http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57619697-75/windows-8.1-update-said-to-arri...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57614101-92/intel-hp-prepare-for-the-end-of-...



Well, they said they'd extended XP ..... but my memory says it was for a lot longer period.   Now they claim they were just talking about XP embedded with that longer extension period.  But that doesn't matter, Win XP support officially ends now on April the 8th now (unless they change their silly minds again).

Anyway, on April the 8th Microsoft will patch Win 8.1 with "the fix it patch" on Patch Tuesday and kill XP support on the same day.

You are supposed to run out and buy a new box immediately of course, and MS trusts you to be very loyal long term blood bowl donors and stick with the MS brand OS.  

XP end of support is a rather big thing for folks our age as we have been using it for lo, over 13 years now and some of us have been on XP continuously since it came out.

To say we are not ready to jump over to touchy feel-ly land is an understatement.


======================


When the XP-like Linux Mint Mate LTS comes out that same month I will post a detailed how to install it (or provide a link to the same since lots of people put them up and there is always an official how to posted by the Mint folks).

You can dual boot your old machine for free and when XP bites the trojan or root kit or worm or virus that finally does it to it you will have somewhere to go to keep on going.

You are  caught in the classical "rock and a hard spot" situation right now -- but with Mint Mate the hard spot is actually a pretty soft landing as there are enough of us on here to give you tips and how to's on Linux Mint.

This is the current graph that came out with the announcement ....
Look at that "Other" go !!



                   

And here is the same graph I posted two weeks ago ....



Also please note that in two weeks time since I first posted this pie chart that "Other" has more than doubled in size again to right at 5% and Windows 7 went up nearly 2% just about matching the reported decline in the XP slice.  

Only 1% went to Win 8.



"Other" is now bigger than Windows Vista or any of the Apple desktop OSs.  

I wonder how big "other" will get before they have to give it a real name?

Being curious, I checked into the idea of bugs being actually coordinated and "saved up" and I got flabbergasted by the fact hackers are actually getting PAID by criminals to write attack softwares.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241585/XP_s_retirement_will_be_hacker...

The factual gist is that for "dead software support" MS charges the company involved $50,000 to $150,000 per incident to fix it, whatever it is.

Now, my next question is this, Who pays the criminals to pay the hackers to write the attacks so MS can sell those $50,000 to $150,000 bug fixes?  

Do the criminals pay the hackers to write the fixes at the same time they design the attacks?

(gotta know how it really actually worked to fix it all quick-like, now don't you?)


           

gack -- this whole thing smells totally corrupt and maggot ridden to me now.

OF, isn't it possible that your XP computer can run indefinately, if you don't pick up a virus? I have XP.

If MS ever loses it's 1st place position... hackers will jump on to the next reining OS...

Practically every Android app out there is a Trojan, gathering personal info to be sold...

I wouldn't be opposed to a backup OS, but I might mess things up installing it.

What's what in the purty little pie charts?    x86 processors only, apparently.

Well, if you even have a windows boot sector at all,  then your are counted as a Windows user.  
Dual boot folks don't get counted except once as Windows users.

Chromebooks and boxes get counted as Android, apparently and are not in this chart at all.

T'ain't much good, but it is better than nothing, apparently.   Linux is down 7th in the pile, only one Mac OS yet to go
and it will get Vista about the same point in time it takes out the rest of the Mac OS groups.

Is it double pumping the Win 8 and Win 8.1 and Win 8.1.1 and Win 8.1.2  nonsense ??


Windows 7      47.46%
Windows XP      29.30%
Windows 8      6.62%
Windows 8.1      3.94%
Windows Vista      3.30%
Mac OS X 10.9      3.19%
Linux                     1.59%
Mac OS X 10.8      1.47%
Mac OS X 10.6      1.43%
Mac OS X 10.7      1.19%
Mac OS X 10.5      0.29%
Windows NT      0.07%
Mac OS X 10.4      0.07%
Windows 2000      0.03%
Mac OS X        0.01%
Windows 98      0.00%

Hate to tell you this, but XP was extended A LOT because MS totally reissued it to handle the netbook wave and they had to support it from then like it was a newly issued OS.   XP would have died 6 years ago otherwise.

The follow on OS, Vista, "died" the first time in 2012, but MS continued to put out occasional fix it packages, thinking rightly as long as they were supporting XP they felt folks wouldn't understand them dumping the follow on OS.

I think they both will die on April 8th this year for real, finally, as MS is going to lose the business groups associated with them.  

(more silent layoffs).

XP will continue to run, and it is conceivable that a good anti-virus company such as Trend or Malwarebytes could put out a comprehensive fix for a virus such as what MS put out in the day.

Problem is they can't ship you a chunk of OS files to you to replace what might have been damaged.   You'd have to get them off a CD.

And how many of us have working CDs for our OS any more, anyway?

Zero ....   MS arranged for that when they shipped the retail CDs with death dates built into them.

Another problem that will be seen with the demise of XP is that some future software won't be supported on XP anymore.

Anti-virus makers will eventually go with the new routines for doing things and XP will be dropped as a supported OS.  Once the AV guys stop supporting, it will really be a dead OS.  It will still work, no problem.  It will be subject to getting any new bug out there and a very quickly dimishing list of programs that will run on it.

My XP CD still works just fine. I have never allowed MS's weekly blast of crap. Never run their "anti-virus/malware" software. Installed only updates that I needed after they have been tested and proven not to cause a problem.

If Windows wasn't the target for almost every nasty piece of programming out there, all this forced upgrading would never have caught on to start with. Release good, tight, well checked code and you don't have near the problems that Windows does from the beginning.

That's one of the great things about Linux.  Hundreds or possibly thousands of eyes are pouring over the source all the time.  If a problem is found, a report is submitted and the problem is fixed.  The folks writing it take pride in their contributions and want the OS to be the best it can be.  Many of them are doing the coding for free.  All they get out of it is knowing they helped and maybe a recognition line somewhere in a contributors list.  Many commercial operations release code into the FOSS system for varying reasons.  It usually is something they have done for themselves and feel that it may benefit someone else.  You sure don't see this kind of support in the Windows or MAC OS world.

It will be sort of sad to see XP go but it is becoming more dated all the time.  Many new technologies have come out since XP.  Updates, patches, drivers, and in some cases not supporting XP have all been done to make these technologies work, in some cases not fully supported, on XP.

We need something good, lightweight, secure, functional, easy to use to replace XP and sadly, for them, Microsoft isn't providing so they will lose out. It's time they learned that no matter how big you get, your customer is ultimately the person who gives you your paycheck.  You don't make what the customer wants...his dollars go elsewhere.

I am really enjoying reading all these posts about what's happening in the computer world.  Since I got out of the business, I don't keep up with nearly as much anymore.