Comments on: Windows XP may get another reprieve

Deadline looms for large computer makers to stop including the older operating system on new PCs, but a number of signs suggest Microsoft will have to extend that deadline again.

[artistjoh]

Don't Forget Apple Mactintosh Buyers

As a Macintosh user with a new Macbook Pro arriving in a few days my choice of Windows OS to install along side OS X is XP Pro. It is cheaper than Vista but more importantly the GB occupied by Vista on a dual boot or triple boot computer is way too much. Everyone I know who is putting Windows on their Macintosh is choosing XP for very similar reasons. Vista is meeting resistance due to size on the one hand, and the dramatically smaller footprint of XP gives it a lot of places where it has a real advantage on the other hand.

[Mac OS XP]

That's right

I have XP Home installed as a secondary OS on my iMac. I know another person with XP Pro and another with Vista.

But right, most people who don't just buy whatever is on store shelves without thinking will choose XP over Vista. Whether Microsoft allows continued XP sales or not, it will hurt Microsoft big. If it sells XP, it is telling the world that they made a bad OS, and it will hurt their rep even more. If they don't sell XP, the Mac and Linux market share will skyrocket further.

[smokified]

lol

I suppose when somebody just gets their wallets raped by the purchase of a mac they have no room for big hard drive upgrades. it is like a total of 10 gigs for both OS's to be installed, if you call that a big hit on your hard drive space, maybe get a PC with a better HDD in it. Larger file sizes are very standard and that will continue. I suggest you purchase accordingly, soon you OS will be the least of your worries.

Also people need to stop thinking laptops are made to handle things like real gaming and dual and tripple boot setups. It is amazing how people are such suckers for marketing.

[gggg sssss]

ROTFLMAO

so you spent $2k to get a frik'n MAc, and then discovered that the world really does revolve around Microsoft, and spent another 1-200? Next time just send it back and buy a Dell instead.

[mpitogo]

XP is the second most installed OS on Macs

I would likely guess... I've got quite a few contacts in the industry
and most of them are buying Apple portables and using either
bootcamp or virtualization software to run XP along side Mac OS X.
Looking at the hardware, Apple puts out a few wicked computers.

[speshul]

Are you serious?

You are even thinking about putting Vista on a mac?

Mac's can't handle it! So behind on tech it's actually funny!

Here's an idea, put 2000 on it instead, it'll run better hahahaha

[dbargen]

Did we forget the headline?

Cnet.com: "Vista... one of the biggest blunders in technology."

Yeah, MS wouldn't dare stop selling XP until this stigma goes away. Where do you
think people would go if they couldn't get an OS they know that works? Well, some
would put up with Vista when they buy a new PC, others might even go take a trip
over to their local Apple store.

The even remotely informed are well aware of Vista's many drawbacks. As long as they
persist, there will still be XP.

[zaznet]

Microsoft's methods

That stigma will go away when there is no XP to compare it to. They can also leap to the next version of Windows or sufficiently improve Vista through a service pack that users want the OS.

They have options besides keeping XP around for longer than they want.

[kieranmullen]

Sold Side By Side XP Would Win

If sold by side by side and if new computer buyers were given a choice, XP sales would surpass vista. Based on price and reputation.

KieranMullen
http://360Oregon.com

[Leria]

XP would not win

Once you showed the average consumer that Vista is more secure (with UAC and Windows Defender built-in), that it is comparable in speed to XP if not faster (yes, it is comparable in speed or faster.... faster on my parents 4 year old HP Media Center PC than XP), and that almost all, if not all, of the drivers problems have been fixed (that can be fixed... don't expect Microsoft to make drivers for anything, that is the responsibility of your hardware maker).... they would take Vista hands down.

[BigGuns149]

Purely theoretical question. In theory OSX would outsell both.

This is merely a theoretical statement really. Except for some geeks virtually nobody picks an OS because they like it better than another. The hardware and or the software that they want to run often determines what OS they run.

By most aspects I love OS X better than either version of Windows in question, but the lack of one or two pieces of software and limited choices of hardware make it a non-starter for myself and many others who would like a mac that ran on cheap hardware or just any hardware other than hardware Apple sells.

By the same token I have some clients who would love to run Vista, but fill in the blank high end video or modeling app either doesn't work or has issues on Vista. They aren't using XP because they love XP or hate Vista, but because they have little or no choice.

Actually I remember selling Lenovo laptops with XP side by side with laptops running Vista and the lenovo machines weren't selling very well. For every business customer I sold a lenovo to I was selling at 2-3 laptops that were running some flavor of vista. Most non-business customers don't have any applications stopping them from adopting Vista and they know that no matter how long Microsoft keeps supporting XP that other vendors may not keep supporting it much longer because unlike XP and 2000 there are much larger differences between XP and Vista.

[rpupkin]

correction?

"Publicly the company is still sticking to the January deadline...".

we're talking June deadline here, right?

just checking (and a little confused).

[Ina Fried]

re: correction

You're right. I fixed it above. Thanks for spotting (and sorry for confusing you).

-Ina

[boe_d]

For the sake of their reputation MS should continue with XP

MS has gotten no end of bad press lately with so many half baked products being released. No OS is perfect but Vista is wretched. Can you imagine if MS said you have to get Windows ME on your new computer at the turn of the century and threatened to kill Windows 98 support a year and a half after Windows ME was released.

[Aaron Kempf]

XP SP2 was a free bonus OS anyways

Vista is wretched?

let me guess, you have a P2-400 mhz, huh?

Vista is faster, more stable. Things 'just work' on it.

Windows XP SP2 was a whole new free operating system.. that is what you kids don't understand.

Microsoft shouldn't have made XP SP2 so secure... and maybe people would jump on Vista.

I worked at Microsoft, doing intrustion detection.. right before and during the release of Windows XP SP2.

Malware traffic cut by like 80% easily.
Malware incidents cut by like 80% easily.

Before then-- Microsoft couldn't keep _ANY_ machine up on the network without getting compromised.

PS - I have the data to prove these claims if you want ;)

[BigGuns149]

Microsoft isn't forcing OEMs to drop XP...you can still buy XP.

Microsoft isn't forcing anyone to adopt Vista, yet. Vista has been out ~15 months(~17 if you include MSDN customers) and I can still go to the local Fry's and buy an OEM copy of Vista. That isn't exactly forcing me to buy Vista.

Ohh...but you say what about prefab machines pre-installed with XP? Even that is still possible. HP, Dell, and Lenovo are all still selling business machines with XP. There are several smaller vendors that also sell XP as well, but the point is Microsoft hasn't forced anyone to stop selling the machines.

Microsoft is going to keep selling XP until at least the end of this year, maybe longer if they give an extension(although I think anything more than an additional six months seems optimistic), but two years is still pretty long in continuing to sell a previous version of software. Will Apple keep selling OS 10.4 in the year 2009? I seriously doubt it.

Even after Microsoft stops selling it Microsoft will keep supporting it in extended support until 2014, which is six years from now. Supporting a product at all product 13 years after the first release is a miracle for ANY software product. Very few companies will keep supporting a product that long. For all the things Microsoft does wrong, they do a decent job of supporting most of their old software. There are a few exceptions, but they don't abandon software very quickly.

Your comparison to forcing people to adopt Windows Me is flawed in countless ways. First, Microsoft isn't dropping support for XP for about half a decade. Furthermore, contrary to popular belief Vista is far better than Windows ME. Windows ME wasn't even stable. I haven't seen a blue screen on Vista since RC2! Furthermore, acquiring Windows 98 through OEM channels ended less than two years after Windows ME was released.

source:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

Microsoft's OEM availability is pretty well in iine with their sale availability for 98, although not as good as Windows 2000. Many early adopters understandable didn't want to have to have a mixed OS environment so Microsoft allowed them to continue to purchase Win 2K CALs for a few years. Microsoft may do the same with XP. XP Pro may be available get a reprieve, but I doubt XP Home's availability is going to be extended much if at all.

Actual product support for XP is better than 98 by a lot. Windows 98 support ended after ~8 years, but XP will still have support 13 years later. Whereas product support Microsoft is more than fair.

I am more than willing to bet by the time Windows 7 comes out (2010-2011?) that most people will think that Vista is the greatest OS Microsoft ever made and I bet people will say Windows 7(whatever the name ultimately is) is a half baked and wretched product.

If this were digg or reddit I would vote your comment down, but unfortunately this is CNET, where the ratio of stupid comments to bright ones seems to weigh far more towards the stupid than the bright comments.

[john55440]

Eee PC type computers

"The biggest area where XP is likely to stick around is in the nascent but growing market of low-cost, flash memory-based notebook computers, such as the Asus Eee PC."

Yup, Microsoft isn't going to voluntarily give that business to Linux.

[Leria]

Those computers are worthless anyway

I hate to say this, I really do.... but those computers are absolutely worthless.

I work in the computer industry fixing computers and recommending computers to people.... I just cannot recommend a Eee PC or other..... crap PC like that to anyone, with a good conscience.

Not even the "I'll only use it for e-mail" users because they do NOT only use it for e-mail sooner or later.

Instead, if they ask me, I point them to Toshiba's lowest priced computers: $400 dollars and you get a damn good computer, as long as you are not going to be playing graphics intensive games on it.

[pugster]

Problem is that Windows OS actually matured

Perhaps Microsoft realized that Windows XP is actually matured to a point where the OS where consumers have no compelling reason to switch to Windows Vista. The only reason is that people want an 64 bit operating system which addresses memory issues.

[Renegade Knight]

64 Bit

Strangly I tried to move to the 64Bit version of Vista on my laptop. Turns out my Vista Capable Laptop can't run the 64 bit version. 3.2gb of RAM is all it can see as a result.

[k2dave]

XP is matured

I think you nailed it. XP is a good stable OS that runs well on modern hardware, very few driver problems, really it is rock solid and fast, there is no reason to switch.

[artistjoh]

Another Growth Area Vista Cannot Service

Ultra-portables are a big growth area and are getting attention here, but the success of the iPhone is indicating the development of another new computer platform where a small computer, a cell phone, and an MP3 player converge. The smart phone could easily become a very popular device when presented as nicely as the iPhone.

A significant portion of the iPhone success is to do with the way Apple managed to get OS X onto the phone and was then able to unleash a serious browser. Microsoft is likely to miss the boat here as their current mobile browser is insufficient to compete well with OS X and no-one could imagine them slimming Vista down enough to get on a cell phone sized device. XP or an XP derived OS may well be their best starting point for getting back into that race.

[Mister Winky]

Such a misnomer...

Saying that OS X on the iPhone is just a slimmed down version of OS X on a Mac is no more true than saying that Windows Mobile is just a slimmed down version of Windows XP. Sure, Safari on the iPhone is the best mobile browser today, but it's a result of development resources being spent on Safari on the iPhone, not a reflection of OS X on the iPhone being the same as OS X on a Mac. Otherwise, why can't I just use Flash and full Java on my iPhone? Same technology base -- different implementation.

MS is likely to sell more ultra-portables than Apple because Apple doesn't want to tread in shallow profit margin waters of sub $500 desktops(not that I blame them -- that's a tough market). Apple, on the other hand, is betting on powerful handhelds, but MS sells a lot of Windows Mobile handhelds as well.

Look at it this way: MS could re-brand the next version of Windows Mobile "Vista Mobile" just as easily as Apple can say the iPhone 2.0 is running OS X 10.5. Marketing hype and product naming shouldn't be confused for actual technology. The look and feel may be the same between the related desktop and mobile OSes, but the components are very different under the hood.

-Mister Winky

[Leria]

Actually, they could slim down Vista enough

to get onto a mobile phone. Most of the 'Vista bloat' is drivers, drivers, and more drivers.... with a 'mini-Vista' for a phone, they wouldn't have to include those 6GB (unzipped) of drivers, and Vista COULD be put on a phone after trimming out a few more things and slimming some others down.

[smokified]

Dude....

It is called windows mobile. Microsoft has had the smart phone thing locked down since it's birth.

I have had so many clients bring back their iPhones for a Windows Mobile phone just because they see how much easier and compatible a Windows Mobile phone is with the world of business.

[JRude667]

XP..It ain't broke..VISTA is

XP not supported? SO what. Run behind a good non-M$ firewall and a router. Many run previous editions. They don't evaporate! 64 bit? What for? An XP running on VISTA specs is awwwsum. If you like BiLL and The Industry hijacking your PC for "security" issues and insuring you sustain the hardware-software market, well I suggest VISTA. If M$ has ANY sense of the future Windows 7 will be more like XP than it will VISTA. If not, M$ is on the downhill slope of a disaster of proportions only they could press release away. Make backup copies to CD discs of ALL your XP suported apps and programs. DON'T rely on your hard drive! The end is not near for the non average market driven PC user.

[jadevro]

Just say No! -- to Vista

Vista reminds me of Windows Me -- another way to make money for Microsoft, rather than a better system for users.

[smokified]

When do people learn

People acted this same exact way when XP came in to take over 98/ME. People just complain beccause it is something new that they are not used to and it does not work right right away JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BIT OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE RELEASED!

If you don't like Vita, use XP. Soon you will not have a choice, but for now, stop your whining.

By the time Vista is the standard OS in computers just like XP is now, it will be just as rock solid as XP is now.

Also, *** is your point jadevro? Is it not the goal of every company in the world to make money? If companies do not make money, people do not make money, the economy then crashes and riots ensue. See how much you care about XP vs Vista then.

[Zaunto]

The Problem with Vista

The biggest problem with Vista is how steep the hardware requirements are and if there are or are not working Vista drivers for your hardware. I have an external Creative Labs USB sound card that runs like crap on Vista, whereas the built in Realtek HD Sound card works flawlessly with Vista on my Vista desktop. I don't believe that guy who claims he installed and runs Vista on a Win98 Laptop with a 266MHz CPU and 92mb of RAM. That is below the actual system requirements for Vista.

[Ian Forsey]

XP v Vista

Well I for one would like to see XP extended. I use both OS's. Just in the market for a new Laptop, a Sony FZ31Z and I telephoned Sony sales to ask if I could have XP as I was fed up with a slooowww Vista. Not possible they said. So I will probably go with Dell who will supply what the customer wants!

[mackenzie2881]

Slow is the right word

I've been using Vista for a week now alongside XP. It's a pain in the ass. It has already crashed once. XP has never crashed on me.

[russkeller]

For those who think XP is a dinsosaur

I guess that makes XP one big bad monster that can only be taken out by some massive force of nature. (It may get cut off but it'll last longer than Vista.)

While Vista is a Panda Bear... Pretty and Too Stupid to Breed.

[t8]

Vista is broken.

What more can you say. It is broken.

[BigGuns149]

Vista SP1 works fine... explain why Vista is broken...I don't have ESP.

Unless you need to run Avid or Solidworks, SP1 seems to run fine. I have gotten an HP Laserjet V printing under Vista, so hardware support is pretty solid. I have heard people whine that their 3dfx cards don't work. Gee, whiz an ~8 year video card isn't supported? That sounds like the end of the world.

You are going to need to be more specific than "it is broken."

What more can you say? apparently not much. :)

[smokified]

...

Or you are too dumb to adapt and figure it out?

[Yuhong2]

XP availablity will not be extended past 2009-2010

I doubt MS would extend XP availablity past 2009-2010, nor I'd
recommend MS do so. Vista should be mature by 2009-2010

[Aaron Kempf]

Vista _IS_ more mature than XP already.

Vista _IS_ more mature than XP already.

More importantly-- Windows XP is going to get the carpet pulled out.

Back in NT 4.0 days-- they told us all about WinNT 4.0 SP7.

Did it ship? _NO_.

Back in Win2k days-- they told us all about Win2k Sp5.

Did it ship? _NO_.

Microsoft will cut the air supply to Windows XP soon enough... and those of you waiting for XP SP3?

I am _STILL_ waiting for Windows 2000 Sp5.
Win2k was the best of all time-- XP has _NO_ tangible benefits above and beyond.

Maybe that is why i _LIKE_ Vista. I am ready for an 'artsy-fartsy OS' I guess.

-Aaron

[k2dave]

XP support

I think XP will be supported at least till the next OS is out. This is very much like Win Me, where M$ knew they really made a bad OS and continued 98 support well into Win XP.

Also continued support doesn't seem to be much of a issue, people I know are still running Win 98, it does what they need, is connected to the internet and even without updates (but firewalled), somehow manages to run rather well.

[Equisilus]

Vista vs. XP: XP loses

When I switched to Vista shortly after it was released (Vista Ultimate x64), I dual-booted with XP just to be sure things were working okay. Guess what? I haven't had a single reason ever to return to XP other than to run updates from time-to-time. Simply put, everything I do, and every piece of hardware I have, runs fine in Vista and I haven't had any more (or less) issues than I did with WinXP. While I understand others may have had problems, I don't see it on my end.

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

XP just works

You're one of the privileged few who have a positive experience with Vista.

Too many people are not and that is bad.

Microsoft's own actions (upping the deadline for Windows 7 to 2009) proves that point.

I proudly use XP with a host of programs that make it run circles around Vista and Leop-****.

No broken drivers and peripheral incompatibilities.
No bloated operation.
No security issues.
No crashes.

[Mergatroid Mania]

Try installing XP and watch your system soar

If you think your Vista is working so well, try running the same software on the same computer with XP installed, and watch your computer kick butt.

[jamesivie]

What hardware???

What is your hardware configuration? I used it myself for over a year, but I have yet to see any configuration without serious problems. I really like Vista's Explorer, but I can't deal with the constant BSODs, slowdowns, and (for the moment) application incompatibilities.

[Mycroft_514]

hahahahahahaha

So Vista "Just works" eh? Microsoft put out a program one could run on your current set up to determine compatibility. The results?

1. All three printers would need either new drivers or upgrading. The vendor is not releasing new drivers for any of them. Oops, hidden cost, 3 printers, well maybe 2.

2. External hard drive, External CD drive, External DVD drive, all need new drivers. Oops, the two venders are out of business now, no new drivers there! Oops, hidden cost upgrading to new hardware.

3. Office 2003 - Oops $200 more for that.

4. Acrobat and Photoshop (full versions), must upgrade, oops $400.

5. Both scanners, one needs new software (available!) the other needs a new driver. Oops, again vender won't write it, another cost.

6. Wifi board built in may not be supported, can this even be fixed?

7. CASE tool, not yet Vista compatible. Oops, I need that to do my job.

8. Blood meter software, dive computer software. Oops, not Vista compatible. Life support software, must wait for them.

It goes on and on, and the price tag to upgrae just 1 machine is staggering!

[pugster]

Vista is not modular...

Microsoft believes on their 'one size fits all model' where vista would fit on the on a portable MID's to the multicored processored computer. Of course, that is why Intel went with linux instead of Microsoft in their failed Orgami MID project. Microsoft have no choice but to offer XP and to extend the life of it in order to compete with linux.

[BigGuns149]

XP is not modular either... Windows 7 might be, but we will see.

The lack of modularity on Vista isn't much of an argument for XP either. The only advantage XP has in that respect is that it is far better on very low end hardware, which makes it much better for a UMPC. A number of UMPCs still use XP for this reason.

Microsoft has been talking about making Windows 7 more modular, but it is so far away I wouldn't believe anything they say about it at this point. Vista was supposed to have a new FS, amongst other things that didn't make the cut.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Just say no to Apple...

Friends don`t let friends use Mac. Build your own PC and make it how YOU want , not how Steve thinks it should be , and get more bang for your buck. Then run Windows or Linux on it.
Say no to Apple with AmazonMP3. No DRM , lower cost , much higher bitrate , works on any device.
Say no to Apple and use HULU...It`s free and high quality , and if you follow the buy link (to Amazon) , it DOES NOT support Mac. Mac loses again.

[ralfthedog]

My Linux and BSD computers cost more than my Macs.

If you are careful to only get high quality low fail rate parts (ones that meet Apple QA standards) , it costs more to build a non Apple computer than it does to buy a Mac.

Apple does not build cheep junk.

[internetworld7]

Just Say Hell No to Windows/Linux

Actually Friends don't let friends use Windows or Linux,
especially Linux with it's amazing and appealing 0.67% desktop
market share. The folks over at Wal*Mart learned the hard way
and just pulled ALL Linux computers from their stores (Dell to
follow!). Windows XP is a security nightmare and Vista is a slow,
sluggish and bloated lemon that myriads of Windows users hate.

Let me leave you with the wise words of Confucius, "Think
Different" 

[imacpwr]

Re: Just say no to Apple...

Are you 12 years old with a kindergarten reading level..? The story had absolutly [b]nothing[/b] to do with Apple nor was the name Apple even mentioned in the article!

[opost9]

Vista is a total loss

Never mind low-cost hardware, or whatever. I want to continue to run XP on every Windows machine I have. (I also have a number of Fedora/Linux machines.) I have exactly one Vista machine, and the experiences has been uniformly bad. Many of my existing applications will not install on Vista, even some purchased in the last two months. The new "security" features are a giant hassle -- I turn them all off. The interface, location, etc. of many admin operations has been gratuitously change for absolutely no reason except perhaps to look dumber. Virtually everything has been dumbed down. I can not think of one single thing I've noticed where I like Vista better than XP. Not one. I'd be dead in the water if I only had Vista now.

[BigGuns149]

Not completely...

"Never mind low-cost hardware, or whatever."

Low cost hardware makes the higher hardware requirements less of a hindrance. I used to own an E6600 until recently and it ran Vista just fine. I could even run Crysis with decent frame rates. 15 months ago most of the cheap machines ran Vista like a dog, now you can buy a new machine with a better processor than that for $500-600. The no.1 criticism of Vista across the board is performance. RAM prices have fallen 50-75% over the last year so almost every machine has enough to satisfy most users. When 2GB sells for less than $50, the notion that you are going to have to spend a fortune to get hardware that runs Vista well is dubious and rather outdated.

"Many of my existing applications will not install on Vista, even some purchased in the last two months."

What are you running SolidWorks, Avid? Most of the clients I have met that really NEED XP as opposed to Vista are running one of these applications. Even AutoCAD, supports Vista now. Admittedly, most users will upgrade to a newer version of AutoCAD on their own schedule though. The percentage of the total population that fits in this category of running expensive high end 3d modeling or video editing is pretty small.

"The new "security" features are a giant hassle -- I turn them all off."

Believe or not, but most of the security features you don't even see. How many times has "protected mode" annoyed you in Windows Vista? Some websites still require IE so completely removing IE, isn't an option yet. Contrary to the ignorant masses, IE7 on Vista is not the same security wise as IE7 on XP.

Furthermore, at least on SP1 how much different is UAC from using sudo on your linux boxes? Not much. SP1 dramatically cut down on the sometimes redundant UAC prompts where on Mac OS or most other unix systems you wouldn't be prompted again so quickly. A geek like yourself I would think would comprehend that UAC conceptually is supposed to work the same as authentication does on Mac or linux. Even logged in as an admin I am prompted for a password to update system files. I could log in as root (akin to Vista without UAC), but it is safer to not run as root unless root privileges are needed.

"The interface, location, etc. of many admin operations has been gratuitously change for absolutely no reason except perhaps to look dumber. Virtually everything has been dumbed down."

Honestly, XP is not much better. A dog as a search assistant? At least the designers in Vista knew enough to axe that. A lot of the annoyances for power users in Windows Explorer are the same on both XP and Vista (hidden files/directories, annoying prompts about system files/folders, etc.). I spend virtually as much time turning off "features" in a fresh XP install as a Vista install. At least some of the new things in Vista like desktop search are marginally useful although admittedly there are plenty of desktop search clients you could install on XP.

Even after messing with the settings, XP's Windows Explorer is still pathetic compared to Konqueror or a number of other file browser that you could use on your *nix boxes.

"I can not think of one single thing I've noticed where I like Vista better than XP. Not one. I'd be dead in the water if I only had Vista now."

The x64 versions have good hardware support for one thing. Virtually everything I could find it has had hardware support. I couldn't say the same for the x64 version of Windows XP. That's one thing.

The installer is far more user friendly than the XP install, which looks like something out of the 1980s. If your SATA controller or RAID controller wasn't supported you had to use a floppy drive to provide the driver. With Vista I could use a CD, a DVD, or even a flash drive. How novel is that? I a couple years techs wouldn't need to carry an external floppy around just so that they can provide a driver if needed.

There are other ways Vista is better than XP, but those are just the one's that immediately come to mind. I won't question that Vista is far from perfect, but for those not running high end tasks most of the criticisms are minor annoyances of an icon moved here or different menu options as opposed to complete show stoppers.

For people running 3d design/model, and video editing XP will live on for a few years, but for the masses XP is dying.

[The_Decider]

Of course they will

All the fan boys and assorted idiots have already got this worthless OS. No one else wants it. The OEM's will revolt if their sales plummet because no one with anything resembling intelligence wants Vista.

MS put themselves in a bind with this piece of crap.

[ceebee23]

xp ad infinitum

Microsoft has backed itself into a corner. It is going to have to continue to sell and support XP far longer than it planned.

Vista has been a nightmare for them and the issue of EEE PC and other similar devices means either it continues to sell XP (or something like it) or gives away that market segment to Linux.

Maybe we will see a refreshed low end OS based on XP/Vista that is suitable for emerging markets and for low end devices.

In a way MS has no choice... Linux will take that market if MS has no suitable product.

It is isn't a matter of Mac or Vista it is about having an OS that is suitable for a particular market.

[gregorytga]

Flamebait

Some yank this post, its full of factual errors....

[zaznet]

The article...

Well the article is asking for it. :)

It really isn't news, just speculation and look how much talk is going on about this one?