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.
My own new box, that I bought only months ago, is not compliant for the new software. I'm not going to take that hit, without a lot of complaining, and I've never complained before. They had better support XP for at least 5 more years, or I will be certain to pitch a huge tantrum.
I got a tech newsletter yesterday. In it, one topic indicated that nearly 1/3 of existing software will not run under VISTA. I’ve seen many updates for VISTA drivers, etc.
I don’t think VISTA was ready for prime time.
If MS is pushing it, and pushing XP out, MS might be shooting itself in the foot.
This might be the Push Too Far. I'm now starting to consider looking at the ??NIX world.
Don’t forget to put Linux on that Mac.
OS/X is as bad as Windows Vista
Ah I wish I could sympathize but I have been a happy Mac guy since 1986. If you listen carefully you can hear a tiny violin playing sad music for my PC friends. (Wife included). She’s gonna brain me with her Dell laptop now.
MS will be required to support XP for at least that much time, or I will join the rest of the flock with the class action suits.
The arrogance of MS continues to show. It tells alot when a company like MS HAS TO FORCE A NEXT GENERATION PRODUCT on its users, as opposed to merits of the new product making that happen automatically.
MS has done a horrible job on Vista -— five years and all we have is an embellished XP, MS knows what a slug that Vista is yet they released it anyway. More and more people I know are switching to MacOS X or Linux for their primary systems (my primary is a Mac Pro running Boot Camp for XP needs) and Windows is only used for gaming and a few other programs not yet available on the other OSs.
I have a feeling that Mac Leopard will be a big draw, based on the unannounced improvements and surprises.
“Anyone know a good Linux build they can recommend to a Linux newbie?”
therein lies the rub (IMHO). if people that can’t get Windows to work, and are not already using *nix for business want to move to Linux, I think they are in for a hard road.
I do *nix support for a living, and I won’t load linux (again) at home. toooo much hassle. not intuitive, too many versions to get consistent support, drivers are hard to find, lack of software, family members are completely lost, and when it does work, I feel it lacks a lot of the fit, finish and features of Windows.
Of course I was probably about the last person I know of to get off of W2K and now that I am on XP, I will only come off of that kicking and screaming. I gave up on being bleeding-edge in the computer industry 15 years ago.
I run Windows 2000 for all my daily development work. That caused me a little extra trouble to patch the new Daylight Savings tables. I'm always going to need some kind of Windows around to run development environments for my embedded systems. The tool vendors don't have Linux versions.
My kids have OEM Windows XP Home installed. Ditto for my wife's new AMD64 based laptop. The only official Windows XP Pro in the house is on a company provided laptop. I have no plans for Vista anytime soon.
Linux has a big position around my house. 5 Fedora Core 6 servers with 300 GB drives, 1 GB RAM...all networked. One Debian machine to support embedded development on a 2.4 kernel as demanded by some of my software tool vendors.
might-be-time-to-go-Mac ping
That Data beating up on a bsod is great!
Look for computer makers to start pushing back when this decree hits their bottom line. I, for one, will put off purchasing a new computer until the kinks are worked out of Vista, or at least out of the version I need.
I’ll soon have access to a Mac laptop that I’ll get to thoroughly check out. If I like it, our PC/M$ desktop gets replaced with a Mac, and the PC/M$ will get a Linux brain transplant for funsies. I’ll run open software in both as much as possible.
Want to borrow my old Windows 98 installation disk?
This is a shame since Vista sucks.
I bought a new laptop a few weeks ago to supplement my main PC (in case it crashes like the previous one — I do most of my finances online any more).
I bought the laptop because it has XP not VISTA (and 17” widescreen with DVD writer, and excellent price for home use). I wanted to get it before VISTA became the only available OS. I can get the VISTA upgrade for $50.00, but I think I’ll pass.
I’ve loaded LINUX Suse 10.2 and MEPIS on about 8 or 9 different Pc’s within the last few months. No hassles involved. All hardware in PC detected and wireless Internet set up automatically. I’m running X peeee and MEPIS dual boot on this pooter now....again the install took about 20 minutes (including HDD partitioning)...and MEPIS detected my Internet connection just fine. No tweaking necessary.
you might have to hunt around for printer drivers if you’ve purchased a printer within the last year...
That was / is the only drawback I came across...
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