Microsoft about to kill XP support.

[grober]

Yes Microsoft are about to kill support for home editions of XP and OFFICE 2003. That means no more bug corrections, drivers, improvements etc except for critical security issues??

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/07/microsoft_xp_free_support_ends_april/

However it appears they will still offer "downgrades" back to XP from the new Pro versions of Windows 7 and Vista.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/04/07/windows_7_downgrade_xp/

which is nice.

 

[verytalldave]

Bad move.
Although it had to come eventually...........
I fail to see the real world benefits of Vista over XP.
Isnt XP still bundled with some low speced laptops?

 

[Sp!ke]

on the other hand... microsoft have just agreed extend the windows XP deadline and agreed once again to continue to allow OEM's to ship new PC's with windows XP. (This still hasnt been officially announced yet - but I got it from the horses mouth)

 

[crockers]

Netbooks can't handle Vista so are shipped with either Linux or XP....if I remember correctly.

 

[Geezer]

Yes, that's correct. I had Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu and I thought it was pants. It's on eBay from tonight.

 

[Antharro]

Mini 9s were such capable machines until Dell put one of the SLOWEST SSDs on the market into it. Therefore turning it into a slow heap of junk.

Got rid of mine, got a Samsung NC10 instead. Chalk and cheese.

Re. XP, mainstream support discontinued, extended support (security patches) until August 4th, 2014.

Windows 7 will likely have downgrade rights to Vista and XP, and if you're an OEM then you can downgrade all the way to '95!

 

[stevesey]

Nothing unsual there - products are regularly moved to extended support. The most significant change is that you have to pay for assistance, which makes very little difference to 99% of home users as they are using OEM versions which are not supported by Microsoft anyway.

Similary W2K3 SP1 is moving to extended support at the same time (to encourage those corporationg lagging behind to upgrade).