Windows XP Gets Another Lease on Life, OEM Style
Posted 10/06/08 at 10:25:14 PM | by Mark Edward Soper
In the latest indication that Windows Vista's not one of Redmond's greatest hits, Windows XP (aka "The operating system that will not die") has won another reprieve. Friday, Microsoft confirmed rumors that OEMs bundling Windows Vista Ultimate or Vista Business can continue to order media for downgrades to Windows XP Professional until July 31, 2009 . Meaning, for those paying attention, that Harry Potter could get a Vista system downgraded to Windows XP for his birthday. Previously, the last day for downgrade media was going to be January 31, 2009. 1-31-2009 remains the deadline for system builders (aka "the corner computer store") to buy Windows XP licenses for their systems.
As an OEM product, Windows XP won't quite make it to Windows 7's anticipated release date of January 2010, but it will get closer than anyone could have guessed when it was released in October 2001.
So, what say you? Have you exercised your downgrade rights to send a Vista machine back to XP land? Any tips or tricks to consider? Hit the Comment button for your chance to sound off.
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Good for the people that
Submitted by N25PHILLY on Tue, 2008-10-07 15:15
Good for the people that want it, but at this point you couldn't pay me to take XP over vista
Vista/XP/Windows 7
Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Tue, 2008-10-07 06:55
I didn't take a try on Vista until 6 months ago. The only problem was that I never had enough memory, everything else went perfectly. I had 64-bit, it all worked fine. They are going to renew the OEM until Windows 7, and this seems almost obvious because of corporate. I am using XP on my college laptop until I get a replacement motherboard for my desktop, then installing Vista.
Submitted by yardGNOME on Tue, 2008-10-07 06:31
I agree with most of the comments here, Vista for me has been quite good, no real compatibility issues except for my old sound card would not work with Vista. I did upgrade it to the Auzentech Prelude. And what bugs me is how most people completely forgot that XP was just as buggy when it was first released. I for one cannot wait for the Beta testing program for 7 when it comes around in December,I'm eagerly awaiting sign up on MS connect page...just hope Win 7 is not as shoddy as Vista when it came out.
Submitted by Tekzel on Tue, 2008-10-07 05:31
Oddly, I just last weekend went to Vista x86. Being as I do computer consulting for a living, I decided I really need to start getting used to it so I can effectively help people that have it. So far, I have to say I am actually not hating it. I would even say I am, grudgingly, liking it. I tried to run with UAC on, but that lasted a matter of hours. Its not as bad as I made it out to be. I should mention I did have it on my work PC, but I spend less time doing various things on that machine than I do on my home PC, so I wasn't really able to get the full experience.
Submitted by amacieli on Tue, 2008-10-07 03:57
Maybe I'm one in a million, which I certainly feel like after reading Maximum PC for a while, but I have no problems with Vista x64, I like it, and it's speedy. And I get to run GPU-accelerated Folding@Home. And a whole bunch of other stuff. No crashes, and my PC is on 24/7, rebooting only to install updates. OpenOffice reminds me of the Windows 95 days with its old interface. I couldn't find any features there not already in MS Office - so basically OpenOffice is just a total ripoff of someone else's work. I like Ubuntu and use it on my eeePC and my server, but would never use it on my home PC - I do more than web browsing, and I don't want to spend all weekend trying to figure out how to get something to work or google around grovelling in front of sarcastic, mean, unfriendly Linux gurus who tell me to RTFM when the F'ing M doesn't have what you want. Clearly it's a waste of time asking people here to stop hyperventilating about Vista because it's their raison d'etre - even, as I'm sure, they use Vista to blog about how crap it is and what a monumental failure it is. Losers. Is there nothing constructive to say?
I like Vista, but I'm just reporting the news
Submitted by Marcus_Soperus on Tue, 2008-10-07 05:51
I've been using Vista since the beta days of early 2006, and I've written two books about Vista. I like it - a lot - but the combination of indifferent OEM driver support and systems bundled with programs that weren't Vista-ready took the shine off Vista for a lot of people. Vista is much better now than it was at release, thanks to continuous improvements and the release of Service Pack 1, but there's no doubt that a lot of folks are hovering in place with XP until Windows 7 takes the stage. This news story is just one indication that a lot of users are skipping Vista to wait for Windows 7.
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