Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why is Microsoft Patching XP?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-wouldn't-believe-me-if-i-told-you dept.

akkarin noted a story about a new Service patch for XP. Dubbed SP2c, the new service patch contains no bug fixes or features. Instead, this exciting patch exists only to add new valid active product registration keys. Oops.

5 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So.... by improfane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a large portion of the world uses XP and it is likely a lot of people on Slashdot have to administrate it.

    Why would it not be on the frontpage?

    --
    Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
  2. Re:So.... by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The story here is not that the patch contains no fixes but that Microsoft are having to release a 'patch' because sales of Vista are not driving down sales of XP as much as was expected. From TFA

    Last month, the company's chief financial officer said that he tweaked the fiscal year 2008 forecast to account for XP's longevity. Rather than count on an 85/15 split in sales between Vista and XP, said Chris Liddell, Microsoft now expects a 78/22 split, an increase of nearly 50% in anticipated XP sales. Whether we like it or not Microsoft is the dominant player in the personal computer market and what they do and why they do it is important to us techies.
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  3. Re:This clearly shows... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Over time, it would be my guess they will slowly "fade" out XP and the forced Vista adoption will be complete.

    Why would you need to guess about something which is already publicly known and their obvious policy?

    XP will eventually become unsupported, they won't have any new patches for it, and they'll expect everyone to upgrade to Vista. Oddly enough, Windows 3.x, 95, 98, and ME have all gone through this.

    Believe it or not, every software company does the exact same thing. Just than when Microsoft does it, it's on a massive scale, and it gets rammed down the throats of everyone no matter what they think.
    Longterm this will be seen as a major mistake made by them, in my opinion....
    Long term, none of our opinions seem to alter what Microsoft does. It just happens.

    Cheers
    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  4. Re:well... by antikristian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason for it is easy:

    If they sent it out as a normal update, people could choose to ignore it. As a servicepack they can set it as a requirement for future security updates. This is just what they did with SP1 & 2, only this time without any added features for the user.

    Also: they really have to sell Vista...

    --
    A computer is a tool, but I am not. I use Linux
  5. Re:well... by AndersOSU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Methinks theres a pattern here:

    Win95 - compelling reason to upgrade
    Win98 - pass
    Win2000 - compelling upgrade
    WinME - hahahaha
    WinXp - compelling upgrade
    WinVista - Jury's still out, but probably pass