Will Microsoft Extend Windows XP Availability?
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Currently OEM’s are allowed to offer systems with Windows XP installed until June 30, 2008. But some industry analysts seem to feel that this date may be extended again. Why? Traditionally businesses have always waited until the first service pack is issued before upgrading their systems. But what makes Vista different is its high hardware requirements plus the perception that it runs slower than Windows XP.
There is another problem that Microsoft may face. They did to good of a job with Windows XP. After SP2 most of the bugs and holes were mended and we ended up with an extremely stable system that was relatively crash proof. XP still offers users value which a pretty GUI may not be enough to overcome. I still hear people saying in public how much Vista sucks, even when they haven’t even used the new OS.
We have all read various articles that attempt to put the blame on Vistas problems dues to high hardware requirements, slow performance or a lack of software compatibility. But there is another difference that separates the release of Windows XP in 2001 and Vista being released in 2006. In those 5 years there was an tremendous increase in the amount of people blogging on the Internet. Also a large growth in the number of people joining social networks. In essence, more people using the Internet to communicate with each other. So when someone said that Vista sucked it spread throughout the world in a flash.
So Microsoft is having a hard time trying to convince businesses to make the switch to Vista. But will SP1 make a difference? Maybe. Only time will tell. Microsoft has a decision to make. Force businesses into Vista or to extend XP availability.
So what do you think will happen?
Comments welcome.
Tags: microsoft, vista, sp1, businesses, upgrade, xp, windows, blogging, internet, opinion
3 Comments
dabrace1984
March 29th, 2008
at 1:25pm
I have a Dell Premier at the university that I work at and each month, everyone with an account receives an newsletter which features special “deals.” Each month there is one desktop (Dell OptiPlex) and one laptop (Dell Latitude) that are considered to be a “deal.” I personally have nothing against Windows Vista. I am running it on two personal machines (a HP desktop and a MacBook Pro Boot Camp partition) and on one business machine (a Dell desktop). The “deals” that Dell sent in this newsletter included WIndows Vista as the operating system which could not be changed to Windows XP.
Windows Vista is not compatible with internal programs that we use. Specifically a three programs: (1) Prism Deploy Packager from New Boundary, (2) KeyServer from Sassafras, and (3) KeyAuditor from Sassafras,. These three programs work together to install, monitor, and audit the universities volume licensed software. Basically how they work together is that we take snapshot before and after a piece of software is installed and create an install package and can be deployed to your clients. KeyServer automatically runs in the background of a client’s computer and when a client opens a program that was installed using our install packages, KeyServer checks to see how many licenses are available to use. Lets say our university has 40 licenses of Adobe Creative Suite 3. Thousands of clients could have the software installed but only 40 people could actually run the program. KeyAuditor allows to use audit how many times a particular software title is used; which allows use to decide if more licenses need to be purchased.
For the sake of my clients, I hope that Microsoft allows OEMs to sell Windows XP until the end of the calendar year. There are so many internal tools that are used in any business that doing so will alienate consumers.
Ron Schenone
March 29th, 2008
at 2:09pm
dabrace1984,
Excellent point. I concur about until the end of 2008 or longer.
Ian
March 31st, 2008
at 4:57pm
I think if they don’t extend it (XP) we should all go to L I N U X L O L
And what about service pack 3 for XP …were is it March 2008?