Really, I just see this as a method for MS to try to make more money, just like it was with stopping support for Win95. I know it's better to upgrade to XP, but some machines just don't meet the requirements.

Both Home Edition and Professional have the same bare minimum requirements:

233-MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, and 1.5GB of available disk space
Microsoft recommends at least a 300-MHz processor and 128MB of RAM

That might seem little, but what about all those other applications that run at the same time as XP? I bought an HP in 2002 with 700 MHz, but it only had 128 MB RAM.

I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, because FireFox and other browsers are available for free. I just think about all those people who don't know much about computers, and how they'll keep using IE full of holes. Remeber, all the people here know a bit about computers, that's how you found the forum. But there's another larger chunk out there who use the Internet just as a method of fun.