• XP gets support until 2014
• As of 10 April 2012, Vista gets a reprieve and will now get security updates up to April 2017
• Windows 7 gets support until 2020
• Windows 8 will be most likely be out later this year and will get support until 2022/3

If Windows 8 does as well as Vista, and it’s by no means written in stone that it will/won’t, Microsoft could well be doing support for FIVE operating systems before XP support runs out in 2014.

Personally, I find that prospect quite funny. Am I being mean? No, not at all.

Along with almost all other beta testers, I voiced up against releasing Vista, but Microsoft let it out anyway.  It was that bad that even Microsoft have tried to erase it off the face of the earth.

Windows 7 has enough redeeming features that it has succeeded,

Windows 8 has no redeeming features for users of desktops and laptops, but Microsoft is going to release it anyway. Below the few apps lies the skeleton of a desktop operating system, not enough of one to be a really good desktop and a bit of a shock for anybody coming from a different Tablet.

I would have thought that Microsoft could have given us the full desktop and just added apps to the Metro UI as they finished them. As it is, neither user type will get what they expect or want. I can see Windows 8 going the same way as Vista. Maybe Microsoft will have enough time with Windows 9 development to do a proper job for both user types, because we will all still be here, regardless of what some pundits would have us believe.

The one saving grace is Windows 7. It will be around until 2020 and maybe beyond that if Microsoft persevere with the ‘not quite either’ policy.