> Certainly, a corporate strategy can be "We don't care that your machine/network was compromised: We warned you." Except they have an option available for die

> Certainly, a corporate strategy can be "We don't care that your machine/network was compromised: We warned you." Except they have an option available for die-hard XP fanatics: they can pay MS for extended support. A patch will be developed and paying customers will be able to install it. I don't see any advantage to MS for continuing to support XP at no additional charge. They have newer products and a paid service offering that keeps XP viable. Supporting XP for "free" actually competes with their other products and gains them only what... good will amongst non-paying XP users? I doubt that is worth very much.