- Thursday, 12 November 2009
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It is much more important to know what sort of patient has a disease than what sort of disease a patient has - Sir William Osler
Microsoft reduces support for XP
WHILE IT IS STILL the most popular operating system in the world, Microsoft has dropped Windows XP out of what it calls "mainstream support".
As of tomorrow XP will move from the mainstream support category to the extended support phase, a SpokesVole said.
Mainstream support, is usually offered for only five years, and XP has been in that phase for two and-a-half years longer than it should have.
Vole extended mainstream support for XP Home and XP Media Center until 2009, and pushed back the deadline for the follow-up phase, dubbed "extended support," until 2014.
The difference as far as users are concerned is that Vole will only provide paid support on a per-incident basis. It will only offer non-security hot fixes for a fee, and then only to customers who have purchased the Extended Hotfix Support plan.
This will continue until April 8, 2014. µ
L'Inq
Computerworld
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What i don't understand is that i can walk down the highstreet right now and still buy a netbook running xp! How can it be ok for Microsoft to still sell xp but not to support it?
When you check out the MS site, it only looks like certain xp products have ended support and not all of them:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-gb&C2=1173
I think there still likely to be some confusion for some time (though i am unlikely to by an xp netbook until someone sorts this out!)
Yeah, yeah, now where have we heard this before? Oh, right, it was when they introduced that abortion called Vista.
When Windoze 7 (or 6-1/2, if you'd rather), turns out to be a cropper, with major corporations STILL refusing to upgrade from XP, do you think XP will remain on "extended support"?
Money talks, and Microsoft listens.
XP does what people want from their computers, not well, but well enough so that there is nothing to be gained from so-called "upgrades". The OS industry is mature. Until there is a fundamentally new paradigm established, all that is needed is to improve what's there, and for that, people don't want to spend the money that Microsoft wants to keep their party rolling.
Don't bother whining that more new features are needed. Just window-dressing on a sow. Fix the underlying problems that exist, that shouldn't exist only because you didn't do it right the first time. And don't expect me to pay an arm and a leg to get what I should have had all along.
bY nOW, 7 DOSN'T NEED EXPLANATION, iT wORKS gREAT COMPARED TO all oTHERS. It is true that netbooks in $150 range & above are linux due to lack of XP support. Tablets, Linux. NO NT6 Atom support at present, except dual core. Person should get years of experience with computer, not days, as in Past. Even mere year for O/S isn't much, even with reasoned pricing. Once 7 is Retail, things will calm down for stint & hardware will slowly speed up, YET NO ESSENTIAL Change for SomeTime. FORGET XP, ITS 7 WORLD (Plus Dog). drashek
A steady stream of security patches still coming and support for P45 based boards. Thanks to AnyDVD and Nero 8 Ultra, I have full Blu-ray support on non-DHCP hardware. Hopefully Windows 7 will finally be as good as Microsoft's best OS which so far, is Windows 2000. I might even wait until 7 SP1.
The continued uncertainty as to the threat by Microsoft to stop support of XP has had a dramatic effect since Vista failed to gain popularity.
Microsoft should have given existing users of XP the chance to purchase an extended users support licence for at least another five years, especially considering the economic downturn. Failing to support their customer base will push users into the realms of other OS providers.
The much hyped Windows 7 is already nick named ‘Windows Sticky Fingers’, or WSF for short.
Signed
Carl Barron
Chairman of agpcuk
Action Group for the Protection of Communities UK
"oneeyejohny" is thinking of waiting for W7 SP1 before jumping ship,why?
W7 SP1 will simply be named W8,there won't be a SP2,because consumers,buy into MS hype about their OS being perfect,as some fanbois on here demonstrate.
"oneeyejohny" demonstrates that,you DON'T need to buy the latest OS on offer,particularly when 2000 is adequate enough.
IMHO, if Linux comes out with the dogs........ that can run any up to date online games,without delays & a GUI that anyone noob can run apps with,thenMicrosoft would be finished..PERIOD.
I say that,even though I use XP PRO 32bit,of which I have no complaints that are not common to other MS OS's.
W7 may be what Vista was meant to be,but Vista wasn't what Vista was supposed to be,it's crap & W7 is Vista with a dash of Cologne on it.
Stop whining and fork over the cash for Vista, NOW.
Then, in a few months, cough up for another upgrade.
Stop bitching and moaning, and just give the mighty Vole your money.
HB
No more XP support? Just download:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Free, unlimited upgrades to all packages (not just OS-related), free upgrade to all subsequent versions.
Problem solved.
I have to second what Anon said. If one of the Linux teams could develop a version anyone off the street could use, there would be no reason to stick with MS. Unfortunately, there's still too much kernel-rebuilding and command line nonsense for the average non-technical person to take the plunge.
Why do you think Apple has managed to hang on to 8% of the market share? It's not just the coffeehouse hippies; a large portion of their client base are people who want a computer that's extremely simple to use.
I suspect many IT professionals don't want to switch to Linux products because their users can't support it themselves.
Stop lying about Linux: it's free and very easy, even easier then any Winblows Crap Edition. Why don't you get and try Mandriva, openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu or other easy and user-friendly distributions?
Thanks for this article. Lol don't worry MS will still support Xp for security update, and OEM manufacturer will still support you for both (security and optional updates). I think we may just need them only, even my friends offlince PC havent got any update for years (except Xp SP3 offline install) without any problem at all, especially since Xp has been pretty stable after SP2 and SP3 and some latest optional updates. You'll still be able to get Xp for years forward i.e from ebay, some remaining stocks (believe me, there are many!), or use downgrade rights, netbook etc. It's the most popular OS ever! Even in illegal way if you really wanted it bcoz MS doesnt give us more options by selling it legally lol sorry kidding (but it's still a fact). There are still many 3rd party softwares and hardwares will support it for years forward while some people and companies will still keep it (as i've seen the same i.e for Windows 98 and 2000 nowadays), considering large Xp users.
Btw if you want to enhance Windows Xp so it will serve you as well as Vista and Windows 7, just visit and read the enntire article here:
"List of Vista and Windows 7 Applications Features for Xp or 2003":
http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20480 and
http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21246
, very worthy article imo, hopefully useful for Xp or 2003 users even you can get some original Vista applications ported to Xp etc! Personally i'll keep Xp longer, even maybe 2014. Anyway good luck and long live Xp! - The best Microsoft operating system, again fact. Cheers!