Microsoft has today unveiled a planned retirement date for one of its most successful products, Windows XP, saying that April 8 2014 will not only be the 15th anniversary of windows XP , but "it'll be put to sleep". That seems windows XP will retire on April 8 2014.

The news was delivered by Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner today at the Microsoft World Partner conference in Toronto. Amongst the many statistics he quoted around Microsoft's market share and comparisons with competitors' products (including a hilarious video of Apples iPhone Siri telling the audience of 16,000 attendees when asked "what is the best smartphone" that the best choice was the Nokia Lumina 800), Turner announced that April 8 2014 will not only be the 15th anniversary of windows XP , but it'll also be when "it'll be put to sleep

More (http://www.forumswindows8.com/info/microsoft-announce-retirement-date-windows-xp-338.html)

While this may sound popular to many, I don't see this as being fair to those who ran XP all of these years. Many of which after the release of Vista, could've went elsewhere, instead many chose to downgrade to XP to stay with familiar territory, & remained Windows customers.

Plus, XP (as well as Office 2007) kept MS afloat during the Vista years, during which XP's usage peaked at an all time high in January 2007. Many who didn't qualify for free downgrades bought them anyway, adding even more cash in MS's pockets.

To flat out pull the the plug on XP users would be totally morally wrong. Why not put Vista to sleep also, at their peak, having less than 20% of MS.

Cat

Unfortunately everything must come to an end. We still get almost 2 years before this happens. This will hopefully get those still on XP to look at other possibilities. As you mentioned in another Thread (or Forum) some of those still using XP definitely need to update to a more modern OS (medical offices and such). Some things are just too important to depend on older technology. I know my PMD office is associated with a large university and university medical center. As they are upgrading H/W they are moving to Win 7. It's a somewhat slow process, but the costs are amortized over a longer period.

The DRs I go to are affiliated and connected to the local hospital network and they just started slowly moving to Windows 7 this year. I don't see Windows 8 as a practical solution in those settings considering the number of PCs and people. A lot of them use the computer but are clueless about anything other than the screens they use. The jump from XP to Vista/Windows 7 was annoying enough with the name changes they decided on for no reason. I can only imagine what will happen when the unenlightened go from XP to Windows 8 an can't even find the power buttons and no start menu.
Joe

Wrong terminology!

XP will never die! MS may withdraw support for it, but, like, so what?
MS doesn't rule our lives!

Those running XP today, will still be able to run it years from now as long as their computer still runs.
Just turn off Auto Updates and keep on truckin'

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/KeepOnTruckin.gif

I do not remember seeing the word "Die", just "Retired". I hope to be retired shortly but I plan on not dying for many years thereafter, with any luck.

XP will be in use for many years. It will loose support when retired, but with vigilance in security, should be fine. Personally, I will not go back to XP, but then that's me. I like the newer OS's too much. And yes with the announced pricing I will be updating to Win 8 Pro on our 2 laptops. I will keep images for Win 7 for both, but would not believe restoration will be necessary. Again, that's just me.

I can see why MS made the announcement. Their feeling is it get's expensive to continue support on a OS that is 15 years old and now has 3 newer OS's (yes at least one did not gain much support). We have yet to see if Win 8 wins consumer approval with huge sales numbers, but again at these prices I see that as a distinct possibility.

The only thing I use XP for is a virtual PC for old software that won't run on Windows 7. Business is finally going to have to quit stalling on the switch from XP. One obvious reason is many use outdated software not compatible with later editions of Windows and is very costly to replace. The other reason is the recession and the clowns in Washington.
Joe

The head clown is the worst of the bunch IMHO.