Pushing Windows 7 out of the spectrum: Why is this a bad idea?
I get it, Windows 7 is now two operating systems behind everyone else. The major difference is that, where Vista was supported over XP, Windows 8 wasn't as supported as Windows 7 for the longest time. People strayed away due to the failing popularity of Windows 8 as a whole. So, when Windows 10 came around, people started supporting that, sure, but how come it's starting to become nearly impossible to get things for Windows 7? The latest of these, and the reason why I'm writing this, is because of Steam. I have, for no reason at all, started having troubles with Steam after it and Windows 7 both had nice, large updates that I left to run overnight. Steam just stopped working. A reinstall worked...somewhat. I still could not run Steam properly, had to fight with it every morning to get access to my games and play anything on it.
Now, the ultimate "screw you" has happened. After attempting to reinstall Steam a second time to fix this issue, the bootstrapper simply stopped working in its entirety. I looked up problems and apparently, I'm not the only one on Windows 7 fighting with Steam. This is a large problem, because Steam hasn't issued anything on the matter. It's like they're being quiet and hoping that, by saying nothing or diverting the problem, people will just accept it for what it is and move to Windows 10.
Now I don't know what's going on in Steams HQ so I couldn't tell you what their real reasoning is. I can only state what is happening, and that this silence and the lack of real good answers has been problematic, to say the least. A good company should strive to support a popular OS as long as they can. The only reason Windows 10 is starting to pull away is merely because Microsoft forced it on many people (had to stop that real quick, too), and now they're making specific things exclusive, such as hardware. Newer hardware simply won't run on Windows 7, forcing a computer to upgrade to a decidedly inferior (in some people's opinions) OS just to have the better hardware and access to some of their favorite applications.
In my case, I was already going to make the jump to Windows 10. My dad doesn't at all prefer Windows 10, but I couldn't care too much about that. I simply want to be caught up, and I actually like Windows 10 more than I like Windows 7, all things considered. The reason I didn't jump on the previous bandwagon was that it was a terrible decision initially. Nothing was ready, very few apps were able to run on Windows 10, and the list of problems goes on and is all over several hundred forums across the internet. But now? It's a perfectly reasonable OS that I would like to go onto.
My big issue in all of this is how quickly I have to move OS's to get access to Steam again. I can do it now, I have the money saved up for it, I just wish it hadn't come out of the blue. It shouldn't have to. Steam should have continued supporting an older client for Windows 7 users if Steam wanted to continue urging people to buy Windows 10. Then, instead of a client being broken, simply have it show more advertisements or marketing towards Windows 10 and what a better version of Steam is on there. People could still play their games and wouldn't have to shell out more money just to either upgrade OS's, or buy an entirely new computer (which some people have to do). It's a bad decision overall and the silence is not looking good on Valve for some.
Valve is not the only company that I feel is pushing this harmful agenda, though. Microsoft is already pushing it as hard as they can, wanting everyone on their new OS rather than "obsoleted" OS's, lots of software isn't optimized anymore for Windows 7, Steam games are actively failing to run or running worse on my Windows 7 OS, and other such things of that nature. It's a full push to getting everyone off of Windows 7 and get them going onto Windows 10. To me, that just isn't right. You can push people all you want, but when it comes back to bite, it'll come back hard. Forcing people to a decision has never been a wise decision. Even if a good chunk of people follow mindlessly, there are going to be those that bite back. And when companies are involved, then it becomes a serious problem.
Anyway, I feel as if I've talked enough about that. It's just something that I've been thinking of, and why it's a bad idea...
Now, the ultimate "screw you" has happened. After attempting to reinstall Steam a second time to fix this issue, the bootstrapper simply stopped working in its entirety. I looked up problems and apparently, I'm not the only one on Windows 7 fighting with Steam. This is a large problem, because Steam hasn't issued anything on the matter. It's like they're being quiet and hoping that, by saying nothing or diverting the problem, people will just accept it for what it is and move to Windows 10.
Now I don't know what's going on in Steams HQ so I couldn't tell you what their real reasoning is. I can only state what is happening, and that this silence and the lack of real good answers has been problematic, to say the least. A good company should strive to support a popular OS as long as they can. The only reason Windows 10 is starting to pull away is merely because Microsoft forced it on many people (had to stop that real quick, too), and now they're making specific things exclusive, such as hardware. Newer hardware simply won't run on Windows 7, forcing a computer to upgrade to a decidedly inferior (in some people's opinions) OS just to have the better hardware and access to some of their favorite applications.
In my case, I was already going to make the jump to Windows 10. My dad doesn't at all prefer Windows 10, but I couldn't care too much about that. I simply want to be caught up, and I actually like Windows 10 more than I like Windows 7, all things considered. The reason I didn't jump on the previous bandwagon was that it was a terrible decision initially. Nothing was ready, very few apps were able to run on Windows 10, and the list of problems goes on and is all over several hundred forums across the internet. But now? It's a perfectly reasonable OS that I would like to go onto.
My big issue in all of this is how quickly I have to move OS's to get access to Steam again. I can do it now, I have the money saved up for it, I just wish it hadn't come out of the blue. It shouldn't have to. Steam should have continued supporting an older client for Windows 7 users if Steam wanted to continue urging people to buy Windows 10. Then, instead of a client being broken, simply have it show more advertisements or marketing towards Windows 10 and what a better version of Steam is on there. People could still play their games and wouldn't have to shell out more money just to either upgrade OS's, or buy an entirely new computer (which some people have to do). It's a bad decision overall and the silence is not looking good on Valve for some.
Valve is not the only company that I feel is pushing this harmful agenda, though. Microsoft is already pushing it as hard as they can, wanting everyone on their new OS rather than "obsoleted" OS's, lots of software isn't optimized anymore for Windows 7, Steam games are actively failing to run or running worse on my Windows 7 OS, and other such things of that nature. It's a full push to getting everyone off of Windows 7 and get them going onto Windows 10. To me, that just isn't right. You can push people all you want, but when it comes back to bite, it'll come back hard. Forcing people to a decision has never been a wise decision. Even if a good chunk of people follow mindlessly, there are going to be those that bite back. And when companies are involved, then it becomes a serious problem.
Anyway, I feel as if I've talked enough about that. It's just something that I've been thinking of, and why it's a bad idea...
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