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The Death of Windows XP

Posted by kdawson on from the alas-poor-yorick dept.

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."

3 of 676 comments (clear)

  1. What about activation servers? by thomasdz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oddly enough, quite a few people still have Windows 98 running (I have a Win98 machine in my basement doing my CDEX ripping).
    When Microsoft turns off the activation servers, that basically REALLY means the end of WinXP... or is there a chance, any chance, that Microsoft will release a super-secret "unlock all" patch in 2014 that will allow XP to be activated. I am pretty sure the answer is NO, but I can still hope.

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  2. Re:XP? by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was at Borders the other day and saw their computers booting up Windows 98 ;-)

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  3. Re:Satisfying by Rev.+DeFiLEZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is already happening at my (tech) company. Our "LAN" department knows that XP's support with expire, and if they don't start replacing them now they will have a large userbase with no code-support.

    Developers and sysadmins were always allowed to run linux. Now anyone else can via a supported corporate image.
    if you don't want linux (Sales, Product Managers, etc) you now get a MacOSX laptop or desktop.

    This has impacted other Software vendors, Our ticketing system with a windows client (dev/sysadmins rdesktopped in to use) got replaced with a cross platform solution.

    I think in 2 years we will be windows free, previously 60-75% of the employees were windows users. The reasons for this was the LAN department hates MacOSX less than Vista, and people heard all the buzz about Macs and were willing to give it a shot.