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XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec

Posted by timothy on from the grass-was-always-greener dept.

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."

6 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. It'll do a lot for pre-installed Linux too... by CaptainOfSpray · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..with XP look-alikes. Yeah, OK, I can dream, can't I?

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    1. Re:It'll do a lot for pre-installed Linux too... by fredprado · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Considering MS Office versions have been increasingly different from each other, I don't think it is easier anymore, from a training perspective to keep using MS programs. I mean, if you will have to train all your employees to use Office 2010, 2012, Blue or whatever, why not train them to use Libreoffice and get done with it?

    2. Re:It'll do a lot for pre-installed Linux too... by hlavac · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I doubt these old unmaintained Windows XP business apps will work better on Windows 8 than on Linux :)

  2. I migrated my parents off XP... by voss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    to Windows 7 this year.

    Windows 8 was just too much of a learning curve for them even if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread.
    Windows 7 is similar enough to XP that I can sit them down at it and not have to reteach them everything. I can even make it look
    like XP If I really need to. I cant do that with 8 unless I buy add-ons.

      Also Windows 7 pro includes an XP virtual machine...so why bother with 8?

    Windows 7 is barely 3 years old its not like its going anywhere anytime soon.

  3. Move to Win 8 doubtful by helixcode123 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know if this is any sort of indication about the popularity of Windows 8, but I got my daughter a new Acer laptop with Windows 8 for a graduation present. She asked my to put Ubuntu on instead. Interestingly, she prefers Mate to the default Unity desktop. Aside: boots in seconds because I put /boot and /usr on the SSD drive. Very nice.

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  4. Re:Wrong question by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This. A billion times this.

    A lot of people don't really separate OS and hardware. They don't see the difference. To them, a computer comes with an OS and that's just something that is on the HD when they buy that thing. They don't even consider that they are essentially two very distinct things.

    So when they consider "I need a new computer", they rarely really consider buying a new OS. The OS is simply something that is already on the box when they buy it. To them, this means that "new computer" invariably means "Windows 8". Because it has become near impossible to get complete hardware+OS bundles with anything but Win8.

    And not wanting Win8 essentially means for them that they cannot buy a new computer now and have to wait until MS "fixes" this (with a new OS). Or they turn to different OSs. It might be interesting to check how Win8 affected Apple sales.

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