MS's earnings were disappointing? Welcome to 2008. They can stand in line with the other 80% of companies with the same problems.
As for support, XP has been around since 2001 and mainstream support goes until Apr. 2009. That's a damn long life cycle for any software maker. This is the same whining that went on with Windows 98 and Windows 2000. I don't remember the world ending in either case. Think about what other software was released in 2001 and if it's still support. I wonder if Adobe still supports Photoshop 6.0? I'll bet Apple still supports OSX 10.0.0, but Apple seems to be living the rock star life these days. Now Ill also say I'm still a HUGE XP fan. I use XP at home on all my machines. My work machine is Vista and while I don't really dislike it, it really doesn't do much for me either. But eventually the time will come to upgrade, and I'm sure my world won't end either. The "Vista sucks" thing has certainly taken on a life of its own. I would venture to guess that a very large percentage of the people who say it sucks have never tried it. It doesn't totally suck, it's just....slightly sucky. Frankly if they could just get it to perform better, it would be great. -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 7:20 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Why XP is doomed Interesting analysis from Cringely. As always, "follow the money" ... ------- Included Stuff Follows ------- I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Wimpy | PBS ... Several readers are concerned about Microsoft's decision to stop selling Windows XP and -- most importantly -- end security updates for the venerable operating system. This has everything to do with business and nothing at all to do with technology. Wearing my business reporter's fedora, then, I'll point you back a week or so to Microsoft's most recent earnings announcement, which disappointed Wall Street. This is significant because it is hard to find a Wall Street analyst who remembers the last time Microsoft's earnings were disappointing. It simply doesn't happen. That's because Microsoft has a myriad of tools for adjusting the numbers to look just right. Because Microsoft has so many tools for fine-tuning its financials (primarily the management of expenses, by the way -- Microsoft makes so much money that it tunes the numbers by throwing cash away), the fact that this last set of numbers disappointed suggests to me that they, too, could have been avoided. Microsoft probably decided to deliberately take an earnings hit precisely so they could play the "we have to get the earnings up" card to justify the final death of XP. Microsoft has been under huge pressure from its hardware OEMs to dump XP, thus forcing millions of customers who have been avoiding Vista and Vista's inevitable hardware upgrade to finally buy new computers. Dumping XP will help Dell and HP AND Microsoft, big-time. It won't do anything for you or me, though, since Vista still sucks, but we obviously don't matter. Those customers who think they'll keep XP going on their own will probably be out of luck, too. With Microsoft abandoning security upgrades, hackers will eat holes in the old OS practically overnight. And if one or more of the security companies like Symantec or McAfee think they can make a business out of defending XP, I simply doubt that customers will pay. --------- Included Stuff Ends --------- Other topics also discussed in his column here: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080509_004880.html ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
