Windows XP to be retired in 2008

[rjfvillarosa]

What a surprise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6551429.stm

[Khalil]

You gotta love all the Corporate control over consumers. LOL

[glfredrick]

FWIW, XP will be retired when people stop using it...

There are still some DOS folks out there, but their herd is getting as thin as their hair.

Every time we've had a switch in OS, we've seen this same debate. I've been into PCs before they were PCs (1977 for my first one) and I've seen way too many OS come and go - every time the same rhetoric, with the people making the most adamant statements now, also doing so later as they finally migrate and figure out that the gurus were actually right, and that the computer industry is advancing at light-speed.

There must be some changes to get around current bottlenecks in the system, and Microsoft is simply forward looking enough to admit it. The rest of us will either adapt or get like our grandmothers -- simply use our machines for dial-up email and solataire...

For me, I appreciate the fact that we're making forward progress, even if I get to learn yet another new OS. I like the fact that we now have more RAM on board than was POSSIBLE to get as a HD early on (I paid close to $500 for an extra 2 Mb of RAM for my first 386 system, which cost me over $3000!)

i recall an article I read some years ago that explained how teraflop capability would take the combined resources of the entire America's continent... We are now right around the corner from being able to buy a teraflop drive from the Egg for under $500... Plus we are also right around the corner from having an OS that can take advantage of that sort of computing power.

[chuck4456]

That would be for prebuilts. XP mainstream support doesn't end until Q2 2009. MS said that they would still support XP until 2014, but it will cost post-2009. Veterans will be able to use it as long as they want. I still have a 98se kitchen unit. As long as you know where to find what you need. Something tells me that there will be another Windows OS popping up between then and then.

[silentbobdrummer]

As long as there were still be support and updates for XP Pro, I'll continue to use it.

[Khalil]

The way they will get us is when they release newer versions of IE. What will happen is they will release them to work with vista and not other previous versions. I have friends still runing windows 98SE and ME using firefox because IE6 or higher wont work on those Operating systems.
All the websites then will conform to the newer IE and eventualy force most of us to go to Vista. I already own a laptop with Vista on it and I am less than impressed.

[kev7555]

Uh, excuse me but my old Win 98 SE box is running IE6...

[glc]

M$ *consumer* operating system replacements are slowing way down - because they are getting better and better to begin with. Go research - how many years was it between Win 3.x and 95? 95 and 98? 98 and ME (not really fair - ME should have been called 98 Third Edition)? 98 and XP? The move to the 32 bit NT kernel for consumer OS (XP Home) was the best move M$ has ever made.

The true 32 bit business OS releases have always been on a longer cycle - NT 3.x to 4, then 2000. The *ONLY* reason 2000 was replaced by XP Pro so quickly was for consolidation and consistency. Windows 2000 is still a very viable, stable OS and will be for a LONG time - even though M$ is doing everything they can to try to totally kill it.

The only "improvements" I can see between 2000 and XP are system restore, msconfig, and the builtin firewall.