Windows XP Extensions Reflect Vista's Woes

XP still running strong....

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http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212501862

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) in the past week announced yet another life extension for its supposedly retired Windows XP operating system, a sign that, despite almost two years on the market, Windows Vista is a no-go for most businesses.

Only 10% of 700 business executives recently surveyed by the Information Technology Industry Council and Sunbelt Software said their companies are using Windows Vista in the enterprise.

The numbers are consistent with other industry data and anecdotal observations.

A survey released in October by the United Kingdom's Corporate IT Forum showed that only 4% of businesses in that country are using Windows Vista on workplace systems, while 35% said they were "not yet interested" in Vista. Fifty-eight percent said they were still using Windows XP, now 7 years old.

Meanwhile, IT officials for the state of Maine say their organization plans to skip Vista for state workers and will jump directly from XP to Windows 7, which Microsoft has said it plans to release in 2010.

Why such resistance to Vista? IT managers have complained about the operating system's resource requirements -- it takes considerably more PC horsepower and memory to run than XP -- and its lack of compatibility with older software. In particular, new security features built into Vista's kernel tend to break applications built for previous versions of Windows.

As a result, Microsoft is under considerable pressure from business customers to maintain XP's availability.

On Friday, the company said it's extending the deadline for Windows XP sales to custom PC builders.

Under the plan, system builders will be allowed to take delivery of XP licenses and media through May 30. Previously, Microsoft had announced a Jan. 31 XP cutoff date for system builders, which are typically smaller, build-to-order vendors. The news was first reported by InformationWeek.com sister site ChannelWeb.

It's the latest in a string of reprieves for XP. Microsoft also originally planned to stop distributing Windows XP media to large OEMs, like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, on Jan. 31. But the company announced in October that it would move that deadline to July 31.

If Microsoft is on schedule with Windows 7, that would leave a gap of about just six months between the end of the XP program in most markets and Windows 7's general availability in early 2010. It's a sign of Microsoft's concession that Vista has flopped in the key corporate marketplace.

 

Wow. That's pretty pathetic. But, dual-booting Linux, I really can't say I'm all that moved by the news.

 

I really enjoy Vista, to the point that using XP feels like returning to Windows 98, it just *feels* old. That sounds lame, I know, but seriously...

Anyway, I could care less if big business uses Vista, some businesses are only just making the move from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. I'm sure Windows 7 will be a nice upgrade, and I'm sure lots of people and IT managers will complain about it, and I'm sure I still wont care.

Happy Holidays! (And lucky you Microsoft, with all that money in the bank)

 

I imagine Vista's gotta be a major pain for businesses......but I think some have a tendency to over-generalize it's relative failure in the enterprise market and apply that to the consumer market as well (an area in which it's performing relatively strong still).

 

Ugh, Linux. Yet another headache. At least its good for running servers or something like that.

 

Wow, how lame is this? Really?

IT people are complaining about Vista's compatibility, and say they're going to go straight from XP to 7.... uhhh.... 7 won't be ANY more compatible with old software than Vista!!!

It would be much less painless to switch NOW and work out the kinks with Vista so they can have a seamless transition to 7.

Idiots.

 

Actually Win7 beta works fine with all my hardware.. Vista pre Sp1 1 wasn't..

 

You so funny.

 

Beta vs Pre-beta. Not to mention Windows 7 is based on Vista.

 

correction, Vista pre sp1..

 

and some are still stuck with win 98 and claim that they do not need anything newer. and are bashing sw companies for not prolonging support for their amazing win98-able apps...

 

so that just means by now your hw manufacturer could finally write a vista driver, which he had the opportunity (and, as a good manufacturer, the duty) to do so since.. about 3 years?.

don't blame it on vista or win7 or what ever, they are exactly the same. but some companies are just wayyyy to slow with updating their drivers for new os'.