It’s been coming for a long time but Microsoft have officially put the brakes on support for the Windows XP operating system. That means that any security holes and issues that need patching will go begging, unless a community-made fix is made and adopted but a situation like that would likely bring its own troubles.
Even though Microsoft has stopped supporting XP, several reports claim that more than 20% of computer users are still running XP as their operating system. These machines will now be at increased risk of infection by all manner of internet nasties.
Some countries are reluctant to let go of Microsoft’s venerable operating system however. The UK government has given Microsoft a large chunk of change – in the region of £5.5 million – for support of the operating system as well as Microsoft Office 2003 and Exchange 2003 for the next year. The Dutch government has given Microsoft a similar but unspecified amount for support for their government computers that have yet to make the changeover.
Unfortunately for most fans of XP, not everyone has that sort of cash lying around to make sure that Microsoft keeps their OS up to date. Those users will have to either change to something that is still being supported or take their chances in the internet wilderness.
Source: Ars Technica