The Death of Windows XP

bsk_cw writes "Although many Windows users intend to hold onto their copies of XP until it is pried from their cold, dead fingers, Microsoft fully intends to phase out the OS in favor of Vista. If you're unwilling to move to one of the alternatives, and really don't like Vista, the least you can do is be aware of what's in store. David DeJean offers a rundown on Microsoft's timeline for Windows XP, why the company does things that way, and what you can do about it."

Comments

XP?

[Lost Race]

Ha, still using Windows 2000 here.

Re:XP?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm still using Windows Millennium Edition, so I really got a kick out of your reply! :-)

Re:XP?

[jimmux]

I am not the least bit surprised. Only a few years I worked on POS systems that ran on Windows 98, and there was no indication that things would ever change. Not that you ever saw Windows as such - these were DOS apps, after all.

Re:XP?

[Nullav]

I've noticed a lot of things running old versions of Windows over the past few years: ATMs, coin-counters, the big screens at the airport...never would have known if they weren't in the middle of a kernel panic.

Re:XP?

[evilklown]

Why can't Microsoft just admit that XP was everything they hoped Vista would be?

Re:XP?

[Miseph]

Yes, most instances of Win98 are on POS machines.

Oh... wait... you meant "Point Of Sale"... well, yeah, I guess that it could run on those too.

Re:XP?

[AnalogDiehard]

Ha, still using Windows 2000 here.

Wuss. My abacus works during power blackouts and I don't need ISPs for sending smoke signals.

Re:XP?

[Opportunist]

You needn't post as an AC. We don't judge people just because they're masochists, everyone can enjoy their life the way they want to.

We're cool with that. Hey, we've been on the internet for a while. We've seen guys who like their nuts being smacked with bricks, someone using ME willingly is only a notch up from that, I'm pretty sure we can accept that. Somehow. Someday. Well, maybe in a while, at least.

Re:XP?

[Jafar00]

I know what you mean. Last month I had a plane to catch and when I arrived at the local train station to travel to the airport at 5:30am, the ticket machine was displaying a blue screen running win2k. Needless to say I was forced to jump the barrier with my luggage and get a free 10 euro trip to the airport. The guard at the other end didn't believe my reason I had no ticket until I showed him the picture I took of the blue screen. Turns out he was an Ubuntu Linux fan and let me through with a laugh. :D

Re:XP?

[newr00tic]

Procomm?? - I use two yoghurt canisters and a string.

A short play

[symbolset]

31 June 2008, 8:00 AM EST: Nasdaq and NYSE both crash as the big three PC vendors and their suppliers discover nobody's willing to buy a PC any more.

Midmorning Bill and Steve get a call from Ben Bernanke.

Afternoon DHS executes warrants on One Microsoft Way. Attorney general reopens antitrust investigation. Steve gets a call from the IRS regarding the structure of financing for one of his sports teams.

Evening: XP gets a reprieve! We're all friends again.

Re:A short play

[Anonymous Coward]

"31 June"? What, are they running MySQL?

Re:XP is dead

[Spy der Mann]

Long live ReactOS!

Well, at least I'm confident that by the time Windows 7 comes out, ReactOS will be in a usable state.

Re:It's nice to share.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Auditing in this case means: Hard drives physically removed and attached to non-networked machines with fresh OS installs, run the latest malware scanners from the CDs. Always comes up clean."

Well, if you remove the network and add a fresh OS, of course it is going to come up clean. Especially since you have no data to worry about. :)

So there is still a reason?

[ihatewinXP]

So have we decided 'yay or nay' if I need to adopt a new screen name?

No, I think ill still be administering XP boxen for until 2010 at least ;)

Re:So there is still a reason?

[monsted]

You could change it to ihatewinXPslightlylessthanVista.

Re:It's nice to share.

[decavolt]

I bow before your perversity. Where do you get drivers? Um... don't you mean, perseverance? Although that level of perseverance is still pretty perverse. Pedantic? Probably.

Windows Me

[Randwulf]

I too am using Windows Me, and as long as I can continue reading Slashdot with it, until December 22, 2012, I'll be happy.

Re:Windows Me

[Haeleth]

Explorer decided to run incredibly slow.

Even in Windows Me, that never happened without a reason.

I had NAV installed

Aha, mystery solved.

Re:Downgrade

[OriginalSpaceMan]

I think the word you're looking for is "Upgrade" to XP.

DOS apps

[weighn]

my organisation got rid of its last DOS app last year (vehicle fuel logs, very important). We had to maintain an old Win 98 box (and source the occasional second-hand replacement 3.5" FDD drive).

VMs and emulating the A: drive doesn't help if the auditing office insists on receiving the data via snail-mail delivered floppy (no joke!)

POS

[Weaselmancer]

Only a few years I worked on POS systems that ran on Windows 98, and there was no indication that things would ever change.

I'm assuming POS in this particular sentence does not mean Point Of Sale.

Re:It's nice to share.

[ampmouse]

unless a fresh install of windows actively downloads malware without prompting

That feature is called Windows Update.