By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
Perhaps Bill Gates should have pushed his back a few days, so it could coincide with . As of today, XP says good-bye, for the most part.
Stores aren’t going to pull inventory, however; if they have copies they will sell them out. Also, you can still get Windows XP on (e.g., Asus Eee PC). Additionally, at least through the end of next January, you can get XP using the “Downgrade Rights” available to purchasers of Vista Ultimate and Vista Business. Some OEMs, such as HP and Dell, will even your PC to XP for you.
Microsoft hasn’t been listening to end users who have said that Windows XP is just fine for them. In fact, the site has had over 210K signatures for its petition to save XP, but no go.
Since Microsoft says Windows 7 will in 2010, and that they will support Windows XP until 2014, many businesses will stick with XP as long as possible. Those with Volume License Agreements (VLAs) can pretty much do as they please. Even Intel has Vista, though it has deployed it to a few departments.
Microsoft shot itself in the foot with Vista, with things such initial hardware incompabilities, and difficulties finding drivers (that worked). That gave Vista a bad reputation from the start, and arguments and over “Vista-ready,” and just how much Microsoft knew, haven’t helped.
Will consumers, who don’t have as many of the choices move to Linux or Mac OS? Doubtful that you’ll see a huge move to those OSes, but you might see some defections. After all, part of the reason some posit for a backlash against Vista is the familiarity many have with XP. You can make Vista look and act like XP (except for incompatibilities, of course), but it’s not easy for John Q. Public to do so.
And that’s part of it. Why should an end user struggle to get what he wants, when it’s already there in a package for him?
Main thing people bitch about with Vista is running OLD crap on it. UPDATE people, then you wont have a problem!
I hate seeing Vista getting bashed, even though Microsoft is a money hungry, greedy, non-supportive company, Vista is NOT bad!
I ran Vista from beta and I have tosay, the 64bit version sucked and I have never gone back to it to try again. On the other hand, the 32bit version works just fine and I think, it works even better in gaming and updating.
Mike
Each to their own I guess, but everyone needs to stop saying “its slower than xp”, “it wont run my software from the year 1837″, “I cant use my 30 year old printer on it”, my lord people, you spend HOW MUCH on tech items each year and you cant afford to buy a new printer, etc to make sure it works on Vista? Lame excuses.
Side note- I still think if Linux would get its head out of its own butt and make a FEW distors instead of 80billion, it would overtake MS within a few years! Also you need to make installing ANYTHING easier, not just stuff in the manager program thingy.
Most complaints about Vista are with brand spanking new computers. I don’t know a single soul who installed Vista on a computer that didn’t ship with it, and why would you?
Win 95 promised it would work faster and be more productive–if you bought a faster cpu and doubled your memory so you could run it.
For generations, Kodak and Gillette kept changing handles and film formats to keep people buying something new and to stay ahead of generic suppliers. Does anybody remember the Kodak disc camera? Vista is Bill Gates’s disc camera.
Bill Ramsey
Sounds like vista sucks for users of xp. It is probably no better or worse then a handful of other unfamiliar operating systems.
In retrospect, Microsoft should have made something that XP users would love. I’ve been using windows since v3.1 and have found each version a little better. (except for Millennium Edition) Except until now, with Vista, I see nothing better about it.
People say the Aero Glass interface is real cool but I think the XP Luna style is even cooler. Aero has kind of a dull flat look to it.
People rave about the mind blowing security features of Vista but I’ve not had a security problem with XP since switching to Firefox.
Yet the Vista fan base grows every day. I even know one person who swore they would never use vista, who now swears Vista is the best thing ever! One person might not be a lot compared to the countless people I know who hate Vista or have no opinion but one person is a start.
What then can microsoft do to wow the current fans of Vista with the upcoming Windows 7? Will they design an even darker and gloomier visual style? Can they make it faster or more reliable? When will the wow start?
I think microsoft needs to convince people that the next operating system was designed for them and not as some DRM security for Hollywood.
Microsoft shot itself in the foot with Vista, with things such initial hardware incompabilities, and difficulties finding drivers…
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