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XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec
dcblogs writes "Hewlett-Packard executives say that the coming demise of Windows XP next year may do what Windows 8 could not, and that's boost PC sales significantly. 'We think this will bring a big opportunity for HP,' said Enrique Lore, senior vice president and general manager of HP's business PCs. Lore was asked, in a later interview, whether the demand for XP replacement systems could help sales more than Windows 8. His response was unequivocal: 'Yes, significantly more, especially on the commercial side,' he said. Lore said 40% to 50% of business users remain on XP systems."
For the business users still running XP, I don't see them flocking to buy new Windows 8 hardware. They are still on XP because either the software they run won't run on anything else, or they are small businesses that don't have an IT budget. As long as the hardware and software works, they aren't going to go out and buy new systems.
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Hippie Logger Jock
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"Pulling the rug out from under 40-50% of our clients should really shake things up and boost sales"
This signature is false.
There is some credibility to that theory. After all, if you have to install an entirely new system anyway, it makes it easier to jump to a different OS family. especially if it has a similar UI. I hardly think the majority of businesses switching will do this, but I'm sure at least some of them will, and Linux numbers will reflect it. Hell, if you're so focusesd on saving money or maintaining stability that you've used XP for this long, something like Debian GNU/Linux might be perfect for you.
Just because XP reaches its official "end of life" doesn't mean that people will throw out their computer and go buy a new one. For most people- and businesses too - as long as existing units still get the job done there is no compelling reason to buy a new computer. The fact that Win 8 is crap is also a factor.
You're forgetting about that whole Windows software compatibility thing.
Win7 is the new XP.
The better question is how many people did not buy a new PC precisely because Windows 8?
I'd rather guess it will work miracles in Apple sales.
Take my dad. He's ... well, let's say not too tech savvy. But then again, all he wants is some email, some web research for his hobbies, organize his pictures and writing documents. Open office took care of the latter and for the rest, there's an iBook.
It's easy, it's simple and it's something he can use without my aid (which is equally important to him as it is to me, he's a bit of a control freak).
So unless MS relents and lets people get some boxes with Win7, I kinda doubt that many will opt for Win8 and rather, if they have to learn a completely alien interface anyway, go for an Apple.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Do you really think the average MS Word user is going to deal with markup to create documents in LaTeX?
Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
I'd rather guess it will work miracles in Apple sales.
Take my dad. He's ... well, let's say not too tech savvy. But then again, all he wants is some email, some web research for his hobbies, organize his pictures and writing documents.
Ubuntu Linux is a cheaper alternative to Apple OS/X covering every use-case you've stated as relevant to your father. Then again maybe a Google ChromeBook would be the ideal solution for him if he prefers "the cloud".
Sounds like he'd be looking for ChromeBook. It's a lot easier to use than Apple OS.
Given the XP holdouts clearly don't like Microsoft's current offerings, and Mac is growing faster in percentage terms, and Linux appears to be finally getting somewhere - i don't think these XP holdouts will be migrating to another Windows box any time soon.
If the XP holdouts still prefer XP to Win7, they certainly are not going to gravitate to Mac or Linux. (Well some will, but the bulk are just too afraid of change to do anything that drastic.)
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Maybe it's time to buy Software Suits that are Cross-Platform eh. It's a Company's own fault for locking themselves in to one OS.
If a big virus hits that exploits a security hole that's unpatched, SOMEONE will offer a patch. I'm 99.999% certain. Why? Because regardless of Microsoft's wishes for XP to just go away, there are still too many people using it every single day (many of whom aren't even computer savvy enough to be able to tell you for sure which version of Windows they're actually using). A serious virus infection would #1, make Microsoft look really bad if they take a stance of "Too bad... we can't fix it.", and #2 would likely put entire networks at risk with the infected files getting copied onto shared drives on servers, uploaded to cloud shared storage locations, and more. It's quite possible such an infection would need an unpatched XP machine to secretly get installed in the first place, but newer OS's would have problems too if the users open attached files sent from the originally infected XP boxes.
If Microsoft stubbornly refused, some 3rd. party computer security firm would seize on the opportunity to get 15 minutes of fame with a free patch they'd circulate.
Because there are actually things that Word / Excel / Powerpoint are better at than Libre office, and few examples of the reverse.
Also, because there is still some degree of continuity within Office 2000-2013 whereby you can move between versions with substantially less headache than moving from Office 2003 to LibreOffice-- even with the Ribbon to deal with.
After writing a single term paper and trying to unravel the thought process behind footnotes / endnotes in LibreOffice, I found myself pining for Word.
if they have to learn a completely alien interface anyway, go for an Apple.
Microsoft screwed up here. If you're the incumbent with over 90% market share, never EVER push your customer into having to make a decision to do anything other than the status quo. Windows 8 should have been Windows 7 with the "Metro Marketplace" add-on for free. Then, nobody would have had any reason to hate it. Everyone would have just upgraded like cattle going through a gate.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Whatever you call it, people were excited about Windows XP because of what it brought to the consumer desktop, and people actually upgraded to it on purpose. Same for Win2k vs. Windows NT on the corporate side. Which upgrades since have not been dreaded? Windows 7, which is just Windows Vista Unfucked Edition. How about on the server side? I haven't had to go there in a while, thankfully. Regardless, only a few delusional cases clung to Windows 3.1, or Windows 95, but Windows XP is fairly compelling even today with its low resource requirements and unparalleled compatibility.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
One of the chief marks of being a geek is that, knowing what is possible and having a mind for connecting things together, one tends to understate obstacles and complexity.
So, a geek who understands that they can probably get a piece of software to work on Linux tends to miss that it may involve hours of work and break on the next upgrade, and that it probably will work badly with the USB scanner, and with a workflow which involves another piece of software, and that the entire thing is to complicated for most users.
The reality is that moving your whole computing life to Linux is more complicated than just "pop the disk in". When I moved from XP to Ubuntu 7.04, I had to get wine up and running for WoW. I had to switch a bunch of config files to make it use OpenGL. I had to adjust a bunch of settings to turn off poorly supported features. Then WoW worked. Next I had to get Barry-Utils to make my blackberry work. Then I had to get a custom mouse driver for my G9 to work. Then I had to fiddle around with Ventrilo to sort of kind of get it working (it immediately broke on upgrade to a new release).
Most things required a lot more tinkering once I upgraded again, particularly in the sound arena. Ventrilo never worked again after an upgrade, and is considered non-working on Ubuntu.
Long-time Linux user here. I gotta disagree. MS Office is tangibly better in a lot of ways (mostly the ones that the GP posted as a sibling to this post) than LibreOffice.
You would do the free software community a service by not trumping up free software and simply describing it as it is. LibreOffice has a lot of use cases, but Office is still a very well put together set of productivity apps.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs