Microsoft has caved in to the loud demands of their customers and announced Windows XP will be sticking around on the operating system scene for another ten years. Yes – ten more years with XP. Its default Playskool-like blue interface will continue to irritate more people than those who admit to enjoying the godawful GUI through 2020.
Prior to shipping Windows 7, we communicated that end-user downgrade rights provided in the software license terms of Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate editions preinstalled on a new PC would allow a customer to downgrade to either Windows XP Professional or similar Windows Vista versions for 18 months, or until the availability of SP1, whichever came sooner. Generally, PC manufacturers are in the process of ramping down Windows XP downgrade facilitation options that some offer today. As background, an OEM’s ability to generally offer downgrade facilitation options (e.g., preinstalling Windows XP Professional on a new PC that includes end-user rights for Windows 7 Professional) ends on October 22, 2010.
This is good news, especially if you have no compelling reason to upgrade from XP to Windows 7. A lot of folks, myself included, continue to run XP and actually prefer the operating system over Microsoft’s newer endeavors. Although many rave about Windows 7, there really is no reason to upgrade if all you do is use XP as vehicle for launching a web browser to reach the internets.
My main workstation is a MacBook Pro, however I continue to run an older HP desktop as a backup. It runs XP quite smoothly and is rarely used. Why would someone in a similar situation consider purchasing Windows 7 when Microsoft is committed to continually supporting XP through 2020?
David Gelles and Richard Waters in the Financial Times on an article titled, “Google ditches Windows on security concerns” wrote the following:
The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.
“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.
“Many people have been moved away from [Windows] PCs, mostly towards Mac OS, following the China hacking attacks,” said another.
New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. “Linux is open source and we feel good about it,” said one employee. “Microsoft we don’t feel so good about.”
Other than DoD and the financial industry, moves of this nature seem to be gaining momentum. Although Windows 7 is a far better product than Windows Vista, the newer operating system does not appear to offer any truly compelling reason to stick with the Windows platform.
That, in and of itself, is the biggest problem Microsoft faces today – increasingly shrinking relevance due to a terrible security track record and a lack of innovation. Can anyone say the same about Linux and Mac OS X?
Heads up Balmer, The boys at Google are on the hunt. Larry and Sergey are planning a strategic strike at the heart of Microsoft’s flagship product, Windows.
In a recent announcement on The Official Google Blog, Google says they are ramping up a new hopeful in the OS market — Chrome OS.
If Chrome OS runs with speeds anything like Google Chrome (the browser), then Microsoft is staring up the nose of a 300-pound gorilla.
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A quick couple of months have passed since I migrated from a Microsoft Windows environment to Apple’s OS X — the experience so far has turned out to be nothing shy of rapturous.
I’m still grounded in Microsoft at work, but have no complaints doing so — it keeps me unbiased.
I’ll say this about Mac-
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Come off it Microsoft — you know your own platform like no one else. I would have expected you to offer a ‘free’ security solution for your operating systems starting back in the Windows 3.1 day.
Well, in the latter half of 2009 [as reported by Redmond on their PressPass site] the software giant will finally launch their no-cost comprehensive protection software for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. And Microsoft offered these shocking words in their news release-:
“To address the growing need for a PC security solution…..
Growing need? This tells me that the folks at Microsoft don’t yet get security.
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