Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft to Allow PC Makers to Downgrade to XP
mytrip pointed out a News.com story about a new Microsoft program to allow PC makers to downgrade from Vista to XP if they so choose. They're still pushing the new version of Windows very hard, but the option now exists for PC resellers to offer the now venerable OS. This is especially interesting as the article points out that OEM licenses for XP officially run out at the end of January. "Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its business models. 'For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge,' HP spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been. 'Since we've only been offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share on demand.' A Microsoft representative confirmed there were some changes made over the summer to the options computer makers have with respect to XP, but the representative was not immediately able to elaborate on those changes."
This is flat out incorrect.
As a business customer, XP has never been unavailable to me.
Furthermore, Vista (other than basic) OEM has always had downgrade rights as part of the license.
Anyone who does serios work that demands CPU power do not want to toss those cycles out the window. People who buys a new computer to play games wants better speed, resolution and non-flicker gaming experience. Why give all those precious cycles away for nothing? I have run Vista and compared to Linux Compiz 3D its a sluggish snail that cant do half of what Compiz can. Compiz plays videos on four different workspaces in see thru mode on a spinning cube without using much CPU. Vista can do pretty much nothing and behaive like a snail in a wheelchair and square wheels. Microsoft has really dropped the ball on this and i dont think its fixable in a servicepack without braking all sorts of things. Application support is bas enough as it is right now.
HTTP/1.1 400
What's so bad about this Vista anyway besides the DRM shit?
Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.
It's just about apparent market share. ... Including the XP disc will not show in their numbers when figuring their deployment of Vista.
I can see them doing that, but everyone knows it's a lie. Thanks to WGA, M$ knows exactly how many and if not who is running any of their newer software. Next to that, sales and web figures are total bullshit. The fact that everone knows they are lying has not kept them from lying in the past, though.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.