Posted on 04/12/2007 8:20:09 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Computer makers have been told they'll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.
By early 2008, Microsoft's contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. "The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice."
Despite Microsoft's relentless promotion of Vista, manufacturers are still seeing plenty of demand from customers for systems preloaded with XP, especially in the finicky SOHO market.
In a recent post on its Direct2Dell blog, Dell reaffirmed to concerned customers that it wasn't about to force small business users -- who typically purchase PCs piecemeal, rather than in large enterprise-style orders -- to shift to Vista, which has experienced a less-than-stellar reaction from many buyers because of driver issues and moderately beefy hardware requirements.
"Dell recognizes the needs of small business customers and understands that more time is needed to transition to a new operating system," the post read in part. "The plan is to continue offering Windows XP on select Dimension and Inspiron systems until later this [northern] summer."
"From a local perspective, the post was a reminder more than an announcement," Dell ANZ corporate communications manager Paul McKeon told APC.
"This was something we'd always planned during the transition phase since businesses will have different time frames to adopt the new OS. If you're a consumer, you're unlikely to be managing more than say 2.4 OS images at home, so it's less of an issue"
There's general agreement amongst PC resellers that Vista has provided a minor boost to PC sales, but hasn't produced blockbuster numbers. A similar story applies in the retail space. Figures from marketing consultancy GfK suggest that after an initial sales surge, around 1500 copies of Vista are now being sold through Australian retailers each week, according to a recent report in the AFR.
While Dell's post suggested it wouldn't be promoting Vista systems to the home market, manufacturers still have the option of selling XP-based systems for consumers this year.
Do remember that's for security updates only (what Microsoft decides is security related -- their decision). Anything else wrong with XP won't be fixed after mid-2009 unless you have a contract with Microsoft for it.
Hm. After years of resistance, I was finally forced to XP by corporate.
Thats not what you asked, and you have many times point out cost and licenses for support are a small piece of the overall IT cost. You asked if any Linux was supported for seven years and I pointed you at one, were you ignorant or lying?
My original point (the one you keep running from) is the availability of purchase and full support after the relase of another OS. XP is 6 years old MS has been support long enough *if* they had released vista two years ago.
If MS keep patching and *selling* xp until 2009 they are doing fine. If they keep going intil 2014 its probably because it will take them another 7 or 8 years to crank out another turd os.
It just goes to show he does not live in the real world, he considers only vendor supplied security patches ‘full support’ Even though MS themselves class it as ‘extended’ (something different than full)
Could this be Microsoft’s down fall? This is kind of similar to the same thing IBM did and Gates took advantage of it.
Look out below, here comes his avalanche of lies again LOL. You're the one whose been claiming for months that Microsoft has cut off all support of Windows 2000, I've simply corrected the record that they are providing security patches for it till 2010. Yesterday you claimed it was a quote "fact" Dell was no longer shipping XP systems, when the truth is they are going to keep shipping them till at least 2008. Now you're trying to put words in my mouth to cover up all the obvious lies you've posted, which isn't working either. Que for you to start posting profanity again now like yesterday LMAO.
Luckily, I was able to find one of the few remaining new notebooks for sale with XP on it last month. OTOH, the Vista machines I've worked with so far are pretty nice, as long as all the hardware has Vista drivers and as long it has 2 GB of RAM, just for Vista. *roll*
I’ve always had a PC and never had a virus in 20 years.
My laptop just went up in smoke and I am looking at a MAC.
Oddly enough - same here for me. And I'm running Windows...
Weird...
I’m posting this from a laptop running Vista Ultimate with Aero turned on with only 512Mb RAM and shared video. My other laptop has 2Gb RAM and a newer processor and I really can’t tell much difference.
This is no different than all the bellyaching we saw when XP came out about how horrible it was that Windows 98 and 2000 were being replaced since XP was only “eye candy”. History will repeat itself when everyone realizes most of the chicken littles don’t even use Microsoft products themselves and have some other agenda they’re pushing.
Bingo.
nump
No I did not say all support I said Unsupported. Because I dont consider only vendor designated security issues and the patches for them to be ‘support’.
And with fewer issues than my month-old Corporate XP laptop -- three levels of corporate IT still can't figure out why certain things aren't working on what should have been a vanilla installation.
There it is folks, another perfect example of the linux lies and double talk this guy is known for. He's been trying to claim for months if not over a year now Windows 2000 is "unsupported" when in fact Microsoft has indicated they will provide security updates till 2010. He was also just here yesterday claiming Dell had already cut off all Windows XP sales, when 10 seconds on their website shows they haven't. Don't believe a single word he says.
XP ping
Huh? I love OSX it makes XP look like dog stuff. And I use XP most all day at work.
I’ve got a G5 Powerbook with Linux and it runs better than OS/X ever did. I also use XP all day and OS/X was not much better for getting overloaded while processing pictures using Image J
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