They should be xpanked.

Exchange 2003 support has also ended today. Surely business users will be far more affected by that than XP RTM support ending?

What if I buy a new netbook with XP on it ? Not supported ? (The vendor can support the hardware but I doubt has the source code to change the OS if there is a bug) ?

I guess I'll have to learn how to drive Linux.

At the end of the day it's 8 bloody years old. I've never had to use MS for support, try something like Tek-Tips, way more useful.

No I don't run Visat, I still run XP, but never having to contact MS I don't expect them to supoprt USB3, BluRay etc on old technolgy.

They will keep security fixes coming.

At A/C saying 7 won't be any faster than Vista, have you read anything lately?

And as for running on 512mb ram. For god sake, if your going to fork out for a new W7 license, I'm sure an extra £20 for a shed load of memory isn't going to kill you.

Hell I'm pissed of that my 5 year old Car Stereo doesn't have an iPod docking station, despite sounding as good as any new systems.

I think it's callled technolgy, if your to thick to realise that things become obsolete, then go into dry stone walling or something.

I'm a linux and mac user, but i am about to start a course studying some software that is windows only (3d studio max).

For the duration of the course i am going to install and run XP. Later i may run it in a virtual machine, but initially i need to get XP again for my dell laptop..... is it going to be substantially cheaper now that there is no support as standard.... nope didn't think so.

-or wrong if you are a Microsoft customer. Vista has been howled down and Win 7 isn't ready yet. XP availability was extended because people don't want Vista and so all those people who've bought, and are still buying, XP in the last 12 months will not have an easy support route. Great.

"I don't expect them to supoprt USB3, BluRay etc on old technolgy"

But that's exactly what they're doing with W7. Dig around in there, I'm sure you'll find 95% or more of Windows 7 is Windows XP. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's a bad thing in itself (it would be foolish to bulid an OS from scratch every couple of years). I just think it's important to realise that XP is being castrated for commercial reasons, not technical ones.

Ultimately whether my startup screen says XP, Vista or Windows 7, it's still the same grotty old VMS / CP/M hybrid in there, and the rebrand is just Microsoft's way of getting me to pay for it again every few years. Paying over and over again for proprietary software is the only way to pay for its maintenance and ongoing development, which is where Microsoft's costs really lie anyway. If only they'd admit that, ditch their albatross of a legacy code base, buy Canonical (or some other Linux distributor) and start working on FOSS, I could start liking them and using their products again. They just need to get over their paranoid secrecy and the dishonesty it encourages, then this massively talent-heavy organisation could be pushing the industry forward by contributing to a worthwhile operating system instead of wasting developer effort reinventing other peoples' wheels and attaching them to their rusty old carriages.

Ballmer hugging a penguin icon? No need yet, but hopefully one for the future. I'm not going to touch Vista or Windows 7, but I'd definitely try MS Linux.

If you buy a netbook with Win XP, the netbook manufacturer still has to support XP for the warranty of the netbook.

Advantage of windows over Linux? Try and get any support for [let's say] Federa Core 6 which is just a few years old.

Windows 7 will be faster than Vista according to reports and will also fix some of the major issues in Vista.

Windows 7 will not directly support BlueRay [from what I read]. Manufacturers will supply drivers.

Exchange Server 2003? Why? Still has another 5 yeas of life. Way, way, way more people have Win XP than Exchange 2003.

Of note: New systems purchased sometime after June 2009 until January 2010 will be able to get a free upgrade to Windows 7. But business users will have the option [when buying a system with Windows 7] to downgrade to Vista or Win XP.

I believe the core problem is Microsoft has stagnant innovation. 95% of what users do, they can do with Win98 & Office 97. There is no compelling reason to upgrade. Sure, the enterprise can brag about running the 'latest and greatest'. However at the end of the day that doesn't pay the bills - productivity does.

Find a way to make the enterprise more productive, and I guarantee the next OS/Office launch will be a smashing success.