Date released: December 28 2008

     Windows XP is turning out to be the operating system that just won't die. Microsoft has stopped offering retail copies of the operating system. 

     The company had planned to tell computer makers to stop preloading the software on new notebook and desktop systems earlier this year. But Microsoft has issued several stays of execution so far -- and this week the company did it again. Windows XP was scheduled to go gently into that good night on January 31, 2009. But now computer makers are allowed to continue shipping machines with Windows XP through 2009.