Mr. Ballmer,
Although Microsoft is planning to discontinue support for Windows XP in April 2014, it is thought that there's still at least 500 million people using it. When support is discontinued, it is expected that XP will eventually become a virus and botnet-infested mess, as new software exploits are discovered that can not and will not be fixed.
Microsoft is obviously interested in making money for its shareholders, so it does not make sense for the company to continue to provide updates for its obsolete software releases. But it is in the best interest of the US federal government and our national defense that Windows XP bugs still get fixed, even if Microsoft doesn't want to foot the bill anymore.
There much talk about "cybersecurity" and protecting our national defense by providing free software updates and virus protection to the poor or the technically unskilled. Dropping XP support seems an extremely bad idea for the overall cybersecurity of our country, so perhaps the US government should step in and take over the costs of updating XP from Microsoft.
What would it cost for the US government to fully take over the XP update process? Updating could still be handled by Microsoft employees, who salaries are now instead directly paid for by the US Dept of Defense.
If Microsoft wishes to completely wash its hands of XP, would you be willing to sell or transfer the intellectual property rights to the US government so that they have full access to the source for debugging and update purposes?
Updates paid for and provided by the US government could be handled through the standard Windows update process that Microsoft has already established, though with a new "opt-out" option if people do not wish to continue receiving XP updates that are explicitly paid for and provided by the US government.
Thank you for your time.
- Dale Mahalko
