Figured I'd give this a bump due to recent news.

It appears MS might be gearing up to make a bigger push with the MS Store now. Recent reports suggest MS will retire the Windows 10 S (there SKU that limited software from the store only) in favor of an S "mode" that will ship with Windows 10 Home & Pro.

A user will be able to switch to the full version of Windows (on Home for free and on Pro for $50). However, data by MS suggest around 60% of users never switched from Windows 10 S to Pro even though given the option.

This could be an issue for Steam or GOG if casual users stick with the S "mode" on in the future. A large portion of game sales come from casual users who tend to make up the bulk of gamers.

MS also plans to release a new version of Windows (codename Polaris) that strips out legacy components. This means Win32 software won't be able to run nativly and instead may only offer support via virtualization.

GOG really needs to get on better Linux support -- and stop letting their publishers from releasing Windows-only on GOG while they're multi-platform elsewhere.

MS is really fucking up the industry here. (And getting rid of all their competitive advantages.)

60% = Schools
40%= Those end users that buy one Surface S.

And if S mode come activated by default, is possible that MS need to face lawsuits. Keep in mind that isn't only that Valve of GoG can be damaged by this, but that the store not allow full GNU licenses, not third party browser engines.

I believe I read that the Surface wasn't included in the stats.

I'm not sure if it will be on by default for all new computers or if it will be left to the OEM to make the choice, though I imagine MS will offer incentives for them to make S mode the default. Polaris is also a big concern if they push that on OEM.

When they will finally do away with win32 support, for me, there will be no reason to stick any longer with this buggy, slow, unproductive, annoying OS.

EDIT: Win10 has turned out to be a much annoying OS. Win 7 was perhaps the last good OS they made. Even aesthetically Win 7 looks way better than win10.
I hope they won't completely end win32 support soon, and limit it to only limited variants, but if they do, I will be switching to Linux on all my PCs.

That's not surprising at all, I am even surprised that it's not bigger than 60% simply because Windows S, and in the future Polaris, is not meant for the same market than "standard" Windows 10. The S version is/was aimed at "devices" and not at Gaming or more general purpose PCs.

It's like saying XX% of peoples who have Android installed never switched to another full fledged desktop Linux distro even though given the option.

IMHO having standard PCs disappearing in favor of mobile devices is a much bigger risk for gamers than having Ms dropping support for games from their OSes.

Guess my Windows 7 build will have to hang on a lot longer then. Fun times.

Maaaan, I remember this thread. Honestly didn't think it'd turn out to be so relevant all of a sudden, but as BK pointed out... yeah, it's happening.

Ditto Ditto.

And after Win 7 goes caput, Linux is waiting to take over...

EDIT: Should have read that that was posted 2 years ago first. Still, you can never be too late with some things.

I've been using 10 for the past four months and I love it. :P

Funny, I was just recently thinking about finally making the slow transition to Linux because I'm so tired of Microsoft's bullshit. Unfortunately I've been running into Wi-fi issues with it atm.

Nah they won't kill Win32 support, what they will do is slowly try to faze it out in order to push the app store all while making UWP superior to win32. How the market responds to that will be interesting. Especially Valve, who I could see doing something drastic as releasing their new games exclusively on Linux.

Suddenly my choice to become more of a console gamer looks smart.

the worst threat to gOg is gOg

I didn't read all the older messages in the thread (I know I have written there earlier as well), but I think it is important to separate two things in this discussion:

1. Support for "legacy Windows components", ie. the ability to run Win32 applications and games. This is more about how backwards compatible the future Windows versions will be, can we still play our old GOG (and Steam) games on them. In the best case it could be like MS-DOS nowadays: we can run old MS-DOS games just fine on modern PCs, by using DOSBox, without the need of modern Windows to actually support MS-DOS. The best of both worlds, hopefully we get something like that for Win32 applications as well, being able to run them fine on future Windows versions, without those Windows having to directly support Win32 with legacy components.

2. Whatever the new Windows standard will be, is it called UWP or whatever... does Microsoft allow competition between stores, or will you be able to get UWP applications/games only from the Windows Store? This is a more important question for competing stores like Steam, GOG, Origin and UPlay, ie. can they directly compete with the Windows Store with selling UWP(?) applications? Can some game publisher making an UWP game decide to sell it through e.g. Steam or GOG, instead of Windows Store?

If it is just as simple for anyone to sell their own UWP applications through their own store or web page, without having to sell it through the Windows Store, then I guess the competing PC stores can still live on.

I don't know how it is, I was at some point under the impression that that the modern Windows applications (UWP?) are pretty much locked to Windows Store, ie. you can only obtain and purchase them through it, but I seem to recall someone suggesting earlier that is not the case, they can be obtained also outside of Windows Store.