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Microsoft Extends XP's Life By 6 Months

Posted by kdawson on Fri Sep 28, 2007 01:27 PM
from the slow-on-the-uptake dept.
Windows
hairyfeet writes "Despite Microsoft releasing Windows Vista more than nine months ago the adoption rate has not been as Microsoft hoped. Bowing further to pressure from OEMs and consumers, Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP, which was due to end sale by OEMs on January 1 next year, to a new date of June 30. Asked if this was an indication of a strong demand for XP, a Microsoft representative sought to downplay the extension, stating 'We wouldn't term it strong, we would describe this as accommodating a certain element who needs more time.'"

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Firehose:Microsoft yet again extends the life of XP by hairyfeet (841228)
[+] Technology: Microsoft Extends XP For Low-Cost Laptops 388 comments
Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft says it will extend the sales of Windows XP Home to OEMs by several years, but it's not in response to the SaveXP petition. Microsoft is supposedly making the move in part to ensure that Linux doesn't dominate the market for certain types of 'ultra-low-cost' laptops. XP will be available for OEMs until June 30, 2010, or one year after the availability of the next client version of Windows, whichever date comes later. This greatly extends the earlier XP deadline of June 30 of this year (which was an extension itself), and means XP will potentially be installed on new computers nearly a decade after its original release. The author of the article suggests that the post-June 2008 release of Atom-based laptops encouraged Microsoft to extend XP, even though Intel says Atom can support Vista. Intel also claims that 'Moblin' Linux will be available on Atom-equipped mobile devices starting this summer."
[+] News: Ballmer Calls Vista 'A Work In Progress' 344 comments
shanen tips us to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story about comments from Steve Ballmer at a conference earlier this week during which he referred to Vista as "a work in progress." He also admitted that the 5-year release cycle wasn't a good idea. Despite the approaching deadline for the end of XP sales, Ballmer's remarks about the older operating system were more ambiguous: "Vista is bigger than XP. It's going to stay bigger than XP. We have to make sure it doesn't get bigger still, and that the performance and that the battery life and that the compatibility, we're driving on the things that we need to drive hard to improve. I know we're going to continue to get feedback from people on how long XP should be available. We've got some opinions on that, we've expressed our views. ... I'm always interested in hearing from you on these and other issues."
[+] News: Dell Will Offer XP Past Cutoff Date 323 comments
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, brings news that Dell will be offering Windows XP pre-installed on their computers past the June 30 cut-off date. Computers purchased with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate past June 30 will come with a copy of XP Pro. Dell plans to simply install that copy upon request to save users a step. Perhaps this will help Microsoft officials make up their minds about another extension.
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Microsoft Extends XP's Life By 6 Months 25 Comments More | Login /

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  • Hmmm.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bjb (3050) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:28PM (#20784745) Homepage
    Depends on what your definition of "is" is...

  • 5 months? (Score:5, Funny)

    by XxtraLarGe (551297) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:30PM (#20784769) Journal
    Jan 1 to June 30, wouldn't that be 6 months. Or did they use Excel to do the math?
  • Microsoft made a product so appealing to the users that they don't want to switch. Not even to a newer version.

    Sooner or later this was gonna happen.

  • Vista SP1 Delayed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by acherrington (465776) * <acherrington@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Friday September 28 2007, @01:33PM (#20784821) Homepage

    'We wouldn't term it strong, we would describe this as accommodating a certain element who needs more time.'
    So let me get this straight... if its not demand that's changing this.. and its a certain element who needs more time, well then I am going to guess that its Microsoft that needs more time to push out Vista Service Pack 1. Then hopefully Windows Vista will have the bugs out and customers will want to migrate.

      • Re:Boiling frog (Score:5, Funny)

        by Runefox (905204) on Friday September 28 2007, @09:05PM (#20790271) Homepage
        WGA is truth. DRM is love. Vista is eternal happiness.

        Why would you want to jump out of the Microsoft love-pot? It's nice and warm. Come join us. We can be the best of friends.

        One of us! One of us!

  • Activation servers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sakdoctor (1087155) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:34PM (#20784825) Homepage
    What happens to the activation servers long after the products (ie 2000 and XP) are out of extended support?

  • XP Works (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blinocac (169086) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:34PM (#20784833) Homepage
    Plain and simple. I'm no big fan of MS, but XP is really a decent piece. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

  • Why the uptake is slow (Score:5, Informative)

    by sufijazz (889247) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:38PM (#20784897) Homepage
    Some factors affect the uptake of Vista:
    1. It needs a lot more RAM. Or atleast people seem to think so.
    2. People are waiting for it to "settle down" - probably until Service Pack 1 is released.
    3. There is a lot of confusion about different Vista [diffen.com] versions [microsoft.com].

    There is also the issue of some drivers not being available [sony.com]. But things will settle down soon enough. One year is not that long of a timeframe to wean marketshare away from one operating system monopoly to another.

  • Asked what he says to (Score:5, Funny)

    by Opportunist (166417) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:43PM (#20784989)
    ...the allegations that their users claimed Vista is a pile of manure, the representative said "We wouldn't term it manure, we'd say it has very strong properties, promotes groth and has fertilizing capabilities."

  • notevenitsmother (Score:4, Funny)

    by Conspiracy_Of_Doves (236787) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:46PM (#20785029)
    Whoever came up with that tag is my hero.

  • Microsoft playing Chicken (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 28 2007, @01:51PM (#20785125)
    "Extends XP's Life"

    If I were a Windows user, this language would make me sick to my stomach. This is the reason I use GNU software: the "life" of that software is as long as somebody wants to use it. RMS isn't sitting in the offices of the FSF waiting to pull the plug on Linux 2.6 so that people have to buy Linux 2.8; (this might upset Linus a little bit too). Moreover, even "dead" GNU programs can come back to life, if somebody is willing to dig up the body and run it through the compile-o-matic.

    If the market wants Windows XP, let them buy it until there isn't enough plastic left on Earth to mint another CD. Software can't "die" unless a very greedy vendor decides to murder it in cold blood. "Extends XP's Life" should be rewritten "Decides Not to Shank XP/XP Users".

    Microsoft is playing chicken [wikipedia.org] with the free market, and they are going to lose.

  • OK by MS? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bigdavex (155746) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:56PM (#20785187)
    This doesn't seem like a huge disaster for Microsoft to me.

    These people are still buying a MS Windows license. Maybe they'll even buy an upgrade to Vista later.

  • I don't get it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HalAtWork (926717) on Friday September 28 2007, @02:10PM (#20785401)
    Why should a product that's designed to be used in a production environment receive an end-of-life? Shouldn't they have various platforms with ongoing support for different end-use? For example, companies have built software on Windows XP that refuse to work on later versions, or later versions have different properties (i.e. certain APIs no longer supported, 3rd party companion software that won't run on the new OS, different security model imposes different behaviour in the new OS, different licensing schemes not compatible with the software)... if MS cares about its developers that have invested in the platform they put out, wouldn't they keep supporting them? How could developers choose to program for a platform that's essentially a moving target that they can never lock down, and that they have to keep paying MS to use their own software, and even make changes to their software to accomodate MS's changes in their OS? Plus, every time you want to sell your solution to a customer, you have to charge them for MS's products as well. If you have software that requires Windows and Office, and you sell it to someone, you have to sell them Office and Windows and whatever other applications along with it, promoting MS's product, or at least putting your customers in the same position that MS is putting you in as a developer. Except that MS's support and guarantees are limited by their EULA. Isn't programming on Windows like an endless chase? Does it pay off in any way?
  • I work in an organisation who has a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement license so on Vista's launch I installed Vista Enterprise on a pretty crappy work PC (Dell GX240) and Vista Ultimate on my home PC (self made Athlon XP 2000+) to see what it was like and I still use them daily.

    And I have had no problems with instability and apart from an obscure Belkin USB IrDa device I have had no problems getting other devices to work, either with Vista drivers or XP Drivers and I find it stable and fast, apart for copying files which is a dog.

    At this point you may be thinking "Ah, he thinks Vista is great", but you'd be wrong. I quite like Aero, I love the way Vista Ultimate talks to my XBOX 360, but I'm left thinking "Is that it?" There is nothing there worth the £350 Microsoft is asking for the full version, asking that is taking the piss. The basic version I think is £100.. is it worth that.. even then probably not.

    While we have no plans to roll out Vista at work at the moment, we said to any of the IT support staff they could install it if they liked on their PCs/Laptops and only 2 of us (including me) did it out of 120 people.

    It seems no-one is really interested or cares about Vista.

    Jonathan
    ~~~~~~~~
    http://www.irvtheswerve.net/ [irvtheswerve.net]

    • Re:Is this a PR guy? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jedidiah (1196) on Friday September 28 2007, @01:58PM (#20785217) Homepage
      This is why you should NEVER use a product that requires "activation".

      Just say no to mandatory registration, dongles and other similar shenanigans.

      This isn't even a "pro free software" or "anti commercial" thing. Not all
      commercial software vendors choose to treat their customers like this.

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