THIS JUST IN: Some people don’t want XP to go away
- April 14th, 2008
- 5 Comments
On June 30th, Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP. According to the Associated Press, some people aren’t too thrilled “that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move.”
Better start a petition, huh? Galen Gruman of InfoWorld has done just that with the “Save Windows XP” online petition. It’s gathered over 100,000 signatures since January but Microsoft “has declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition.”
While some may point to the immortal words of Homer Simpson — “Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is; never try.” — the real key to keeping XP around for a bit longer may rest with businesses. Analysts predict that Windows XP’s business usage will be at around 70 percent by year’s end and, although support for XP will be offered until April 2009, it’ll be pretty interesting to see how companies react to any new computers they order after June of this year being preloaded with Vista.
tom d. (Who am I?)
4 months ago
PC makers would be wise to not pre-load an OS on their PCs and let the buyer choose the OS to install. I will not buy a PC with Vista. Vista has to many problems. I suspect that is why MS is looking to come out with Windows 7. XP sp2 is much much better than Vista. I’ll go to another OS rather than fool with Vista.
Michael Ekoka
4 months ago
Would the real Ubuntu please stand up?
Reply
Derek (Who am I?)
4 months ago
Microsoft, stop forcing your XP customers to dump tons of e-waste, just so you can profit from Vista. This is unnecessary and unethical!
Reboot (Who am I?)
4 months ago
Another unnecessary forced upgrade. Despite the fact that Vista doesn’t add anything useful for *most* users, forces most people to spend on new hardware (sometimes replacing their perfectly functional desktop and laptops), is considered the new Windows ME with Windows 7 its’ replacement - Microsoft continues to show just how arrogant they still are.
MS is NOT a consumer-friendly company. Their EULAs are sickening, they treat customers as thieves with WGA, they routinely “tweak” data formats to get users to upgrade to their newer applications, they’re in bed with big business to the detriment of all of us - including future privacy issues.
There are viable alternative Operating Systems *freely* available in the form of Linux and BSD, as well as the commercially available Mac OS X.
Has it reached the point where customers are begging and whining a company for a little respect only to be continually crapped on? What’s wrong with Microsoft customers? Is their no sense of self-respect?
Microsoft couldn’t care less about what makes sense in nearly everything they engage in so people need to stop acting so betrayed - betraying their customers and partners is what helps define Microsoft. Everyone’s been warned about this company for 20-plus years so ‘get with the program’ and buy Vista or take a little control of your lives and move to another perfectly viable Operating System.
Rob O. (Who am I?)
4 months ago
“…real key to keeping XP around for a bit longer may rest with businesses.”
Pure & simple, XP is going nowhere - and that’s just fine with me! Hobbyists and hacker wannabes are always all over switching to Linux. But corporate users are locked in not by their preference for an OS, but by their mission-critical applications - which are written for Windows. Windows is far too entrenched in the enterprise - and corporate software vendors are far too slow to change - for anything to change anytime soon.
In my own setting (a healthcare facility), we’re still bound into IE 6 for our browser because of a handful of mission-critical, enterprise-wide, web-based apps that we simply cannot replace. And these are not from a single vendor, but several unrelated vendors whose apps are only officially supported on IE 6. Now, sure, you can (in some of these cases) get away with running their apps in IE 7, but who could afford the liability of doing so?