Windows XP support runs out next week

[Ed]

Windows XP will pass another milestone on the road to retirement next week when Microsoft withdraws mainstream support for the operating system.

While the company said that it will continue to provide free security fixes for XP until 2014, any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay for additional support.

Mainstream support for XP will end on 14 April 2009, over seven years after the operating system originally shipped.

However, the passing of the deadline will place Microsoft in the unusual position of no longer offering mainstream support for its most widely used product. Windows XP accounts for about 63 per cent of all internet connected computers, according to March 2009 statistics from Hitslink, while Windows Vista makes up about 24 per cent.


More here - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/16/20090407/ttc-windows-xp-support-runs-out-next-wee-6315470.html



I actually like XP a lot more than Vista, so much so that I'm thinking of wiping Vista off my laptop and installing XP instead. Vista has too much going on in the background for my liking. It connects to stuff on the internet at will, tons of my existing progs don't work with it, and even my scanner/printer has a brainfart every time I try to connect to it. I remember going through the same when Windows 98 first came out. I managed to skip 95  and 2000 altogether.

We don't like change, do we

[Grillmeat]

I made the Vista change a while back after using it on my laptop for some time. Now that a lot of the bugs have been worked out, I really enjoy it.
My office, however, still uses XP. I am glad I am not in IT .......

[rsmccoy]

A lot of people hate Vista, especially in a large enterprise roll out. I have to believe someone will pick up the slack for XP since many companies will hold onto it until Windows 7 comes out (assuming it doesn't also suck).

Since it will take a year or more to come out and another 2 years to work out the bugs and have all the applications upgraded, there is a huge void to be filled by someone willing to take over support for XP. Once it becomes public domain that is.

[Ed]

I remember reading that the corporate uptake of Vista is miniscule and something like 90% of businesses are sticking with XP for the time being. For the amount of features I actually use, I could probably move over to one of the free Linux distros and not miss anything I get with XP, let alone the resource hungry Vista.

[JonP]

Well, none of my clients have gone anywhere near Vista yet, as far as I can tell. And what happens about all those netbooks that are running XP?

[Woody]

mustn't have my stuff here, ed keeps it.