from the Finally...a-*stable*-version-to-download! dept.
Extended support for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009—the last supported version of Windows based on Windows XP—ended on April 9, 2019, marking the final end of the Windows NT 5.1 product line after 17 years, 7 months, and 16 days. Counting this edition, Windows XP is the longest-lived version of Windows ever—a record which is unlikely to be beaten.
[...] Despite the nominal end of support for Windows XP five years ago, the existence of POSReady 2009 allowed users to receive security updates on Windows XP Home and Professional SP3 through the use of a registry hack. Microsoft dissuaded users from doing this, stating that they "do not fully protect Windows XP customers," though no attempt was apparently made to prevent users from using this hack. With POSReady reaching the end of support, the flow of these security updates will likewise come to an end.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @12:57AM (1 child)
Anyone else find this amusing?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @03:23AM
I thought it was surprisingly honest.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:03AM (8 children)
Dies? Or becomes eternally stable?
But seriously, now that updates should be ended, will anyone make the updates available as one big download? (Does the wsusoffline installer still do Windows XP? It has been a long time since I used that one) I'm aware of some third party "service packs" but most of those have been around for a while.
Also, does this mean they will stop product activation? Reports had it that even a few months ago it would work as long as IE updates were installed first.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @01:22AM (2 children)
Maybe we can crowdsource a few pennies for the ReactOS project and get it to a working state...
I think many places still use XP commercially and are just keeping it i) quiet and ii) as offline as possible.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:05AM (1 child)
ReactOS is definitely worth supporting. They've come a long way, and have boot from BTRFS support working in the latest alpha, complete with subvolume support.
The big problem is missing APIs for some common applications.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:12PM
Don't they get the application API implementations mostly from Wine? So I think supporting Wine would also help ReactOS.
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:25AM (1 child)
I used the wsusoffline installer to create an .ISO of XP updates on the last day that Microsoft 'fully' supported updates. Wsusoffline shortly thereafter stopped supporting XP. It's a useful .ISO to keep around for those times you want an XP install, like to run 32 bit Windows software in a VM.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:22AM
Or you can download an old version of wsusoffline which still supports XP if you lost your copy.
Admittedly, XP/Server2003 is still useful for small VMs for isolated windows apps due to their smaller memory and disk footprint compared to newer versions, with less phone-home features to disable in a new installation. I'm waiting for ReactOS to become more stable before making the jump away completely.
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:29AM
As long as you're not a Secret Service agent plugging in a drive from a Chinese, uh, "tourist" visiting a resort in Florida, you should be relatively safe.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:11PM (1 child)
Windows XP forever is accurate.
Now excuse me while I wait for my Windows XP to finish installing on my new box -- it says not to turn off the computer. Once it finishes installing, I hear that a service pack 3 has come out since when I started the install.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:48PM
Maybe XP will live on just like Flash, which died several times, was shot, excommunicated, sworn at, and despite all that still survives to this day.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday April 10 2019, @06:15AM (2 children)
A lot of those XP-running terminals will stagger on until the hardware dies. XP will be with us for a long, long time...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:28AM
What's sad is we had a new piece of machine equipment installed in a factory recently - a specialised tool for cutting window frames - and the terminal is running Windows XP. Then having to watch the ensuing back-and-forth with the supplier because they wanted TeamViewer access for remote support since they're based in Germany and we're not. And finding out Windows XP has problems connecting to various Internet sites due to not supporting modern encryption ciphers. Don't think it ever got resolved, I was only told to provide the ethernet connection. Needless to say, this device is on an isolated DMZ all by itself (plus layer-2 switching infrastructure, and default gateway which is a firewall, if you want to be pedantic).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Wednesday April 10 2019, @04:59PM
XP is running here in a VM, completely isolated from the Internet. The VM is (of course) redundantly backed up, and the apps in there are working fine, as they always have. I suppose some day all the VM engines could lose the ability to run XP, but until that day...
For one thing, I keep the XP VM around to run applications I wrote for Windows back in the day. They still work fine, and are useful to me from time to time. For another, XP+QT4 also lets me keep cross-building very back-compatible applications that work (so far) from XP right up through current OS's.
So at least here, it's not an "until the hardware dies" issue, because the hardware is virtual and basically bulletproof.
--
Democracy: Where any two idiots outvote a genius.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by J_Darnley on Wednesday April 10 2019, @09:33AM
Still better than everything that came after it. 7 gimped so many features. 8 was a shit show and only for mobile devices. 10 made that better but left everyone with the user tracking.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday April 10 2019, @11:11AM (2 children)
Hand on the heatsink, I subscribe to this [imgur.com].
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 10 2019, @02:13PM
Microsoft had already killed off XP.
But then . . . Microsoft had to resurrect XP in order to kill off the new threat of Netbooks.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @08:53PM
You can read that two ways.
1. XP is so good it demands support and has a user base 17 years on.
2. After 17 years of trying they still cannot secure the ^%$^%$ thing.