Windows XP Closer to Immortality
Windows XP has been around for nearly a decade. And it will be another decade before it’s finally retired for good. Microsoft has given the OS yet another reprieve.
The company had planned to end XP downgrade rights with the release of Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which went into beta today, but it has reconsidered in light of the fact that 74 percent of its enterprise customers still use the OS. So today, Microsoft (MSFT) moved that end date further out once again. “Our business customers have told us that removing end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional could be confusing, given the rights change would be made for new PCs preinstalled with Windows 7, and managing a hybrid environment with PCs that have different end-user rights based on date of purchase would be challenging to track,” Microsoft said in a post to the Windows Blog. “Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7.”
In other words XP downgrade rights will continue until the end of the Windows 7 life-cycle. That means OEMs could still be selling XP-equipped PCs two years after the introduction of Windows 8, expected by early 2012–astonishing when you recall that the company originally planned to cut off sales of XP on Jan. 30, 2008, one year after Windows Vista debuted.
Comments
From a consumer POV, XP is one of the most stable and best OS that ever came out of MS Production line… less bugs compare to Windows Me, better memory management compare to Windows 98 Se, more software support and has a very nice UI than any other Windows OS until 7 was release. So I really don't see why people should ditch their XP anytime soon.. unless of course MS release a patch that will render their XP useless.
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Posted by Teknisyan at July 13th, 2010 at 10:10 pmThat's because you're only comparing to other Windows systems, which all have similar problems like malware, viruses, DLL Hell, poor hardware integration, poor ease of use, terrible reliability, and high costs of administration. So Windows to Windows it is just SSDP. There's no reason to suffer the overhead of switching if you get to the other Windows system and malware can still empty your bank account. Saying at least XP is better than the 2 systems that preceded it is the lowest possible standard.
If you broaden your scope from just Microsoft systems, then you can see what is going on in 2010. The fact that Microsoft has not shipped a 2010-class system is no excuse for you to limit your scope to 2001 and pretend nothing has happened in the past 9 years. Yes, there is a downside to using 9 year old computing technology. How could there not be?
Users who switch from XP to Mac will get hundreds of benefits: lower cost of ownership, much higher reliability, much better 3rd party software, much more ease of use, much less administrative overhead, much better security, no viruses, and almost non-existent malware risk. Not just individuals: look at Genentech, which switched to 100% Apple systems in 2007, or look at Google, which has always been majority Apple systems but is no longer deploying Windows at all. Look at Apple eating their own dogfood and now they are the most valuable technology company in the world.
Users who switch from XP to iPad get even more ease of use, even more reliability, even lower administrative overhead, zero malware risk, very low-cost 3rd party software, and a huge mobility benefit, with a device that is half the size and weight of even an XP netbook, gets double the battery life, and has instant-on and modern computing features like HTML5 browser and MPEG-4 audio video.
In short, a lot of your competitors are running 2010 systems right now and they are drinking your milkshake. They have lower costs, higher productivity, and are building on platforms that will be steadily upgraded through the next 10 years. It's absolutely no contest. A 9 year head start in technology is completely insurmountable. You can't hope to compete with people who are using modern computing systems.
Posted by JohnDoey at July 13th, 2010 at 11:28 pm