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Microsoft Extends XP's Life By 6 Months
hairyfeet writes "Despite Microsoft releasing Windows Vista more than nine months ago the adoption rate has not been as Microsoft hoped. Bowing further to pressure from OEMs and consumers, Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP, which was due to end sale by OEMs on January 1 next year, to a new date of June 30. Asked if this was an indication of a strong demand for XP, a Microsoft representative sought to downplay the extension, stating 'We wouldn't term it strong, we would describe this as accommodating a certain element who needs more time.'"
Indeed. But the original date was 30 January. So the 5 months is right.
Some factors affect the uptake of Vista:
1. It needs a lot more RAM. Or atleast people seem to think so.
2. People are waiting for it to "settle down" - probably until Service Pack 1 is released.
3. There is a lot of confusion about different Vista versions.
There is also the issue of some drivers not being available. But things will settle down soon enough. One year is not that long of a timeframe to wean marketshare away from one operating system monopoly to another.
2+2=5 for very large values of 2.
>Microsoft is playing chicken with the free market, and they are going to lose
Funny you should say that. In Latvian "Vista" means chicken (or hen)
RTFA ... it's 5 months from Jan 31 to June 30.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
You don't get to own things anymore - you get to pay for a disk that happens to come with a license to use the software on it.
When customers own things they have certain rights with regard to their property. This pissed off software companies to no end, so they make sure that they sell their product in such a way that customers have no rights at all.
So yes, MS is saying that you can no longer use an application you purchased, and you can't do anything about it because you didn't purchase anything but a disk and the right to use it when MS says you can use it.
Why is everyone comparing XP and Vista as if they were Microsoft's only operating systems?
Windows 98 SE is the second-best version so far. Requires patching for current hard drives (>60GB) and processors (>2.1Ghz). Requires Mozilla and ZoneAlarm for security. Unavailable for purchase and unsupported since July 2006, but included here as the previous benchmark.
Windows 2000 did not have driver support for gamers.
Windows XP is a security hole disguised as an OS. Six years of constant patching and constant vigilance by techies installing much "protection from malware" software cannot prevent the average businessperson from being infected at least annually.
Windows Vista is still in development. The OS is incredibly buggy and should only be used by masochists.
Windows 2003 is the current best version. The OS has all the benefits available in any version of Windows. The negative is the poor pricing model: $999 for first 5 licenses, $199 for each additional 5 licenses. Buying one license is expensive, but twenty are only $79.80 each, less expensive than the least expensive version of Vista ($89.95 for Windows Vista Basic Upgrade.)
If you need Microsoft Windows, team with a large number of people to buy Windows 2003 licenses in bulk.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.