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.
The IT world force engineers to give up their UNIX based design boxes ( SGI, Sun, Dec Alpha- ect) and move to windows NT for compatability - now we’re on XP - we’ve tested design software on VISTA and because most design softare is OPEN GL based it runs THREE to FIFTY times SLOWER on Vista.. The Wally’s of the world will love it.. Sorry Boss it’s still crunching on my new Terahertz Terabyte Terrible Vista machine.
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."
DITTO
jw
In fact, Boot Camp may be the piece that actually makes up for those drawbacks and gets me over to a Mac.
A little bit more but not much. OS 10.1 came out in Sept. 2001 and the last tower that could boot OS 9 came out in June 2003. BUT that computer, the Power Mac G4/1.25 GHz, was sold into 2004 IIRC.
Of course, a lot would argue that the first usable OS X was 10.3, which came out in late 2003.
LMAO, typical anti-Microsoft bunk, couldn't even get the first two sentences to add up. What's amazing is you didn't post it from your usual foreign "sources".
ROFL there’s already more users of Vista than all versions of Linux combined.
Nice!!
That is one HELL of a variation on the "System Restore" theme. =;^)
Only under the assumption that Vista has something to offer that couldn't be put into XP. Invalid assumption, of course.
Ubuntu, Fedora, or SuSE
Do you suppose Microsoft hears any better than, say, Congress or the President?
You obviously don’t have much experience with enterprise desktop deployment if you think this is any sort of an issue for an IT department to deal with. What’s even funnier your supposed solution Linux pretty much requires you upgrade EVERY two years to keep up, while Windows XP will be supported until 2014. Name one Linux product shipping today that guarantees security updates till 2014. You’ve got 300 different versions to choose from, surely there is one is currently promising patches till 2014?
two Problems with That
1) My Ideal Solution on the desktop is Apple not Linux despite your obsessive screaming to the contrary
2) RedHat Linux has a seven year support cycle for RHLE which includes their workstation so if you set up some RHEL5 workstations today you could wait five years until you started to upgrade. (Were you ignorant of this or jut lying?)
Name one Linux product shipping today that guarantees security updates till 2014.
Red Hat Enterprise 5 Will be under Full Support (Bug Fixes, Enhancements, and Security patches) Until March of 2014.
Win2K Pro for me too, both at work and at home (except for my linux machines...one to play with, and one dedicated to running Folding@Home...)
But that costs a whole lot more than XP, you have to pay a subscription cost for every single year you use it. Plus XP has been out since 2001, RHEL5 has just been released and they're going to cut it off in 2014, after charging all that money for it? Sounds like a rip off compared to XP, which according to the despair shown here everyone must love.
Obviously I asked a question, unlike you yesterday claiming it was q quote "fact" that Dell had already cut off shipments of XP, which are actually going to continue into at least 2008. You've also been caught claiming Microsoft has cut off support for Windows 2000 when again the truth is the are supplying patches till 2010. It's pretty hilarious watching try to criticize Windows support when it's actually much cheaper and lasts much longer than Red Hat's support does.
It's not just about anything that Vista gives, but from Microsoft's point of view it's about support. It would cost a lot of money to put equivalent features in both XP and Vista. You saw they didn't want to do IE7 for XP until people got pissed about it. It also costs Microsoft money to continue to support XP for much longer, and ending OEM sales is the first step towards that end.
In any case, XP will be available until January 31, 2009.
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