A Dell laptop, believe it or not. The Latitude E6400 XFR is Dell’s (DELL) first true entrant into the so-called “rugged” laptop category, and its an impressive one. Targeted at the military and first-responder market, the machine is encased in a chassis made of ballistic armor–one Dell claims has twice the impact strength of magnesium alloy. It’s powered by Intel’s (INTC) Core 2 Duo processor, runs Windows Vista and supports Wi-Fi, 3G mobile broadband and GPS. Perfect for military contractors, and more importantly, for the state and local governments currently lining up for billions of dollars in stimulus money. Said Dell spokesman Patrick Burns, “With the stimulus package under way, we’re getting lots of interest.” I’ll bet you are, because at $4,299, you’ll need a stimulus package to afford it.

XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.”

–Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, April 24, 2008

Looks like Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer woke up smarter again.

Microsoft had planned to cut off sales of its Windows XP operating system through the retail and original equipment manufacturer channels on Jan. 30, 2008–one year after the Windows Vista debut. But the poor reception given Vista and the unwavering loyalty of XP users caused the company to extend that deadline to June 30, 2008. A few months later, Microsoft extended the deadline further, to Jan. 31, 2009. And now, amid reports that more than a third of all new Vista PCs are being downgraded to XP, it extended the XP deadline again.

Microsoft (MSFT) will now stop distributing Windows XP to PC makers on May 30, 2009. ChannelWeb reports that while distributors must place their final orders for XP OEM licenses by Jan. 31, 2009, they can take delivery against those orders through May 30. And the company will continue to support the OS with security and other critical updates until April 2014 (that’s 13 years after XP was first released).

Which means it’s now not only possible to hang on to Windows XP long enough to upgrade directly to Windows 7 in 2010, but entirely realistic.

An anecdotal observation, to be sure. There are other online PC retailers. Still, Amazon (AMZN) is generally a pretty good barometer of consumer sentiment. Perhaps that sentiment will change with the debut of Windows 7, which, according to Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer, is what Vista should have been. “[Windows 7] is Windows Vista, a lot better,” Ballmer said yesterday. “Windows Vista is good, Windows 7 is Windows Vista with cleanup in user interface [and] improvements in performance.”

An interesting data point to consider in light of Microsoft (MSFT) chairman Bill Gates’s claim earlier this year that sales of Windows Vista had reached 140 million copies worldwide. If Devil Mountain’s figures are accurate, Vista’s installed base is likely quite a bit less than that. That revelation is a humbling blow for Microsoft, which has been doing its damnedest to convince consumers that Vista is an OS worth running.

Yes, Microsoft (MSFT) certainly has done just that. Actually, even more than you’d think, because as it turns out, the Chronic Vista Aversion Disorder that swept through the consumer population following Vista’s launch has also afflicted the developer community.

According to recent research from Evans Data, fewer than one in 10 software developers are writing applications specifically for Windows Vista this year (almost half are still writing applications for XP and presumably the .Net framework). And that means applications that leverage Vista features that would prevent them from running on XP without modification.

Evans expects that percentage to improve a bit next year, but not by much. The research firm found that about 24% of developers plan to tailor their apps to use Vista-specific features in 2009. Course, by that time, they may not even have to bother. Windows 7 will arrive at market by late 2009, early 2010.

[Illustration: LolCatGenerator.com]