[pchelpers] Re: Back to the drawing board

Hi Scott

> EGlnl> http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy
> 
> EGlnl> Support may be extended to 24 months for those service packs
> EGlnl> where Microsoft believes customers will need additional time
> EGlnl> for testing and deployment. For example, Microsoft Windows XP
> EGlnl> Service Pack 1 (SP1) will receive 24 months of support after
> EGlnl> Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is released.
> 
> That's for support. I'm quite certain that they have different
> criteria for security and critical patches. Note that they are still
> offering new critical and security patches for Win98, via
> WindowsUpdate.
> 

Well, MS only extended the Windows Update service for Windows 98 after a 
major outcry, but i'm not at all sure people and companies will be as 
outspoken in defending their right to keep using SP1. I would not be at 
all surprised if SP2 is made a requirement in a year at the latest. As 
far as i understand, SP1 is almost like a different operating system. 
Not only does MS have a lot of extra work making security patches 
specifically for SP1, but the result is not as safe as SP2, and MS is 
starting to get very scared about Firefox, Linux, OpenOffice, 
Thunderbird, etc. You have to realise that MS is a stock company. Even 
if they have so far only lost a few percent of their stranglehold on the 
market, the trend can make their stocks crash. And at the increasing 
rate of interest in anything not MS, that event is more or less certain; 
it's just a question of when and how much...

Apparently MS's gamble with Windows 98 went wrong; they thought they 
could force all companies to stop using it by ending its Windows Update 
service. But 80% (!) of all companies were still running (at least some) 
computers with 98 at the end of 2003, when the Windows Update service 
was supposed to end! In addition, they got many companies so angry that 
instead of throwing out the old computers running Windows 98 and Windows 
95 (which couldn't be upgraded to XP because of its bloat or price), 
they switched them to Linux. Then, when they saw those old horses 
running faster and safer than their new XP machines, they installed 
Linux on all the company computers. Hahaha MS, that's what happens when 
you're too greedy (and too stupid)!

Ek


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