One week left for Office 2003
In one week’s time, on April 14, Microsoft will finally end its mainstream support for Office 2003. Extended support will still be available for paying customers until April 8 2014.
Mainstream support covers all aspects of Microsoft product support from new features, to security fixes to warranty support. During extended support Microsoft provides security fixes to all users but does not provide warranty support, feature requests or free incident support. Hotfix support, which are non-security-related modifications to the product to resolve problems, will only be provided to paying, extended support customers during this time.
Originally released in October 2003, Office 2003 was last updated in September 2007 with Service Pack 3. Office 2003’s successor, Office 2007 will have it’s mainstream support ended on April 10 2012, which gives users another three years of backup.
Microsoft typically provides mainstream support for its products for five years initially and then adds extended support for another five years.
Windows XP
Also on April 14, Microsoft will put Windows XP into its "extended support" cycle, officially ending mainstream support for the operating system. Officially Windows XP has already reached end-of-life – it’s not meant to be available for consumers to purchase – but the operating system has lived on thanks to the growing netbook PC market. Microsoft’s Vista operating system has proven to be too cumbersome for the ultra-portable netbook market and so Microsoft has made Windows XP available for this market sector through OEMs.
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