Last week saw a move that Microsoft hopes will see the end of Windows XP and Office 2003 in the mainstream corporate environments. On the 14th April Microsoft moved both Windows Xp and Office 2003 onto extended support.

What does this mean? Well for Windows XP and Office 2003 anyone who wants or needs to maintain support will need to pay for it. For windows XP any critical security updates will still be released, but not much else.

For Office 2003 a similar situation will occur, critical security updates will still be released to protect Microsoft flaws, but don’t expect much else either. Junk Email filter updates will also still get updated regularly.

So is this a good move, bad move or does it really matter at all?

Windows 7 looks to be a fairly good product in comparison with the short comings of Vista. However changing desktop operating systems is not as simple as that. Many organisations run applications that will not work or work well with either Vista or Windows 7. This means that any transition is a big deal and blows out testing and implementation phases by 12 months or more. Tightening budgets and reduced manpower will add to the delays.

Then of course Microsoft is trying to sell the Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) suite to allow organisations to overcome the various application difficulties. Of course you need to have Software Assurance first. So does it all just equate to another money grab by Microsoft. Yes is the simple answer.

You might also want to hold off any Windows 7 testing until RC1 comes out as there will be difficulties in upgrading the beta version to the release candidate.

What about Office 2007?

Personally I quite like Office 2007, it is a much better product than Office 2003. Its look and feel is better and it is easy to use. So why the delay? That simply comes down to testing and the user training required to get them use to the new look. With Office 2007 sp2 due for release very soon we will see new support for the open document format or at least Microsoft’s version of it. This is aimed squarely at the Open Office product and Sun.

As human beings we naturally resist change, and for a while we will continue to complain about Windows 7 and Office 2007, but eventually we have to face facts and make a choice, upgrade or totally change your systems to something like Linux. Which is an even bigger change and more disturbing to end users. Guess which process will win?

Maybe I should start using Windows 7 more thoroughly now, what about you?