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No XP Reprieve; Windows 7 Release Set
CWmike writes "Microsoft has laid to rest rumors that it might reconsider pulling Windows XP from retail shelves and from most PC makers next Monday. Microsoft's Bill Veghte wrote to customers reiterating that June 30 would be the deadline when Microsoft halts shipments of boxed copies to retailers and stops licensing the operating system directly to OEMs. However, Veghte did leave the door open to all computer makers, even the largest, who want to continue selling new PCs with XP pre-installed. 'Additionally, Systems Builders (sometimes referred to as "local OEMs"), may continue to purchase Windows XP through Authorized Distributors [such as Ingram Micro] through January 31, 2009,' he wrote in the letter. 'All OEMs, including major OEMs, have this option,' said Veghte. At the same time, Microsoft confirmed Windows 7 would ship in January 2010. Who, if they have not already, would install Vista now?" Microsoft has said they will post the letter, but it's not up yet.
Fanboys. Those that buy Macs. Windows is mainly dominated by those who don't care about computers, who see them only as tools to get things done, or as a chore. Mac users on the other hand think of computers as fun and user-friendly, they also want to have the latest-and-greatest and so they buy the $1000 computers and buy the $100 service pack upgrades. They already have an iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc. MS doesn't work that way, people grumble, they complain, each new version to them is a new headache. MS users aren't fanboys, they don't see the need to upgrade as each new "upgrade" is worse for them. Mac users see each new upgrade as an opportunity.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The odds that it *won't* be more fucked up than Vista? Probably pretty low, since MS seems determined to thwart Moore's Law with software and ensure that our OS and GUIs run slower with each successive generation. My 1987 Mac SE boots faster than my 2007 ThinkPad (with XP!). That's kind of retarded. A newer machine running slower than an older machine is automatically fucked up in my opinion.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
maybe they get their information from people who have been doing administration and/or systems engineer jobs for 20+ years, ran varied-Unix midrange datacenters for bellsouth, mixed OS/2, NT4 & AS/400 for a major bank, and an extremely diversely mixed and extremely large systems with NT & win2k for the US government, whose able to give a fair assessment of a OS's merits because they've worked with damned near all of them?
Vista is not as bad as ME; it's about halfway in between ME & XP home SP zero. after another patch or 2, it'll probably be about as stable & technically functional as XP media center '05, which is, technically, pretty stable. Not Win2k sp4 / Solaris stable, but that is a pretty rarefied club anyway.
That won't, however, stop it from A) sucking and B) being Evil.
with Vista, No system changes without microsoft permission. You never know when your open source or freeware software is going to be on Vista's hate list. Only Vista knows when it's gonna degrade the output of your Audio or Video hardware, for DRM compliance. it's bloated for no reason, giving no benefit for it's bloat, and they have had to come up with this "unused memory is wasted memory" idiocy (for a non-single-task system, anyway) to partially justify it.
Seriously, how can anyone possibly justify it? I've spoken to one small subset of users who got some benefit from it, tablet notebook users, because all versions of Vista have decent tablet computing support.
If you ARE somehow defending it, first tell me with a straight face that, outside of tablet computing, it does anything better than XP pro for a workstation, or Win2k3 for anything else on identical hardware. What application not bundled with Vista runs better on Vista than it does on WinXP, Win2k, Win2k3 or probably even wine? What benefit does a Vista user get from a DRM system that surveys all hardware 30 times a second to make sure that the rights of Media corporations take precedence over end-user fair use rights?
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.