that depends, if you airgap your workstation and use linux then w7's life will depend on your hardware and not when ms decide to pull the plug. xp was still being patched with those cash machine updates long after ms said enough is enough and users said FU ms
I'm using Windows 10 v1809, Pro for Workstations, and it is . . . . . . . OK. I've managed to tweak it quite a bit so that it's almost as good as Win7. Almost, but not quite. I'm only using 10 because I built a new computer and can't get Win7 running on my new Ryzen 3700X yet. Once I get that figured out, I'll go back to Win7. Win10 has a couple of features I like, but overall, it's just too annoying and not worth the hassle. Win7 is solid and stable. Win10 is the opposite.
In 2015 I bought a computer that came with 8.1 -- Worst OS ever. The. Worst. Ever. I used it every day for 3 weeks and hated every minute of it. Then Windows 10 came out, and it was free, so I gave it a try. It sucked less than 8.1, but just barely. So I went back to Win7.. I've used every version of Windows starting with Windows 3.0 back in 1990, and every new version of Windows has always been better than the previous one. Not any more. Sorry, but in my opinion, everything after 7 has been complete garbage. Win10 is usable, but just barely. That's just my opinion, but it is also the correct opinion.
I found Windows 8 fine, preferred 8 to 8.1, just needs a Windows 7 like start menu installed. Only problem is support for 8 ends in just a few years, why migrate to something that is also being consigned to the bin so soon? If your staying with Windows in the mid to long term its Windows 10 or its successor.
Not really (at EOS). But a few people suggested it the day when XP has been released. Why? XP was the first win OS that connected to MSFT servers, the first windows that 'called home'. And first with online activation. Remember XP anti-spy. The first countermeasure against MSFT politics. The first time privacy and win OS appeared in the papers. But we do forget quickly. People used the 'corporate edition' which was just a VL that could be activated offline. And later as retrospective to BIOS mods the OEM BIOS files to activate against BIOS string. MSFT knows that people get used to what is released and people would give up their own original idea about privacy step by step. Built-in online activation was forerunner to get more personal data. Vista was crappy per se. The real introduction of 64 bit for the public and lacking of OEM drivers (signing) did the rest. Then w7 finally a good OS finally with support. Good until it started to nag for upgrade and they introduced telemetry here as well. W8 missed the start button and looked ugly (metro). W8.1 was not really necessary to be installed. And now the 'last' rock w7 will soon be EOS. Consumer editions of w10 are full of bloat. And privacy even more affected. The idea for alternatives constantly rises even because the OS development of the big monopolists is going into a direction which more and more people do NOT want. This also applies to mobiles and portables. We are losing more and more privacy only because some US monopolists want to make money by analyzing single persons. The social networks then are doing the rest. Cambridge analytica and facebook. They don't give a damn and I am sick of current development of tech and IT stuff! My mobile is 4.5 years old, I used w7 until last April...I once was very tech interested and always ran the latest stuff.....no thank you....I rather tinker with alternatives... The term dual OS and dual boot is equal in my mind. (It doesn't matter if the BIOS chooses the boot partition (drive) or the boot loader does it. Isolation means each OS has its own drive). I have got 3 SSDs. One for each OS and a third one for data. It makes sense to spend an own drive for each OS if both used as productive systems. (Should there be a sys SSD hardware failure you still have a fallback OS running). Anyway: Linux distros frequently do update GRUB (most used bootloader). Since you do not want to unplug the win drive all the time GRUB finds the w10 drive and makes an entry to GRUB on the Linux drive sooner or later and it'll pop up with an selection anyway.
@Yen with each os having its own bootloader and crucial bx500 from £20 its cheap insurance even if you keep it unplugged and only drag it out im energencies. even if its just a cloned drive linux live just for emergency weeb pages(parts ordering and help pages) and emails.
Not just that.... ESU will not only be available for Enterprise and Professional, but also for Ultimate Win7Sp1 still is used on 32% of computers, on private computers it is even 39%