Microsoft Warns End Is Really Coming for XP (NewsFactor)

When we last left the venerable Windows XP operating system, it was being abandoned by its parent company even as its many fans cheered it to keep on keepin' on. Now, Microsoft is undertaking a more aggressive campaign to move XP-ers to Windows 7.

Stephen Rose, community manager for Windows, posted a column on the Windows blog on Monday, entitled "With only 1000 days left of extended support, don't you think it's time to retire Windows XP?" After noting that XP "had an amazing run," he pointed out that security patches and hotfixes for all versions of the OS will no longer be available as of April of 2014.

'Lowest Common Denominator'

Rose also said that "many third party software providers are not planning to extend support for their applications running on Windows XP." Put this all together, he said, and it means "more complexity, security risks," and additional management costs to IT departments that still support XP.

This could represent a large number of IT departments, as well as individual users. According to Net Applications, XP is still the OS used on 51 percent of all the PCs on the planet, and some analysts have estimated that XP might represent 60 percent of enterprise PCs.

In addition to removing all security updates, Microsoft has also taken other measures, such as designing its Internet Explorer 9 browser so that it runs on Vista and Windows 7, but not XP. In an unusual twist, new versions of competing browsers, such as Firefox, are continuing to support XP.

Officially, Microsoft has said that it decided not to support XP in IE9 because it will be utilizing graphics acceleration that is not possible under XP. A Microsoft executive has been quoted by news media as saying that supporting XP would have meant "optimizing for the lowest common denominator."

'Can't Force XP Users'

Microsoft's urgency in convincing IT departments and individuals to abandon "the lowest common denominator" otherwise known as XP is driven by the availability of its most recent OS, Windows 7, which is currently on about 27 percent of PCs, as well as the expected launch of Windows 8 next year.

In his blog posting, Rose noted that Windows 7 has been adopted by a wide range of companies, including Boeing, Dell, Samsung, and BMW, among others. But time is running out, he cautioned. Rose cited a recent report by the industry research firm Gartner, which stated that "'more than 50 percent of organizations that do not start deploying Windows 7 by early 2012 will not complete their deployment before Windows XP support ends, and will incur increased support costs."

Laura DiDio, an analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp., said that enterprise IT departments "are concerned with the most pressing problems, and, as long as XP is working, they're happy." Some of those, she said, will wait until 2014, or possibly until Windows 8 is out next year, to upgrade.

Microsoft "can't force XP users to move to a new OS before they're ready," she said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20110712/tc_nf/79314

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