At sound of you reading this sentence you will no longer be
asleep. Awake? Good!
So what was it like being asleep for so long? If you’re still using Microsoft Windows XP,
you’re the technology equivalent of Rip Van Winkle. To quote Lawrence Fishburne from School Days,
“Wake UPPPPPppppp!!!!”
While you were sleeping, your software is going to
turn into a pumpkin on April 8, 2014 and Microsoft will be content to become a Deadbeat
Dad—that is to say, they will no longer support Windows XP per their website
announcement (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/endofsupport.aspx). I suppose as a consumer with an aging XP
machine I rarely use anyway, I should be flustered, angry, or bitter about this
announcement, but I find myself indifferent because this is the typical audacity
I’ve come to expect from the Death Star in Redmond.
Imagine a car
company—let’s call it Mega Motor Company—that is so successful that they
effectively have 80% of the market. MMC
only introduces a new model only every 5-8 years, but they intend to dispense
support for an older model that has 20% market share in order to force
consumers to buy a new jalopy that’s effectively the same vehicle underneath
with “freshened” body panels. Future
calls for support will go something like this:
Mega Motor Co. Support operator: Hi, thanks for calling Mega Motor Company,
where we sell you what WE want to and you shouldn’t expect much else.
Consumer: Hi, I’d
like to schedule an oil change and a tire rotation?
MMC operator: Sorry,
but we’re no longer supporting your vehicle model.
Consumer: Oh
really? Well I guess I’ll just take my
jalopy to another shop!
MMC operator: Not so
fast. Everything on your vehicle is
proprietary so only MMC can work on it.
If you get someone dumb enough to provide the support you seek, we’ll
sue them back to the Stone Age.
Car companies use platforms to sell “different” cars to
distinguishing tastes all the time. What
they don’t do is thumb their nose at the cash cow that is their customers. Sound crazy you say? Not really.
That scenario pretty well describes Microsoft. As of January, 2013, Microsoft had 80% of the
operating system market—20% of which was attributed to Windows XP (Ref.: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
). Oh, and that 20% translates to about
500 MeeeEEeel-yun users! (Ref. http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-to-cut-windows-xp-2013-4
) Yet there is no outrage…no
protests…not even a blip on the nightly news or CNN.
Now I won’t even go into the reasons why a company with
>80% market share has not undergone anti-trust scrutiny—that’s a discussion
for another day, but for comparison:
Delta Airlines has 16.3% market share and the impending merger between U.S. Airways and
American (which will result in an "unheard of" 21% market share) has state legislators in arms! (Ref. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/13/regulators-sue-to-stop-american-airlines-us-airways-merger-but-why-now
) ...but I digress.
What I find amazing is how Microsoft can use subtlety—“You
can depend on your firewall and anti-virus software if you want to, but no
amount of software add-on will protect your old OS from being
compromised.” And don’t think for one
minute there isn’t a team of developers in
a back room in Redmond making sure such things happen. Don’t you wonder why that really expensive
car part breaks just beyond the warranty expiration? Brace yourself. The software gremlins are coming! And like any good dealer, Microsoft will be
there to give you a fix…
Mega Motor ServiceTechnician: I’m not authorized to fix your problem, but
let me take you to the showroom where you can buy more lipstick on a pig…er…our new jalopy. You know, the one with tiles instead of a
start button.
Microsoft shows no shame in being a Deadbeat Dad, but that’s
how it goes in the software business. Now
please continue to stare at your screen.
You are getting sleeEEEeepy…
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