“(On) the security theme, look for lots of software companies to abandon support for old products and OS’s. From their perspective, they already have your money, so continuing support is just a cost centre for them.
And if they stop support, you just may replace that old computer or application with something new, generating additional software sales opportunities. This means Microsoft giving up support for old OS variants and hardware, but it also means the same from security companies like Network Associates (McAfee) and Symantec (Norton AntiVirus).
More and more old machines will become vulnerable, and a new kind of web-destroying attack using just antiquated, pre-Pentium IV Windows 9x, personal computers, is entirely likely. — Predictions for 2004, by Robert X. Cringely, writer, broadcaster, computer guy, PBS and InfoWorld columnist
