chrisfixit » XP

Dell snubs Vista

chrisfixit — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:22:46 +0000

Dell has had a not-too-subtle dig at Microsoft by continuing to offer XP Professional as the pre-installed operating system on its new computers, despite yesterday’s supposed cut-off date for XP sales.

As a sop to the millions of people who have shunned Vista and prefer XP, Microsoft decided to allow manufacturers to offer XP as a ‘downgrade right’ – Dell have rebadged this and are offering Vista as a ‘Bonus Disk’, implying (quite correctly) that it doesn’t see XP as a downgrade at all.

In fact, Dell’s blog is fullsome in its praise of XP and calls Vista ‘its harshly debated successor’.

Looking for a new computer? Get a Dell.

Microsoft Muddies Waters

chrisfixit — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:54:28 +0000

Microsoft has now announced that its new operating system Windows 7 will be released in 2010.

It claims that it wants to show a clear timeline in the release of its products – it seems more likely that its desperately trying to dig itself out of a hole.

Windows Vista has hardly been greeted with acclaim, not least by corporate customers who can, quite rightly, see little benefit in ‘upgrading’ from XP, so in order to encourage sales Microsoft have tried the carrot and stick approach – withdrawing XP from the market and promising Windows 7 in 2009 with an easy transition from Vista to Windows 7.

Unfortunately for them it isn’t working – on the one hand customer demand has meant that they have vacillated over the withdrawal of XP and although it is being officially withdrawn from sale at the end of this month, there are so many ‘exceptions’ – system builders that will still be able to install it – that effectively anyone will be able to get hold of a copy if they want to, and on the other many companies are just skipping the Vista step completely and waiting for Windows 7.

So, a little more time for them to get Windows 7 right, and in a few years time Vista will be seen for what it is – a poor bloated operating system with few advantages over XP, badly implemented, and for most people a totally unnecessary expense.

Dell to keep XP

chrisfixit — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:09:38 +0000

As you may know Microsoft is to stop selling Windows XP at the end of June, but Dell is going to exploit a loophole in Microsoft’s licensing which will allow it to ‘downgrade’ Vista installations on new machines to XP Professional.

Other manufacturers may follow, and Microsoft is said to be quite happy with this situation as the sales will still count as Vista sales, boosting the poor figures of the product.

Microsoft is still under intense pressure to extend the shelf-life of XP past its current June deadline.

XP SP3

chrisfixit — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:52:10 +0000

Microsoft is releasing XP Service Pack3 today, though you will have to download it yourself – it will become part of automatic updates later in the summer.

Microsoft is playing down the release, damning it with faint praise..

“Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system, as well as a small number of new additions that should not significantly change the Windows XP experience,”

..as it continues to try and get users to waste money by upgrading to Vista.

UPDATE: SP3 is reported to be causing problems on some systems. I advise you don’t install it at the moment.