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Microsoft Extends XP To May 2009 For OEMs

Posted by timothy on from the that-pesky-reality-again dept.

beuges writes "Microsoft has announced over the weekend that it would allow computer manufacturers to receive copies of XP until the end of May 2009, shortly before Windows 7 is expected to hit the market. This should allow users to skip Vista entirely and move straight to 7, which has been receiving cautiously favorable reviews of pre-release and leaked alphas."

2 of 605 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Windows 7 by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 5, Informative

    I installed over 3000 copies of vista at a local OEM over my summer break. You wouldn't believe the shit I've seen. Integrated ethernet cards only being recognized every other boot, 15 minute startups, reboots required for every other damn driver install, random "could not connect to authentication server"s...

    Yeah, I'ved used vista...

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  2. Re:Meet the new version, same as the old version. by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    apple isn't very popular with enterprise for several reasons.

    - price: no competition means higher price. with the PC, the cutthroat competition between hardware makers is what keeps price down.
    - openess: the PC is an open architecture, you can choose your box from any manufacturer. even apple recognized this as an advantage and moved to intel/PC arch.
    - relationship with developers: say what you want, but working in a large IT shop i know several programers who all agree that MS treats developers a whole lot better than apple. see the strangle hold they keep over that iPhone store.
    - availability of software: the PC was created by IBM with a focus on business. the Mac wasn't. a huge library of corporate software made the diference on DOS days. the previous item does it today.

    and you didn't get GP's point. emulation and virtualization, either in hardware or software helps a lot. and MS is not a newbie on this. in the early days of the transition from DOS to windows 3.0, the version for 80286 PC/ATs couldn't multitaks DOS apps. if you opened more than one DOS app, the one in the background would freeze, but in a 80386 you could multitask DOS apps because the 386 introduced hardware based "real mode" VMs. heck, you can run a binary compiled on an S/360 on a current version of Z/OS running in the latest state-of-the-art IBM mainframe.

    apple's several transitions, m68k -> PPC -> intel (hardware) and Mac OS classic -> Mac OS X pretty much afected some few specialized (read: badly written) software. nothing that caused widespread problems.

    it can be done, and is only the stuborness of the redmond guys that prevents them from doing it.

    --
    What ? Me, worry ?