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| Science & Technology |
| MS XP Gets A Stay Of Execution To 2010 |
| 2008-06-04 |
 Microsoft has given another lease of life to Windows XP only days before PC makers have to stop selling it. Windows XP reaches its end of life on 30 June but Microsoft has now said it can continue being sold until June 2010 but only on cheap desktops.The decision follows one made in April to extend the life of XP on low cost laptops until the same date. It comes as Dell, HP and Lenovo exploit loopholes in Microsoft's licensing terms to keep putting XP on machines... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #13 I switched to Firefox, except for my work email, which uses Outlook. If I use Firefox, it forces me to Outlook Lite - with few of the utilities I have available under IE7 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-06-04 22:43 |
| #12 I am going to treat Vista the way I do Internet Explorer - not on my system! I run Firefox for a browser - much more reliable, does not need huge updates every other week, and does not have security holes in it left from the version put out 5 years ago. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2008-06-04 22:16 |
| #11 I have supported Windows professionally for years and when I get a new computer, it will be Linux or Apple. No way to Vista! Too many issues with the OS's approach to DRM licensing, the whole security settings clusterf*ck, the fact that a bad update downloaded from the Microsoft Server can lock you out of your system, etc. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2008-06-04 22:14 |
| #10 I think the best way for Microsoft to sell a future OS is to make them ala carte. To start with, give away a disk that does a complete system diagnosis and connects the user to MS. Then users go down a very complex menu, which would also show dependencies, and select only those parts of the system they wanted. Experts users could also post their own itemized lists for things like "business", and "gaming". This would be added to the diagnosis of the computer to insure hardware compatibility. The entire OS would be modular, and once selected, it would be assembled and downloaded for installation, either to the hard drive or an OS chip on the motherboard. Big, huge chunks of the OS would not be popular for most users. Things like DRM would be required for corporate use for liability reasons, but home users would want nothing to do with it. Every software package out there would also have to list its dependencies, so the user could d/l them from MS before installation. It would also be a good discriminator, if two similar softwares had very different dependencies, you could select the simpler one. In this way, Microsoft could again give the customers what they wanted, instead of what some marketing guy, who came up with both "Bob" and "Clippy" *thinks* they want. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-04 20:14 |
| #9 Didn't we used to bitch about XP? :) That said we buy the computers with a Vista Lic and reimage before deploying, holding the rights to both OS. |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-06-04 20:03 |
| #8 IOW, and iff GUAM is any measure, Microsoft may be recognizing that XP remains highly popular everywhere and has years left to go in sales. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-04 19:50 |
| #7 Recent independent (I think it was Ziff Davis Tech Notes) benchmarks of Vista with SP1 vs. XP with SP3 show a wash in performance. XP is still better at copying large files, but not something most of us would notice. Vista is prettier, with more knobs to turn and buttons to push. Vista was a dog before it got patched when first released. I use Vista now more than XP. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2008-06-04 17:02 |
| #6 I have both Vista and XP units. XP is way better. I don't dare put pass codes or security restrictions on Vista, because it misreads same. One hour after I set it up, I tried to drag a file to the Rec. Bin; a message told me that I would need Administrative privilege to do that even though it was a notepad file that I created. Dell had to cease outsources Tech service to India, after Vista systems were on the market; there were too many users trying to wade through those heavy accents. Other problems are too numerous to count. However, their "public" file system for access between multiple users is superior to XP. |
| Posted by: Ebbelet and Tenille8976 2008-06-04 17:01 |
| #5 I bought a PC for my son and it came with Vista pre-installed. Having become accustomed to XP and all the preceding versions of Windows, I was annoyed and frustrated numerous times on it because it's different in a lot of ways. I found the most annoying thing is the way it questions everything you do. Vista: "Do you really wanna run this application?" Me: Uh, yeah. And, BTW, STFU! One thing I will say for Microsoft is that their constant demand for every increasing processor speeds, memory and disk space have driven companies like Intel, AMD and others to produce some really incredible hardware. Maybe by 2010 Microsoft will have learned the painful lessons of Vista and will be ready with a new version of their bloatware. In the meantime I'd prefer to stick with XP. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2008-06-04 16:50 |
| #4 My friend built a PC from the ground up with the intent of loading Vista on it and he praises the OS. I think the problems are mostly from people installing Vista on machines sold prior to Vista that were supposed to be able to handle it, and those that added older peripherals that didn't have adequate drivers (no excuse but that's not Microsoft's fault). I work for Sun and have a Mac so I'm hardly a Windows lover, I just haven't seen the trouble I'd expected. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-06-04 16:33 |
| #3 Does anybody run Vista? Is it as bad as I've heard? /Going to build a new computer this summer |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2008-06-04 16:26 |
| #2 The decision to restrict XP to low cost machines to promote Vista on more expensive machines contributes to Apple's 66% marketshare for PC's costing more than $1,000 and why Microsoft is singing the Vista blues. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-06-04 12:49 |
| #1 XP is boon to keeping the mom and pop local computer stores in business as those who don't want Vista opt out by getting a 'custom' made machine near the |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-06-04 11:58 |