Admit that are you already tired of the news about Windows 7. Let it finally rest in peace. However, it’s hard to ignore that Microsoft, under pressure of the public opinion, will nevertheless release a patch from a bug that appeared as a result of installing the last “farewell” patch for all Windows 7 users, as well as from the Free Software Foundation initiative, which encourages Microsoft to open the Windows 7 source code.
On January 14, 2020, support for the Windows 7 operating system was discontinued. From now on, only corporate clients with the so-called Extended Security Updates (ESU) will be able to receive updates.
Extended support is Microsoft’s paid service through which the corporation will continue to deliver security updates to companies and enterprises using Windows 7 until 2023. The cost of such support is from 25 to 200 dollars per workstation, depending on the version of the OS (Enterprise or Pro), as well as the time during which the company needs updates.
In connection with the termination of support for Windows 7, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) published a petition on its website in which Microsoft is urged to make Windows 7 free software and open the source code of the OS.
“With the end of OS support, has come the end of a long-standing invasion of privacy and a threat to user safety, and Microsoft now has a great chance to fix past mistakes”, – note FSF representatives.
The fund offers the company to give Windows 7 to the community for further study and improvement, recalling that there have already been precedents for the release of some of the main Windows utilities as free software (in particular, the source codes of the “Calculator” were opened).
The FSF statement says:
- We require that Windows 7 should be released as free software. Its life cycle should not end. Let the community learn, change, and share.
- We urge to respect the freedom and privacy of users, and not just push them to upgrade to the latest version of Windows.
- Provide us with more evidence that you truly respect users and their freedom, and not just use these concepts in marketing when it suits you.
Also, apparently, under pressure from the public, Microsoft changed its plans for fixing a bug in the Windows 7 operating system.
Recall that the problem affected the function of setting the desktop wallpaper.
“An unpleasant bug due to which users saw black empty space instead of desktop wallpaper will be fixed only for organizations that paid for additional support”, – previously indicated in Microsoft.
Of course, no one liked this solution, considering that the developers themselves created this bug with their latest update. That is why Microsoft has revised its strategy and decided to make the patch available to all users.
According to the corporation, the corresponding update will be ready by mid-February.
By the way, changing its own rules on the go, Microsoft faces the risk of public pressure regarding the elimination of security problems in Windows 7. Since the system’s support period has ended, the tech giant has the right not to issue any updates, however, as we see, sometimes the company can meet needs of the users.
However, as I already reported, there is no patches for critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, to which Microsoft has paid attention to the sinister NSA, for users of Windows 7 there will be no paid subscription.
