Using Software Past the Life Cycle

Although Microsoft would prefer that customers upgrade rapidly to the latest versions of applications, many customers continue to use software such as Windows 98 and Office 97 for which support has expired or only critical security updates are available. As the time between product releases has grown since the 1990s, customers who like to skip a version find that five years of Mainstream support will not get them to their next upgrade. For example, customers who have standardized on Windows 2000 and who have elected to skip Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 have only a year—until June 30, 2005—of Mainstream support remaining on both their client and servers. The Longhorn client version of Windows, the next version to which they would normally upgrade, is not likely to arrive before 2006, and the server version might not follow until 2007 or 2008.

Nevertheless, many organizations do use Microsoft software past the time that free support expires, and some use it past the time that even paid support is available. These decisions have both pros—including lower costs, using mature software, and the indefinite qualities of the guidelines themselves—and cons—such as reduced support, hardware and software incompatibility, and security vulnerabilities.