The calculations start with the general availability (GA) date for each product. To help clear the air, I've put together a chart listing all of Microsoft's supported operating systems. Now that Windows 7 is firmly entrenched in the marketplace, I'm starting to get questions about its life span (and it doesn't help when high-profile web sites and bloggers get the facts dead wrong, as they did last month with the bogus "XP in 2020" story).
It’s part of the agreement that the company makes with everyone who installs Windows, especially business customers who want some assurance that they’ll be able to get updates and support for operating systems and applications even if they choose not to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Microsoft has a well-documented support lifecycle for its software products. I wrote this two years ago in How long will Microsoft support XP and Vista?: Microsoft product lifecycle policy is actually quite coherent and easy to understand, at least on paper. Where would I find a list of supported MS OS versions? Trying to determine what's in support and what's out of support. I was reminded of this confusion earlier today when Matt Gardenghi asked a great question via Twitter: Microsoft's support policy is still returning to normal after XP was allowed to live well past its normal retirement date and then got multiple extensions to placate customers who just said no to Vista. That upgrade cycle has been anything but smooth and predictable in recent years, however. In an ideal world, old versions of Windows would roll off Microsoft's list of supported products and be replaced by new ones at regular, predicable intervals. Ukrainian developers share stories from the war zone Linux distros for beginners: You can do this! Got questions about crypto? Ask the Coachįor Mom: The best flower delivery services How ransomware attacks threaten our food supply