When it was launched in October 2001, the new version of Microsoft’s operating system for personal computers, Windows XP was so named for the new eXPerience it provided.
Today, XP will spell eXPiry. Microsoft will stop selling the XP version to PC Manufacturers & Retailers from Today (June 30 2008). They have been asked to stop preloading Windows XP on their products from today. There is a small exception made for low cost platforms, which will be able to continue loading the stripped down HOME version of XP for another 6 months.
But to the rest of us, Microsoft seems to be saying: “We gave you better version called Windows Vista, more than 18 months ago. So start learning to love it or lump it.” But lay users as well as corporate customers say: “Thanks but we don’t care for Vista: it is bloated and sluggish; it irritates us with a hundred promptings; it doesn’t work with most of peripherals like Printers, Scanners , CD/DVD Drivers and Portable Hard Disk Drives; and it takes so long to start or stop, that it is driving us crazy”.
There is lots of good things in Vista: multiple tagged browser pages; a whole new 3-D look and feel but the canny Indian ‘janatha’ user hasn’t found it to be ‘paisa vasool’ and in any case XP still works fine.
As PCs become smaller, lighter, less power-consumption, what people want is smaller, quicker PC software that lets you get on the Web which today houses a lot of their tools and files – fast. Vista is not that which people need.
“XP will die at the hands of a misguided killer: Microsoft,” said the Web Magazine, www.ITWorld.com a few days ago and many in the industry agree.
Over 140 million copies of Vista have been sold, says Microsoft; but analysts Forrester found in April that only half the enterprise world has planned an upgrade to Vista.
The entire Intel Organization (a Key Microsoft Partner) has decided to stick with XP. So what can the rest of us do?
Microsoft has already announced that the next iteration after Vista will be Windows 7 – possibly in mid 2009. If we want to continue using XP on our machines, no can really stop us. The Canny Indian reseller and assembler community will find ways to support us, with or without Microsoft help. We can continue doing our computing, the XP way, till we see what Windows 7 offers, leapfrogging over Vista in the process.
