Windows 11: Windows 10 Is Not The Last Version of Windows Anymore

Wasn't Windows 10 supposed to be the "last version of Windows"?

This idea was always kind of funny to me because even in any sense that this was ever true, it was really just an exercise in branding and changing how the versioning worked. Since 2015, new "versions" (or really what we used to call Service Packs) of Windows still came at a regular cadence but they were renamed to "builds" and "feature updates" such as "Windows 10 1909".

But seriously, what was meant by this? Lots of the articles you may be reading are spinning this as a reference to how Windows software is now being delivered "as a service", or SaaS. But really it was even less significant than that.

Well the original comment that the tech media grabbed onto was kind of a throwaway, segue statement at the Microsoft Ignite conference in 2015. The speaker was Jerry Nixon, a "developer evangelist". Not a CEO, product manager, or any kind of corporate spokesman.

He said, "Right now we're releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we're all still working on Windows 10." You can catch the comment in the recording of his talk here (for the context, listen from 14:52 to 15:52 of the video). If you listen to his comment in context, it's clear what Nixon meant was that Windows 10 was the latest (current) version of Windows, not the "last version of windows ever" that the tech media bots and AI sound byte consumers made it out to be.

In fact, later on, when The Verge reached out to Microsoft to officially clarify this, they responded, "Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers.. We aren’t speaking to future branding at this time... We look forward to a long future of Windows innovations..

Six years later, enter... Windows 11. What's new in Windows 11? It seems as if it's a facelift when it comes to look and feel so far. And by facelift, I mean ripping off making it look more like MacOS. See for yourself.

Most obviously (the elephant in the room), the version numbers now match (Big Sur is Mac OS 11). Further notice how the Windows 11 Task Bar has now looks much like the MacOS Dock. Similarly, they've killed off the whole tile thing and gone back to widgets, just like MacOS. Also see how they've curved the window borders just like Big Sur does.

What else is new? Well, lots of Windows 10 features are going to the recycle bin, for example Timeline and Wallet. And a warning for you Snipping Tool holdouts, it's finally going to be removed in Windows 11. But Snip & Sketch is going to be there, renamed to Snipping Tool. Sneaky, eh.

Windows 11 will be coming "later this year". Minimum system requirements can be seen here. To summarize, almost all PCs manufactured in the last few years should be able to handle it.

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