Monday, October 6th 2008
Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Program Extended by Another Six Months
Windows XP, the OS that is still widely available although its Vista successor is trying to get the upper hand for more than a year, has just received another six months before going down forever. Earlier this summer, Microsoft instructed retailers to stop selling copies of Windows XP to consumers. Regardless of that customers were still able to use their lovely XP OS through a loophole that allowed them to purchase a new computer running certain version of Windows Vista and still downgrade to Windows XP for free. Originally, that option was set to expire on January 31st, 2009. Now Microsoft has extended that date by another six months, through July 31st, 2009. Recent market research shows that one third of the customers that can take advantage of the downgrade program, return to Windows XP without thinking twice. Recently Microsoft also made Windows XP licenses and support available for netbooks until 2010. With little help Windows XP could be still alive when Vista's deputy Windows 7 becomes available.
Source:
The Register
42 Comments on Microsoft Windows XP Downgrade Program Extended by Another Six Months
They want to promote Windows Vista, and stop XP sales, but then again, they keep extending XP's support and DOWNGRADE program.
considering the major backlash when M$ annouced they were stopping the production of XP I think they have partially learnt their lesson which is to listen to the consumers a little more.
im not going to go into the 'XP Vs. Vista' debate - each to their own theres a lotta people that say Vista is good then theres a lotta people saying Vista is crap. its just an endless circle.
So 'Forcing' users to use Vista with a new system isnt good either. people have their own personnal preferances - Personally I still like XP. DX10 might sound good on paper but in reality its not good enough to force me to go Vista.
implementing a system like this where users can choose which O/S they want to run with other then just vista vista & vista saves Consumers money as they DONT have to pay an extra £60-70 to have the machine come with XP.
Another argument against upgrading to vista, is the fact that some hardware, such as my Webcam, graphics tablet, etcetera will not work anymore. You may say that "why not get better hardware (and say the same about my EEEPC), but realise the quickly deteriorating economic conditions ahead-you may find that the most you can afford in the future is a Nettop. I'm personally considering one to use mainly instead of my main PC for space saving, and the fact that the nettop will use far less power than the PC (power bills have been going up since I upgraded hardware).
I strongly support this decision that Microsoft has made.
Your harddrive space argument might work for the older EeePC's but the newer ones with 40GB SSDs and 80-160GB HDDs negates it. And the lowest for any of the Nettops will be the 40GB SDD, with the 80GB HDD being standard.
The few incompatible pieces of hardware are really the only reason not to use Vista, but that is only the fault of the hardware manufacturer for not releasing propper drivers. I have only run into a single piece of hardware that didn't work with Vista, an old 3Com PCI network card. The rare hardware incompatibility is far from a good reason to stick with XP.
I'm sure much of this decision had to do with the industry side. Primarily they are the ones even purchasing the downgrades not the average consumer.
We all build our own PCs we don't count.
But, dang... that surprises me. Vista beating XP with only 1 GB of memory. :o
Thanks for the information and the link!! :)
im not going to go into the 'XP Vs. Vista' debate - each to their own theres a lotta people that say Vista is good then theres a lotta people saying Vista is crap. its just an endless circle."
But it doesn't have to be an endless circle.
People who like Vista obviously have figured it out. People who don't are just ignorant bandwagon morons.
What bugs?
How are they shoving Vista down our throats when they are extending downgrade and support?
Shools gov, ent. will not upgrade just yet because there isn't a need to spend millions of $ when XP is still compatible with everything. Businesses don't need DirectX 10 to run spreadsheet. (btw, University in my town is 100% Vista (besides their Macs)
It's necessary for Video game players to upgrade if they want to stay current with the top-notch graphical tech.
Vista is more stable for me than XP ever was, now that the OS dedicates some resources to the OS itself to prevent total PC lock.
And if you are a Business running software that isn't compatible with Vista, that is a different story. However, I wouldn't recommend any Business run outdates software, and anything that doesn't run on Vista is too outdated for me. I know business don't follow that logic because it usually means they have to take some money out of their pockets, which most don't like to do in this day an age. But really, I haven't come across much software that won't work with Vista actually, most people just assume that whatever they are using won't work, and never actually try it. I will not buy hardware from manufacturers that refuse to support it with proper driver updates, and anyone that does is an idiot. "My hardware manufacturer is to lazy to provide up to date drivers" is not a valid argument against Vista. Besides most XP drivers work just fine in the 32-bit version of Vista.