Microsoft will drop free support for handful of aging products next week, including consumer versions of Windows XP and Office 2003.
On April 14, the Redmond giant ends "mainstream" support for Office 2003 in addition to Windows XP Home and Professional. This means the software will no longer include no-charge incident support, warranty claims, design changes, and bug fixes not related to security.
After next week, consumer XP and Office 2003 will be put into an "extended support" phase, which means customers will need to pay for Microsoft assistance on a per-incident, per hour, or alternative basis.
Security updates will still be provided for free for Office 2003 and XP Home and Professional until August 4, 2014. After that, the software is retired and users are on their own.
And it's also funny that according to various sources, XP still retains around 65% of the OS marketshare.
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