Microsoft Extends the Life of XP (sort of)

Richard

According to The Industry Standard, Microsoft will continue to sell XP Home Edition to OEMs through June, 2010 or one year after the successor to Vista is released, whichever is later. I think we all know which will be later. The move was interpreted as a way of preventing Linux from taking over the market for ultra-low-cost laptops, which don't have the hardware needed to run Vista. Nothing was mentioned about support for other versions of XP.

Just an FYI.

claudermilk

Good enough for me--that allows those of us who want to to skip WindowsME Mk II.

Ric Grupe

I was surprised to see Dell add a new XPS line with XP.

I read somewhere that Bill Gates said that Windows 7 will be out before the end of 2009.

You may have seen this http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp

Richard

Ric Grupe wrote:

I was surprised to see Dell add a new XPS line with XP.

I read somewhere that Bill Gates said that Windows 7 will be out before the end of 2009.

You may have seen this http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp

I'm not going to hold my breath for 7, but it certainly does look like the corporate world has decided that Vista is the son of WindowsME, and is just not getting on board. So Msft has reason to hurry. I just hope that 7 turns out to be as big an improvement over Vista as Win2K was over ME.

Pupator

I think there's a lot of crap going around out there from people who never gave Vista more than a week's try. Vista (and now especially with SP1) is the best Microsoft OS I've ever used for daily computing.

Ric Grupe

Pupator wrote:

I think there's a lot of crap going around out there from people who never gave Vista more than a week's try. Vista (and now especially with SP1) is the best Microsoft OS I've ever used for daily computing.

Maybe.

MS should have marketed it differently...selling the masses on a cool interface seems like just so much BS and more money gouging by MS.

From my point of view as a home user...I see no need for it whatsoever. I have almost no trouble with XP pro.

claudermilk

I will admit I originally gave Vista crap based on hearsay. Now that I've been forced to try supporting a couple of stations running it (one has been back-dated to XP as Vista was incapable of working) I'm continuing to give it crap based on personal experience. Some of the simplest stupid tasks that take me 10 seconds on XP I still have found near impossible to accomplish in Vista. Thanks, but I'll stick with the OS that actually works. I am hoping Win 7 is actually better than XP, but otherwise I'll just stick with XP--it's been rock solid for me since day one.

Pupator

claudermilk wrote:

Some of the simplest stupid tasks that take me 10 seconds on XP I still have found near impossible to accomplish in Vista.

Like what? I see this sometimes on Vista machines but it's always been because the user didn't know how to do it.

MS should have marketed it differently...selling the masses on a cool interface seems like just so much BS and more money gouging by MS.

Maybe they thought that since Apple was able to build an entire company based on a "cool interface" that it could work for Vista.

claudermilk

Like trying to set up access to a network. I know it's mainly because I don't know how to do it; however, there's no good reason for changing what has been a usable standard steup for a long time and hiding it to the point a competent user cannot find the friggin' settings. It's far worse than transitioning from Win98 to XP; actually come to think of it it's been the worst transition I've seen starting with Windows 2.0 (yes, I've been at it since the stone age).

One thing that isn't ignorance on my part is missing drivers. A machine running XP found the network card & loaded drivers all on it's own--got on the network no problem. Just what you want, run install & it's up, no muss no fuss. "Upgrade" to Vista and bam, the card is now gone. No amount of searching turns up a usable driver--Vista is simply incapable of running the same bog simple hardware that's been there since XP days. It's inexcusable to drop something like that.

Beyond the stupid deck chair rearrangement & throwing life boats overboard for no reason, the hyper-active security is simply aggravating. They went way too far with that; yes, MS got bashed for security issues--deservedly-so, but these constant "see, we're looking out for your PC security" reminders is just too much. Very quickly users will simply enter through the constant pop-ups without reading them, rendering them useless.

That is why I will not use Vista period. It's a mess, and should not have ever been released. They rushed it and it shows. I honestly don't think XP was broken--it needed some tweaks, but that was all. It was stable, and got the job done. I don't want the OS in my face.

Anyway, that's enough spleen venting. I know you like Vista & you know I don't--we've been over that road before. Closer encounters have only solidified my opinion.

Pupator

claudermilk wrote:

I know you like Vista & you know I don't--we've been over that road before. Closer encounters have only solidified my opinion.

Ok.

Pilznr

I just bought a new laptop with Vista. I did a lot of research on the problems that people are having with Vista. I read a lot about people that upgrade onto (or buy) systems that don't have the hardware to handle it. So I went over board and made sure my laptop had all the necessary RAM and processor speed to handle it, and then some.

My new ThinkPad T61p with Vista is working beautifully! (2.6Ghz Core2Duo, 4GB RAM, 1GB Intel Turbo Memory) I've had no problems.

Of course, with any new software change; features, commands, and functions are used differently and are found in different places. I was expecting this, and I had the patience for the learning curve.

So far, it doesn't seem like the mistake that ME was.

Andy

Pilznr wrote:

Of course, with any new software change; features, commands, and functions are used differently and are found in different places. I was expecting this, and I had the patience for the learning curve.

Woulda been a perfect time for a Macbook

Pilznr

Andy wrote:

Woulda been a perfect time for a Macbook

I thought about that...
I played with my roomate's Mac....
I wasn't ready for it.... Still didn't like the Mac.

Moogle Pepper

Andy wrote:

Woulda been a perfect time for a Macbook

It's time for me to get a macbook pro! Since the... sudden death of my Sony, I been pining for a Macbook Pro.

Even after upping the RAM to the laptop and installing SP 1 to Vista, Vista continued to be a pain in the ass. First my DVD drive wouldn't get recognized. Then the network WLAN and WiFi went out...


:bash

claudermilk

Slightly OT, I saw Apple has a new one of their irritating ads. But this time I have to say the rip on MS was well deserved as they are going after Vista.

At the least, it's good we have choices. Now to find time to play with Ubuntu on the old Dell gathering dust...

Richard

The tech press has had some interesting news in the past few days. Dell, HP and Lenovo are all planning to continue to offer XP "downgrades" to business customers for at least another year. There have also been some conflicting reports coming out of Microsoft about whether they might extend their own June 30 cutoff for off-the-shelf sales.