And then there were three! Microsoft is all set to officially discontinue Window XP on April 8, 2014 and is currently busy moving users to a newer platform, be it Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
But at the same time Redmond is also aware of the fact that the old operating system is still used by around 30 percent of users worldwide, as indicated by unofficial statistics. More so, there still seems to be notable developer support for Windows XP.
And this support is not just limited to small and medium software companies. Three of the biggest browser makers on the market also plan to support Windows XP beyond its retirement date.
An awful lot of users will (or could end up) stick to the ancient platform, and after Google and Mozilla confirmed that their new browsers will still be compatible with Microsoft’s old operating system, another leading browser maker has claimed the same.
Opera Software, in a statement to PC Pro made it official:
“Opera is used by millions of Windows XP users, and we will keep supporting Windows XP as long as it is popular among our users.”
As far as sticking to the old operating system after the support end date is concerned, Microsoft and security experts have made it absolutely clear that it is a risk, risk proposition.
Hackers, they say, will try to exploit every single flaw in the old operating system — and new browsers on an old and unsecure OS will only serve as a gateway for cybercriminals, if nothing else.
All Comments
I wonder if this is just a smokescreen from these companies to try to keep users on Windows XP as long as possible. Google is trying to takeover the world. Opera is not exactly a pro-MS company, and Mozilla is trying to bring their browser back to prominence and develop this mobile OS. They want to do whatever they can to slow the adoption of Windows 8.x. The faster people adopt Windows 8.x, the more likely they are to by Microsoft-based products
Surprisingly, Apple hasn’t done the same yet with Safari.