Windows XP a hot item on Amazon

Although Microsoft officially stopped selling Windows XP as of June 30, retailers can keep selling it as long as they have copies.

Perhaps as a result of its potentially impending scarcity, XP is near the top of Amazon.com's software list, with the full version of XP Home at No. 15 and the full version of XP Pro at No. 21.

The highest ranked Vista edition doesn't crack the top 25, although it does come on nearly all new PCs these days so most people don't need a boxed copy.

For those keeping score, Apple's Mac OS X Leopard is No. 7 on the software list, while the highest ranking Vista version is the update version of Windows Vista Home Premium, at No. 41.

On the bright side for Redmond, Office Home and Student for Windows is No. 1 and the Mac edition of Office Home and Student is No. 3.

For those still looking to get their hands on XP, it doesn't seem like it's all that hard to find. Best Buy had it listed in several different flavors online and noted that it's also available in most stores. Staples, Office Depot, Circuit City, and OfficeMax all listed at least one version of XP on their Web sites as well.

[JCPayne]

It's funny how Microsoft lied.... Not more than a full 3 months ago Microsoft said they would continue to support Windows XP for as LONG as the public wanted them to continue supporting it..... So why the flip-flop now Microsoft???????

Looks to me like M$ is suffering a sever short term memory....
**********
Article: Ballmer: You want XP, we'll keep XP
Date: April 24, 2008 @ 7:10 AM PDT
Source: www.Cnet.com - CNET News

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9927721-7.html

[http:// . . . |http:// . . . ]
The death of Windows XP may have been greatly exaggerated.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company could re-evaluate its plans to phase out Windows XP by June 30, if customers demand that it stick around. So far, they have not.

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer said during a Thursday news conference in Belgium, according to Reuters.

Big-name computer makers are still scheduled to have to stop selling models with Windows XP installed by the end of June. Mainstream technical support will continue to be available for Windows XP through April 2009, and more limited support will continue through April 2014.[http:// . . . |http:// . . . ]

[birdpiercefan3334]

This just proves the people's dissatisfaction w/ Vista. Yeesh.

[Rabbid_Wolf]

Tis the same as HD-DVD's, VHS tapes, and all the other things that tend to be "bumped in the night", the big corporation does not give a crap about you and I, they will just keep doing this over and over. Invent a new system every few years plus or minus and delete the old into oblivion so that we have to buy more and more of their crap in order to survive. Luckily the world will not last too much longer at the rate we are going. We will soon eat ourselves out of house and home through over-breeding and gluttony. Don't sweat it, the inevitable is the inevitable!

[ev61]

Isn't it funny how rumor spreads as wide and as rapidly as it does? Vista is a poor solution as an upgrade on an existing machine, that is definitely a failure for Microsoft. As a new build OS though, it is a better solution for 90% of home users than XP yet it is shunned by people who have no idea what they are talking about. Prior to SP2, XP was a mess. People can walk into their local store, demand XP, megapixels and an LCD TV and leave with inferior products across the board. The uninformed have blown away the informed, and Vista will go by the wayside just as plasma TVs. Sheep leading sheep...

[Perry_Clease]

"It's funny how Microsoft lied.... Not more than a full 3 months ago Microsoft said they would continue to support Windows XP for as LONG as the public wanted them to continue supporting it..... So why the flip-flop now Microsoft???????"

I would think that "supporting" it is different from continuing to sell it.

[anythingbutmicrosoft]

I work primarily with health care IT systems and Vista is a non-starter for all of my clients for numerous reasons. For now everyone is sticking with XP on the desktop while I monitor the viability of OSS/Linux solutions.

[drfillgood]

I have the feeling Microsoft is laughing all the way to the bank. They force computer manufacturers to install their new OS, claiming to soon end support for XP. Then they benefit from having people buy XP at full retail price to replace Vista on their new machine. Why sell just one OS per machine when you can sell two?

Isn't it wonderful what a monopoly can do?

[punkdgmr]

Also on Amazon... out of the top 5 selling desktops... only one is Vista... the other four are Macs. Granted it's a cheap $499 HP slimline system versus the nearly $1800 iMac in the number 2 spot... still telling though.

[Hans-V7]

I am sorry - Ina Fried (et al) are riding a popular Vista bashing wave to get more page hits. Behind the smoke screen there are a lot of pros and cons re Vista. Regarding security I feel (and I am) more safe with Vista - regarding additional components and services which are turned on in Vista and make it unneccesarily slow, I am dissatisfied. See the in depth explanations of Mark Russinovich on Vista security, if you want to get solid information.
I run Mac OS X and Suse Linux too in my environment day in day out.

[FeralBoy]

"Hot item", "near the top of Amazon's software list"

Uh, correct me if I'm not up on the new match, but since when is #15 considered HOT. Since when is 15 near the top of a bestseller's list (3 maybe, but 15?).

And finally, when did it become okay to make up stories to push a personal agenda. Oh, that's right, it's still the Bush era.

[thalen]

Ina, sweetheart, you missed an interesting twist in the story. As popular as XP is -- No. 15 on the software list -- Apple's OS X 10.5 Leopard is a better seller: currently holding the No. 7 slot. Of course that's on a much smaller base on installed Apple computers vs. the world of PC's out there.

[thalen]

Doh, on a re-reading, I missed Ina's comment on OS X.

[i_made_this]

It's amazing to me how angry people are about something they barely know about. Of the companies and individuals who've adopted Vista, I hear nothing but rave reviews. It is very different than XP and that difference may well become Bill Gates' last hurrah as an exec at the company. From where I stand, Gates is a pretty smart guy and didn't do it with smoke and mirrors. Vista is the proof - he pushed the market toward more effective and efficient hardware, just to show what an operating system can do, given the right hardware. No one mentions that it was Microsoft who got bullied by Intel into the Vista that was released, rather than the Vista that Gates had envisioned. Say what we may, Vista only costs a few hundred bucks. But how many of us are griping about the new extreme Intel CPU's that run up into the couple thousands of bucks? XP will not run efficiently on those chips that most of us will never see let alone use.

[leochb]

just another business strategy of Microsoft !

[irdac]

I have recently been helping a friend who had the misfortune to buy a new laptop with Vista. Two other friends as a result of seeing the difficulties and slowness of Vista's new intuitive interface have replaced their elderly PCs with new ones running XP. I do not need a new PC at present so I bought a spare copy of XP Pro as insurance.

[mwooge]

> since when is #15 considered HOT

#15 out of how many? If it's 15 out of a thousand, that's hot.

[whitedove2]

If someone pays 1000.00 dollars for adobe photo shop and then Microsoft comes along and says you'll need to get Vista on your new computer, oh and by the way you'll need to buy a new printer and a few other things too. Isn't that what people are all complaining about? I never had to do that when I upgraded from ME to XP.