Support officially ends on 14th April 2014, but M$ will still be supporting it - if you pay!

http://www.computerw...tors_picks=true

Advice: XP users should give Ubuntu Linux a try. It's not a flavour of Linux I use personally but it's the one where you will get most help. And, if you recoil at C> (in Windows), it's surely the best way to go. If you don't want to fully commit just yet you can boot it from a USB stick, or even from inside your existing Windows installation whilst using the existing Windows file system.

If you are buying a new machine then make sure you at least look at Chromebooks. They are incredibly good value and far easier to maintain than any Windows machine. They also have a very low cost of ownership. You are unlikely to see them feature in computer shops so don't be sold by a slick salesman on commission! It seems the latest commission driven up-sell is Symantec/Norton Anti-virus, which you shouldn't even take for free!

Tried Ubuntu from it's early incantations and found it very easy to use, however when they slipped in the amazon search feature and the (for me) very uncustomizable default desktop I binned it and went for Linux Mint, very easy for the novice user. I've tried a few flavours over the years, ranging from RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Mint and a few others I can't remember the name of.