Windows XP to get prolonged shelf life
Redmond (WA) - Microsoft has announced that it plans to extend its support of Windows XP, its nearly seven-year-old operating system, because many computers in the market today are simply unable to run Windows Vista.
With the release of Vista early last year, Microsoft had planned to stop selling XP on June 30, 2008. Microsoft has decided to push that back because of what it calls a rise in the number of ultra low cost PCs.
Microsoft XP launched in October of 2001 and since then has become the best-selling operating system ever. So when Windows Vista came out, it was difficult to convince people to upgrade their system. Computer illiterate and tech enthusiasts alike were too comfortable with XP. There were also legendary problems with some programs not working on Vista, though many of those have now been fixed.
Low-cost computers, like the One Laptop Per Child $200 laptop or Intel’s Classmate PC, rely on XP and would be forced to turn away from Microsoft if it stopped supporting its last-generation OS.
Microsoft has now set the phase out date of XP to June 30, 2010. Ironically, that’s when the software giant was expected to release its successor to Vista. This week’s announcement sheds serious doubt as to whether Windows 7 will come out in 2010 at all.
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"One Laptop Per Child $200 laptop (...) rely on XP" ????????????
You want to edit that line as soon as possible....
(no, I don't think I should tell you what OS OLPC relies on, you should know it already)
I think they just meant the windows editions do.
Perhaps the extention is to when Windows 7 is meant to come out to allow people who don't want vista to carry on with a form of windows rather than leaving windows altogether for, say linex when XP ended, and then decided not to go back later. If microsoft can't force vista on is, it can't just let people move away from windows.
If OLPC would ever use Windows XP, the whole project would sink (and stink), as it would cost $100 more just for the XP license, and the talks with MS to give it for free (for OLPC only) failed drastically.
I wonder why...