On Being Kicked Out of the Land of Windows XP

If you haven’t already heard, Microsoft will no longer be supporting the Windows XP operating system as of April 8th of this year.  Computers running Windows XP will continue to run.  It’s not like you’ll turn on your computer on April 9th and be greeted by a death rattle and a blue screen saying, “Goodbye, I’ve gone to that big OS place in the sky.”  It only means that Microsoft won’t be writing anymore software to protect it against cyber-villains who love to find vulnerabilities in any operating system and take control of it for their purposes or just ruin your day by accessing and deleting or rewriting  everything precious to you.  Yes, it is potentially that bad.

You might think that up-to-date anti-virus software is the answer.  Partly, but not completely, and none of the AV software developers are guaranteeing continued support of XP beyond 1-2 years.  Microsoft wasn’t writing those updates for giggles.  Computer attacks come in different forms and they’re not all in a way that even the best AV software will catch.  Even at their most perfect, all operating systems have flaws, little cracks in their programs that hackers just love to find and exploit.  That’s what those updating patches were for, to fill those cracks, and after April 8, they’re not going to be coming to an XP computer near you.

So, no more updates, no more security patches.  Windows XP has reached its expiration date and like a can of soup that’s marked as should have been eaten two years ago, you use it now at your own risk.  You might ask why Microsoft would do this to so many people, folks who may not be able to afford to upgrade to something still supported by them or buy equipment with their newest operating system bells and whistles built in.  I’m sure there’s an official statement as to why, but let me give it to you simply.  Microsoft is a business and one of the things they do is create operating system software.  You want bigger, better, faster, they can make it happen, but it’s at a price.  Yes, price, cost – MONEY.  They’re providing updates free of charge.  It’s damned nice of them, but it’s not profitable for them to continue to write software code and provide it free for every operating system indefinitely.  How are they going to make any money when you’re forever happy with what you have? 

Some call it keeping up with the cyber-times, creating a better computer experience and keeping the hackers at bay in the process.  Maybe, but much as it’s been 15 years of Microsoft supported bliss for all of us Windows XP users– yes, I said “us” – I think you can also throw a bit of planned obsolescence into the mix as well.