14 DAY TRIAL // China is one of the countries that made serious efforts to stop piracy and migrate to legitimate software and now that Windows XP support is coming to an end, local authorities need to start the same struggle all over again.
As a result, Chinese officials have asked Microsoft to extend Windows XP support and have even met with some Redmond officials to discuss plans to keep the aging operating system alive in the country.
Microsoft has until now refused to provide any details on China’s request, but the software giant has now decided to break the silence and talk publicly about it.
In just a few words, Microsoft has rejected China’s proposal in a pretty decent manner, saying that just like everyone else, local users and authorities need to make the move to newer software too.
In a statement issued for ZDNet, a Microsoft spokesperson said that Redmond appreciates China’s efforts to adopt genuine operating system, but the migration to modern operating systems must continue because they “better protect against security threats and are designed for modern work and life usage scenarios.”
The bad thing is that not even China managed to convince Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP, so Redmond is really serious about it this time. It turns out that Windows XP’s time has indeed passed.
Read Microsoft’s statement in full below and drop us a line in the comment box after the jump:
“Microsoft works in partnership with industry and government in China to help create an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation through the protection of intellectual property, as well as assisting in software legalization efforts in line with the nation’s policy priorities.
We have seen great improvement in the adoption of genuine operating systems, productivity software and apps, as well as movement to cloud services, as a result of these efforts and we look forward to continued progress. Microsoft is committed to working with end-users, businesses and governments in China to migrate their systems to a modern OS that better protects against security threats and is designed for modern work and life usage scenarios.
"Every Windows product has a lifecycle, which begins when it is released and ends when it is no longer supported. For Windows XP, this lasted more than a decade.
Customers will still be able to use Windows XP, but as a reminder, after April 8, 2014, Windows XP users will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft.
We are very glad to see a great number of customers in China and all over the world obtaining tangible benefits of modernizing their IT investments from dramatically enhanced security, broad device choice to meet the needs of a mobile workforce, higher user productivity, and lower total cost of ownership by future-proofing their IT investments through deploying Windows 8.”