AI-powered Windows 12 is on its way, but Windows 10 is still king

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In context: Some years ago, Windows 10 was mistakenly described as "the last version of Windows" to arrive on the market. Now, just a couple of years after the meager debut of Windows 11, Microsoft is seemingly working on the next generation of its desktop operating system.

Microsoft is hard at work on Windows 12, and Intel (and likely AMD) is working together with the Redmond corporation to provide the new operating system with advanced AI capabilities. No official confirmations or comments are available yet, but the well-known hardware leaker @leaf_hobby recently provided some revealing details about the upcoming Meteor Lake platform.

Meteor Lake is expected to arrive by the end of this year or in 2024, bringing several technology novelties to the x86 computing platform, including a new manufacturing process (Intel 4), a chiplet-based design, and (according to leaf_hobby) 20 PCIe Gen5 lanes. Intel's 14th-gen Core processors should also provide some sort of hardware acceleration for AI algorithms, as the recently launched Ryzen 7000 mobile processors from AMD do with a dedicated engine for Windows Studio Effects.

Information provided by Leaf_hobby in a now-cancelled tweet specifically list Windows 12 as an officially supported operating system on the Meteor Lake platform, and Microsoft has recently started to babble about the transformative power of AI algorithms for both its Bing search engine and Windows as a whole.

Redmond is already bringing some of these AI capabilities in Windows 11 with the latest update, but Windows 12 could integrate more advanced features not just for search or the Taskbar. According to Yusuf Mehdi, head of consumer marketing at Microsoft, AI would play a more "natural role" within the Windows user experience. Windows boss Panos Panay also said that AI is going to "reinvent" everything people do with a Windows PC.

While we wait to see how Microsoft would like to reinvent the wheel, the latest market results aren't particularly positive for Windows 11 yet. The latest operating system from Redmond was released to manufacturing 20 months ago, but according to Statcounter, it still is way behind Windows 10 in market share.

The web analytic service tracks more than 1.5 million sites globally, collecting information about the browser and the OS used by visitors. In February 2023, the service said, Windows 10 market share jumped from 68.86% to 73.31%.

Meanwhile, Windows 11 grew by just 1% (from 18.12% to 19.13%). January was the last month of extended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, so users and system administrators were essentially forced to upgrade directly to Windows 10 if they wanted to keep using their aging PC hardware in a secure way. There is no direct route to upgrade to Windows 11, as the new OS has tighter hardware requirements.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97788-ai-powered-windows-12-way-but-windows-10.html

 

[Tetr1s]

New windows will never beat windows 10 because of advertisements in file explorer xD

 

[brunocasarini]

AI-based something is the new snake oil.

 

[psycros]

The question is, will it look like Clippy?

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm excited for W12 and where AI goes from here.
Jim Keller said humans aren't getting any smarter and I have to agree with him. AI is scary, but it just might be what we need.

 

[MaXtor]

I upgraded to Fedora, and while it took learning and setting up to get everything functioning for both work and gaming, there's no going back. Until there is an open source AI which maintains transparency and anonymity, I'm not interested in this new method of data mining.

 

[koblongata]

Personal computer not so personal anymore, as it is becoming a person, yikes

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Windows boss Panos Panay also said that AI is going to "reinvent" everything people do with a Windows PC.

Yep, it sure will. It'll keep me away from it.

 

[liljom]

I just downgraded 2 PCs from Win 11 to Win 10, and planning to do 2 more.
Won't use Win 11 anytime soon

 

[TheBigFatClown]

AI-based something is the new snake oil.

What does all this AI talk even mean? The ability for machines to take in data and output more relevant data? I mean seriously, it seems like computers have been doing this from the beginning of time. But the masses are being indunated, brainwashed, propagandized to the extreme lately. I think it's so governments can start blaming incidents that occur out of nowhere on computers and repudiate blame for things they want to make happen and still seem detached.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Personal computer not so personal anymore, as it is becoming a person, yikes

So, a Person Computer? :-D

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I just downgraded 2 PCs from Win 11 to Win 10, and planning to do 2 more.
Won't use Win 11 anytime soon

"Hmmmmm.....why is that?"

I am certainly not gonna sit here and pretend that Windows 11 does things I don't like. I guess weighing the pros and cons on the scales of justice, it just doesn't tip far enough to the guilty side for me to stop using it completely. But even it it does (or I discover things I don't like as I probe the reason behind the hate further) I'm sure that the more intelligent folk out in the wild have a tip, tweak or utility that can balance out that evil.

So what are the top 5 (or 10 if you like) reasons that you won't upgrade to Windows 11?

Honestly, the cardinal sin for me would be if "Windows 11" general OS became a subscription service. I would be done with it at that point (I hope). It's already partly "gone down" that route by charging for other software that should just be part of the OS. Slowly acclimating the masses to the concept of paying for software for life, cradle to grave. People actually pay for Office 365 already. I use Apache's Open Office and Libre Office as an alternative.

I also use Microsoft's One Note for Office 365 which is, as of this writing anyway, still free to use. AFAIK!

I know that Windows telemetry has always been a big issue for people but there are ways to mitigate that also.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Maybe they have realized 11 was too much of a dumpster fire to salvage in the tech mind space, so on to 12!

 

[Tetr1s]

The question is, will it look like Clippy?

Bro I hope, it'd be so funny to see a revival of Clippy lmfao

 

[Superconductor]

"Hmmmmm.....why is that?"

I am certainly not gonna sit here and pretend that Windows 11 does things I don't like. I guess weighing the pros and cons on the scales of justice, it just doesn't tip far enough to the guilty side for me to stop using it completely. But even it it does (or I discover things I don't like as I probe the reason behind the hate further) I'm sure that the more intelligent folk out in the wild have a tip, tweak or utility that can balance out that evil.

So what are the top 5 (or 10 if you like) reasons that you won't upgrade to Windows 11?

Honestly, the cardinal sin for me would be if "Windows 11" general OS became a subscription service. I would be done with it at that point (I hope). It's already partly "gone down" that route by charging for other software that should just be part of the OS. Slowly acclimating the masses to the concept of paying for software for life, cradle to grave. People actually pay for Office 365 already. I use Apache's Open Office and Libre Office as an alternative.

I also use Microsoft's One Note for Office 365 which is, as of this writing anyway, still free to use. AFAIK!

I know that Windows telemetry has always been a big issue for people but there are ways to mitigate that also.

Everything you touched on... Well put!

 

[wiyosaya]

I guess M$ wants an even lower market share in the OS space.

From what I've heard so far, AI is an oxymoron.

And there's this. Does the use of AI tend to make the humans that use it dumber? IMO, the answer is YES.

 

[McMurdeR]

Literally just adds a buzzword.

 

[hwertz]

This AI support really is hype. I have an "AI accelerator" on the 11th gen Intel notebook I have. I didn't know it had one when I bought it, I was like "bonus!" since I was actually doing a little work with neural networks and welcome a speedup. What does it do in Linux? Nothing (it loads the driver for it.) What did it do in Windows before I wiped it? Noise cancelling for the mic. That's it! I was thinking "Well, it won't be as fast as an Nvidia card with CUDA for using with Tensorflow but I should get some nice speedup, if not now then in the future." Nope! The supported neural network size is so small it can't run much (I was sorely disappointed to find it does not use shared memory to allow as large a network as you want, it has a fixed, small size limit.) And it is not general-purpose enough to run Tensorflow or the like, it ONLY supports a few specific types of networks, so even if I'd scaled a few jobs way down they would not have run anyway. I don't think it's capable enough to run the bits of AI stuff that some games are currently doing either. AND (maybe this could be fixed via drivers) it's exclusive-use, whatever app grabs it first gets exclusive access; if Windows 12 decides to use it for all this stuff, applications may never get a chance to access it anyway.

(Just to add, even if this AI chip was excellent, I'm still dubious about it's usefulness other than speeding up tensorflow and stuff when the user is actually trying to run neural networks. And, I suppose if games use AI for whatever, they could do that on the accelerator instead of video card or CPU as an option. I have no idea why I should use AI to clean up mic input instead of the excellent algorithms that have existed for decades. I've made my choice and use Ubuntu Linux because I want my OS to sit there, operate my hardware, and let me run apps on it. No search suggestions, no AI chat in my start bar or whatever, I don't need it to auto-generate screen backgrounds for me, etc., thank you very much.)

 

[Kam7r]

What does all this AI talk even mean? The ability for machines to take in data and output more relevant data? I mean seriously, it seems like computers have been doing this from the beginning of time. But the masses are being indunated, brainwashed, propagandized to the extreme lately. I think it's so governments can start blaming incidents that occur out of nowhere on computers and repudiate blame for things they want to make happen and still seem detached.

yep it's a Trend.. at the end it's only Algorithms... but you can sell more crap with the term : AI...

 

[Avro Arrow]

Remember, Microsoft is a corporation and anything that they do is for their benefit, not ours.

I guarantee that the AI in Windows will primarily be used to learn how to better spy on us.

 

[noel24]

So, a Person Computer? :-D

You're laughing now, just wait for Ultron.

 

[OortCloud]

I know that Windows telemetry has always been a big issue for people but there are ways to mitigate that also.

I agree with your comments on this, but do wish MS would offer a paid-for OS that has no Telemetry etc. A leaner and meaner OS maybe too? I suspect some people would be willing to pay for this wouldn't they?
Copying Google/Facebook's business model of pretending to give stuff away for free and then snooping on you leaves a bad taste.

 

[HTKJinie]

I wonder if the over civilized, free nations will sell these to the authoritative, totalitarian dictator regimes around the world so that they can use it to repress freedom and attack any sovereign nations....

 

[captaincranky]

Copying Google/Facebook's business model of pretending to give stuff away for free and then snooping on you leaves a bad taste.

"FREE". being the operative term. "Something for nothing" has always been a fantasy. So, you have to expect Google services, would cull data and follow you around. But when you pay a hundred dollars or more for your OS, and it still tracks you and steals your personal information, I liken that to bringing a knife and fork to an unflushed toilet.

 

[gdavid65]

Here we go again.. Windows 11 will be the Windows 3.0, Windows Me, Windows Visa, Windows 8, of the 2020's!

Maybe some here too young to remember some of these!