Some people have obsessed over the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 21, 2012, predicting end of world doomsday events.

These predictions are garbage based on superstitious illiteracy. The end of the current 5,125 year Mayan cycle just means it's time to buy a new calendar, just as we more modern(?) people do every year. The "new cycle Mayan calendar" is available from at least a few Museum gift shops for anyone who wants one. (It's suggested that you also get the booklet on "how to read Mayan" if you want to use it?)

The DOOMSDAY that looms, that IS SIGNIFICANT for some of us is now being discussed, as in articles headlined "DOOMSDAY CLOCK CLICKS PAST 500 DAYS."

One example:

Windows XP countdown clock ticks under 500 days

Retirement deadline for Microsoft's longest-lived OS is 'ticking time bomb,' says migration firm

By Gregg Keizer
November 26, 2012 06:29 AM ET

Computerworld - Windows XP has fewer than 500 days left to live, according to Microsoft and third-party countdown clocks.
Microsoft will end support for XP on April 8, 2014, when it will issue a final security update for the 11-year-old operating system.

This article notes that the "official Microsoft WinXP doomsday clock" only runs on Win7, but there are other "apps" that can display the countdown for you that agree with the Microsoft clock.

Other "interesting" comments in this article: [quotes]

When Microsoft pulls XP's plug, it will have maintained the operating system for 12 years and five months, or about two-and-a-half years longer than its usual practice. That's also a record, replacing the previous Methuselah, Windows NT, which received 11 years and 5 months of support.

XP's long life was caused in large part by the debacle that was Windows Vista, an oft-delayed operating system that was ultimately rejected by most XP users for being buggy, sluggish or lacking in driver support. Instead, those customers waited for the next iteration, Windows 7, which has been as much a success as Vista was a failure.

According to Web metrics company Net Applications, Windows XP powered 40.7% of the world's desktop and notebook personal computers that went online last month. Windows 7, which passed its ancestor only in August, held a usage share of 44.7% in October.
Meanwhile, Windows Vista, which peaked at 19.1% in October 2009, the same month Windows 7 debuted, now accounts for just 5.8% of all systems.

Microsoft has remained adamant that XP will exit support in April 2014, and has urged customers to upgrade as soon as possible. But countdown clocks notwithstanding, analysts have predicted that XP will be used by millions well after that deadline
.
Last month, for instance, Gartner analyst Michael Silver said "there's a good chance" that between 10% and 15% of enterprise PCs will be running XP after April 2014.

Computerworld's forecasts have been overly optimistic about XP's decline. In mid-2011, Computerworld predicted that Windows XP would account for 38% in the third quarter of 2012, three percentage points lower than the eventual number.

Current estimates based on Net Applications' data indicate that come April 2014, Windows XP will be running between 27% and 29% of the world's computers.

"The end of XP support is a potential time bomb," Camwood said last week. "And the clock is ticking."

[end quotes]

Since a main interest at mudcat is "tradition" and other "old stuff" it's not unlikely that we still have a few NT users, and a scattering of people still seem to be on Win98 (hopefully SP1 at least). It is likely that Critical Security Patches for WinXP will continue for a while after the end of the "full support" deadline as they have for prior OSs, so it's possible that one might continue using WinXP for some time AD (After Doomsday), but should a replacement (hardware or some software) be required it's likely to be increasingly difficult to avoid switching to "something newer."

Those who have thus far "avoided the issue" might be well advised to watch developments with an eye toward planning for something newer.

John