Read the full story on Softpedia here.

Knew it had to come to an end.

Bad news for me, as its my favourite OS

Like it or not Change is dynamic.
Have to adopt.

Moreover MS product's hold sway.(monopoly).

Here's another one to add to the list.
No TCP/IP patches for you, XP

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/31...p=4&fpid=16

Well I suppose that at least XP was so popular (and good) it got to SP 3 after several years - Vista only got to SP 2 -
M/soft claim that '7' is not an update for Vista but a new OS -
I wonder if we will get to 7.1 / 7.2 etc - Even though the claim was it would be their 'ultimate' OS -
I think '7.1 will be out in less than a year - If M/soft runs to its typical fashion -
If we only could have XP SP 4 (Vista) 'as an option', it would have been better, as we would have had the option to go back -
Now we have '7', but I think dedicated XP users will not change for now - It was and is still the easiest for most of us -
Also the fixes are now embedded in all the forums to support us -

@ exile360 -
Is the XP SP3 RTM Build 5512, at the bottom of the article you note, just SP3 or a last "infill update" ??-

How long did it take XP to get to SP 3? Vista's been out since 2007, XP has been out since 2002.

What does "infill update" mean? Do you mean will there be any further updates for XP? Yes there will, but there will be no major releases like Service Packs. MS has turned their attention primarily to Windows 7 and Vista, which are both based on the same code with some differences. 7 came along quickly, only 2 years after Vista because MS swapped development teams and decided to go back to doing things the old way, releasing a new version of Windows every 2 years (95, 98, ME (2000), XP (2002). XP was allowed to get very long in the tooth compared to other Windows versions of the past, primarily because of the issues that it faced early on that brought about SP 2 in 2004, which practically made it a new version of Windows, but took away from development of Longhorn, which of course became Vista.

"Last infill update" meant another "extra" add on for XP - It meant that can we use it to add on to XP SP3 -
I read it and was not sure if it included extras or "nothing" -
I always want anything useful - If it is I will D/load it -

If you're referring to security updates, yes it will still certainly receive them. Even Windows 2000 still does. If you're referring to things like Windows Media Player 12 and the like, I'm honestly not sure, but it likely will .

I agree on "security updates" patches, hotfix's maybe they pulled the ms staff of XP for Windows 7 & Other OS products

Yeah, they can't afford to continue to focus too much on a legacy OS, even a great one like XP. It's close to 10 years old now and that's a very long time when it comes to technology of any kind, particularly computers.

I have a real old PII system running Win98SE that runs quite well that I use as a system to teach seniors with.

Long live Win98SE.

98SE was an excellent Windows version .

Its stll being run in this Town !!!!!, and runs ok?

Enough of that !! - I have just updated my old IBM with 98 to XP about 2 months ago and given it to the kids -
If it was not for 98 I could never have understood XP on this machine - Well I suppose you were right as it made everything (XP) easy to adapt to -
That is most likely why I never got around to trying to understand Vistas features - I had it all with XP -
Now with '7' I do not want to look too much further - But I suppose I will get another unit one day (while I can still see the screen, Ha Ha) -

98 is still common here (***** -hope yardbird knows) & even 95 I have seen in a system owned by a doc. which he uses for maintaining his patient's database, typing letters, listening music & mails. He says it fulfills his purpose.
Ram is 56mb.

I know, I had bussiness there in Marmagao......

I could not resist so I had to find Marmago:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&sourc...ge&resnum=1

Is the surfing good there?
How about Tsunami frequency?

was there unloading communications equipment, apx: 10 years ago, nice seaport town/city.
no surfing

Now Surfing is common.

Nice sandy beach.

Don't worry about Tsunami (frequency), We have forgot it. Now it's swine flu season.

Goa was a union territory before some years and now it is a small state in Kerala state.

(Kerala is known as "God's own Country").

You are welcome.

Lucky,they willing to release security patches.............

I saw an RSS feed that SP3 will be supported until 2014, can anyone confirm this? (even if there are no more SP's for XP on the way out) and the SP2 will have support till 2010... if someone finds any other info.... like I said, in came to me in an rss feed. and I lost it

According to this and this it will only be supported until 2010.

Also according to this:

XP was released in 2002 (General Availability) and Vista was available in 2007, so that would mean XP itself (we're not talking service pack level support here, just the base product) won't be supported after 2009. SP3, according to Microsoft's product lifecycle support policy, will only be supported until 2010, as that is 2 years (or 24 months) after the release of the final service pack, Service Pack 3. I doubt MS will back off from this, but if business demand were great enough, they just might, although I know of plenty of big businesses still on Win2k, and MS didn't back off of its support policy for it. I think individual users, believe it or not a small percentage of Microsofts install base for Windows, are making the demand for continued XP support seem greater than it actually is. The trying economy may change things, but it would hurt Microsoft financially to keep offering free support and spending more man hours on a product that yields them no income rather than compelling the industry to upgrade its hardware and migrate to its newer products, like Vista, 7, Server and Office 07 and its upcoming replacement.

In Australia I was shocked to find that even some government agencies still use 2000 -
They thought XP was a bit 'radical' at the time so they never changed -
Those that upgraded have never gone past XP as they think it will take too long to re-educate the users -
Even my local doctors clinic only have XP and say thet will not change for a long time yet -

Exile,

in response to your reply below,

Do you mean that you think that security updates will continue after 2010 or that they will not after 2010?

It would be great if at least the security updates continued

If you read here, it appears that security updates will be stopped as well, but I can't say for sure.

@ Exile

Thanks I would hope that they would at least continue with critical security updates for a while longer.

An article that yardbird posted, and I think it was from the register but I am not sure (I think in another thread) had said XP support would continue until 2014, which I think would be a good thing, but everything else I've read, including the links you posted, say otherwise and that it will stop in 2010.

I'm a little confused on the month that it will stop, though. Do you know if its April or would it be later on?

yardbird, if you are reading this, I'm sure you know which article I am talking about, free free to post it again.

I'd think the month would be January, since that was the month of general availability for Vista. Who knows though? MS may decide to support it longer, but it is a pretty old OS and I wouldn't keep throwing time and money at it if I were them. Also keep in mind that corporate support is a different issue, and they get support for certain products longer, such as XP Professional, but I believe they have to pay for it. Home users don't seem to have that option, regardless of the version they're running.

@ Exile

Hmm. So its based on when the new OS came out, and not when the last service pack came out on the OS in question?

And then on the link you gave me I think it said that it would support for 10 years, but maybe that was for business users only? 10 years would continue the support until 2012 then, not 2010.

Personally I hope that they continue to provide the critical security updates for at least another year or so, especially considering there have been so many security updates lately, I remember I think in August or maybe July, there were 11!!

best I recall it was WinXP News, TecMerc has copies on his webiste.

@ yardbird

Oh, okay, thanks You may have even posted it earlier in this thread, I am not sure.

End of support for XP SP2 is less than a year away

If you're still running Windows XP with Service Pack 2, here's a heads-up: Microsoft will end support for that configuration in July 2010, so you'd best start thinking about installing SP3. It may seem as if that date is a long way off, but time does fly when you're having fun, so mark your calendars or just bite the bullet and go ahead and update now. XP SP3 will be supported until April 2014.
http://www.wxpnews.com/090922-Product-Lifecycle

And yet, according to the link I posted earlier, support for SP3 ends in the same year as they stated 24 months after the SP's release. Weird.

Like Windows ---Weird

Well personally I hope its 2014 but if its met in the middle at 2012 that would be good too

I hope we find out soon when the support is really going until, because it would be nice to know!

It is 2014 but it a bit odd in how Microsoft shows it on their page. Took me a while to find it, but it's there on their lifecycle page.

Since support for SP2 ends in 2010 and was released in 2004, then logic would say that support for SP3 ends in either 2012 (adding 2 years for a new SP per MS policy) or 2016 (but I REALLY doubt that one and I'll take any bets from anyone who thinks MS would support it that long ).

@ Ron

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm happy to know that support will continue through till 2014, personally. Although I do hope to upgrade to a newer OS before then.

@ Exile,

Yeah, I agree, logic would say 2012, but I like 2014 better hehe

I also doubt that it would be till 2016.

Yes, most home users will buy new PC's between now and then, businesses are another issue . Thanks for the info AdvancedSetup . If only you'd waited until someone took me up on my bet .

@ Exile.

Yeah, I agree.

haha! Maybe someone will still take you up on your bet? It could happen, very potentially...