The waters around Microsoft XP got a lot muddier this month. Support for this 12 year old stalwart was due to end on April 8 2014 but throughout January there has been a softening of the Microsoft line, amounting to a partial reprieve. Although support will end in April, Microsoft will now provide anti-malware updates and facilities to clean up after an attack, until July 2015.
XP just won’t go away – market estimates indicate XP is running on around 29% of desktops as businesses and individual users continue to resist the move to Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 and it is the size of the group that is the problem. Microsoft cannot afford to turn them loose. It is not a revenue issue (although Microsoft would dearly like the upgrade revenue given its declining Windows sales, see here) but a customer expectation and security matter. Abandoning XP could open up a security hole – compromised XP machines could be used to attack more modern Windows OS versions so Microsoft has to continue with the old to protect the new. However, it is not providing full security patches so there is a risk that the worst may happen anyway if XP users think they are more protected than they actually are. Microsoft needs to clarify the situation at the very least.
Then there is the question of whether those XP users who do upgrade will stay with Windows when there are mobile OS alternatives available, and even the Mac OS in the desktop/laptop area. There will be even more pressure on the next release of Windows (see here) to rectify the issues with Windows 8. Further problems will do nothing to encourage XP users to upgrade and could turn them away from Windows mobile devices in other areas of their businesses too, which Microsoft really cannot afford. There may be more life to be squeezed out of XP yet.
