Last week all of Mexico celebrated dia de los muertos. This most colorful of holidays is a joyful time to celebrate the lives of those that have passed on and for most this is not a day to grieve but to give thanks. Perhaps this is as good a time as any for me to remind about one third of you personal computer users out there of a demise that will occur at your house next year.
Most makers of computer software have formal policies defining the “end of life” for their products. This is a date on which the company plans to end their support for an old version of their software because they believe, or hope, that their customers will have all moved on to using a newer and better version of the company’s product. For the management at Microsoft, this has not exactly worked out as they planned.