Really? Is this what you would takeaway from this report?

filthy beast wrote:
If there is any truth to the articles all over the internet, our government along with others are paying Microsoft millions to keep XP current. Now if our government is paying, I think we should all be able to get security updates too, seeing as how it is our money being spent on keeping XP running.

The articles are factual. The only thing that stands between XP and its being as secure as all other MS OSs is....MS.

If there is any truth to the articles all over the internet, our government along with others are paying Microsoft millions to keep XP current. Now if our government is paying, I think we should all be able to get security updates too, seeing as how it is our money being spent on keeping XP running.

1775 wrote:
I just read in a newspaper a news story that found Windows XP to be - today - the second top used OS. The article was saying how it remains so popular despite MS discontinuation of support. (I admit that this surprised even me as I would have thought Win 7 would be in that spot, but it is XP.)

What did they say was #1? My research shows that by market share Windows 7 is at 49%, Windows XP is at 26%, and Windows 8 & 8.1 combine for about 12%. Mac comes in at 4 to 8%.

I just googled "operating system market share".

I just read in a newspaper a news story that found Windows XP to be - today - the second top used OS. The article was saying how it remains so popular despite MS discontinuation of support. (I admit that this surprised even me as I would have thought Win 7 would be in that spot, but it is XP.)

Why bother to update to Windows 8 when Windows 9 release is around the corner.

Windows 9 release date

We expect Windows 9 to launch in PCs, laptops, tablets and phones that you can buy in the spring of 2015. Although it is possible Windows 9 will launch earlier, possibly as early as Christmas 2014.

Source

Actually as businesses and personal computer users switch to Win-8, So will hackers... Apple proved this.

Not all that long ago Apple ran an add PC v/s Mac, where the poor guy representing PC had the sniffles, Seems he had caught a cold (Virus) and the MAC guy was all bragging how he did not get those.

Well.. Then the hackers took that as a challange, and the ones who did so were not the "Kilroy was here" group but he nasty Let's blow it up group.. So where PC got the sniffles.. MAC got Pneumonia complicated with influenza.

And now that IOs is running on more and more devices, they are becoming more and more .... Hacked.

It is not that this or that or the other OS is safer.. It is that once an OS grabs a major market share,,, Hackers hack.. And when it falls into obsecurity, They forget it (Or tend to).. That said... When my daughter's computer got hacked, the fix was done in DOS... Oh well.

"I should add that I've helped several friends who use Windows 7 get rid of malware, popups, and other unwanted garbage that Microsoft's software didn't prevent getting into their computers"

I sorry but malware, popups, unwanted garbage are not only because of of OS.
You get popups mostly through you browser and all browsers let them in on all OSs.

A lot if not most of the malware which is a genaric term now, if mostly because of poor surfing habits not because of a failure in the OS. And also because of disabling security or always running as administrator. Case in point, everytime that Apple gets hacked at Pwn2Own is because of going to a bad web site.
Virus's are also called malware now but there are a seperate breed to most of the other forms called malware.
I am not sure what 'unwanted garbage' is but most call that what vendors put on their computers when sold. Again that is not a fault of the OS.

Every year, EVERY OS issues numerous security updates. Okay, maybe MS more than others but every one issues them.
Just as an addon, my Ipad has 3 or 4 security updates since Ios 7 has been released in Sept 2013.

Fizz wrote:
Come on people, get over it and move on.
What's done is done,

This gets at what I took as the message in the report - that MS Windows malware is as perennial as the grass. I think hackers just aren't rushing to mess w/ the newer and less widespread implementations of W8.1, yet.

If it's better security that you are after (and this seems to be 90% of how MS is marketing new OS purchases), I really don't think there is anything now or in future MS stuff towards which one should move on.

Come on people, get over it and move on.
What's done is done,

I really enjoyed Windows XP and Windows 7, hated Windows 8.1 on a touch screen laptop. Just switched to MacBook Pro with Retina display. Bye bye Windows. I should have switched years ago. This MacBook rocks!