Posted on 01/04/2006 9:59:39 AM PST by ShadowAce
Microsoft set out to adopt a formal and rigid support lifecycle in 2002, back at a time when most analysts were expecting to see Windows Vista (then, "Longhorn") within a couple of years. My own point of view was that this lifecycle business had a lot to do with Microsoft's then-new volume licensing scheme, which among other things is oriented towards selling software subscriptions. If you're buying a subscription for software, you can see how lifecycle plans become important. However, delays in Windows Vista coupled with a questionable approach to "consumer" products means that 2007 will carry a few surprises unless policy changes are made at Redmond.
XP Professional and Home are divided into two general product categories for Microsoft, namely business and consumer products. XP Professional, as a business product, will receive mainstream support for two additional years after the release of Windows Vista (whenever that may be). After that, Professional will have an additional five years of extended service (minimum), though this could be lengthened considerably if the OS update after Windows Vista does not ship within three years of Vista's debut.
Mainstream and Extended support are virtually identical, with both carrying security updates, service packs, online support, and the availability of paid support. However, the transition to the Extended Support phase means that hotfixes that are not security related will be made available by a (paid) commercial contract, warranty claims can no longer be made, and Microsoft will not entertain adding any new features or design elements to the OS.
Based on the current timeline and our own expectations for the launch of Windows Vista, we estimate Windows XP Professional Mainstream Support ending in late December 2008, with Extended Support ending in December of 2013. It could stretch out longer, but we don't expect the window to be more than two to three additional years. After the Extended Support phase is finished, online support (knowledge base, FAQ, etc.) will continue for 10 years.
Windows XP Home is another story. As a consumer product, it suffers from two policy deficiencies. First, consumer products do not qualify for Extended Support, but instead move directly into the online support phase after Mainstream Support ends. Second, whereas business products are guaranteed Mainstream Support for two years beyond the release of the next subsequent version of a product (in this case, Windows Vista), consumer products do not get this built-in transitional period. The end result is that Windows XP Home will leave Mainstream Support and enter online support on January 1, 2007—in less than a year.
When that day comes, XP Home users may feel left out in the cold, because they will no longer qualify for security updates, and will not be able to purchase support from Microsoft. Finding this situation somewhat alarming, I contacted Microsoft's representation to clarify the matter. A Microsoft spokesman relayed the following to me:
"For consumer products, security updates will be available through the end of the mainstream phase. For Windows XP Home Edition, there will be no security updates after 12/31/06." Regarding paid support for problems unrelated to security patches, I was told that "Users who want to continue to receive support after the Microsoft assisted and paid support offerings have ended may visit the Retired Product Support Options Web site."
I urge Microsoft to reconsider this stance. There should be considerably more overlap in support for their consumer OS. While five years of support for XP Home may have seemed reasonable when it was expected that there would be little more than three years between major OS updates, the time it has taken to bake Windows Vista has thrown this out entirely. If Vista launches in October, it would give users a mere two months to move to the OS, or risk being unsupported.
I suspect that Microsoft will grant a stay of execution for Windows XP Home, because the alternative is to create a PR nightmare that would also leave customers fuming. Citing emerging markets in the past, Microsoft extended support for Windows 98 and ME by more than two years, and this decision was made long after Windows XP was released. Microsoft should extend support for Windows XP Home well into 2008. Otherwise users will have to hope that updates to XP Professional meet their needs, but it remains unclear if Windows Update will point XP Home users to updates to XP Professional.
Good point. And they've shown they realize it the way they forced SP-2 on everyone, more or less whether they liked it or not.
Duly noted, and I would like to point out that one of the two operating systems is given away for free.
Wait for the new Intel Macs. Coming this year.
Some friends of mine are already running the new Windows "Longhorn" version. (What will eventually be called "Vista")
Looks alot like XP but I have not had a chance to play with it much. I may install it on ald old spare laptop I have, so I can poke around a bit and check it out. Not sure how much like the beta the final version will be. /shrug
The problem is that Vista has been delayed so much that there will be very little overlap between the end of support for XP Home and the arrival of Vista. Under the current schedule, a person could buy a Dell in September and find four months later that his OS support is gone (Vista may ship OEM in October, if there are no more delays). That's just bad by anyone's standards.
I believe Microsoft will do the right thing and extend XP Home support some reasonable time into the availability of Vista.
Of course, this whole thing supports what I've always said -- stay away from XP Home.
I've already looked at it (month ago)-- its horrible. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW -- very large footprint -- very clunky -- nothing worked -- from network copy to renaming simple files to find -- it really irritated me. Its how many years late?
Think of XP Home as NT 5.1 Lite. It's the same OS, just various capabilities have been removed.
I haven't had trouble with it, but if I did, and the Vista product wasn't available... I'd upgrade to XP Pro.
But I think they'll end up doing the right thing too. Contrary to popular insult, they aren't the dominant force in software for being unresponsive to customer demand.
Try 2003 Server. It's at least the difference between 4.0 and 2000, even more especially when it comes to security.
There's still a lot of stuff that won't run on anything but the original. I had RIP (Raster Image Processor) software that would only run on Windows 95, absolutely nothing else. Too many programmers like to play fast and loose with APIs, and their stuff breaks at the next OS revision. I know diabetes software that checked available disk space directly, so freaked when faced with a FAT 32 disk. There was also my old Atari 800XL, where some older apps designed to the quirks of the original 400/800 OS failed because of the revisions in the newer OS, and I had to load the old OS from disk (the original is in ROM) to use them.
And then be stuck with one of the main causes of Windows crashes, bad third-party drivers and hardware? I hope not.
If you are running XP, fire up a command prompt and see what version number it reports.
You are right, but sometimes it will work, some it won't.
It really depends. You can kill all the XP eye candy* and shut off new services to get some speed. And then there's the fact that 2000 can't take advantage of Intel's SMT ("Hyperthreading").
* And not through the desktop properties. Actually disable the Themes service.
I don't consider shutting down 95% of the apps I use a "service" at all.
Regrettably, virtual sex seems to be as much a virus vector as the real thing. ;-)
In any case, the day where your Intel-based PC will only run Windows is rapidly coming to a close. And when that happens, people aren't going to just upgrade because Bill Gates orders them to do so.
ack! keep reading; i made a mistake thinking of the os versions; i mentioned it later. anyone who knows me and knows what I do for a living know that I am aware of MS's versions, etc.
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