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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.'"
Depends on what your definition of "is" is...
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
Jan 1 -> June 30? Isn't that 6 months?
Jan 1 to June 30, wouldn't that be 6 months. Or did they use Excel to do the math?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Microsoft made a product so appealing to the users that they don't want to switch. Not even to a newer version.
Sooner or later this was gonna happen.
Victory is gained, not in knowing your opponents next move, but in preempting them.
What happens to the activation servers long after the products (ie 2000 and XP) are out of extended support?
Plain and simple. I'm no big fan of MS, but XP is really a decent piece. If it aint broke, don't fix it.
Pressed for clarification, the Microsoft representative continued:
Q: "Would you term the market's adoption of Vista as slow?"
A: "We wouldn't term it slow, we would describe it as approaching that of a sloth on valium."
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.
...but it was inevitable. Think about it: while Windows Vista is a great operating system and a recommended upgrade from Windows XP, it has been shown all too many times that there are still growing pains evident with it. There are many drivers that are still being tested and revised due to vastly new frameworks implemented by Microsoft (Creative's situation immediately comes to mind, even though it's thankfully been resolved). Furthermore, there are many software packages that have or will definitely have compatibility issues with Vista (financial applications are a huge example of this, since they tend to be much more conservative. I'm not including the super-large firms that absolutely need to continue relying on extremely antiquated software).
While officially removing Windows XP support will be mostly transparent to end users, developers will be forced to migrate all of their time and energy to a new operating system with a lot of changes under the hood instead of spending time steadily updating current software while researching and testing compatible Vista software as well. Many IT managers and decision-makers will have to devote much more energy to supporting Vista faster, which can result in less-than-stellar results (it's corporate habit to accept a new operating system much later than their introduction).
I think this is a good way for Microsoft to ensure that they keep the risks of transition as minimal as possible. Vista migration will undoubtedly happen, but it's best that it is slow and exceptional rather than rapid and disappointing (as many users are quickly finding out).
...the allegations that their users claimed Vista is a pile of manure, the representative said "We wouldn't term it manure, we'd say it has very strong properties, promotes groth and has fertilizing capabilities."
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Whoever came up with that tag is my hero.
Technoli
"Extends XP's Life"
If I were a Windows user, this language would make me sick to my stomach. This is the reason I use GNU software: the "life" of that software is as long as somebody wants to use it. RMS isn't sitting in the offices of the FSF waiting to pull the plug on Linux 2.6 so that people have to buy Linux 2.8; (this might upset Linus a little bit too). Moreover, even "dead" GNU programs can come back to life, if somebody is willing to dig up the body and run it through the compile-o-matic.
If the market wants Windows XP, let them buy it until there isn't enough plastic left on Earth to mint another CD. Software can't "die" unless a very greedy vendor decides to murder it in cold blood. "Extends XP's Life" should be rewritten "Decides Not to Shank XP/XP Users".
Microsoft is playing chicken with the free market, and they are going to lose.
This doesn't seem like a huge disaster for Microsoft to me.
These people are still buying a MS Windows license. Maybe they'll even buy an upgrade to Vista later.
-Dave
This is why you should NEVER use a product that requires "activation".
Just say no to mandatory registration, dongles and other similar shenanigans.
This isn't even a "pro free software" or "anti commercial" thing. Not all
commercial software vendors choose to treat their customers like this.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
XP sucks. It simply sucks less than Vista.
Deleted
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.'
Hmm...
Journalist: "Did Vista fail?"
Microsoft Representative: "I wouldn't say it failed. I'd say it successfully failed in succeeding to fail in successful failure."
Journalist: "Oh.. right, exactly what I had in mind!"
It's just so transparent when companies spin things, it hurts. And you know behind the curtains they shout and curse and spit, and say things like this:
"I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) [..] our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, [..] I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn't translate into great products. I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."
And, as you know, this is an actual quote from Jim Allchin's private email to Gates and Ballmer. Regarding Vista. Not quite like their public claims of vicious unstoppable wildfire Vista success, now, is it.
Those of us who support Linux, I stated on the last article like this, the slower adoption of Vista is, the more time it buys Windows users. So consider this. What happens if we get a "Golden" Wine that can run some killer Windows App XP can, Vista can't. All the sudden you have a small targeted dent in MS's market share that makes a big dent.
What are some ways the calculating Linux user can use this to further undermine MS?
I've used vista and there are many thing that I dislike about it, not least it appears to have been designed by people from Marketing. I like my interfaces to be simple and clean, where as vista has too much going on, too many controlls within controls and special effects. I was very happy with the Win 2K and XP's interface.
Another thing that bugs me are the X million flavours, can we just stick to Server, Pro and Home! and as to why the new functionality can't be integrated into XP is beyond me.
Finaly the resourses it take to run (largely because of a bloated GUI IMHO) are way out of proportion.
Now I'll admit I am a bit of a technical Luddite but I will move forward if I can see a benifit... with vist I see it not.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
Why should a product that's designed to be used in a production environment receive an end-of-life? Shouldn't they have various platforms with ongoing support for different end-use? For example, companies have built software on Windows XP that refuse to work on later versions, or later versions have different properties (i.e. certain APIs no longer supported, 3rd party companion software that won't run on the new OS, different security model imposes different behaviour in the new OS, different licensing schemes not compatible with the software)... if MS cares about its developers that have invested in the platform they put out, wouldn't they keep supporting them? How could developers choose to program for a platform that's essentially a moving target that they can never lock down, and that they have to keep paying MS to use their own software, and even make changes to their software to accomodate MS's changes in their OS? Plus, every time you want to sell your solution to a customer, you have to charge them for MS's products as well. If you have software that requires Windows and Office, and you sell it to someone, you have to sell them Office and Windows and whatever other applications along with it, promoting MS's product, or at least putting your customers in the same position that MS is putting you in as a developer. Except that MS's support and guarantees are limited by their EULA. Isn't programming on Windows like an endless chase? Does it pay off in any way?
Twinstiq, game news
Some people won't move to the next Windows until SP2. A lot won't move until SP1 is out. SP1 isn't ready yet, ergo, accomodate the wait-for-SP1 crowd.
You'll see a lot of other interpretations on Slashdot, but I just don't see them bearing out for most businesses or in the non-Slashdot world in general.
I work in an organisation who has a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement license so on Vista's launch I installed Vista Enterprise on a pretty crappy work PC (Dell GX240) and Vista Ultimate on my home PC (self made Athlon XP 2000+) to see what it was like and I still use them daily.
And I have had no problems with instability and apart from an obscure Belkin USB IrDa device I have had no problems getting other devices to work, either with Vista drivers or XP Drivers and I find it stable and fast, apart for copying files which is a dog.
At this point you may be thinking "Ah, he thinks Vista is great", but you'd be wrong. I quite like Aero, I love the way Vista Ultimate talks to my XBOX 360, but I'm left thinking "Is that it?" There is nothing there worth the £350 Microsoft is asking for the full version, asking that is taking the piss. The basic version I think is £100.. is it worth that.. even then probably not.
While we have no plans to roll out Vista at work at the moment, we said to any of the IT support staff they could install it if they liked on their PCs/Laptops and only 2 of us (including me) did it out of 120 people.
It seems no-one is really interested or cares about Vista.
Jonathan
~~~~~~~~
http://www.irvtheswerve.net/
Not really. Most systems are being bought w/ Vista and a "downgrade" to XP. For the price of Vista, you get Vista and XP. All you need to do is install Vista if they ever get enough bugs out of it for you to use it.
If Micro$oft put out good products, a lot of us would be out of a job! ;->
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
Yeah, plugging in your USB thumb drive and finding out the helper software won't run on Vista is really increased usability. Finding out that your two year old scanner won't work for lack of drivers is increased usability.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I think Vista is slow to be adopted for a few reasons. It's different and non-technical people don't like different. I heard similar things about XP when it came out. It's more restrictive. Getting prompted to do little stupid things is annoying and not being able to do things you did in XP is equally frustrating. Need to upgrade PC's. Many people don't want to run it on their 3 or 4 year old PC and have it run sluggishly. Oh, and activation. I have to say though, I just bought a new laptop with Vista Business and I didn't like it at first either. Now that I've been using it every day along with office 2007, I like it. Of course I had to turn UAC off though. Can't stand that. I think people will warm up to in once they start using it everyday.
RTFA ... it's 5 months from Jan 31 to June 30.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Vista was designed for the movie industry, but Microsoft forgot that the movie industry is not buying vista, the customers have to. Speaking of lost focus.
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.
WGA is truth. DRM is love. Vista is eternal happiness.
Why would you want to jump out of the Microsoft love-pot? It's nice and warm. Come join us. We can be the best of friends.
One of us! One of us!
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
It took a while, and many false starts... But, I decided to go cold turkey and remove Microsoft from all my computers in favor of some Linux and BSD stuff. Since quitting I have also noticed that my health has been improving. I can actually breath better, and food tastes so much better to me now! I have started exercising, and I am in the best shape of my life. And financially? WOW. I now have far more money then I had before as I am not wasting it with Microsoft. It may seem like your not spending a lot of money with Microsoft, but once you quit, you realize how much it can really add up! My time is more free as well, because I don't waste so much of it during the day constantly having to use Microsoft products rather than be productive. I have noticed that this has caused my IQ to increase and it allowed me to spend more time with my family. I know for some folks out there it may be difficult to quit or you feel you CANT quit, but let me be an example to you that it can in fact be done.