very simple computer (motherboard, installed, Vista, working)

[Nomander]

Originally Posted by Radek

Really? Because MS still has around 90% of the OS market. Not to mention, they make money off xbox games, accessories, Office, Exchange, etc... they have a whole slew of products that they can fall back on.

Microsoft will drop it because they'd like to just have people trained for one set of operating systems, and it costs them money to provide support for an OS that is 6 years old.

In addition, Vista came out 5 years after XP did... which is by far the longest time period Microsoft has ever had between OS releases. Vista may have been far from ready, but Microsoft needed to release... seeing as how they had already pushed it back two years.


Microsoft will continue to be the top dog because most of the people who are upset about XP support ending will either a) use Vista. or b) Use XP until it breaks and no one will fix it, and then use Vista.

or c) they've already switched to Linux/Apple and won't switch back anyway.

Well, here is the thing. While the private consumer market may be controlled by MS, thats all it has a strong control over. The business market is very sketchy for them in terms of new product control. With each new release, they fall further and further behind in this market as more and more business find alternate solutions.

Keep in mind many businesses still use windows 2000 server even though 2003 has been out for quite a while (though 2003 is more common these days). Windows 2000 is still under MS extended support until 2010 and business oriented XP till 2014.

Many businesses dread switching to the new clients as that area is their biggest support draw. Vista is a headache with a lot of its problems and most businesses have gotten XP to a working flow over the years. Vista with all of its issues (even after its recent service pack) is still too much of a liability for many businesses and some administrators dread having to deal with the buggy OS, especially with the way MS handles its security fixes in general (try dealing with MS over a hotbed security issue and you will see what I mean).

So while basic support for consumer development will end, XP will continue to be around for quite a while and you will still most likely see software vendors continuing backwards compatibility with it for a while longer as well.

By the time XP starts showing its age (becoming incompatible with software releases), they will have launched their next release. So like I said, I am not worried about Vista and view it as a passing much like I did ME.

[Radek]

Originally Posted by Nomander

Well, here is the thing. While the private consumer market may be controlled by MS, thats all it has a strong control over. The business market is very sketchy for them in terms of new product control. With each new release, they fall further and further behind in this market as more and more business find alternate solutions.

Keep in mind many businesses still use windows 2000 server even though 2003 has been out for quite a while (though 2003 is more common these days). Windows 2000 is still under MS extended support until 2010 and business oriented XP till 2014.

Many businesses dread switching to the new clients as that area is their biggest support draw. Vista is a headache with a lot of its problems and most businesses have gotten XP to a working flow over the years. Vista with all of its issues (even after its recent service pack) is still too much of a liability for many businesses and some administrators dread having to deal with the buggy OS, especially with the way MS handles its security fixes in general (try dealing with MS over a hotbed security issue and you will see what I mean).

So while basic support for consumer development will end, XP will continue to be around for quite a while and you will still most likely see software vendors continuing backwards compatibility with it for a while longer as well.

By the time XP starts showing its age (becoming incompatible with software releases), they will have launched their next release. So like I said, I am not worried about Vista and view it as a passing much like I did ME.

I'm not entirely sure if you're agreeing, or disagreeing with me... or if you're taking a stance entirely your own.

At any rate, you're right. On all your points. I hate dealing with Microsoft support either at the business or the end-user level. If I could afford it, I'd buy into their CPR team. (MSDN Blogs)

Hell, Boeing only switched to XP back in September of '05. I can almost guarantee you that they won't switch again until they absolutely need to. Probably another 2 years.

[Nomander]

Originally Posted by Radek

I'm not entirely sure if you're agreeing, or disagreeing with me... or if you're taking a stance entirely your own.

At any rate, you're right. On all your points. I hate dealing with Microsoft support either at the business or the end-user level. If I could afford it, I'd buy into their CPR team. (MSDN Blogs)

Hell, Boeing only switched to XP back in September of '05. I can almost guarantee you that they won't switch again until they absolutely need to. Probably another 2 years.

I think a little bit of all, only slight disagreement I think was that MS is still going to support it for the most part, you just won't see a lot of effort put into newer features or compatibility with newer consumer entertainment features. Overall, it will be the same as always and they will continue to apply security fixes well into their next OS release. Then again, you may not have been disagreeing with that anyway. /shrug

[Radek]

Originally Posted by Nomander

I think a little bit of all, only slight disagreement I think was that MS is still going to support it for the most part, you just won't see a lot of effort put into newer features or compatibility with newer consumer entertainment features. Overall, it will be the same as always and they will continue to apply security fixes well into their next OS release. Then again, you may not have been disagreeing with that anyway. /shrug

I was originally under the impression that Microsoft was stopping the majority of its support options on june 30. I was incorrect in that assumption.

turns out they'll have support until 2014 I think?

[Nomander]

Originally Posted by Radek

I was originally under the impression that Microsoft was stopping the majority of its support options on june 30. I was incorrect in that assumption.

turns out they'll have support until 2014 I think?

Business oriented XP will continue on to 2014. Basically, if you have professional, it will still be secure with continued patches and updates in those areas. As I said, Win 2000 is still under the same support aspect.

[Radek]

Originally Posted by Nomander

Business oriented XP will continue on to 2014. Basically, if you have professional, it will still be secure with continued patches and updates in those areas. As I said, Win 2000 is still under the same support aspect.

... I dont think that last part is true, because it was my understanding that Boeing upgraded to XP because support for 2k was ending.

[RS-1080]

Originally Posted by Radek

Yeah, you can.

But service is going to stop shortly, and what will the average user do then? Buy Vista then? Just get it out of the way, suck it up and use the OS.

98SE has been out of date for a good while,but I know several who still use it.Yes,they claimed XP will soon stop updating but that don't mean it wont work for say at least 6 more years. I have a brand new desktop that runs much better with XP Pro now than with Vista. I will not buy another OS until MICROSCREW comes out with something better than Vista. It's nothing more than a money circle,that's all you can say for Microsoft. I also loaded Ubuntu on my daughters pc for ''free'' rather than buying the ''crappy resourse hog'' Vista after I replaced her failed 40GB HD that had XP restore ''built in'' on the restore partition rather than giving her a disc with the PC. It's only 1GB Ram, now a 160GB IDE HD,2.7Ghz CPU. It will fly running Ubuntu.

My son is using XP Pro also,and just a couple weeks ago I turned on his updates for the first time since 2003. I stopped at sp2 though, sp3 was not to either of our likings.

[Radek]

Originally Posted by RS-1080

98SE has been out of date for a good while,but I know several who still use it.Yes,they claimed XP will soon stop updating but that don't mean it wont work for say at least 6 more years. I have a brand new desktop that runs much better with XP Pro now than with Vista. I will not buy another OS until MICROSCREW comes out with something better than Vista. It's nothing more than a money circle,that's all you can say for Microsoft. I also loaded Ubuntu on my daughters pc for ''free'' rather than buying the ''crappy resourse hog'' Vista after I replaced her failed 40GB HD that had XP restore ''built in'' on the restore partition rather than giving her a disc with the PC. It's only 1GB Ram, now a 160GB IDE HD,2.7Ghz CPU. It will fly running Ubuntu.

My son is using XP Pro also,and just a couple weeks ago I turned on his updates for the first time since 2003. I stopped at sp2 though, sp3 was not to either of our likings.

New HP huh? i just had that problem. Complain enough to Hp and they'll send you the discs.

Yeah, I agree with running Ubuntu. I like it.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Radek

New HP huh? i just had that problem. Complain enough to Hp and they'll send you the discs.

Yeah, I agree with running Ubuntu. I like it.

I found Sabayon to be a far better version of Linux than Ubuntu, there is little configuration (Linux speaking) than Ubuntu.

i personally have absolutely no problems with Vista, it is my OS of choice, you indeed have to have more machine to run it, but you also needed more machine at the time when XP was release, and I remember hearing similar things about XP (as we are hearing about vista)

[jrice]

Originally Posted by Noahma

I found Sabayon to be a far better version of Linux than Ubuntu, there is little configuration (Linux speaking) than Ubuntu.

i personally have absolutely no problems with Vista, it is my OS of choice, you indeed have to have more machine to run it, but you also needed more machine at the time when XP was release, and I remember hearing similar things about XP (as we are hearing about vista)

transition to to a decent performing XP system wasnt quite as bad as the current requirements for a similar performing Vista box.