In early October of 2019, Microsoft announced Windows 10X alongside the Surface Neo and Surface Duo. And to say that it was one of the less successful series of announcements that Microsoft has made at an event would be an understatement.
A new report from Petri, a website aimed at IT professionals and system administrators, indicates that Microsoft is no longer planning to ship Windows 10X this year and may never ship it as originally envisioned (via SlashGear).
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As always with unnamed sources, a grain of salt is warranted. But the site does have credibility in this arena and given the repeated delays and reimagining of Windows 10X, this certainly wouldn't be a completely shocking development.
Windows 10X started as a version of Windows designed with dual-screen and foldable devices in mind. But that evolved into more of a general lightweight version of Windows that could be viewed as a Chrome OS competitor. There was even a Windows 10X preview earlier this year that gave us a look at the streamlined operating system.
Chrome OS has dominated the education market in recent years thanks in no small part to its simplicity. So it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to try to go after this market to pave the road for students to eventually end up on Windows.
Petri makes it clear that their sources are not definitively stating that the project is dead, simply that Windows 10X is not coming this year and resources are being moved to Windows 10. If the project is brought back, it is unlikely to adhere precisely to what we've seen of it so far. Some of its ideas finding their way into Windows 10 or Windows 10 on ARM is a stronger possibility as Petri's sources claimed this was the feedback that Microsoft received from customers.
Whether this means the Surface Neo, which was delayed until 2022 when last we heard, is now completely shelved is unclear. By default, this makes the underwhelming Surface Duo the winner of the futuristic announcements from Microsoft at that October 2019 event, now it look like we'll get the second-generation Surface Duo before we ever see Windows 10X or the Surface Neo.
