.