[ale] [OT] WinXP support (Was: Re: GnuCash (Was: Re: [OT] Home PBX?))

[mike at trausch.us]

On 08/01/2012 01:34 PM, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> Funny you mention that - A co-worker just mentioned to me that M$ had
> announced continued support for XP through 2014.
> 
> On doing a quick check I found this link that confirms it: 
> http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/208800494

Ahh, this clarifies things:

> On April 14, 2009, Windows XP and its family of operating systems
> were moved from Mainstream Support to the Extended Support phase as
> it marks the progression of the legacy operating system through the
> Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy. During the Extended Support
> Phase, Microsoft will continue to provide security updates every
> month for Windows XP; however, free technical support, warranty
> claims, and design changes are no longer being offered.
> 
> On April 8, 2014, all support for Windows XP, including security
> updates and hotfixes, will be terminated.[2] Users will still be able
> to download old updates and hotfixes from Windows Update. Microsoft
> recommends that users upgrade to Windows 7.[111]
> 
> In July 2010 Microsoft announced that permission for volume license
> users to downgrade their licenses from Windows 7 to Windows XP would
> extend until the end of the Windows 7 lifecycle.[3] This announcement
> did not include any promise to extend technical support, security
> updates, or hotfixes beyond the April 8, 2014 deadline.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP#Support_lifecycle)

According to Microsoft's page at [0], 14-Apr-2009 was the end of all
"mainstream" support, even for XP SP3.  According to another MS page at
[1], this means that from 14-Apr-2009 until 08-Apr-2014, the following
apply for XP SP3:

  * Paid per-incident or hourly support
  * Paid hotfix support
  * Free security updates

It also says "To receive hotfix support, an Extended Hotfix Support
contract must be purchased within the first 90 days following the end of
the Mainstream Support phase.  Microsoft will not accept requests for
warranty support, design changes, or new features during the Extended
Support phase."

One more thing that the page says is that "Extended Support is not
offered for Consumer, Hardware, Multimedia products or Microsoft Online
Services."  I take that to mean that XP Home is completely unsupported,
but XP Professional still is, if you pay.

Effectively, at least for everyone I've personally worked with, this
means that XP is unsupported, because nobody I have worked with pays
Microsoft for extended support.

	--- Mike

[0] http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=6&y=18&C2=1173
[1] http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 729 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20120801/41319927/attachment.bin