Calling All Windows XP Luddites: You're Toast as of Tuesday, April 8th

And I'm one of those XP Luddites.  As of this Tuesday, April 8th, Microsoft will no longer send out regular security updates — or security patches in case of a cyber-threat — to anyone who still uses Windows XP.  Windows XP is still the operating system for about thirty percent of Windows users worldwide.  Oh well, Microsoft doesn't need these XP Luddites any more.  What are they gonna do, not purchase Windows XP again?  Might as well throw them under the bus.  Microsoft has more important things to take care of, new products to hustle.

For Windows XP users who are planning to upgrade — good luck.  According to the linked article:

“Computers running Windows XP cannot easily be upgraded to the newest Windows version, and that means the users would need to buy new machines.”

Or as one analyst said, some of these shafted XP users might take their business to Apple or Google or Linux:

“The risk for Microsoft is that people will migrate to somewhere else.”

Microsoft's backstabbing sleaziness will affect everybody, not just Windows XP users.  If there really is an increase in the number of infected computers among XP users, there'll be that many more infected computers sending out malware-infected links and e-mails to all computer users.

Another school of thought is:  when Microsoft discontinues their security updates, it'll be like when Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's — how could they tell?

In any case, I'll just keep updating and running my anti-virus software faithfully, and when/if a virus strikes, I'll finally act on my longer-idle threat to switch to a laptop that runs on Linux.