Microsoft Backtracks Further on Windows XP
This is getting truly hilarious:Microsoft has further extended the life of Windows XP so that computer makers can include the operating system on low-cost desktop PCs, the company announced at the Computex trade show on Tuesday.
Microsoft has been under pressure from computer makers to provide a version of its OS for an emerging class of very low-cost laptops and desktops. Its new Windows Vista OS is widely seen as too resource-hungry for those machines.
In April Microsoft extended its deadline for selling Windows XP licenses for low-cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC. It had originally planned to stop selling most XP licenses on June 30.
At Computex on Tuesday it said it has now also extended the deadline for low-cost desktops. PC makers can now include Windows XP in those systems until 2010, the same as the deadline for low-cost laptops, said Rob Young, a senior director with Microsoft's OEM group.
What's the betting that in a few months time Microsoft will extend this to yet more PCs? Because if it doesn't, I can see a jolly interesting black market developing: "Psst: wanna buy some hot XP discs?"
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I bought a ludicrously cheap Acer laptop from a largish high-volume reseller I know a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they are having a serious problem shifting them as they are pre-loaded with Vista Home Premium. The first thing I did was strip off Vista and try to install XP*. Needless to say, Acer have made it as difficult as possible to do this, by failing to provide any XP drivers on their web site. However, after half an hour or so I managed to to find all the relevant drivers but one**, and also workaround a little difficulty caused by XP's unwillingness to install itself onto a SATA disk without a driver.
I mentioned my efforts to the guy I bought the laptop from. His response: "That's brilliant! I've got a warehouse full of these and no one will buy them. I'll be able to get my engineer to backgrade them all to XP and sell them now!".
Thank goodness Office 2007 is such a resounding, er, success.
- Andrew
*yes - I've got Ubuntu on my other laptop. And it was a hell of a lot easier to install (and I had zero problems upgrading from Gibbon to Heron).
** something to do with an infrared receiver for the media centre functionality, I think, but something I can live without.
Brilliant story - and conclusive proof of my point. Well, almost.
Of course, Microsoft has placed an upper limit on the hardware that (cheap-ish) XP can run on, but they may have shot themselves in the foot, or nearly so. According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865, the minimum h/w for Windows XP Home includes "Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution". The maximum screen size that the cheap XP can run on is 10.2". So, the original Eee has a small enough screen but (allegedly) too low a resolution to run XP. The newer Eee, at 1024x600 and a 10" screen, just qualifies.
Must be tricky for Microsoft to ensure that hardware fits nicely between the minimum needed to run XP and the maximum they /want/ XP to run on, especially as the h/w will be getting faster soon...
Absolutely - should be fun to watch.
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