The Window ecosystem has been in a bit of a bumpy patch of late.  Windows 10 was a hit, but migration/upgrade to Windows 11 has been slow.  After nearly 3 years of Windows 11, Windows 10 still commands 70%+ market share while Windows 11 struggles to crack 25%.  The culprit is Windows 11’s new hardware requirement for TPM 2.0.  If you’re buying a new PC in 2024, sure, it’ll come that chip and you’re good to go.  But a lot of people are looking at PCs that are a few years old and thinking “this still meets my needs, and I don’t feel like junking it just to run Windows 11”.

But Windows 11 is already 2.5 years old.  It came out in October 2021.  Windows 10 came out about 6 years before that, so we’re about halfway through Windows 11’s lifespan.

So…too early to talk about Windows 12?  Will there even be a Windows 12?  Microsoft hasn’t said so, and there are some Microsoft watchers who think Windows 11 24H2 is more likely based on some leaks.

Meanwhile, someone on YouTube has put together a preview of what he thinks Windows 12 looks like.  It features

• More rounded, cute everything
• More macOS-like panels
• Effortless dark/light mode switching
• Generative AI to create wallpapers on the fly

Windows 11 was a pretty straightforward evolution of Windows 10, but expectations are that the next generation of PCs will be AI-infused.  Microsoft is even putting an “AI button” on keyboards.  However, details on what exactly these AI PCs will do that current PCs can’t are pretty vague.  Asked to define “AI PC,” a Lenovo rep said:

“An AI PC is a PC that learns about you continuously, it’s a PC that is your personal foundation model within the data within the PC and it is a PC that will be able to interact with you more naturally.”

That means nothing.

It’s not hard to see that AI could be integrated into the OS as a sort of “super Clippy,” offering you suggestions in applications and day to day tasks.  Of course, this already done – every time I paste an image into PowerPoint it offers me a dozen different “design suggestions”.

Perhaps future PCs could have some kind of on-board ML which learns that every time you download a PSD file into Documents, you probably want to start Photoshop and record it in your workflow app, etc.

Worth noting that there’s tons of things that you can do with AI already on your desktop, or your phone for that matter.  If that processing is moved to the edge, that requires more CPU and resources.  PC makers might be salivating about another upgrade cycle but…are these really revolutionary AI capabilities that will drive people to ditch the Windows 11 PC they just bought so they could get TPM 2.0 in order to get a new PC with edge AI?

#skeptical

Meanwhile, sit back and take a look at what Windows 12 might look like.  I’m guessing when it actually comes along, it won’t be this cool.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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