The much-discussed Microsoft Support Lifecycle has been overhauled:
Microsoft has announced an expanded and enhanced product support lifecycle policy, which will go into effect on June 1, 2004. The updated policy will provide customers with a minimum total of 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream and 5 years Extended) for Business and Developer products.
In the footnotes, Microsoft explains that Extended support includes security-related hotfixes, which are provided at no charge. That means that business users can expect free security patches for 10 years after a product is introduced.
These policies do not apply to consumer products, where Mainstream Support ends after five years and there is no Extended Support option.
In practice, I predict that Microsoft will override this policy regularly. For instance, the Mainstream Support phase for Windows 98 should have ended on January 16, 2004. But Microsoft extended its support commitment (including a commitment to provide critical security updates via Windows Update) through June 30, 2006. Because Windows XP is both a consumer and a business product, it’s highly unlikely that consumers will be left without support when Windows XP reaches its five-year anniversary in September 2006.
Xbox users, however, are on their own.
Ed Bott 