( 
)
WINDOWS XP DEAD JUNE 2008?
BORN OCTOBER 25, 2001 - DIED JUNE 30, 2008
$$$
Windows 7 (formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the working name for the next major
version of Microsoft Windows as the successor of Windows Vista. Microsoft has announced
that it is "scoping Windows 7 development to a three-year timeframe", and that "the
specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar." Windows 7
is expected to be released sometime in 2010.The client versions of Windows 7 will ship in
both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A server variant, codenamed Windows Server 7, is also
under development.
Windows XP is set to be pulled off of store shelves in June, but supporters hope their petition will prevent that.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp/
Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista, some just can't be wowed. They complain about Vista's hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows.
For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers, and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is causing a minor panic.
Take, for instance, Galen Gruman. A longtime technology journalist, Gruman is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them.
But after talking to Windows users for months, he realized his distaste for Vista and strong attachment to XP were widespread.
"It sort of hit us that, wait a minute, XP will be gone as of June 30. What are we going to do?" he said. "If no one does something, it's going to be gone."
So Gruman started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.
On the petition site's comments section, some users proclaimed they will downgrade from Vista to XP -- an option available in the past to businesses, but now open for the first time to consumers who buy Vista Ultimate or Business editions -- if they need to buy a new computer after XP goes off the market.
Others used the comments section to rail against the very idea that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move. Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.
Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs it will do so again. The company has declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition. Microsoft is aware of the petition, it said in a statement to The Associated Press, and "will continue to be guided by feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs."
Gruman said he'd keep pressing for a meeting.
"They really believe if they just close their eyes, people will have no choice," he said.
In fact, most people who get a new computer will end up with Vista. In 2008, 94 percent of new Windows machines for consumers worldwide will run Vista, forecasts industry research group IDC. For businesses, about 75 percent of new PCs will have Vista. (That figure takes into account companies that choose to downgrade to XP.)
Although Microsoft may not budge on selling new copies of XP, it may have to extend support for it.
Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP. Microsoft plans to end full support -- including warranty claims and free help with problems -- in April 2009. The company will continue providing a more limited level of service until April 2014.
Gillen said efforts like Gruman's grass-roots petition may not influence the software maker, but business customers' demands should carry more clout.
"You really can't make 69 percent of your installed base unhappy with you," he said.
Some companies -- such as Wells Manufacturing Co. in Woodstock, Illinois -- are crossing their fingers that he's right. The company, which melts scrap steel and casts iron bars, has 200 PCs that run Windows 2000 or XP. (Windows 2000 is no longer sold on PCs. Mainstream support has ended, but limited support is available through the middle of 2010.)
Wells usually replaces 50 of its PCs every 18 months. In the most recent round of purchases, Chief Information Officer Lou Peterhans said, the company stuck with XP because several of its applications don't run well on Vista.
"There is no strong reason to go to Vista, other than eventually losing support for XP," he said. Peterhans added that the company isn't planning to bring in Vista computers for 18 months to two years. If Microsoft keeps to its current timetable, its next operating system, code-named Windows 7, will be on the market by then.
UPDATE
Microsoft CEO hints at XP stay of execution The operating system is set to be pulled off shelves this year but Steve Ballmer says that could change with 'customer feedback.'LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer offered a glimmer of
hope on Thursday to fans of the company's XP operating system, saying the company may
reconsider its decision to stop selling XP soon. But Ballmer was adamant that "most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista." "That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a news conference at Louvain-La-Neuve University. "If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter."
THE TRUTH IS HARDWARE COMPANIES ARE AFRAID OF MICROSOFT WHEN SELLING A PC WITH XP INSTEAD OF VISTA. DELL RECEIVES MORE REQUESTS FOR XP BUT WON'T ALLOW IT ON THEIR NOTEBOOKS OR DESKTOPS. CLONE DEALERS WILL LET YOU HAVE XP. I HAVE DOWNGRADED TO XP BECAUSE OF VISTA HOGGING MEMORY, SPACE AND THE INABILITY TO PLAY GAMES AS FAST AS XP.
SEE TOMSHARDWARE.COM. WOLVERINE-Gulo-gulo
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves by June 30 have plastered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch in January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology. Some 160,000 people already have signed an online Save XP Web petition who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010. On another issue, Ballmer said he was very confident that Microsoft's $44 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. (YHOO, Fortune 500) was "a very good price." He refused to say if the company plans to appeal a fine of $1.3 billion that the European Union levied in February.
Microsoft has until the first week of May to launch a legal challenge against the EU decision that it had not obeyed a 2004 antitrust order to share communications information with rivals. Joking with the media and even breaking into good French, Ballmer acknowledged that he's finding it hard to keep up with social networking on the Facebook Web site. "I do have a profile on Facebook," he said. "It's hard to keep up. I get many friend requests from people I don't know."
"There's about 10 Steve Ballmers and I'm only one of them. I'm the one who actually has a picture that looks like me on it!" he said. "I'm hitting a golf ball, that's the real Steve Ballmer." He was in Belgium to open a Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) innovation center in the southern city of Mons that hopes to boost new startups in the country, creating some 200 jobs over the next three years.
Guide created: 04/16/08 (updated 06/04/09)
Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our 
