Windows XP turns 11, still not dead yet – 206 days old

[Troy]

The aged OS has 18 months until retirement, but it's not going quietly into the night, say analysts
By Gregg Keizer
October 25, 2012 06:42 AM ET

Computerworld - On the same day Microsoft loudly proclaims Windows 8 in New York, the aging-but-still-going Windows XP today quietly celebrated its 11th birthday.

On Oct. 25, 2001, Microsoft launched Windows XP, unknowingly unleashing its most successful operating system ever.

If they only could do the same today, the company's executives must think as they assemble for a day-long Windows 8 launch party.

"It was a good operating system," said David Johnson, an analyst with Forrester, in an interview today. "It was a very, very good operating system ... a superb OS because it removed a lot of pain."

So superb, in fact, that it continues to run on an enormous number of PCs across the globe. According to Web metrics firm Net Applications, Windows XP powered about 41% of all personal computers -- 45% of those running one form or another of Windows -- in September.

Only the much newer Windows 7 has a bigger share, and that only recently: It wasn't until this August that Windows 7 passed XP to take the top spot.

By Forrester's count, said Johnson, 48% of enterprise PCs now run Windows 7. But 38% of their systems continue to rely on Windows XP.

That last number is one Microsoft desperately wants -- has wanted, in fact, for over a year -- to drive to zero, preferably by getting customers to dump old hardware, upgrade to new machines and devices, and pick Windows 8 as their OS.

As far back as June 2011, a Microsoft manager claimed it was "time to move on" from XP, while even earlier that year an executive on the Internet Explorer team belittled XP as the "lowest common denominator" when he explained why the OS wouldn't run the then-new IE9.

What's the rush to dump the old XP?

On April 8, 2014, less than 18 months from now, Windows XP exits all support when it receives its final security update. From then on, most users of the OS will be exposed to attack from hackers exploiting new vulnerabilities that Microsoft simply won't patch.

That's not the only problem. ISVs, or "independent software vendors," tech-speak for third-party developers, already have or will soon drop support for their XP programs.

But with so many machines still running the venerable XP, what's the chance that all users, particularly those in enterprises, will be off the OS in 18 months when Microsoft puts it out to pasture?

Little or none, said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner.

"There's a good chance that 10% or 15% of organizations' PCs will still be on XP after support ends," said Silver in a Wednesday interview. "That wouldn't be atypical, actually, for a Windows operating system."

Forrester's Johnson said his firm's numbers were similar, although it posed the question differently to enterprises.

"We asked 'What are you deploying now on new PCs?' and enterprises are saying the 76% are deploying Windows 7. But 16% are still going with XP," said Johnson.

"When we ask them what they'll be deploying 12 months from now, their answer is Windows 7, with 60%, Windows 8, at 26%, and Windows XP, 3%," Johnson continued. "But enterprises are notoriously optimistic about future deployments, so I'd say that by the time it reaches retirement, XP will still be on 15% to 20% of PCs."

More here, http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...l_not_dead_yet

[mlangdn]

Microsoft is on an every other release cycle.
Let's start with Windows 95. Lot's of clamor and excitement, but it took Windows 98 (and 98SE) to fix it up right.
Then along came Windows ME, which flopped like a fish out of water until XP came along.
Vista was up next (which I still use only on patch Tuesday) that was somewhat of a flop until Windows 7. Since I really don't often boot to Vista, I can't say much negative about it - I simply don't know.
Everybody seems to rave quite nicely about Windows 7, and now Windows 8 is on the horizon.
If history is correct, then Windows 8 will go down in flames, and poor Mr. Ballmer will be ousted.

One I didn't mention - Windows 2000. Meant for enterprise users, it was wildly successful. At my work, I was still on a 2k computer as late as Nov. 2010. Win 2k was a workhorse.

[Dark Angel]

I went from 98se on my first PC to 2k. Didn't mind it at all. I knew a guy who to this day insists that there were no drivers for 2k and that ME was a good OS. I think he did too much acid before dropping out of Uni, personally.

[Scotterpops]

I still have fond memories of Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and DOS 6.something (6.3 I think). Of course, I recall that 3.11 became suddenly more attractive with the release of Windows 95. What a rip that was.

I'll vote for Win2K as best MS OS though, with Win7 coming on strong. WinXP was OK too, I suppose.

Someone needs to start a thread about BeOS.

[ZemaTalon]

I still have fond memories of Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and DOS 6.something (6.3 I think). Of course, I recall that 3.11 became suddenly more attractive with the release of Windows 95. What a rip that was.

I'll vote for Win2K as best MS OS though, with Win7 coming on strong. WinXP was OK too, I suppose.

Someone needs to start a thread about BeOS.

I had a lot of fun playing with BeOS, it's too bad it didn't survive (there is actually a recreation of it out there though).

I started out with Windows 3.0 and DOS 5.0, then upgraded it to 3.1, and a series of DOS upgrades up to 6.2. I still have all the old floppies too. Win95 looked so good back then, I remember reading articles about its innovations for running DOS games, with customized autoexec.bat settings. It's funny how radically different your perspective of something can be with the passage of time - from the then "greatest version of Windows ever", to the world's greatest pile of poo, at least before the even pooier WinMe. Win2000 was indeed awesome. It was so nice having a Windows OS that just worked, and not having to repeatedly reboot to get stuff done.

[Alakazam]

I've still got 3 machines here that run XP, 2 desktops and 1 lappy, I think I will lay 2 of them to rest when support runs out and put Win7 on the really good one.