Buy Me…I’m Not XP!!

Microsoft Strongly Recommends XP Users to Upgrade

Since only one year of Windows XP support is left, Microsoft again asks users of this OS to upgrade to something not so ancient. One of the most stable operating systems ever developed by Microsoft has been around for ten years and is still used on 15-20% of PCs worldwide, including mine.

The software giant is going to cut off support for the venerable OS on 8 April 2014, thus giving users one year to either upgrade or get ready to face more vulnerabilities and security risks. Nevertheless, XP is still incredibly popular, particularly among SMBs and home users. All of them feel it gets the job done and therefore don’t see a point in upgrading to Windows 7. But you should understand that Windows XP is older than iOS, Android, Facebook and YouTube.

In addition, the problem is that Microsoft sold millions of XP licenses for first generation nettops and netbooks based on Atom processors, this being years after XP stopped shipping on regular desktops and laptops. Apparently, upgrading these systems to Windows 7 may not be an option for most users.

In the meanwhile, the software giant insists that the only way for users to stay safe is to upgrade to a new operating system. The cutoff date is only a year from now, so time is already running out. It seems that Microsoft does not care that users of ancient XP PCs might choose to upgrade to something else, for instance Linux or even Chrome and Android. As for me, I might take it as a sign to buy myself new Macbook and switch to MacOS X.

With so many XP boxes out there, the experts predict that many users will simply ignore Microsoft’s warnings. The company’s decision to ditch XP could also lead to more opportunities for peddlers of alternative low cost systems based on free OS.