MS Clarifies XP's Future

[CKTurbo128]

I'm not sure if anyone's seen this, but it looks like Microsoft has released a statement on their website regarding the future of Windows XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/windo.../windowsxp/future.mspx

Nothing really new here (XP sales end on June 30, XP supported to April '14, downgrade rights available, yadda-yadda-yadda), but just something to soothe the worries of the average XP user.

What I found humorous was this quote:

We understand that not everyone may agree with our decision?just as not everyone was happy to see Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME retire (OK, perhaps not ME).

I guess this comes as close to Microsoft officially admitting that ME wasn't that great.

 

[AnnonUSA]

The truth is out there, Nobody in the business world wants Vista. Education has shunned Vista. At this point Microsoft can't re-endorse XP Pro without admitting that Vista is a dead product. After the 22nd, Dell will offer purchasers of Vista the "Vista Bonus pack" which is a Vista License with the system Pre-Loaded with XP. I guess the bonus is that it's not Vista.

I work in the industry. I have many business clients, no one, except those that have purchased Retail store systems, or cheap laptops has been buying Vista. And any clients that have gone to Vista have either downgraded or is living with the Problems.

I was at the Vista Rollout for OEM's before the official release and I knew the product was not going to be a major success when it was announced there would be 7 versions of Vista. There was always one too many versions of XP, and MS fixes that mess with 7 versions of Vista.

Microsoft had a better way to save face in my opinion, instead of extending the life of XP Home, they should have renamed XP Pro to XP Business, and changed the Vista variants to Vista Home and Vista Premium.
Vista will soon become the best selling OS that nobody runs. Everyone wins again, People can get XP, and Microsoft can crow about how many Vista sales they are making.

The only thing I know for certain is ME is no longer the only Migraine Edition OS Microsoft has produced.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: AnnonUSA
The truth is out there, Nobody in the business world wants Vista. Education has shunned Vista. At this point Microsoft can't re-endorse XP Pro without admitting that Vista is a dead product. After the 22nd, Dell will offer purchasers of Vista the "Vista Bonus pack" which is a Vista License with the system Pre-Loaded with XP. I guess the bonus is that it's not Vista.

I work in the industry. I have many business clients, no one, except those that have purchased Retail store systems, or cheap laptops has been buying Vista. And any clients that have gone to Vista have either downgraded or is living with the Problems.

I was at the Vista Rollout for OEM's before the official release and I knew the product was not going to be a major success when it was announced there would be 7 versions of Vista. There was always one too many versions of XP, and MS fixes that mess with 7 versions of Vista.

Microsoft had a better way to save face in my opinion, instead of extending the life of XP Home, they should have renamed XP Pro to XP Business, and changed the Vista variants to Vista Home and Vista Premium.
Vista will soon become the best selling OS that nobody runs. Everyone wins again, People can get XP, and Microsoft can crow about how many Vista sales they are making.

The only thing I know for certain is ME is no longer the only Migraine Edition OS Microsoft has produced.

This has ALWAYS been true of every new OS, business and education are the slowest at adopting. Most businesses didn't adopt XP till a year after SP1 or when SP2 came out.

Vista is not a flop, it will become widely used and is already selling well despite the unfair publicity.

 

[RebateMonger]

n.m.

 

[nycdude]

I'll stick with my xp pro sp3, thank you.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
...just something to soothe the worries of the average XP user...

Thanks, but I gotta say...

I don't understand why "the average XP user" is concerned over whether or not MS continues to sell it...

MS hasn't sold W2K Pro in years, but "the average W2K Pro user" continues to use it and MS continues to support it, sooo...

What difference does it make if MS sells it or not? You can still use it, right?

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: nycdude
I'll stick with my xp pro sp3, thank you.

That's cool...

I run all sorts of OSs from Slackware to Vista, and I'll stick with them too - warts and all!

Truthfully, I've been running Vista HP for well over a year, and the only problem I've had is with the sleep/hibernation feature - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - so, I'm about to give up using them.

On the plus side, I've NEVER had to format/reinstall Vista once - and I've given it lots of opportunities to crash, believe me. I installed/uninstalled SP1 like 10 times, for instance! Somehow, Vista always recovers from scenarios that would kill other OSs - automagically.

Simply amazing it's been, in my experience! :thumbsup:

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
On the plus side, I've NEVER had to format/reinstall Vista once - and I've given it lots of opportunities to crash, believe me. I installed/uninstalled SP1 like 10 times, for instance! Somehow, Vista always recovers from scenarios that would kill other OSs - automagically.

Simply amazing it's been, in my experience! :thumbsup:

It's funny how the criteria for "amazing" is the same as "not a piece of shit"
I had the same experience. I've killed XP a lot of times, and 98 even more times. Vista seems to recover on its own.

 

[bruceb]

I will stay with XP .. does everything I need it to do and all my software
works with it. If I moved to Vista, I would probably need to buy upgrades
to some very costly programs, like Autocad or Quickbooks ... right now
I would only need to update Quickbooks if I wanted to use it for Payroll
where tax rates are changed yearly. Otherwise, it stays as is, fine for
doing the checkbook.

 

[Mem]

I have retired my XP (RIP),Vista does everything I want and more,its going to be tough for me to decide if I should upgrade to Windows 7 or do I wait for Windows 8,anyway its going to be fun to see what people start moaning about when Windows 7 arrives.

I have learnt a long time ago you can't please everybody.

 

[BassBomb]

Oh wow I read that so wrong. I thought it said XP loses support April 14th (2009?) but it loses support April 2014. Thankfully

 

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Oh wow I read that so wrong. I thought it said XP loses support April 14th (2009?) but it loses support April 2014. Thankfully

no one will be using it then.... thats like using windows 95/98 now... hmm wonder how fast 95 would run on this computer...

 

[Pabster]

Yeah, because Vista has been such a failure. :roll:

Business shuns Vista partly because of antiquated legacy code and applications, and partly because of cost. It has nothing to do with the quality of the operating system one way or the other.

 

[AnnonUSA]

I am not bashing Vista just to bash it. Face the facts. Vista is too expensive for what it is. Had it shipped with the feature set it was supposed to have, and had it performed substantially better than XP maybe people would have been more willing to go to it.

Instead, the purchase options were too crazy, 7 versions. The features were mainly visual, and by most accounts performance was way off. And to top it all off, new Hardware was needed by almost anyone that wanted to run it. The Vista Ready and Vista Capable logos, were a complete joke.

And the inclusion of UAC and the constant nagging is counter productive to assisting IT professionals and end users alike. To support that, think about it, IT professionals will in short order turn off UAC (which leaves only one nag about UAC being off), and novice or general users will grow so conditioned to clearing the UAC warnings, that they will say allow to almost anything by default after a few dozen times. UAC was just microsofts way of being able to say, we gave you the tools to protect yourself, you just didn't use them.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: AnnonUSA
I am not bashing Vista just to bash it. Face the facts. Vista is too expensive for what it is...

LoL! Flash...

Fact: Most ppl got Vista for *free*!


Source: Vista selling really well, says Ballmer -- Because its pre-installed on nearly every new PC

"Vista sells on almost 100 per cent of all the new consumer PCs around the world," the Microsoft CEO proclaimed. He added that the operating system was also selling on, "45 per cent of all of new business PCs".

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: KeypoX
thats like using windows 95/98 now... hmm wonder how fast 95 would run on this computer...

With poor driver support, it's probably very slow.

Vista is too expensive for what it is

It's literally the same price as XP.

with the feature set it was supposed to have

Which features are missing?

7 versions

I've only ever seen 4.

new Hardware was needed by almost anyone that wanted to run it

I'm running it on a computer from 2002. The people who were ranting about compatibility were the people trying to run 16-bit applications from 1992, and print stuff on dot matrix printers.

IT professionals will in short order turn off UAC

An IT professional who gives everybody an administrator account should be fired.

UAC was just microsofts way of being able to say, we gave you the tools to protect yourself, you just didn't use them

In order for anything to make system changes, it must be started by right clicking and selecting "run as administrator". F@H, for example, will not install itself as a service unless the command prompt is started with "run as administrator". Even if you click yes to install a virus, it won't get very far while UAC is on.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: AnnonUSA
To support that, think about it, IT professionals will in short order turn off UAC...

I work with Vista all day long, and I don't have any urge to turn UAC off. It's kinda' reassuring, since malware installed on my personal desktop would be a disaster for both me and my many clients.

I find Vista's UAC MUCH easier to work with than trying to be a "Restricted User" on XP. Now THAT was pretty tough for an IT professional at work.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: AnnonUSA
To support that, think about it, IT professionals will in short order turn off UAC...

I work with Vista all day long, and I don't have any urge to turn UAC off. It's kinda' reassuring, since malware installed on my personal desktop would be a disaster for both me and my many clients.

I find Vista's UAC MUCH easier to work with than trying to be a "Restricted User" on XP. Now THAT was pretty tough for an IT professional at work.

I leave UAC enabled on my two Vista computers, why do some when people make a big deal out of it,as I have stated previously you can disable it or get one of those UAC tweak programs so I don't understand why some people moan about it.

. And to top it all off, new Hardware was needed by almost anyone that wanted to run it. The Vista Ready and Vista Capable logos, were a complete joke.

I think you find XP was designed for hardware back around 2000 (Vista is designed for todays computers) and recommended ram was 128 to 256mb, even now that is not enough for XP,when XP was first released would you try and run it on a DOS 6.22 specced PC thats about same age gap as XP is to Vista,no you would not,even Win95 spec PC would have big trouble.

I am not bashing Vista just to bash it. Face the facts. Vista is too expensive for what it is

Hmm no,OS prices are very reasonable nowadays also throw in how cheap ram is too.I could pick most of your other remarks apart but have can't be bothered,personally Vista does have enough new features and certainly an improvement over XP,if you look at XP was it a big improvement on features over Win98B or 2K ,I think you find the answer is no.

When Windows 7 arrives we'll see same old arguments ,and again with Windows 8.

 

[CKTurbo128]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: CKTurbo128
...just something to soothe the worries of the average XP user...

Thanks, but I gotta say...

I don't understand why "the average XP user" is concerned over whether or not MS continues to sell it...

MS hasn't sold W2K Pro in years, but "the average W2K Pro user" continues to use it and MS continues to support it, sooo...

What difference does it make if MS sells it or not? You can still use it, right?

The misconception that I have often heard from a lot of "average XP" users is that XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft after June 30, which clearly not the case at all, since XP will continue to be supported well into 2014.

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: KeypoX

IT professionals will in short order turn off UAC

An IT professional who gives everybody an administrator account should be fired.

Agreed. Giving every user Administrator rights in a mid-large size company is just asking for trouble.

Although I feel that UAC in Vista can be annoying at times, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, UAC will be even further refined in Windows 7.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: AnnonUSA
The truth is out there, Nobody in the business world wants Vista. Education has shunned Vista. At this point Microsoft can't re-endorse XP Pro without admitting that Vista is a dead product. After the 22nd, Dell will offer purchasers of Vista the "Vista Bonus pack" which is a Vista License with the system Pre-Loaded with XP. I guess the bonus is that it's not Vista.

I work in the industry. I have many business clients, no one, except those that have purchased Retail store systems, or cheap laptops has been buying Vista. And any clients that have gone to Vista have either downgraded or is living with the Problems.

I was at the Vista Rollout for OEM's before the official release and I knew the product was not going to be a major success when it was announced there would be 7 versions of Vista. There was always one too many versions of XP, and MS fixes that mess with 7 versions of Vista.

Microsoft had a better way to save face in my opinion, instead of extending the life of XP Home, they should have renamed XP Pro to XP Business, and changed the Vista variants to Vista Home and Vista Premium.
Vista will soon become the best selling OS that nobody runs. Everyone wins again, People can get XP, and Microsoft can crow about how many Vista sales they are making.

The only thing I know for certain is ME is no longer the only Migraine Edition OS Microsoft has produced.

What a load of shit. The adoption rates at this products life cycle are no different than XP's in the business world. ~18 months in both XP and Vista captured about 8% of the market.

For osme reason this bandwagon about Vista has more legs than the usual whining about a new MS OS.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Genx87
For osme reason this bandwagon about Vista has more legs than the usual whining about a new MS OS.

I bet you it is the effect of Apple's PC vs Mac ads. They love to regurgitate a lot of the stuff being said on the web about Vista to the mass public. Perception, regardless if it has any merit or not is a powerful thing.

 

[Parasitic]

Leopard has UAC type stuff, and I don't see that many people complain about it. A lot of people seem to develop this intolerance toward changes.

 

[JACKDRUID]

Originally posted by: Genx87

What a load of shit. The adoption rates at this products life cycle are no different than XP's in the business world. ~18 months in both XP and Vista captured about 8% of the market.

the difference is...

upgrade from 98/2000 -> xp, few went back. xp is actually more compatible than w2k.

upgrade from xp -> vista, lots went back to xp (myself included).

given that i dnt have the latest and the greatest of hardware, vista runs slow for me (+ some software compatibility issues).

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: nycdude
I'll stick with my xp pro sp3, thank you.

+1

 

[AnnonUSA]

Originally posted by: Genx87


What a load of shit. The adoption rates at this products life cycle are no different than XP's in the business world. ~18 months in both XP and Vista captured about 8% of the market.

For osme reason this bandwagon about Vista has more legs than the usual whining about a new MS OS.

Don't take my word for it. Read the trades and the consumer mags, everyone knows that Vista is a flop. Bottom line is, even if it was the best OS ever, it has been shunned by the business community as a whole. Microsoft does not care because they will now stop OEM sales of XP and register all sales of Vista even to those business clients that chose the downgrade rights and run XP pro.

I have no problem with anyone running or wanting to run Vista, and I do remember the slow changeover to XP when it was released, but Vista has more than just "startup" problems. It has fundamental problems in areas that should be rock solid. Small IT departments and small business clients stretched by budget woes already do not need the added burden of Vista.

I know there are those that disagree, and good for you, but there are plenty of those that feel the same way that I do.