Microsoft revealed a new long-term support policy on Tuesday, along with upcoming technologies to boost security and reduce spam.
Speaking at TechEd, the software giant's annual conference for information technology administrators, Andy Lees, vice president of the company's server and tools business, said Microsoft will now guarantee a minimum of 10 years of support for all business and developer products.
Microsoft currently cuts off its most basic level of support after eight years. The company has been widely criticized for dropping support for older products that are still widely used, including versions of the Windows operating system. Lees said the new policy would provide more reliability for corporate customers. "From the time of shipment, you can guarantee a much more predictable level of support," he said. Lees also promised a number of advances on the e-mail front, especially when it comes to cutting down on junk e-mail.
News source: C|Net News.com
Speaking at TechEd, the software giant's annual conference for information technology administrators, Andy Lees, vice president of the company's server and tools business, said Microsoft will now guarantee a minimum of 10 years of support for all business and developer products.
Microsoft currently cuts off its most basic level of support after eight years. The company has been widely criticized for dropping support for older products that are still widely used, including versions of the Windows operating system. Lees said the new policy would provide more reliability for corporate customers. "From the time of shipment, you can guarantee a much more predictable level of support," he said. Lees also promised a number of advances on the e-mail front, especially when it comes to cutting down on junk e-mail.
News source: C|Net News.com
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"...Microsoft will now guarantee a minimum of 10 years of support for all business and developer products."
Presumably you were merely using Windows 95 as an example of an old product still in use—not indicating that these people will benefit in any way from this new policy, which they won't.
The only good news Windows 95 users will ever get is that someone is giving them a new computer so they can finally send the old dinosaur they're currently using to the nearest boneyard!
Our 700+ KUKA robots all use Win95 (first release, no less!) to run their GUI.
Talk about scarey! lol
You spend 199-299 for a Windows license. Spend 99-199 for the upgrades. Okay.
I get a 8-10 year 'upgrade promise'... More than fair.
Now, I spend 60K on a new car. I get a 100,000 mile/10 year warranty.
Anyhow... My point here is though... If I spend $100 for a program and get ANYTHING over a year/three of support I'm more than happy. I can spend $30-40 on an antivirus program for 1 year of support... Why is Microsoft expected to sell something that most companies would give support for 3 years (for the same amount of money) for 8-10 years?
Meh. This doesn't make any sense. lol *shuts up. (Just got back from work... LONG day.)
stuff like SAP, Oracle, etc comes to mind. correct me if i'm wrong tho. :>
You spend 199-299 for a Windows license. Spend 99-199 for the upgrades. Okay.
I get a 8-10 year 'upgrade promise'... More than fair.
Now, I spend 60K on a new car. I get a 100,000 mile/10 year warranty.
Anyhow... My point here is though... If I spend $100 for a program and get ANYTHING over a year/three of support I'm more than happy. I can spend $30-40 on an antivirus program for 1 year of support... Why is Microsoft expected to sell something that most companies would give support for 3 years (for the same amount of money) for 8-10 years?
Probably because the software is an Operating System and if Microsoft expects Businesses to not switch over to Linux, they have to get desperate.
Plus just because you think $299 is cheap(which its not), Businesses have to spend FAR more than that for the 1000 employees or more that they may have. So in reality that $300 couild turn into $300,000. Thats a huge chunk of money to only get your expected year of support.
A 10-year-old knows better than that. Ever heard of volume licensing?
I don't know why people bash Microsoft for 'only' supporting their products for 8ish years. Not that they should go to 1 year of support. Just that for alike products you only get 1-3 years of support.
Heck, look at RedHat 7.3 / 8 / 9. They were almost out of support before they were released. (Well... Not true, but it seemed that way.) BTW... RedHat Enterprise errata support is for 5 years... And how much for the privledge? Like 400-700? Ouch! >.< (Yes, I also use Linux.)
1. gives a longer time for exploits to be found, and still be able to be patched ( good thing )
2. lets companies stay with the same hardware for the next 10 years, ( and software ) since the hardware will run old software fine. ( not always a good thing.) Just means that business lags behind on the technology side of things
I wonder when they'll introduce spam reducing features in their software.
Outlook Express in Windows XP SP2? Spam is at least as important as blocking popus in IE.
Even further ahead? In Longhorn?
Would be nice if they mentioned products it'll appear in instead of just blurting out "we'll combat spam".
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