Microsoft Extends Product Lifecycle

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Microsoft Extends Product Lifecycle

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:20PM from the good-if-you-use-their-stuff dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has decided to extend product support on business and developer products effective June 1, 2004. Mainstream support remains unchanged at 5 years, extended support is greatly extended from 2 to 5 years and Online self-help support is extended from 8 to 10 years. I have to say kudos to Microsoft on this one."

14 of 272 comments (clear)

geez by Vasan · 2004-05-30 20:22 · Score: 5, Funny

"...Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Server and Tools Marketing..." Geez, how many VP's does Microsoft have???
Preparing for the GNU/world? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-30 20:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft is slowly shifting its business toward "support" since software will inevitably become free.
1. Re:Preparing for the GNU/world? by armyofone · 2004-05-30 20:59 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Maybe you're right. Y'know, I still haven't figured out why Microsoft has picked this fight with Linux. It's a war they can't possibly win. You can't compete with a hobby after all. And yes, before the zealots jump all over me, I know Linux is much more than a hobby these days. Still, that's what makes it virtually impossible to wipe out.
  
  It would be a much more interesting computer world today if MS had gone with the same attitude as IBM. Just think of where we could be if MS was contributing to open source in a big way instead of wasting resources trying to dis-credit it at every turn.
  
  I would guess that one result might be that their stock wouldn't be stuck at ~$25/share while Redhat's, (for example), has gone from $5/share up to $25 in the last several months. It seems shareholders and potential investors are biding their time and waiting to see how this all shakes out.
  
  --
  "A revolution without dancing is... a revolution not worth having"
2. Re:Preparing for the GNU/world? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-30 21:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  > Ah, I rather enjoy making people unemployed.
  As did:
  
  The printing press (monks)
  
  The automated loom (weavers)
  
  The steam engine (labourers)
  
  The robot (assembly workers)
  
  ...
  
  and most other 'modern inventions'. Free software the latest in a proud line of inventions, and a side effect is making the business of programming more efficient. Will we see the irony of dissatisfied programmers becoming the new Luddites and running around smashing automated weaving looms (ie. Free Software)?
3. Re:Preparing for the GNU/world? by DrMrLordX · 2004-05-30 21:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It seems to me that they are doing this to compensate for the delayed release of Longhorn. Longhorn has already been pushed back to . . . what was it, 2007? I'm sure MS would much rather keep its customers hooked on its old operating systems than see them migrate to a non-Windows OS. This may also be an indicator that we should expect more Longhorn delays.
  
  I agree that it might be more prudent for MS to shift towards a business model in which they sell support, but do remember that MS is notorious for repackaging one of their current OSes with superficial or pointless alterations and selling it as a new, superior product. WinME is a prime example of this behavior.
Sounds reasonable by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-30 20:28 · Score: 5, Funny

If you can't figure out an OS in 5 years, maybe you should reconsider the whole "computer" thing.
RedHat by blackula · 2004-05-30 20:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

Good for Microsoft. It's nice to see that they don't want to leave their customers out in the cold.
It's too bad RedHat won't do something similar. They have pitifully short product lifecycles.
Re:Unsurprizing by Bill_Royle · 2004-05-30 20:36 · Score: 5, Interesting

Hear, hear!

I just about choked when I saw the word "company" and "98SE" in the same sentence, here in 2004.

I can see it happening on a couple of legacy systems spread around a company, but to have an entire company on it? Jesus - and I thought the company I worked for was behind!
Developer tools by tfbastard · 2004-05-30 20:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Having online support on office tools for 10 years seems pretty good to me, but for developer tools it should be even longer.

Ever had to muck around in a 10 year old project (someone elses at that), where the tools used to build it have been deemed obsolete for 5 years? Not fun.
11 out of 13 slashdot readers so far... by TapeCutter · 2004-05-30 20:51 · Score: 5, Interesting

disagree with the statement "kudos for Microsoft". What 11 out of the first 13 replies to the post do not seem to realize is that the post is talking about O/S support not a religion. Personally I find the MS developers site informative, simple and free. I wonder how many of the 11 have actually tried to use it (gasp, some of us still have customers who use NT4). Oh how I wish I hadn't squandered my mod points.

--
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Re:Unsurprizing by Bill_Royle · 2004-05-30 21:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

I can think of a couple right off the bat:

* XP doesn't hang when shutting down (at least in my experience)
* Multi-user profiles
* Built-in USB 2.0 support (SP1?)
* System Restore (buggy though it can be, it's better than nothing.)
* MMC

I'm no fan of XP, but the issues and capabilities listed above make supporting XP (and 2000) a lot easier for us than 98 was.
Keep users frow switching by StrayLight · 2004-05-30 21:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

Anyone else cynical enough to immediately think that this is just to stop people considering their options when they realise that their support's suddenly run out?

There's plenty of businesses out there running older versions of windows who might look elsewhere rather than upgrade if there was no support.

That said, better software support is probably generally a good thing.
Microsoft has about 150 to 200 VP's by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-30 21:41 · Score: 5, Informative

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/

So that's about 1 VP per 300-400 employees (not sure if that includes all international divisions).

Corporate VP's are usually junior VP's in charge of an individual division.

Senior VP's manage a group of divisions (say all the Windows product development divisions). There are about 20 Senior VP's at Microsoft.

The Group VP's are the big honchos who manage, say, all of product development, or marketing. Look like there are three Group VP's.
kudos? bugs! by autosepha · 2004-05-30 23:03 · Score: 5, Interesting

Is this step really suprising?

No, because their very own bugs force them to obey the wishes off their customers: customers seem to use OS software longer that MS think they should, hence they tried to control the lifecycle by ceasing support. What is the consequence of this?

Millions of unpatched machines out there spreading viruses and spam all over the internet. And what should Microsoft's reaction to that inconvenient side effect of using MS products be: "Sorry, no more support!"?!? That should easily make for the biggest PR desaster in corporate history. They simple realised that and adjusted support to the longer lifetime that their OSes unfortunately have in the wild.