What MS means is that they will no longer support the OS, not that it will stop working.  They won't be updating it and fixing bugs.  The shorter the life cycle the more new buggy OS's they get to sell consumers. It would be very unMicrosoft to work on an OS until it was nearly perfect.

>I hope that this question is directed at the correct audience.
>
>According to Microsoft's website, the end of life for the "older" operating
>systems will be as follows:
>Windows NT 4.xxx - End June 2004
>Windows 98 SE - Mid January 2005
>Windows ME - End December 2005
>
>And just to scare you even more,
>Windows 2000 Prof - End March 2008
>Windows XP - End December 2009 (only 21 months after Win 2000!)
>
>My question is: Is there any reason why these OS's will simply stop
>performing as usual after these dates?  I cannot see that an OS that worked
>fine on one particular day, will simply faal over the next day.
>
>What is the opinion of the rest of the list?


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