iTWire - Users demand the choice of either XP or Vista well beyond June 30

Users demand the choice of either XP or Vista well beyond June 30

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Page 1 of 3 Microsoft’s plans to stop general sales of Windows XP to anyone that wants it, by June 30 this year, is running into a roadblock: customers that don’t want it to go, or at least, just yet. Will the consumer – and customer demand win, or will Microsoft have its way and impose the view of Vista on all but the ultra-low cost PC market where XP sales will now continue until 2010? Register now to win a Canon EOS 500D Today, it is possible to buy a computer with either the choice of Windows XP or Windows Vista, but this is likely to soon change. Of course, it is also possible to buy computers with Mac OS X, flavours of Linux and even other operating systems on them (such as FreeDos), but the users that are battling to save XP from premature expiry aren’t probably aren’t thinking too much of those other OS and computing platform choices in the fight to ‘save Windows XP’. As you’d expect, Microsoft wants to move everyone over to Windows Vista and cease supporting Windows XP. They’d also like anyone using earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or, shock horror, even something as old as Windows 98 or 95, to upgrade to Microsoft's latest and, er... not so greatest. That would be fine in a perfect world, but not everyone upgrades at the same time, and just because Microsoft wants it to be so doesn’t mean it’s going to happen overnight – even if it will happen (as Vista's percentage of users increases over time). This ‘natural increase over time’ is due to Microsoft’s continuing status as the world’s largest supplier of operating systems, despite the growing popularity of Apple PCs and Mac OS X, various flavours of Linux and even virtualisation software that lets you run XP or Vista software while living in a Mac OS X or Linux environment. Sure, both OS X and Linux are gaining ground, but they’re still in the single digits – Microsoft still has the largest userbase by a long shot. This is also despite the success of open source software, such as Firefox, Open Office and a host of others. While Microsoft is not invulnerable to external threat, it is still in an incredibly strong position. But despite all its strength, Microsoft is also not infallible, with Vista - and Vista SP1 - the most glaring examples. Please read onto page 2. << First page < 1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>