End of XP Home soon?

[autodidact]

I copied this from a newsletter, but I can't remember which one. Is there any truth to this? I was thinking about building sometime in the near future and thought with XP I'd be ok for a few years, can't seem to keep up with changes.

Reminder For Users Of XP Home Edition Or Win98

As we've discussed in the past, Microsoft's "Product LifeCycle" sets a
series of end dates for each product; support is gradually withdrawn,
stepwise, until the product reaches "end of life," when all support is
terminated.

And, as we've discussed in the past, XP Home is scheduled to become
unsupported at the end of this year: on Dec 31 2006.

XP Pro will continue to be supported in the limited form of ongoing
security updates (but not necessarily any new features) until 2011.

Of course, Microsoft has played with the end dates in the past--- for
example, they've scheduled Win98's "end of life" date several times, but
postponed it again and again due to customer pressure. So, these dates
aren't written in stone. My best guess (but it's only a guess, based on
Microsoft's past behavior) is that XP Home's end-of-support date will be
extended somewhat beyond the end of the year, though perhaps not as far as
XP Pro's.

And speaking of Win98: It's scheduled to become unsupported on June 30th
of this year--- there'll be no new patches, updates, or fixes after that--
- and the Win98 Knowledgebase and self-help web pages at Microsoft.Com
will go dark a year later, in June 2007.

No immediate action is required; this is just a heads up--- something you
should be aware of and thinking about as time goes on. I'll have more on
this next week, and (of course) we'll stay on top of it as the year
progresses; letting you know your options and alternatives. Stay tuned!

[Panama Red]

First I've heard of it. I did a google search and came up with this from MS.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

And this may be where everyone is quoting from.

http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/arch...s_xp_home.html

I read it to say no Auto Security Updates after Dec 06. Since this isn't an official MS announcement and knowing how much of an uproar the end of support for 98 created, I wouldn't worry about it. At least not yet.

[spartan015]

man 98 was prolly my fav OS... ran pretty stable, i didnt really like 2000 tho it was one of the most stable OS ive had. anyhow im waiting for Vista to come out and time for me to upgrade my comp soon

[autodidact]

Thanks Panama Red: When I first read that notice of XP expiration I got this punched below the belt feeling cause every time I think of building something comes up to put a damper to it. I got a lot of info from the sites you gave, but I'm still a bit confused I'm thinking should I build this year and get XP Pro or wait till next year and get Vista? I'm going to sit on it for awhile to see what comes out of this . Seems theirs going to be a lot more said on this subject soon I would think , although I don't feel like I have all that much time cause right now I have 98 sc and a five year old computer and I don't want to be stuck with the only choice of buying another proprietary computer.

Ps: Why I'm so confused as what to do is I don't like change! that's why I still have 98, it sort of grew on me even though I've read how much people like XP and how much more stable it is, although I've never had that much trouble with 98. Wish they would settle on one OS and just make "that" one better over time. Thanks again for the info.

[syphe]

I roll with whatever's newest when I can get my hands on it. I'm not blown away by the look of Vista so far, but I haven't seen more than a handful of small screens related to different parts of the new OS.

[glc]

I honestly don't care when support stops for any OS - I use what I like and what works. (Hint - I don't use XP, and if I did, it wouldn't be Home)