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Windows XP SP1 Support Ends Tuesday

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cut-off dept.

tophee writes "ZDNet reports that support for Windows XP SP1 and SP1a will be ending this coming Tuesday. From the article: 'Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP1a on Tuesday, leaving people no option but to upgrade to Service Pack 2 if they wish to continue to receive crucial components, including security software.' Colin Barker of ZDNet notes, 'There's little reason for anyone to still be running SP1; SP2 contained a range of improvements to XP's security.'"

31 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. They forgot the scare quotes by Scareduck · · Score: 4, Funny

    around "security".

    --

    Dog is my co-pilot.

  2. The problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem with Microsoft is that they never separate bug fixes from feature additions. So either you stay vulnerable or you eat more and more of their junk.

    They should be forced to strictly separate the two.

    1. Re:The problem by quentin_quayle · · Score: 4, Informative
      "Are you saying a bug can't be a feature?!"

      With Microsoft it can!

      And a "feature" can be a bug. One reason the holdouts have avoided SP2 is that Microsoft intentionally degraded the networking with SP2. Yes it's fixable, but not perfectly, and I'm not sure I care to bother with it.

      This is one of the long-planned milestones on my migration to another OS (references to which have become a cliché in this connection).

      Many of the fixes aren't even needed for a lean-and-mean XP configuration, so the time to an "upgrade or exposure" choice may be longer than this month.

    2. Re:The problem by suv4x4 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The problem with Microsoft is that they never separate bug fixes from feature additions. So either you stay vulnerable or you eat more and more of their junk.

      I didn't want to move to Firefox 1.5. It worked slower and ate far mre RAM on my machines.
      But alas, few exploits later, I updated.

      Because Firefox 1.0 support ended the moment 1.5 was out. Let's see for how long Firefox 1.5 will be supported when the official 2.0 release is out.

      Let me guess: 0 days.

    3. Re:The problem by plover · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The "very annoying" limit is on the number of TCP connections that have been sent a SYN without having yet receieved an ACK, not on complete sockets. Is it annoying because you frequent dead hosts, or because you are running a port scanner?

      And what exactly did you need to do with raw sockets that you couldn't do with AF_INET? Is there something so special about your application's packets that you have to hand-craft the TCP/IP headers? Do you intentionally write DDoS attackers?

      At least you can port your application to a real OS if you feel the need to byte-edit your network packets. Oh, excuse me. I must have forgotten that even Linux doesn't support AF_RAW, because there's still no legitimate use for an end user to have access to raw sockets. Even so, you still have an option: you can write your own protocol (which is exactly what raw sockets was letting you informally do in the first place.)

      Sorry, but with the number of Windows zombies out there that are screwing up the net, I'd rather have to make one person like you work to regain these "features" than to have them exist for millions of idiots who won't ever need them.

      Or could it be that you just saw in a KB article that Microsoft "took something away", never mind that it actually helps improve network security, and you never did anything with raw sockets anyway?

      --
      John
  3. WGA by Paxtez · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not having to install WGA seems like a good reason...

    1. Re:WGA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You don't need to install WGA to get SP2.

  4. Re:And once again... by pilgrim23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I always figure that end of support meant Microsoft determined they finally got it right, and why mess with perfection? SP2 otoh is still a work in progress...and does it need more work...

    --
    - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  5. Windows98 by VincenzoRomano · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, Windows 98 had a much longer life!
    Was it a better ... ehm ... operating system?

    --
    Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
    For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
  6. gotta add something before it gets out of control by Rooked_One · · Score: 3, Insightful

    M$ didn't do this to shut down pirates... they know that people will easily get around any protection they can muster. Its so they can work less and concentrate on other things - and to not worry about the people who havn't bothered installing SP2 yet for some reason.

  7. Re:And once again... (you can say that again!) by AndyCater · · Score: 4, Informative

    Debian Stable - release cycle on about 18 months and support for up to a year after that. Debian repositories and archives have versions back about ten years - so you should always be able to upgrade. Debian testing and unstable are updated at least daily - stable only when there are security fixes. If you mean "paid for" enterprise Linux then Red Hat is now at 7 years or so support - but stuff changes with the interim updates as far as I can see.

  8. Makes sense by linuxci · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It makes sense as people have had a long time to test their apps against XP SP2 and report bugs to MS. Of course if SP2 breaks anything and you're a paying customer then I can understand why you'd want to stay on SP1 otherwise SP2 offers some advanages.

    I think things like WGA are being forced on people whatever version they're running so that's no reason not to upgrade.

    When the upgrade is included in the initial purchase cost then this is fine. If they dropped support for XP altogether then that would have been bad but just think of SP2 as an update.

    Anyway I hate MS versioning schemes, why service pack why not call it a point release? They also love weird names for their beta software I remember the IE7 beta 2 preview refresh (which was the second pre-release before beta 2)

    1. Re:Makes sense by LMariachi · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Apple releases 0.1 releases every year

      OS X 10.3, aka Panther, shipped in October 2003. 10.4, aka Tiger, shipped in April 2005. 10.5, aka Leopard, is due in spring of 2007.

      they name each one after a wild feline of some sort, "to disguise the fact that they're charging every year for minor updates".

      Leaving aside the question of whether the point releases (of Windows or OS X) have been minor, let's see... apple menu, About This Mac... "Mac OS X Version 10.4.8." That sure is one crafty disguise!

      Even if you had a point, "but those guys do it too!" is not a valid response.

  9. Re:Heh by Kris_J · · Score: 5, Funny

    I gave up on linux when the device drivers for one device needed a version of the kernel no later than X and the device drivers for a different device needed a version of the kernel at least as new as Y, where X was less than Y.

  10. Re:Heh by bmo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why don't you look for yourself?

    The latest 2.4 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.33.3 2006-08-31 20:20 UTC
    The latest prepatch for the 2.4 Linux kernel tree is: 2.4.34-pre4 2006-10-02 20:45 UTC

    Seems pretty recent to me.

    http://www.kernel.org/

    --
    BMO

  11. Re:One reason is disk space by ChronoReverse · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can slipstream service packs into the Windows CD.

    http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2 _slipstream.asp shows you how.

  12. Dialup by Kangburra · · Score: 4, Insightful
    'There's little reason for anyone to still be running SP1; SP2 contained a range of improvements to XP's security.'


    They forget of course that not everyone in the world has broadband access. Those on dial-up cannot update to SP2 easily. Here, regional WA, has patchy broadband at the best of times, let alone those who use the internet "just for emails" and don't want to spend a lot to do it.
    --
    Common sense is not so common
    1. Re:Dialup by bassgoonist · · Score: 5, Funny

      I set my grandparent's computer to autoupdate...they got SP2 after about 4 months of less than an hour a day average online time iirc.

      --
      You can tell I'm an aries because of my ram.
    2. Re:Dialup by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Even worse; The ISP my brother has, uses a software/hardware combination that they acknowledge won't work with SP2. They refuse to upgrade either, so he's stuck with SP1. The thing is; it's a pretty big ADSL supplier in Holland and he's not the only one in this situation. I can only assume there are many similar situations in which people really are forced to stick with SP1.

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    3. Re:Dialup by bmo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ok, I'm assuming you're joking, but for those who do _not_ know that you can bypass the Windows update site and simply download and burn to CD so your friends don't have to suffer, go HERE:

      http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displa ylang=en

      Actually, if your friends are running Windows, they _are_ suffering.

      --
      BMO

  13. Lots of people still use W98... by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Forced obsolesence is an attempt to force peopleto move on up. DOing this to XP is to help build the mindset that XP is old and it is time to think about Vista...

    However, lots of people are still using W98, so their obsolecence program is not necessarily working all that well in personal user space. I'm sure that in corporate space (where they make their money) it works a treat.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Lots of people still use W98... by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You haven't worked in corporate IT have you?

      4 years for some companies is about the time they start the *rollout*.

      If take a sample of random customers the majority of Windows users are on Windows 2000 (6 years old!).. a sizable chunk of 2003 now as people begin to roll it out, very little XP (that was skipped for the most part).

      We still have NT4 customers.

      4 years is nothing.

      (You get the same with other OSs - nobody is running Solaris 10 yet (only 1 query about it in the last year), lots of Solaris 8 and Solaris 9.. Even other stuff.. Oracle 8 is predominant even though Oracle themselves don't support it any more).

  14. Little Reason? by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 3, Insightful
    There's little reason for anyone to still be running SP1; SP2 contained a range of improvements to XP's security.'"
    How's about the fact that you paid upwards of $200 dollars for your copy, along with that the implicit support from Microsoft. How's that for a good reason?
    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
    1. Re:Little Reason? by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you really expect to be supported running software with known problems? It's only been out since the beginning of Feb 2003, so it's not too much to ask, surely?

      --
      throw new NoSignatureException();
    2. Re:Little Reason? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      and they provided that support through service packs and hotfixes, if your using sp1 you have chosen not to take them up on there support obligations and hence your on your own baby.

    3. Re:Little Reason? by drawfour · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft IS supporting XP. It's called Service Pack 2.

  15. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  16. You should be fired by toadlife · · Score: 4, Informative
    I hope you're just trolling, though I've met many IT people like you, so I'm thinking you may be serious.

    "I'm an a large site that's running XP SP1 on all of quite a few thousand machines and I'd just like to say that one week notice of termination of support is ridiculous.
    Microsoft announced the cutoff date for SP1 a long, long, long time ago. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was known before SP2 was even released.

    Have fun rushing out SP2. You only have yourself to blame.
    --
    I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  17. Re:Heh by bmo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am?

    That depends on what the original poster means by Linux. Linux is, and has always been a kernel. If the OP meant distribution and support from a retail vendor, I know Novell still supports SLES 8 and SuSE 8 which were 2.4 based. Redhat still supports their enterprise 2.4 based releases. So, in other words, if you're still on 2.4, you can _still get support_. If you're on a free distribution, you support yourself anyway, which is no big deal.

    2.4 is just a kernel. All the rest are applications and they can be mixed and matched at will. Windows people simply can't wrap their brains around that concept, but that doesn't surprise me in the least, because of the way Microsoft ties what should be userland to kernel space.

    So I don't know what the big deal is. You windows fanboys amaze me, spouting the FUD "hey, maybe 2.4 isn't as supported as Windows is supported." Bullshit. If I wanted to, I could go grab one of the 1.1 kernels and build something around it. You can't even _buy_ Windows 95, but if I have an application that requires a kernel as small as 1.1.13 was, I can _still use it_.

    Doing that is almost the equivalent of going back to DOS (but without the bogosity), but hey, you can't even _buy_ a retail box of MS-DOS these days, can you?

    --
    BMO

  18. They'll prise Win2K from my cold dead hands. by burnttoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    What can I say. It works, it works well and most drivers (I've yet to find a broken one) work well thanks to WDM.

    I shove a decent firewall on the thing, ditch IE and install my apps of choice and I'm away.

    The only thing missing is Cleartype fonts.

    Best version of Windows ever.

    --
    Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
  19. Re:Thanks for the notice guys by Daltorak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm an a large site that's running XP SP1 on all of quite a few thousand machines and I'd just like to say that one week notice of termination of support is ridiculous.

    You're right, one week is totally ridiculous and unnacceptable.

    Of course, ehm... they announced this a long time ago -- January, to be precise.

    http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean19
    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/support/endofsupp ort.mspx