The title is somewhat misleading. This is old news and it's only applicable to various Windows versions - MS has traditionally spent efforts ensuring that supported versions of Windows work with latest hardware. They're saying they'll no longer do that - implying that if you buy new hardware (Kaby Lake based system for e.g.) they'll not guarantee that Win7/8.1 will work with it.

Linux will work the same way it has - you might need a newer distribution, support maybe flakey initially, Intel might cut costs and decide some SoCs won't be supported by their open source efforts etc. Or it might all work great - this news doesn't change that.

Bad wordings, I guess. Should be: "In the case of Windows, all next-generation processors built by Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, or others, will only support Windows 10"

I think...

> Running the OS on newer PCs requires "device drivers and firmware...to emulate Windows 7's expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states- which is challenging for Wi-Fi, graphics, security, and more."

This suggests the issue is that MS will only be supporting Win10; the article doesn't mention any attempt being made at being affirmatively in-compatible with other OSes.

I believe the article is implying that alternatives will also no longer work. From the article:

>The company is all but guaranteeing that the future will be bright for Windows 10, since all PC makers will be shipping products that can only work on the platform.