With the launch of Vista the death bell was sounded for Windows XP. Given that this is the most common OS in use at present, Microsoft will discontinue sales at the end of June and support for XP will discontinue around 2010.
New machines have been shipped with Vista pre-installed for some time now, but it is not to everyones taste and there are many software programs as well as hardware that worked well on XP but are not compatible with Vista. This means that many hardware and software vendors are cashing in on new sales of Vista compatible stock. Some vendors have issued updates to correct compatability issues.
Microsoft has said it would allow system vendors to preload the Home edition of Windows XP on ULCPCs - ultra low-cost PCs - through to June 2010, or one year after the next version of Windows becomes generally available. Also bear in mind that Vista’s successor, Windows 7 is due for release in 2009.
Microsoft introduced Windows XP in late 2001. They normally make operating systems available only for four years after launch date. But delays in producing Windows Vista, which had its debut in January 2007, forced Microsoft to continue selling XP longer than planned. Microsoft had originally planned to shelve Windows XP on January 30th 2008.
But it isn’t just emerging markets that want XP. In a recent survey by InfoWorld, there was a strong indication that people didn’t see a need to upgrade their home computers to Vista and that business still faced multiple challenges in porting their business critical applications to Vista. In short, the XP market is still alive and vibrant.
To experience all of Vista’s features, PC users need a computer with at least a 1-GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, and a 40-GB hard drive. By contrast, Windows XP Professional requires only a 300-MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 1.5-Gbyte disk.
A Microsoft manager has said that one of the security features in Vista was deliberately designed to ‘annoy users’ to put pressure on third-party software makers to make their applications more secure.
David Cross, a product unit manager at Microsoft said “The reason we put UAC (User Account Control) into the Vista platform was to annoy users–I’m serious.”
Also realise, that many of the security issues with XP have been resolved and it is now a stable platform, as long as you stay away from Internet Explorer and its permanently inherent problems. Use a safe browser such as Firefox and you will experience far fewer problems and faster load times.
So what can you do? Close to 200,000 people have signed a petition since January 14 to save XP. However, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks we’re not serious about the Save XP movement, nor does he seem to take the people who signed it seriously. That’s where you come in. Help us meet our goal of 300,000 unique petition signatures by June 2008. Please ask your friends, family and colleagues to join the movement by signing up at www.savexp.com
The petition is on the right side of the page, so please take the time to sign this.
Go here now: www.savexp.com
© Free PC Security 2008
