Windows XP will be phased out by 2008

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 16th April 2007
Comments (27) Stumble
Microsoft is keen to push Vista adoption as fast as possible. In the process, it is destroying everything in its way...

Microsoft is keen to push Vista adoption as fast as possible. In the process, it is destroying everything in its way...

Microsoft has told system manufacturers that they will not be able to get hold of OEM copies of Windows XP after the end of the year.

This move comes despite the fact that there is a lot of consumer resistance pointed in Vista’s direction, because of its poor driver support and compatibility amongst other things.

APC Magazine reports that system builders signing contracts with Microsoft will be required to ship systems pre-loaded with Windows Vista. The report cites Frank Luburic, a senior product manager for Lenovo’s ThinkPad notebooks, who states that "the OEM version of XP Professional goes next January."

Having just bought myself a ThinkPad X60s, I can say that everywhere I looked all the ThinkPads I saw were still selling with Windows XP installed.

In addition to this, Dell is listening to the demands of its small business customers, and has re-introduced the option for Windows XP pre-loading on select Dimension and Inspiron machines. The statement was posted on Dell’s Direct2Dell blog, and it went a long way to reassure its customers that the upgrade to Vista isn’t about to be forced onto them.

Currently, the PC maker plans to offer this option until later this summer. However, based on the fact that Dell has listened this time around, we expect the company to continue listening to consumer demand until Microsoft makes it impossible to offer Windows XP pre-loads.

While Microsoft’s move is bound to upset consumers, it’s good to see large PC makers offering customers a Windows XP pre-load while it’s still in demand. Hopefully, by the time Microsoft puts a curfew on XP pre-loading, the compatibility problems will have been resolved and Service Pack 1 will have been deployed. Together, the two should help to make Windows Vista a more attractive proposition for consumers and small business customers.

Discuss Microsoft's move in the forums.
Quote DivineSin 16th April 2007, 16:28
I think this is a damn good thing. Think about it for a second, Vista has bad driver and incompatibility problems. How do you solve this? By removing the old software from the market and making the companies better support their new product. From my point of view, Vista is a much better operating system, however it just suffers from being too new and Microsoft is actually doing something good to phase out XP. (MS, do good you say? )
Quote quack 16th April 2007, 16:37
At least they're not withdrawing support for XP just yet. I have no desire to upgrade to Vista this year (on my main PC that is), and probably not the next either.

I have upgraded to Vista Home Premium on my HTPC however, it is so much better than XP MCE 2005.
Quote mikeuk2004 16th April 2007, 18:28
Thats the power microsoft has. They are making sure you buy vista now. How will this work for business users.

For example I work for the Goverment and we are only just being upgraded to Windows XP next week and reason for this??? Because Microsoft stopper supporting for NT Workstation.

Business will still be using Windows 98 if Microsoft did not stop supporting it and provided security updates. Business's are not interested in Vista YEt and will be years before they buy into it.
Quote DougEdey 16th April 2007, 18:30
I work for the government as well, and they believe that IE6.0 is secure.
Quote Darkangel 16th April 2007, 19:19
I thought it normal for them to stop selling theyre old OSs after a while. All theyve done is set a date. In a years time I imagine Vista will be sorted out virus/sp1/driver wise and everyone will be after it anyway.
I for one, if building a new system, will be after the latest OS to go with the latest hardware.
Quote culley 16th April 2007, 19:23
I remember hearing on a TWiT podcast awhile back that they will be still supporting updates and what not for atleast 5 years. I think ill stick with XP for a long time i still have 2000 on my laptop and my file server, i personally dont actually like Vista that much but to each his own.
Quote Bluephoenix 16th April 2007, 19:51
I think that Vista has a bright future due to its rewritten code, and that once the driver and compatibility issues are fixed (or alternatives are found) that it will eventually be seen as a turning point towards better design, even if a little bit of stability loss and some hardware upgrade costs were initially incurred.
Quote rupbert 16th April 2007, 20:25
This is a good thing.

Vista is a much better OS, and I'd much rather it be the sole focus of Microsoft.

I think XP has been developed as much as is possible, and the much touted SP3 delays will probably lead to it not even being released.

This is also a pre-cursor to the next OS from Microsoft (Vienna) which in my opinion will be released at the end of 2009. If Vista had a lower user percentage than XP at this time, they could not justify the release of Vienna and it would likely be delayed until 2012...
Quote wafflesomd 16th April 2007, 21:32
I prefer my OS's to not use half of my ram while idling.
Quote rupbert 16th April 2007, 21:37
Quote:
Originally Posted by wafflesomd
I prefer my OS's to not use half of my ram while idling.

Fair enough.

But for me I want the OS to reflect the modern hardware it will be installed on. Otherwise we would still be using Windows 98...
Quote DougEdey 16th April 2007, 21:47
wafflesomd: common misconception, more use is good. That's what it's there for. Windows can use what it needs whenever it wants, but it keeps as much data in memory as possible.

Linux always has 99% RAM usage. Ask Glider.
Quote DXR_13KE 16th April 2007, 22:04
i will buy vista as soon as i get a better machine, and i hope MS does not stop supporting XP soon.
Quote Bluephoenix 16th April 2007, 22:16
RAM is there to be used, and the OS takes a back seat while running games, but takes the opportunity to run more smoothly when the RAM is open for use.
Quote Robotrix 16th April 2007, 22:49
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
Thats the power microsoft has. They are making sure you buy vista now. How will this work for business users.

For example I work for the Goverment and we are only just being upgraded to Windows XP next week and reason for this??? Because Microsoft stopper supporting for NT Workstation.

Business will still be using Windows 98 if Microsoft did not stop supporting it and provided security updates. Business's are not interested in Vista YEt and will be years before they buy into it.
Then they might as well skip XP altogether and upgrade straight onto Vista. Right...?
Quote wafflesomd 16th April 2007, 22:55
Sooo

Battlefeild 2 chugging along with 2 gigs of ram isnt the os taking up too much ram?
Quote rupbert 17th April 2007, 01:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by wafflesomd
Sooo

Battlefeild 2 chugging along with 2 gigs of ram isnt the os taking up too much ram?

No because even on XP Battlefield 2 chuggs with 2Gb of RAM, it's one of the poorest written engines I've seen in some time...
Quote GoodBytes 17th April 2007, 01:23
God XP.... I sooooooo Hate it...
It was fine before, but since I got my new computer.. installing XP is HELL.

I have XP SP1 CD, and it doesn't like PCI-express and doesn't like SATA.
What does that make?!

-> Corrupt data non-stop (works like once very 10 times), until you upgrade to SP2.
-> 16 color screen, until you pass the first set of SP1 updates. (then the video card works)
And then well all is installed, you got to do to teh device Manager, go to the SATA controller device, and enable your HDD of read/write cache, so that your computer runs fast.

Take about 1 day and a half to setup completely (including installing all applications).
But with Vista... heck even Vista Beta 2 public release, that I tried... 18min, and poof your printer works, and your computer has no issues.
After using Vista RC2 for many many months... and coming back to XP, and I can tell you, you start seeing XP bugs, and get on your serious nerves.
Also, my applications starts at least 1.5-2 times faster. (Maybe because the OS has a better resource management, and proper multi-core CPU's support)

This summer, (August) I'm going to be 100% Vista.
If I would review Vista, I would give a 9.5/10.
- Game ran slower (at the time) due to lack of official video card drivers.
- No sound (at the time) due to lack of Creative X-fi drivers issue.

Computer Specs:
- Geforce 6600 GT 128MB of RAM PCI-e (will be replaced with an Geforce 8 series)
- 2GB of RAM 400Mhz, form Corsair
- ASUS A8N32-SLI (Nforce 4 16xSLI)
- Western Digital SATA-II HDD 250GB.
- Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremMusic
- Antec TruePower 2.0 480W
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ S939
- Latest system BIOS installed
- Purchased Retail Windows XP Pro SP1
Quote Bluephoenix 17th April 2007, 02:36
@goodbytes - I know what you mean, I have an XP CD with no service packs at all, and until I gave it the updates etc, it just wigs out big time.

for my CAD box vista installed in <12min with absolutely zero issues :D
Quote Tyinsar 17th April 2007, 06:09
@GoodBytes
@Bluephoenix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(computing)
Quote kempez 17th April 2007, 10:05
Agreed with Tyinsar - nLite for the win tbh

This is a good move by MS, let's get Vista supported. In fact let's get 64bit the industry standard NOW
Quote Blademrk 17th April 2007, 10:26
That's the only thing I'm afraid off, by splitting the OS into 32bit and 64bit flavours the 64bit (which I've got installed on a dual boot along with XP MCE) might not become the mainstream and thus not get the driver support of 32bit.
Quote GoodBytes 17th April 2007, 13:14
@Tyinsar
Yea, but idea is not do to that.
Why would I have to complicate my life to make that? I'm no re-installing windows every month.
Quote Tyinsar 17th April 2007, 15:59
True but you could make the next reinstall that much faster and easier. And it's easier than the hassle with SATA & PCI-Express you described.

@kempez: nLite ;) (I loved the version for Win98, the free XP version wasn't as useful but the Vista version just might be a necessity.)
Quote kempez 17th April 2007, 16:11
Aye nLite is great and I actually like the XP version. vLite is awesome too :D
Quote wafflesomd 17th April 2007, 21:56
Quote:
Originally Posted by rupbert
No because even on XP Battlefield 2 chuggs with 2Gb of RAM, it's one of the poorest written engines I've seen in some time...

Bf2 has never chugged along on xp with 2 gigs, ever on xp, ever.

I get better performance with 1 gig in xp, than I do with 2 in vista.

Driver's just suck for it right now. God knows my emu 0404 has static in vista..
And its not even constatn static, its only when there's ram being used by another program.
Quote kempez 17th April 2007, 22:33
Drivers sucking is not really Microsoft's fault, companies like Creative and nVidia should get their damn act together
Quote GoodBytes 17th April 2007, 23:27
Definitely.
Seriously, nVidia suprised me a lot. I was really not expecting that. They usually make great drivers. And great support (unlike ATI) for older video card. Heck they still have drivers for the TNT1 and 2. Even when XP came out, they had no issue. But now... wow... They had Vista in hands, and didn't do any drivers testing... Shame.

As for Creative... that was expected, by me. What was not expected is that they are making drivers for the older sound card. I really thought they would only do it for the X-fi. (not doing the applications and sound panel for the sound card for Vista, was expected by me, even for the X-fi).
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