A few days ago Microsoft announced the development plans (time line) for the next Windows 10 version with long-term support. It will not be released before end of 2021.
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In a Techcommunity post, Microsoft employee Joe Lurie wrote about the new features of Windows 10 May 2019 Update for enterprise customers. Gregg Keizer spottet that a few hours ago and mentioned within a Tweet.
Enterprise alert: Microsoft slates next Windows 10 long-term enterprise release for 2021 https://t.co/qRG2objXES
— Gregg Keizer (@gkeizer) 28. Mai 2019
In a FAQ at the end of this Techcommunity post, Lurie then surprisingly discusses Microsoft's plans for the LTSC versions of Windows 10.
There Lurie makes it clear that there will be no LTSC version of Windows 10 May 2019 Update, Version 1903. The abbreviation LTSC stands for Long-Term Servicing Channel, a channel in which Windows-Versionen with 10 years of long-term support are sporadically released. These LTSC versions with long-term support are only available as Windows 10 Enterprise SKUs. Microsoft sees the use of LTSC edition in the area of business-critical projects. The use in normal working environments such as workstations with Microsoft Office is even explicitly discouraged.
However, Microsoft's nomenclature is somewhat confusing for observer not familiar with that matter. There is a Windows 10 LTSC 2019, but it is based on the Windows 10 version 1809 released in autumn 2018. Microsoft probably intended to use the same naming scheme as for Windows Server 2019, which also came out in autumn 2018, an is also based on the Windows 10 Version 1809 kernel.
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Since Microsoft is releasing Windows 10 LTSC versions every 3 years, informed observers were aware that the next LTSC release would be in 2021 at the earliest. Microsoft employee Joe Lurie writes that the next LTSC version of Windows 10 is currently planned for the end of 2021.
Customers currently using Windows 10 LTSC for special deployment scenarios are encouraged to begin upgrading these devices to Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019. The five-year mainstream support for this release will not end until January 9, 2024, after which this release will receive an additional five years of Extended Support providing security updates.
