Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 28 April 2008 18:32
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
As long as the escape clauses remain inside Vista licensing for Business and Ultimate, it doesn’t really make that much difference what Microsoft officially wants, for XP will be available in some form.
But while it will be easy for businesses to get XP if they so desire, everyday consumers will have to work harder to find a way to get around the XP blockade.
ITProPortal.com
reports that online retailers are experiencing a boom in last minute XP sales from consumers who don’t trust Microsoft to keep XP around, even though they plan on supporting XP with bug fixes and security updates for years to come.
Windows XP is still one of the top sellers at Amazon, and it really does beg the question... why doesn’t Microsoft give the customer what they want, officially and openly?
With Vista having such bad publicity even before it’s official launch more than a year ago, including with the Service Pack 1 (SP1) that usually signifies an operating system’s maturity, plenty of people are happy to trust XP in a way that Vista will still take years to earn.
Microsoft is already discussing Windows 7, the anointed successor to Windows Vista, suggesting it will be componentised and streamlined for speed and security, but long-time Windows users have heard it all before, and just don’t trust Microsoft as much as they used to – if indeed they ever trusted Microsoft at all.
There are great benefits to keeping XP around, while continuing to promote the benefits of Vista as Microsoft sees them.
Not only is Vista a dramatically more mature operating system after more than a year’s worth of bug fixes, security patches and updates, including SP1, it will only get better as Microsoft continues tweaking and improving it, while manufacturers finally go into overdrive in delivering Vista drivers for all their new hardware.
But if a customer wants XP, let them have it. The computer they buy today – unless it is an ‘ultra low cost PC’ or ULCPC – finally has the grunt to run Vista properly, only perhaps needing more memory if it is one of the cheapest desktop models available.
Would a public backdown to announce continuing sales of XP hurt Microsoft that much? Please read onto page 3.
