Microsoft stopped selling Windows XP Professional and Home yesterday. For as much as people complained about XP in the beginning it evolved into an OS that was solid and consistent.

Sure, Vista has succeeded XP in just about every area, but Vista is a design and usability nightmare. The Network control panels are a great example of the half-assedness of Vista. Especially anything having to do with IPv6. Or, seen another way, I find it a lot more difficult to talk my mother through things on her computer now that she’s running Vista.

Even the six different ways to shut a Vista machine down are confusing, and how hard is that to do right?

Goodbye, old friend. Our seven years together wasn’t perfect, but we sure did get a lot of stuff done.