I’m not sure which is the greater credit to Microsoft: that Windows 7 is the fastest-selling OS of all time, or that the rock-solid XP is still going strong after ten years. Despite numerous warnings and, of course, a great OS update to, a lot of system admins are choosing to stick with the old workhorse for as long as they can, even after it’s no longer supported. Hey, if it ain’t broke, right?
The study, by Dimensional Research, polled 950 IT professionals, and about half said they’d upgrade by April 2014 (XP’s expiration date), the other half said they’ll stand by their OS. The only trouble with all that is that once XP stops being supported, it’ll start being vulnerable. Security holes discovered in the final patches will remain unaddressed, though I imagine that a non-Microsoft unofficial support community will arise in their absence.
For internal networks, though, or other less-exposed situations, XP will likely stay viable for as long as its file system and basic underpinnings are still supported by newer OSes. Who knows how long that will be, but I don’t think XP will be disappearing from the world any time soon. More info from the study can be found over at Computer World.