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Users Fight to Save Windows XP [You're gonna buy Vista whether you like it or not!]
www.physorg.com ^ | 04/13/2008 | By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer

Posted on 04/14/2008 6:23:53 AM PDT by Red Badger

Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.

No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista, some just can't be wowed. They complain about Vista's hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows.

For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers, and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is causing a minor panic.

Take, for instance, Galen Gruman. A longtime technology journalist, Gruman is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them.

But after talking to Windows users for months, he realized his distaste for Vista and strong attachment to XP were widespread.

"It sort of hit us that, wait a minute, XP will be gone as of June 30. What are we going to do?" he said. "If no one does something, it's going to be gone."

So Gruman started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.

On the petition site's comments section, some users proclaimed they will downgrade from Vista to XP - an option available in the past to businesses, but now open for the first time to consumers who buy Vista Ultimate or Business editions - if they need to buy a new computer after XP goes off the market.

Others used the comments section to rail against the very idea that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move. Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.

Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs it will do so again. The company has declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition. Microsoft is aware of the petition, it said in a statement to The Associated Press, and "will continue to be guided by feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs."

Gruman said he'd keep pressing for a meeting.

"They really believe if they just close their eyes, people will have no choice," he said.

In fact, most people who get a new computer will end up with Vista. In 2008, 94 percent of new Windows machines for consumers worldwide will run Vista, forecasts industry research group IDC. For businesses, about 75 percent of new PCs will have Vista. (That figure takes into account companies that choose to downgrade to XP.)

Although Microsoft may not budge on selling new copies of XP, it may have to extend support for it.

Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP. Microsoft plans to end full support - including warranty claims and free help with problems - in April 2009. The company will continue providing a more limited level of service until April 2014.

Gillen said efforts like Gruman's grass-roots petition may not influence the software maker, but business customers' demands should carry more clout.

"You really can't make 69 percent of your installed base unhappy with you," he said.

Some companies - such as Wells Manufacturing Co. in Woodstock, Ill. - are crossing their fingers that he's right. The company, which melts scrap steel and casts iron bars, has 200 PCs that run Windows 2000 or XP. (Windows 2000 is no longer sold on PCs. Mainstream support has ended, but limited support is available through the middle of 2010.)

Wells usually replaces 50 of its PCs every 18 months. In the most recent round of purchases, Chief Information Officer Lou Peterhans said, the company stuck with XP because several of its applications don't run well on Vista.

"There is no strong reason to go to Vista, other than eventually losing support for XP," he said. Peterhans added that the company isn't planning to bring in Vista computers for 18 months to two years. If Microsoft keeps to its current timetable, its next operating system, code-named Windows 7, will be on the market by then.

---

On the Net:

Save XP Petition: http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/

Microsoft's Windows support timeline: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: computer; microsoft; mswindows; vista; xp
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To: Hacklehead
Obviously racism and bitterness have caused you to cling to XP, and to be afraid of Macs.

Not quite. While it is racism and bitterness that have caused my rejection of Vista, it's my homophobia that keeps me away from Macs. (just kidding) ;-)

141 posted on 04/14/2008 9:46:06 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: SES1066
Some attribute it to the 'rule of lawyers' scared silly of a revisit from Dept.Justice for anti-trust violations to previous conviction.

Big Blue was convicted? I thought the Nazgul beat that rap.

142 posted on 04/14/2008 9:47:58 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: All
I'm not that computer literate. I needed a new laptop and wound up with Vista. I won't say "IT sucks" or "I hate IT", but I will say, "it sucks that I have to search for everything that I was used to seeing somewhere else although it all worked perfectly fine before" and "I hate the previously described situation". In other words, "why did they need to fix what wasn't broken?"
143 posted on 04/14/2008 9:53:13 AM PDT by GOP_Proud (Disgruntled about it all. None of the above.)
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To: Still Thinking

It seemed to me that everything I wanted to do on the PC directed me back to MS to buy more software from them.

Also, all the bonus software packaged with my new laptop, was no more that a sales gimmick to get me to buy software.


144 posted on 04/14/2008 9:58:10 AM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (We're at the FReepicenter - Down with big brother.)
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To: Retired COB

I’m talking about planned obsolescence everyone is talking about. The 350 was around for 35 years in actual vehicle production and is still being produced for replacements. You can mix and match just about anything on the gas version for just about every year out there.


145 posted on 04/14/2008 10:18:58 AM PDT by IYAS9YAS
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To: GOP_Proud

The biggest problem with laptops with Vista is the crapware that is installed on it at the point of sale. The aggravation is a cost that I was willing to bear. It just requires the time to uninstall these unnecessary programs but they defray the costs of the new computer so it is an acceptable trade-off. Otherwise the new computers would cost much more.

The average computer user is not capable of removing these programs and I suggest leaving them alone unless you really know what you are doing. Those DLLs can easily cause major problems requiring a reinstallation of necessary programs. Probably the easiest thing to do is simply to delete the desktop shortcuts and forget about them. If the programs can be found on the startup menu they can simply be disabled. The hard drives today are so large, now in the Terabyte range that they pose no real problem.


146 posted on 04/14/2008 10:30:06 AM PDT by RichardW
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To: Still Thinking

There is no problem with adding additional RAM and it won’t void any warranties. These computers are designed for upgrades or they would have sealed the insides.


147 posted on 04/14/2008 10:31:24 AM PDT by RichardW
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To: Red Badger

I’ve already commented on the hyped non problem of Vista but I would also suggest something that is free, free, free and works well with Vista. Instead of upgrading to Office 2007 which I did, merely download Open Office. It will read Word and Excel and is surprisingly easy to use. Frankly I should have saved my money, although Office 2007, Home and student edition allows up to installation on three computers. I found it to be encumbered with a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles. Open Office seemed to be much more intuitive.

Google also offers its own spreadsheet software free that can read Excel files. I prefer Open Office myself.

But to restate what I said about Vista, it is just fine. A computer that is properly equipped will run it with no problems. I have not had a single lock-up in six months with any of my three computers. I used to have to shell out of XP many, many times. No so with Vista.


148 posted on 04/14/2008 10:35:44 AM PDT by RichardW
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To: Red Badger

I visited the computer store to check out Vista’s performance, using the Windows Task Manager to monitor resources as I opened Office, played video, etc. Even a dual core pentium would occasionally max out at 100% CPU time. The only computer that ran everything snappy with power to spare was a quad core. Now, imagine running XP on that same quad!


149 posted on 04/14/2008 10:43:12 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (When hopelessness replaces hope, it opens the door to evil.)
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To: ZULU
The oil industry is not an American business. Its an international cartel in allaince with the Opec states and the Muslims in the MIddle East.

In my part of the country, we have a lot of independents. All American, all the way.

Though some of the majors are indeed in alliance with the Saudi's and some M/E governments, if we "tweak" their collective noses we'd be even worse off. Certainly I'd like to see us get much more of our fossil fuel needs met with US/North American sources. However, I'm a realist and understand it's not going to happen when government and environmentalists team up to make more domestic production practically impossible. Going after the oil companies for so-called "obscene" profits is not going to make our life any easier.

150 posted on 04/14/2008 11:01:33 AM PDT by CedarDave (John, When will you respect conservatives the way you do fellow senators Barack, Hillary and JohnK?)
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To: Slapshot68

You can’t install XP on a Vista Machine and dual boot without major registry surgury: Not recommended.

You can Install XP first and then Vista over it for a duel boot scenario but it means wiping the drive.

Best bet, if you don’t want to wipe Vista, is to install MS Virtual Machine (Free) and instll XP there. XP will then run in a seperate window under Vista. I run Rockwell software that hasn’t caught up to Vista yet so it has to run in XP. When MS stopped selling XP on new systems (the first time) I came up with the Virtual Machine option. It works (as long as you don’t install the Virtual Machine add-ons).


151 posted on 04/14/2008 11:04:22 AM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Jubal Harshaw (Robert A. Heinlein))
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To: ShadowAce; brownsfan; Nashvegas; WorkerbeeCitizen

I have a question for the Linux experts out there. Microsoft’s arrogance and crappy software is driving me to find another OS. Before going with Apple, I have been trying several different Linux flavors such as Knoppix, Mepis and now Ubuntu. The main problem I have with all of them is the inability to print. I have tried several low-end HP USB Laserjet models without success. For example, Ubuntu immediately recognized the model and installed the driver, but when I tried to print a test page from setup, it went through the motions of printing, but nothing came out. I am completely stymied. I researched a website that lists compatible/incompatible linux printers at http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi and discovered there are quite a few printers that are not fully Linux compatible, to varying degrees. Some of the discontinued and/or expensive laser printers might work, but I have none of those to try. I’ve never seen a printer that wouldn’t print in Windows. I hope Apple is easier to configure than this! Any suggestions how to make Linux print?


152 posted on 04/14/2008 11:29:10 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (When hopelessness replaces hope, it opens the door to evil.)
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To: TexasRepublic

I’m not much help. I have an HP ink jet, 7150. When I turned it on, it installed the drivers and printed immediately.


153 posted on 04/14/2008 11:46:21 AM PDT by brownsfan (Algore makes P.T. Barnum look like a piker.)
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To: TomGuy

Ya know, I thought ME was the Microsoft tribute to Edsel. However, Perhaps ME is MS equivalent of the AMC Pacer (dating myself a bit, there) and Vista is the Edsel of OS’s......


154 posted on 04/14/2008 11:51:23 AM PDT by stylin_geek (Liberalism: comparable to a chicken with its head cut off, but with more spastic motions)
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To: ZULU
There is no difference between Gates and the blood-suckers who run the Petroleum industry. They are cut from the same mold.

Apples and oranges....

155 posted on 04/14/2008 12:20:45 PM PDT by Born Conservative (Chronic Positivity - http://jsher.livejournal.com/)
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To: SES1066
For those interested in a Mac, I've migrated from PC to Mac last year and am very happy.

Thanks for the conversion story...this is exactly what I'm doing, hopefully in the next week or so! The IT guys are preparing my shiny new Mac Book Pro as I write.

For virtualization, I'm going to try the freeware VirtualBox. I've used both the windows and linux versions, and like it very much.

156 posted on 04/14/2008 12:20:55 PM PDT by shorty_harris
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To: Red Badger

A few months ago I bought a new laptop with Vista on it. With the hardware it had, it should have been reasonably peppy (with XP at least). It was a pig, a hog, and took forever to boot up, to shut down, to do anything. I sold it quick.

Since we have been using XP for 6 years without any problems, in the last two months we have bought three new XP machines from Dell Outlet at significant discounts, two desktops and one laptop. We are good to go through at least 2014. And when computer replacement time comes up again, if M-soft’s latest is another piece of crap, then we are finished with Gates and company. At that time, we would move to Mac, or Linux, or?

But we figured the wise thing now, since XP does everything we need it to do, was to hardware-up for some years to come, which we have done.


157 posted on 04/14/2008 12:21:28 PM PDT by webschooner
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To: dfwgator; alice_in_bubbaland
You have to go to the “Small Business” Computer section on the Dell site. The Home computers generally won’t offer you a choice, but for some of the Business computers, they do. Of course after June 30, that may not be the case.

Not completely true -- true for some models, but not for others. For example, Inspiron 530 Desktops are on the Home side, and are still available with XP.

158 posted on 04/14/2008 12:24:01 PM PDT by webschooner
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To: TexasRepublic
If you're desperate, try Turboprint. I've used it, and it works. They have lots of drivers, and have an easy to use installation interface. The bad...it costs $40.
159 posted on 04/14/2008 12:42:43 PM PDT by shorty_harris
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To: webschooner

You bought the wrong laptop! I am a computer professional and I own a HP with a dual Intel chip and dual boot it to both XP and Vista. It runs 50% to 100% faster with Vista and starts up and shuts down within 10-15 seconds. I am so tired of people that make bad computing choices or who don’t know what they are doing badmouthing Vista. It is a very good operating system and it is not getting a fair shake. FYI I do not work for Microsoft or make any money from them.


160 posted on 04/14/2008 12:43:24 PM PDT by kaizen
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