In operating system terms, a decade is a whole age in of itself, two decades an eternity. Windows XP, one of the most popular operating system that Microsoft put together, has turned 20 years old today.
The vintage OS reached general availability on October 25, 2001.
Windows XP hit the RTM status on August 24, 2001, but Microsoft announced general availability of this new version of Windows a couple of months down the road. It’s debut in October of the same year was a truly illustrious affair.
Redmond spared no expense in showing everybody just how important Windows XP really was.
Many an elaborate stunt were pulled off to highlight the momentous debut of the new operating system. PC makers, as an example, received a copy of Windows XP to install on their devices in briefcases transported by helicopters.
And if you are one of the very few that are still rocking it, then it goes without saying that it truly is time to let it go. If you are yet to move to a new version of the Windows operating platform, then you have not a day to waste.
But then again, there is a reason why this old operating system is still in use today — no matter how miniscule its userbase is.
Less than 1% of computers out there in the wild are still rocking Windows XP, even though Microsoft officially dropped support for this version in April 2014.
And it all comes down to the old, old hardware that this OS is running on. These users are using the operating system on secondary or really ancient machines, and have no choice but to keep doing to because they are unable to, or don’t want to, purchase new PCs.
With Windows 11 now out in the open, all eyes are now on the latest and greatest version of Windows, which itself requires the newest in hardware.
But this much is clear that two decades on, it might take a few more years before Windows XP finally goes the Windows 98 rout and sails into the sunset.
