Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista!

[Simon]

Microsoft has killed support for its unloved Windows Vista operating system today.

The company announced in February that the service pack-free version of its post-XP, pre-Windows 7 OS would hit end of life support in April.  This means that from today, the OS which hit manufacturers in late 2006 is left entirely at the mercy of hackers who might wish to exploit the now unsupported code.  Unsurprisingly, Microsoft isn't switching off the security updates light on its much more popular, aged operating systems - Windows XP SP2, as well as all version of Windows 2000 - until July this year.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/13/microsoft_windows_vista_end_of_life_support/

[Steve]

Bearing in mind if you've got sp2 your ok for a while yet.

[Simon]

Ah... I missed that bit.  Thought I had a good scare story there!   

[Steve]

Well your not far off,presumably Rik or someone else can tell us how long legally they have to support the product

[Simon]

I'm sure he will. 

[Glenn]

XP is supported until 2014.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-gb&C2=1173

[Simon]

  I'll buy a Mac then. 

[Glenn]

Whether they issue anymore service packs is another question

[DorsetBoy]

There is nothing new in this, it was stated from the start that support was 5 years for most versions and these reports from 2007 give the details.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9011984/Microsoft_Just_five_years_support_for_Vista_Home_Ultimate


http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Vista-Support-Lifecycle-48116.shtml


The latest from Cnet :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20002351-56.html

The original release of Windows Vista reached the end of its support on Tuesday, meaning that customers now need to be running either Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 of Vista to get assistance from Microsoft.

So support is still available as planned ,you need to be running Vista with a service pack.

[Den]

Surely thats just common sense, if you are not running the service packs how can they help you thats what the service packs are all about. 

[Rik]

Well your not far off,presumably Rik or someone else can tell us how long legally they have to support the product

Oh no I can't.

[Gary]

Surely thats just common sense, if you are not running the service packs how can they help you thats what the service packs are all about. 

I though they were there to cause your allowance to go down, and your apps to break 

[zappaDPJ]

Well your not far off,presumably Rik or someone else can tell us how long legally they have to support the product

That's quite an interesting question and one that's recently come up for me with another piece of software. I suspect the answer might be contained in the licensing agreement you sign up to when you installed the product coupled with the individual laws of the country it is sold in. The reality though is I suspect it would be almost impossible to challenge unless the licence terms are in breach of a country's sale of goods act i.e. in the UK the product would have to be fit for purpose for up to a year after purchase. This is somewhat speculative on my part, licence agreements are such a grey area.

[Rik]

They are, Zap, as you never purchase software, just a licence to use it, so the Sale of Goods Act may not fully apply. Plus, of course, the software may malfunction in a particular hardware environment, which would leave you trying to prove fault.