Microsoft originally said that new owners of Windows 7 who wanted to downgrade to XP would only have until 2011 to do so, but now the company has changed its mind and extended support for the old operating system until 2020.
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2005-07-12
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2010-06-08
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2008-07-15
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Those who need DOS or Win 3.1 today. (Probably).
Many industrial control applications, or older appliances rely on ancient operating environments. Given many does not even have any source code left, it's better to support the old OS for this minority.
And I believe MS would be fine, as long as people continue to pay for support contracts.
However, desktops are different beasts, though. MS probably wants to kill XP support on end user computers "yesterday".
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2008-03-27
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2008-05-26
Please, please, Microsoft; PLEASE kill Windows XP. Soon. Now, if possible. Forcibly upgrade all end-user machines to Windows 7 as soon as possible. Keep enterprise installations intact, but don't extend any support contracts unless the business switches to Windows 7.
This practice of running a twice-obsolete, insecure operating system from nearly a decade ago must stop, or those computers will continue to spread viruses and hold back computing innovation until the end of next decade.
Member since:2007-11-23
"This practice of running a twice-obsolete, insecure operating system from nearly a decade ago must stop, or those computers will continue to spread viruses and hold back computing innovation until the end of next decade."
Unless they're in the hands of intelligent people who engineers them into embedded OS market ...
XP is insecure because it's users used to be total dumbassess, you know. As a OS it might not be that bad.
Member since:2008-10-09
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They would be stupid in doing that. They are a business. Their target is making money. And there are multi-billion corporations that have not yet approved Win7 for enterprise use. So cutting off Win XP would be cutting off their income significantly.
But where I agree is consumer use of Win XP should be cut off ASAP. I have a netbook with WinXP bought Jan 2009.
Member since:2009-03-25
One of the main reasons that many companies are failing to upgrade is because support (ie ongoing bug-fixes) is still available for XP.
It's all about risk management: The least risky thing to do is usually to maintain the status-quo.
Installing patches is a risk, but not installing patches is a bigger risk.
Upgrading is a risk, but not having support is a bigger risk.
By keeping support going, Microsoft are pandering to the fears of these businesses and effectively ensuring that they won't be upgrading any time soon.
If the support wasn't available any more they would upgrade, and quickly. So in fact, MS is probably costing itself money by not getting those upgrades, and also costing itself extra money in the extra effort of continuing to provide support for XP.
Member since:
2008-10-09
Corporate IT departments are used to admin the XP and they have enough influence to force MS not to drop XP. I guess, the same thing happens after 10-15 years, when it is time to phase out win 7 or 8
About security I would not bother because corporate networks are tied down enough, I guess.
BTW, Microsoft itself created that "never upgrade" mentality by not releasing a new OS for very long time while XP was heaviliy used and once they did, the opportunity was missed due to sub-par result. IT departments looked, that well, XP was working fine before and even after Vista came out, it still works and there is no need to make sudden change. Therfore when 7 came out, the corporations kept running on XP and probably will for another 5-6 years.
So unless Windows XP stops working with Microsoft next-gen server platforms or on new computers, the corporations will continue deploy that standard XP image.
Edited 2010-07-15 06:55 UTC
Member since:2009-05-19
And if Microsoft breaks that compatibility they would be alienating a lot of wealthy corporations. Except for A/D, everything else in Microsoft's stack is surprisingly replaceable for the right price*.
* - Witch just happens to be lower than upgrading all corporate workstations to latest and greatest MS OS.
Member since:
2006-02-06
They'd bloody better be willing to release IE9 for those old XP systems if they don't want us web developers to riot in the streets. After a three-day slog-fest I'm finally getting a website I'm working on to not look like utter poo in IE6 and IE7.
Although, truth be told, it looked fine in IE8 with little to no hacks. But the web is going to have moved on by 2020, and IE8 won't cut it by then.
Edited 2010-07-15 15:39 UTC