XP will die
Essentially the codebase is old, it includes stuff from Win9X, OS/2 / NT3.5, and - allegedlly - Xenix!!!! A lot of its not documented and can't be patched to plug security holes, or properly upgraded to 64-bit
Its unsustainable.
MS need to make the same jump that Apple did with OSX. Each new OS since Win 2000 was an attempt at this, but every time the attempt was aborted mid-jump with a compromise as the end result
This time its make-or-break time. However just bear something in mind: the focus of this new OS is going to be toward a could model, with - if M$ can pull it off - your data hosted in "pay by the gigabyte" cloud storage, your applications hosted on the web in "pay rent for the use" cloud application servers, while you access it all not through a PC with local storage, but instead through something akin to a souped up tablet or kindle
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 4th July 2012 at 16:32.