By Peter Bright | Ars Technica
Today is the last day that Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 will receive support and patches from Microsoft. Starting tomorrow, Service Pack 3 will be required to receive support and hotfixes for Windows XP.
In the past, the end of support for a service pack would mean that Microsoft would refuse to offer any kind of telephone support or troubleshooting assistance. This policy was relaxed a little in April; limited support will remain available for those organizations sticking with Service Pack 2. However, any hotfixes or security updates will be restricted to Service Pack 3.
Customers on Windows 2000 will not even have this option. The operating system is now out of its extended support phase. This brings an end to any and all hotfixes, security updates, or even paid support options. Fewer than half a percent of Internet-connected machines appear to use Windows 2000, and with the end of support, it is now open season on that minority: Microsoft will take no action to provide fixes for any security issues, regardless of their severity.
XP fans get reprieve in form of downgrade rights extension
By Peter Bright | Last updated about 13 hours ago
Downgrade rights have been a long-standing feature of Microsoft's operating system licensing. They allow users to buy a license for the latest version of the operating system, and then use that license with an earlier incarnation. Volume license users have long had a broadly unrestricted right to downgrade; though unsupported, they could choose to run Windows 95 if it suited their needs. OEM licenses, sold with preinstalled copies of the software, also have downgrade rights, but unlike the volume license kind, they tend to be restricted to specific versions.
Windows 7's OEM downgrade rights, available for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, were originally due to expire this October. Microsoft has now announced that these end-user downgrade rights are being extended further.
OEMs themselves will have to stop preinstalling downgraded copies of Windows XP on October 22, 2010. However, end-users will now be able to downgrade PCs with OEM installations of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate to the corresponding version of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional, and will be allowed to do so for the duration of Windows 7's lifecycle.
Microsoft says that this change is in response to business demands; it would be confusing if some Windows 7-licensed PCs included downgrade rights but others did not. The change in policy means that the licensing conditions will be uniform, and the same conditions will apply regardless of when the machines were purchased.
The company did not explicitly state which lifecycle. Under current rules, OEM availability ends two years after the next operating system is released. Presuming that Windows 8 lands in late 2012 (for a three-year release cycle), that would mean that OEM licenses of Windows 7 would be available until late 2014. Beyond that, customers would have to use volume license downgrade rights.
The supported lifecycle is longer; consumer editions of Windows 7 will receive mainstream support until 2015, and corporate editions until 2020. If this is the lifecycle that OEM downgrade rights are tied to, it would extend downgrade rights to 2015 (for Windows 7 Ultimate) or 2020 (for Windows 7 Professional). Though this interpretation has been widely reported across the Internet, it seems hard to reconcile with Redmond's current stated availability policy.
The chance of a computer bought in 2020 working flawlessly with Windows XP is slim—indeed, even in 2015, Windows XP's hardware support is likely to be problematic—so even if the 2020 date is accurate, it is unlikely to have any practical value.
This extended availability also does not appear to impact the support schedule for the old operating system; Windows XP support is due to expire in April 2014. So not only will the operating system be unlikely to work, it will be insecure, too.
Those businesses dependent on OEM rather than volume licenses will, no doubt, welcome the change. Microsoft's own figures say that three-quarters of businesses still use Windows XP in some capacity, so the ability to buy machines with the right to downgrade will certainly find its uses.
However, Windows XP's dominance is certainly diminishing. Microsoft says that 65 percent of companies either have started their migration to Windows 7 or will do so within six months, rising to 89 percent planning to do so within 24 months—upgrading just in time for the release of Windows 8.
Moreover, the wisdom of buying new hardware just to run Windows XP is increasingly questionable. Microsoft is not going to decide one day that every post-Windows XP operating system was a grave error, and is not going to undo all the changes in those operating systems that cause software and device driver incompatibility. The company has moved on. Going forward, the compatibility situation is only going to get worse: new technology like USB3 and LightPeak will become mainstream, new processor extensions such as Intel's AVX will start to gain traction, and even hard disks might start to forfeit Windows XP compatibility.
Though Microsoft has repeatedly relented, extending Windows XP availability and support, it is sticking to its guns when it comes to the necessity of the platform changes that Windows Vista and Windows 7 have made. If a business absolutely must use Windows XP to run some essential software, Microsoft's solution is virtualization. Any company hoping to stick with the obsolete platform indefinitely is setting itself up for disappointment.
Today is the last day that Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 will receive support and patches from Microsoft. Starting tomorrow, Service Pack 3 will be required to receive support and hotfixes for Windows XP.
In the past, the end of support for a service pack would mean that Microsoft would refuse to offer any kind of telephone support or troubleshooting assistance. This policy was relaxed a little in April; limited support will remain available for those organizations sticking with Service Pack 2. However, any hotfixes or security updates will be restricted to Service Pack 3.
Customers on Windows 2000 will not even have this option. The operating system is now out of its extended support phase. This brings an end to any and all hotfixes, security updates, or even paid support options. Fewer than half a percent of Internet-connected machines appear to use Windows 2000, and with the end of support, it is now open season on that minority: Microsoft will take no action to provide fixes for any security issues, regardless of their severity.
***
By Peter Bright | Last updated about 13 hours ago
Downgrade rights have been a long-standing feature of Microsoft's operating system licensing. They allow users to buy a license for the latest version of the operating system, and then use that license with an earlier incarnation. Volume license users have long had a broadly unrestricted right to downgrade; though unsupported, they could choose to run Windows 95 if it suited their needs. OEM licenses, sold with preinstalled copies of the software, also have downgrade rights, but unlike the volume license kind, they tend to be restricted to specific versions.
Windows 7's OEM downgrade rights, available for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, were originally due to expire this October. Microsoft has now announced that these end-user downgrade rights are being extended further.
OEMs themselves will have to stop preinstalling downgraded copies of Windows XP on October 22, 2010. However, end-users will now be able to downgrade PCs with OEM installations of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate to the corresponding version of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional, and will be allowed to do so for the duration of Windows 7's lifecycle.
Microsoft says that this change is in response to business demands; it would be confusing if some Windows 7-licensed PCs included downgrade rights but others did not. The change in policy means that the licensing conditions will be uniform, and the same conditions will apply regardless of when the machines were purchased.
The company did not explicitly state which lifecycle. Under current rules, OEM availability ends two years after the next operating system is released. Presuming that Windows 8 lands in late 2012 (for a three-year release cycle), that would mean that OEM licenses of Windows 7 would be available until late 2014. Beyond that, customers would have to use volume license downgrade rights.
The supported lifecycle is longer; consumer editions of Windows 7 will receive mainstream support until 2015, and corporate editions until 2020. If this is the lifecycle that OEM downgrade rights are tied to, it would extend downgrade rights to 2015 (for Windows 7 Ultimate) or 2020 (for Windows 7 Professional). Though this interpretation has been widely reported across the Internet, it seems hard to reconcile with Redmond's current stated availability policy.
The chance of a computer bought in 2020 working flawlessly with Windows XP is slim—indeed, even in 2015, Windows XP's hardware support is likely to be problematic—so even if the 2020 date is accurate, it is unlikely to have any practical value.
This extended availability also does not appear to impact the support schedule for the old operating system; Windows XP support is due to expire in April 2014. So not only will the operating system be unlikely to work, it will be insecure, too.
Those businesses dependent on OEM rather than volume licenses will, no doubt, welcome the change. Microsoft's own figures say that three-quarters of businesses still use Windows XP in some capacity, so the ability to buy machines with the right to downgrade will certainly find its uses.
However, Windows XP's dominance is certainly diminishing. Microsoft says that 65 percent of companies either have started their migration to Windows 7 or will do so within six months, rising to 89 percent planning to do so within 24 months—upgrading just in time for the release of Windows 8.
Moreover, the wisdom of buying new hardware just to run Windows XP is increasingly questionable. Microsoft is not going to decide one day that every post-Windows XP operating system was a grave error, and is not going to undo all the changes in those operating systems that cause software and device driver incompatibility. The company has moved on. Going forward, the compatibility situation is only going to get worse: new technology like USB3 and LightPeak will become mainstream, new processor extensions such as Intel's AVX will start to gain traction, and even hard disks might start to forfeit Windows XP compatibility.
Though Microsoft has repeatedly relented, extending Windows XP availability and support, it is sticking to its guns when it comes to the necessity of the platform changes that Windows Vista and Windows 7 have made. If a business absolutely must use Windows XP to run some essential software, Microsoft's solution is virtualization. Any company hoping to stick with the obsolete platform indefinitely is setting itself up for disappointment.
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