Opinion: Windows 10: Ready or not, here it comes

Microsoft announced Windows 10 today, billing it as "the best one yet." We've heard that before. In fact, I think we've heard that line several times before. Whatever fate might await Windows 10, this is a crucial time for Microsoft to produce an operating system that appeals to gamers, because the competition has never been thicker.

Microsoft has a fairly consistent history of winners and losers, averaging a win about every other operating system starting with Windows 95. Win95 was alright, but Win98 was definitely better. Windows ME is best left forgotten, while WinXP made for a great fallback as Windows Vista crashed and burned, then crashed again. Next came Windows 7, which I still much prefer over Windows 8, even after it was fixed up in the 8.1 update.

You may be noticing a pattern. Microsoft releases a prototype Windows that people generally hate, then learns its lessons and incorporates whatever works best into the next iteration. If nothing else, the flops make us more appreciative of all the good parts of Windows. That being said, jumping over the Windows 9 name and going straight for "Windows 10" throws a wrench in the pattern. I'm almost certain that the reason why "it wouldn't be right to call it Windows 9" is because someone in marketing decided that people would be more attracted to a 10 than a 9. I can already see the ads now, stating that Windows is "a perfect 10." Or, maybe Microsoft needed to distance itself from Windows 8 with a whole version number. Fine, let Microsoft do what it has to, because Windows is being byset from all sides, and by both the usual and unlikely competetors, so it really needs to pull a perfect 10.

Having given up on Windows 8.1, I'd take almost anything. I'm tired of its split-personality: Live tiles for touchscreen devices, and a watered down Desktop mode for keyboard and mouse use. I don't need a live tile system that looks like something that was lifted off the Partridge Family Bus. So, I'm sure many shared a collective sigh of relief to learn that Microsoft is bringing back the Start menu, even if it does have the Win8 live tiles attached.

Most of the features appear to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, which fits neatly into the established pattern. Revolutionary Windows operating systems tend to have more bugs than an ant farm. I have to admit that I very much like handy tools like multiple desktops, and Snap functionality for four applications on one screen. I can't wait to do stupid things like run two MMO sessions and party with myself.

All kidding aside, Windows 10 has to be good. Microsoft has no choice. Windows 7 is already over five years old, and it's really starting to show. I have to jump through hoops to do a clean install from a flash drive, not to mention the headaches I had with setting up an SSD boot drive. In the meantime, Mac OS has already changed more than five times. Moreover, iOS and Android are dominating the mobile scene. In charts comparing mobile device sales, Windows Phones are catagorized in a tiny sliver called "other." It's so unsuccessful that Microsoft doesn't even get its own category. Even though it's important for Microsoft to continue trying to break into the mobile arena, the emphasis has to stay on the desktop experience. More to the point, Windows 10 needs to be good for gaming. The vast majority of high-end computer games are still for Windows, but that could soon change.

Years ago, Valve developed a platform called Steam in response to Microsoft's indifference toward video games. It has since grown into the biggest and most influential gaming service on the planet, and I believe that it was a major contributing factor in bringing the Windows platform and PC gaming back up to the top. Now Valve is poised to do something similar with SteamOS and Steam Machines. If SteamOS takes off the way Steam did, then Microsoft will lose its major advantage. Sure, PC gamers will need something to play today's games and some retro games, but they won't need Windows 10 or later to do it with. Plus, who is to say those games won't be ported to SteamOS? Alternatively, someone might develop a compatible emulator.

Microsoft needs to give players a compelling reason to use their OS as the default, or they risk losing them altogether this time. Microsoft has to stick to the pattern and make Windows 10 a winner, or else it might really be game over as the de facto home for hardcore gamers.