In this lesson, we're going to talk about
the product lifecycle.
Now, whenever you have a brand new product
or operating system, this follows a product lifecycle.
Now, some manufacturers will dictate
what that lifecycle is ahead of time,
so you can understand exactly
what kind of support you can expect from the manufacturer.
But some other applications
and programs don't provide that level of fidelity.
For example, Microsoft does a really good job
of being very clear and transparent
with their lifecycle policy.
When it comes to a version of Windows,
there are two different types
of support that are going to be there:
we call this mainstream support and extended support.
When it comes to Microsoft Windows,
mainstream support is supported for every version
of the operating system for a minimum of five years.
After that, there's an additional period of extended support
for some of their products that can extend another three
to five years and sometimes longer.
When it comes to a product's lifecycle,
it's important to keep this in mind because once
that product reaches what's known as end of life,
which means it's no longer supported by mainstream
or extended support, that operating system
is considered abandoned or orphaned,
and is now considered a legacy operating system.
Legacy operating systems like this
are ones that are no longer supported by their manufacturer.
And the real danger with using a legacy operating system,
or one that is now end of life
is that there are no more software patches or bugs
for that operating system.
For example, Windows XP is a very old version of Windows,
but I've still seen it used out some places in the field
because there are specific use cases
where they still need to use Windows XP.
Now, unfortunately, Windows XP reached end of life
and end of mainstream support back in 2015.
That means, as of the time of this recording,
it's been about seven to eight years since Windows XP
is no longer supported by Microsoft.
Now, does that mean you can no longer use Windows XP?
Well, no, you could still use it,
your license is still valid, but there's no more support
for that version of the operating system.
So if a hacker or attacker discovers
some kind of vulnerability in Windows XP
and numerous ones have been discovered
since the end of life, those now are open vulnerabilities
that will never get solved.
So if you're running Windows XP,
you are extremely vulnerable,
and that should never be connected to the internet
because people can hack you immediately.
Now, that being said, Windows XP was used to be able
to control a lot of ICS and SCADA systems,
which are industrial control systems
and those are really expensive to upgrade
and change to newer versions of the operating system
'cause you have to retool the entire factory.
Well, because of that, a lot of systems are still being used
with Windows XP, even here in the 2020s
because it's still operating and still serving its purpose.
And because it's not connected to the internet,
it's still relatively safe
because an attacker can't physically get to it.
So these are the kind of things you have to think about
when it comes to a product's lifecycle.
Now, when it comes to dealing with operating systems
like Windows 10 or Windows 11, they're going to be supported
with mainstream support for at least five years
by Microsoft, and then a period of extended support
for certain versions of the operating system.
For example, windows 10 Home and Pro editions
were released back in 2015,
and they have a retirement date of 2025,
meaning they're going to have 10 full years
of support by Microsoft.
Alternatively, if you look at Windows 11,
version 21 H2 had a start date of 2021,
a retirement date of October 2023.
Now, that doesn't mean Windows 11
will no longer be supported,
but it means the current version of Windows 11
will reach its end of life
and there'll be a new version of Windows 11.
There'll be 22H2 or something like that
that will then get an additional two
to three years of support.
Now, why do some versions like Windows 10 get longer support
than Windows 11 did?
Well, this comes down to the product lifecycle
and what is being used by large corporations.
When a large corporation embraces an operating system
like Windows 10 or Windows 7 and Windows XP previously,
then Microsoft tends to give additional support
for all its larger mainstream customers.
And this support also extends into the home user market
because they're already building out the security patches
and fixes for their corporate customers,
so they can then support the home users
using those same patches and fixes too.
The last thing to keep in mind when it comes
to operating systems like Windows 10 and Windows 11
and their product life cycles is they also have a lot
of feature updates.
Now, these feature updates are going to occur
usually every six to 12 months.
And during these releases,
Microsoft is going to provide different changes
to the desktop environment, it's bundled applications,
and other features embedded in that operating system.
This doesn't make it a brand new operating system,
but it makes additional features available
in that particular operating system version.
This has already happened with Windows 10 numerous times
and will happen also with Windows 11 as we continue
to move forward in its lifecycle.
Now, generally, when you have a feature update,
it's not going to change the baseline requirements
for that operating system.
It's still going to have the same requirements you had before.
But again, it is always a good idea
to run the PC Health Check application to ensure
that your hardware can support the latest version
of that operating system and the latest feature released
for that operating system as well.
For example, earlier versions
of Windows 10 only required 20 gigabytes
of storage space in order to install it.
But over time, as additional features were released,
that storage requirement went up,
and the latest versions of Windows 10
do require 32 gigabytes of storage space
in order to be able to install the operating system
and all the associated feature updates
that have been released over time.
So remember, when it comes to product lifecycle,
it's important to realize that every product,
including operating systems, has a defined lifecycle.
Generally, this is going to be somewhere between two
to five years for most operating systems,
but Windows will provide at least five years
of mainstream support
for every operating system they release.
And some of them, they'll also have extended support
that can go out to 10 or more years,
depending on the version of the operating system.
Once that operating system reaches end of life
or end of support, this means there'll be no more bug fixes
or security patches, and that software
is now considered a legacy operating system
and should be upgraded into a more modern
and supported version for all the systems on your network.