To start with I would like to say that while I loved Windows 7 I have been running Windows 10 for a very long time. I wanted to point out a few things about history and why Windows 7 being dead is such a huge deal to many tech people.
To start with Windows 7 was the most popular release since Windows XP. While PC sales were up during the Vista era the operating system had some major issues that Microsoft just could not get resolved. But Windows 7 signifies something else it was the last major release of Windows designed for the desktop operating system.
After Windows 7 was released the iPod would take off and then came the iPhone years later and everything became touchscreen or as Microsoft came to call it the touch-first initiative. While I don’t think access to information at your fingertips using a phone is a bad thing it signifies really the peak of the PC era.
Once the iPhone and iPad were released and Windows 8 touch-first failed computers sales started cap out. While computers and Windows are going nowhere the growth we saw in the market slowed as the market became mature.
The Bill Gates dream of every desk having a computer was reached and now mobile was the new market. Windows 7 was released when the computer and Microsoft were the dominate players there was no focus on mobile or anything it was just that a desktop operating system designed for someone to sit down at their PC to do whatever they wanted.
While I do not pine for a time like this it shows you how the world has changed. To give you an example. If you were going to a concert you would go to your computer open up your web browser and go to Ticketmaster.com and buy your tickets. Then print them off on your printer. Now you would need to go to MapQuest and get directions to the concert and print them out.
Now you can buy your tickets on your phone save them to your digital wallet and then open up Google or Apple maps and type in the address to the concert and the GPS on your phone takes you the rest of the way turn by turn.
While I don’t think at any time is the computer going away it’s not the significant player it was during the Windows XP and Windows 7 era. This is the time where the computer was so dominating that the only way Apple could get the iPod to take off was to make iTunes available on Windows.
While I do not miss getting lost because my MapQuest directions were wrong. While I do not miss these times Windows 7 reaching the end of life shows the end of an era.