Enough Already With Windows XP

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Microsoft was supposed to stop enabling this. It asked you nicely to change. It was supportive. You said you needed its help. You needed more time. It said OK and extended the deadline. But you weren't ready then, either.

You begged Microsoft to give you more time. You even blamed it for your XP addiction, saying that you would never have had this problem if it had given you a better operating system. You said that you wouldn't need so much help if it hadn't put so many holes in XP in the first place. You said it had failed you.

Finally, after giving you a second chance, a third chance, and more, Microsoft said enough is enough. It sat you down and said, "This time, we mean it. We will no longer support Windows XP. At all. As of April 8th. You're done. And we mean it this time."

Microsoft meant it. And it made good on that threat... for 28 days.

Today, Microsoft broke its streak and released a new patch for XP. As Adrienne Hall, general manager of Trustworthy Computing out in Redmond, wrote today:

Even though Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and is past the time we normally provide security updates, we've decided to provide an update for all versions of Windows XP (including embedded), today. We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP.

This is called "enabling," people. It isn't fair. Oh, sure, I know this is a giant corporation. I know that it's not the cuddliest company. Maybe it's not great at expressing affection. But hasn't Microsoft proven that it loves you? Do you really want to keep causing it so much pain?

Get it together, CIOs. Depending on whom you ask, Windows XP still accounts for anywhere from 17% to 26% of desktop OS usage. Still.

For an industry that is supposed to be so forward thinking, so innovative, so brave, so tech-savvy, you sure are being unreasonable about XP. Think about it. What other technology from 2001 are you still running? Are there any other instances in end-user computing where you'd consider a refresh cycle of 13 years to be too brief?

I understand how it is. When I was three years old, I didn't want to stop playing with my cool plastic slide, so when my dad tried to put it away, I crawled underneath it in a place he couldn't get to, crossed my arms, pouted, and held my breath until he agreed to let me keep playing with it.

My mother was terrified. My dad told me to go ahead and hold my breath as long as I wanted. I relented.

It's time to grow up and take responsibility for yourselves and your end users, XP addicts. Microsoft isn't strong enough to stop enabling you. It still has a picture in its wallet of you back when you were a fresh-faced entry-level sysadmin. It cannot give you the tough love you need.

Install the patch if you must. But if you're going to install something new, why not make it a new operating system?