As Windows XP Deadline Looms, OEMs Turn To Vista Downgrade Rights
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 25.4.2008
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) may be preparing to discontinue sales of Windows XP, but some OEMs have found a way to circumvent the software giant's June 30 deadline.
In yet another sign of the market's resistance to Windows Vista, Dell (NSDQ:Dell) Computer, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), and Sony on Wednesday all confirmed plans to exercise the downgrade rights Microsoft offers with OEM versions of Windows Vista Business and Vista Ultimate in order to continue offering XP-equipped PCs to their customers.
Downgrade rights, which Microsoft also offers to volume licensing customers, give users the ability to roll back to the previous version of the product they're using. Downgrade rights have existed since 2001 for Windows, but many Microsoft partners say they've been seeing a recent uptick in the number of customers exercising downgrade rights to roll Vista back to XP Professional.
HP will sell PCs pre-installed with XP Professional on its business desktops, notebooks and workstations until July 30, 2009, a spokesperson for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor said in an email to ChannelWeb.
"After June 30, 2008, if a customer already has the XP image and license, HP also can also install that customer's image on their Vista Business systems through our HP PC Customization Services," the spokesperson said.
Dell, Round Rock, Texas, plans to offer Windows XP Professional pre-installed on new PCs for customers that buy Vista Business or Vista Ultimate "for as long as Microsoft supports it," according to a Dell spokesperson, who declined to offer a more specific timeframe.
A Microsoft spokesperson said OEMs have been given the right to provide downgrade media for Windows XP with new Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate PCs until January 31, 2009, which is also the cutoff date for system builders.
OEMs appear to have different approaches to dealing with the time costs of performing the downgrade from Vista to XP Professional before shipment.
source:
crn.com
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Comments(13)
notice that it's only the business and ultimate version with the downgrade rights.
combined with the fact that most consumer pc's ship with home premium which cannot be
downgraded, microsoft will keep boasting about all their vista license sales. even if
people downgrade to xp pro, microsoft will keep making piles of cash cuz of how overpriced
vista ultimate and business are.
the other interesting thing about this is that
the downgrade rights only pertain to xp pro. even though most pc's thus far have shipped
with xp home, the effort to keep xp alive will mean there could be more xp pro licenses
out there than xp home. bottom line is that xp home will get snuffed out faster since
microsoft has a slightly different support cycle for xp home than xp pro. and even those
people who don't care for the business features of vista business and ultimate will be
forced to cough up that much more cash to keep using xp.
donwgrade rights contains possibility to go back to vista
downgrading
to xp is not permanent.
xp is very old, come on people let go of your outdated os.. vista is the future.
windows xp is really old os and also its security is not that secured. i have 2 pc which
pre-installed with vista and xp. the first pc with a xp got allot of problems. i'd had
installed antivirus first before connect to the internet but you know what? viruses,
trojans and worms attacks give my pc really sick. but, my vista is still performs great.
it doesnt need an antivirus and still runs great. i guess you people should know that
vista is far better than xp. during the 2000s, xp was full of bugs but now, because of its
service packs, xp became reliable, so do with vista. i wish you guys out there had the
same in mind. im sure vista will be getting better and better. there's no such arguement
over microsoft's oses. either then, xp will sure be banish in this world.
let’s all sign a petition to get back windows 3.11, it was the best os ever made :p
at vista rules ;
i second that ever since i installed
vista i am trouble
free
xp isnt stable as vista
you vista fanboys have no clue. vista is not the future! vista is like a wheel of stone
from the past.
no i'm not going back to windows 3.11 because windows xp is so
much better than 3.11 and vista put together!
new isn't always the same as
improved!
if you have viruses, trojans and worms all over your computer, that's not because of xp
but because your antivirus and/or firewall súcks big time or you are really dumb and not
using one in the first place. as vista has no built-in antivirus either, not installing
one yourself is just plain stupid.
listen up vista fanbois: thats right n00bs! vista has no anti virus or real anti spyware
that comes with it! windows defender is a joke! its is worthless! absolutely fuc.kin
worthless!
as with an os you must install a good anti virus and anti spyware. xp runs
any program smoother and better than vista ever will. it is not a memory and cpu whore
like vista. hell even with a quad core cpu xp kicks vista s ass anytime. vista is for
ignorant n00bs that cant deal with configuring advanced options on their own in xp pro.
bullcr*p antivirus is for noobs who dont have a clue who to manage there
computer correctly , whom watch pr0n and
anti viruses s*cks useless all it have to
do is ripe you from your money & and slowdown your pc to crawl ,worse then viruses to
begin with , and anyway
xp is insecure by design .
the best way to avoid geting viri and trojans is to use firefox browser with noscript and
adblock plugins etc, and not to use ie (activex and java enabled). a good anti virus
program running in the background is also required.
it's possable to browse
p#rn sites all day long without getting the clap, regardless of which operating system you
use!
"the other interesting thing about this is that the downgrade rights only pertain to xp
pro. even though most pc's thus far have shipped with xp home"
not entirely
true actually... ms ran out of xp pro product keys so had to release a modified version of
sp2, sp2c to increase the pool of keys. xp home remained unchanged.
but yes,
most low end machines did use xp home though a lot came with mce over the last couple of
years.
are you sure you want to read this comment?
are you sure that you're sure you want
to read this comment?
sound familiar? it's vista. that's only one of many
annoyances (to say the least) that vista provides. sure, you can turn off those warnings,
but then you'll also turn off what makes vista far more secure. it'll just be another
form of xp with a bloated gui (translation: uses up a lot more ram memory and processor
power), driver incompatibilities all over the place, service errors and many other
problems that microsoft has yet to address.
and for those of you who say that
the only get virii, malware and the like is because you go to sites you shouldn't be
going to in the first place is half right. don't forget there's also spam that managed
to get past the filtering process. no matter how careful you are, the risk is still
there. that's why "internet security" is provided by third parties. and don't give
me that bull that vista doesn't suffer from them. they still do.
i build,
repair and remotely monitor (aka managed services) computers of all kinds, be it for
businesses or private consumers. 2000, me, xp, vista... my clients have all kinds of
windows oss. they all have their problems, either caused by the user (typically) or a fix
that wasn't applied to the problem to prevent it from happening.
yes, vista's
starting to dominate xp in terms of private users because computers you buy from the store
are preloaded with it, but in the business world, xp pro is typically the os of choice.
why? well, as i've already said, bloated gui, drivers incompability, service errors,
etc. those alone would make business give the big n-o. but there's more reasons.
vista's too new. so what? well, it means that there's less local it support as of yet,
and they have yet to prove their strengths in the business world. money is also a giant
factor. xp has been around long enough that businesses are sure their programs that they
require to run will work on xp. on top of that, a business typically has three to
thousands of computers. an upgrade to vista will require a lot of money, both spending
for the vista upgrade and necessary hardware upgrades to support it, and businesses
typically will put up a fierce fight if their pockets are involved.
bottom line
is that xp (pro typically) will continue to be relied upon over vista in the business
world. microsoft should just compromise by continuing xp pro (at least) production until
more support is made available for vista and people feel more comfortable switching to it.
Add a Comment
either way, microsoft makes lots of money!
By yoyoma on 26.04.2008 - 05:04