I admit to not being a big fan of Windows, but having experience with it, Mac OSX, and a couple of flavors of Linux, I find all of them have their issues. Modern operating systems are very complex, and there are so many lines of code in them that major, uncut flaws or inevitable. But I wish all of them would quite adding eye-candy (like Aero on Windows) and other non-essentials (like media players, games, etc.) and concentrate on on making operating systems that are as stable, secure, and easy to use as possible.
As to Windows XP, Extended Support for the operating system will continue until April 8, 2014. This means free security updates, so all users will still receive security patches as Microsoft issues them, and fee-based per-incident support via phone and Web for everyone. Note that the fee support is only for people who bought XP separately; if you purchased a machine with XP on it (and an appropriate support package from the company) then support must come from the machine's manufacturer (which has been standard policy since at least Windows 3.0). If you're a business and are enrolled in the Extended Hotfix Support program, then non-security hotfixes will be available to you as well.
I agree with you about the lack of an upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. But let me say this is Microsoft's defense. It is highly unlikely that most machines that currently runs XP (unless purchased with an XP downgrade where XP was installed on the computer but it also came with Vista) will run Windows 7. I still have business clients that run Windows XP on systems with 512K of memory, often with less than this available because some of that memory is used by the graphic on the motherboard.
I currently have 3 systems - one with XP, one with 32-bit Vista and one with 64-bit Vista. I have no intention of upgrading any of them to Windows 7, as I have found that Windows upgrades (and even OS X Mac upgrades) work best when you wipe the hard drive and start from scratch, which is a real pain, especially with Windows. I'll wait until I buy a new computer.
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As to Windows XP, Extended Support for the operating system will continue until April 8, 2014. This means free security updates, so all users will still receive security patches as Microsoft issues them, and fee-based per-incident support via phone and Web for everyone. Note that the fee support is only for people who bought XP separately; if you purchased a machine with XP on it (and an appropriate support package from the company) then support must come from the machine's manufacturer (which has been standard policy since at least Windows 3.0). If you're a business and are enrolled in the Extended Hotfix Support program, then non-security hotfixes will be available to you as well.
I agree with you about the lack of an upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. But let me say this is Microsoft's defense. It is highly unlikely that most machines that currently runs XP (unless purchased with an XP downgrade where XP was installed on the computer but it also came with Vista) will run Windows 7. I still have business clients that run Windows XP on systems with 512K of memory, often with less than this available because some of that memory is used by the graphic on the motherboard.
I currently have 3 systems - one with XP, one with 32-bit Vista and one with 64-bit Vista. I have no intention of upgrading any of them to Windows 7, as I have found that Windows upgrades (and even OS X Mac upgrades) work best when you wipe the hard drive and start from scratch, which is a real pain, especially with Windows. I'll wait until I buy a new computer.