Windows XP Home reaching the end of the line?

Dwight Silverman passes along news that Windows XP Home users may run out of support options soon:

Microsoft’s support timeline for consumer products differs from that for business products. Thus, XP Home’s mainstream support period will end sooner than that for XP Professional…

The story (which originally appeared in Ars Technica) is based on a literal reading of Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle policies. If the company sticks to its stated policies, support for XP Home would end on December 31, 2006, only a couple months after Windows Vista is due to be released.

Fortunately, a commenter at Dwight’s site read the Windows Service Pack Road Map, which notes that “SP3 for Windows XP Home Edition is currently planned for 2H 2007.” That would suggest that Microsoft has no intention of pulling the plug on Windows XP early.

Sure would be nice if someone in Redmond would actually come out and say so.