As an IT consultant, I’ve been through many different incarnations of Windows, and after a long and somewhat painful process, Microsoft finally rolled out a version of Windows that was in many ways pretty good (and this from a sys admin who has spent many an hour using choice epithets to describe Microsoft and their products). Sure, Microsoft still has us installing tons of security patches monthly and protecting every last inch of the OS, but at least we’ve got a pretty stable operating system.
Vista’s launch was not met with a lot of applause, and corporate environments in particular don’t have any desire to upgrade from XP or even 2000 in some cases. But the sad and inevitable news is that XP will be phased out. Microsoft of course is a business that is out to make a profit. You can’t do that if no one is buying your latest product. So here are the important dates in the remaining lifetime of XP that you need know.
- June 30, 2008: PC makers stop selling boxes with Windows XP installed.
- Jan 31, 2009: Microsoft stops selling XP.
- Apr 14, 2009: Live and warranty support ends.
- Apr 8, 2014: All support (including security patches) ends.
Better stockpile your copies of XP now. You may also be interested in signing one of the many “Save Windows XP petitions” online.
I threw up a little in my mouth when I read this story this morning.
Rather than creating profit by no longer supporting a good product forcing everyone to switch to an inferior product (IMHO and yes I run XP and Vista and can compare), perhaps Microsoft should focus on creating better products that people actually want to switch to. Win ’98 to 2000 and 2000 to XP were excellent upgrades released by Microsoft for example.
I’m feeling a shift in the force as more and more people leave Windows for Mac OS X or Linux.
Yep. I think if my version of XP ends up being vulnerable to some horrible security vulnerability, I’m moving to Linux. I’ll just keep a mostly network-isolated box running with my Windows-only apps (ex: QuickBooks). Although I imagine that by 2014, there are going to even more excellent apps for Linux, including QB and other professional solutions.
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