WinXP is still fully supported by Microsoft. There have bben lots of predictions about when it will be killed, but it is official now. It will officially cease to be eligible for "nonessential" updates after the announced date of 08 April 2014.

It is likely that Microsoft will continue to provide security patches for CRITICAL vulnerabilities for some time after then, but deciding what patches to offer will be up to Microsoft, and it's likely that even vulnerabilities that allow full external takeover of your computer but that are not "sufficiently widespread" may not be patched. No "performance" updates may be expected after that date.

While the scheduled withdrawal of FULL SUPPORT for Win98 was rescheduled for some users due to widespread use in some places (e.g. China et. al.) where there was a lack of a suitable update due to import/export restrictions on later versions, it's unlikely that any similar "slides" will occur for WinXP.

As to the other predictions most are in the same class as the recent discovery of a Unicorn Den in North Korea, or the reports on the "Sexiest Man Alive" as reported in China and N Korea. (A little different than reports elsewhere: Onion has lots to answer for?)

Some of the others may be a lot more fun than the real one, but IT IS REAL. Feel free to discuss the others here (especially ones I might have missed) but do note that WinXP is officially scheduled for termination.

John