This is a prime example of why I hardly bother reading the Cringely blog any more. Dontcha just love it when analyst, experts, and reporters make blatantly false statements to back up their arguments?
"With Microsoft abandoning security upgrades, hackers will eat holes in the old OS practically overnight." Security patches for XP will be continued through January of 2014. Abandoning? Hardly. The problem of low sales for hardware OEMs is self-inflicted. IF the hardware makers hadn't made it difficult to order XP configurations, they'd never have noticed the Vista problem. Maybe MS forced them to restrict XP sales, I don't know. But all of the low sales problems are still a "doctor doctor, it hurts when I do this" problem. Carl -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:20 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> ~
