Windows IT Pro | Dead OS Walking: XP has one year of support left
The Windows XP launch was notable for many reasons. It was held in New York City less than two months after 9/11, which of course cast a pall over the proceedings—which I’m told were significantly scaled back because of the tragedy. The launch event was the first time I’d seen many, many Wi-Fi connections in one place, and of course since this was 2001, they were all completely open and unprotected.
As we debate Windows 8 and Microsoft’s aggressive push to multi-touch computing devices today, the firm’s decision in 2001 to enhance the Start menu and add what I unfortunately described as a “sea of blue and green” to the Explorer interface seems relatively tame by comparison. It was a big deal back then but at least old-timers could enable the “classic” desktop UI if desired.