XP will retire in 2008

[paul]

Windows XP will stop being available on new PCs from the end of January 2008. full News; news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm I thought to go for vista than for my new laptop.

[alan]

What they will do for renewals of Windows XP after Jan 08? will thay need to upgrade to Vista

[karimali831]

You sure? All stores I have been too, they sell laptops and desktop PC's they all have Vista OS.

I also heard that Dell stopped selling desktop pc's/laptop with Vista pre-installed because it was a complete failure... and Microsoft admits it. So now Dell sells XP OS only - this true?

P.S. Anyone heard of Windows XP Blackmoon edition?

[Pumazooma]

Dell stopped selling computers with XP not long after vista came out. There was a petition on their support site with something like 18,000 sigs asking for XP back so they started selling with XP again. They have the license till January. However, they're gradually limiting the range of computers you can buy with XP. Their new coloured-case laptops, for instance, are vista only.

[paul]

I think XP's early retirement is intentional to expand vista market, XP has comparatively shorter lifespan.

[Pumazooma]

True but if people have hundreds of pounds worth of software (office, photoshop etc) that all works perfectly well in XP it's a pity they're being forced to upgrade to something that they don't want or need. As we're still very much in the transition period between the two I think it's difficult to pick the right one at the moment. The right time will be in about 8 months when everything goes fully vista and a service pack or two have come out.

[paul]

Well, I think Microsoft should bring the price down for vista if they're supposed to stop new licensing for XP, however one thing is not clear, what would be the future of the people those already using XP, will they withdraw support?

[Pumazooma]

Sooner or later they'll have to phase it out just like they did for win98 but I think they userbase is so big they're probably obliged to provide security updates at least for the next 3-5 years.

Support for 98 ended in 2006.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5164450.stm

[kev woodman]

Yeah this doesn't mean that support for XP is ending it just means that no new licenses will be issued. If you're already using XP it shouldn't be an issue and we should see Vista SP1 by then which should ease some of the worries about switching.

[paul]

Yea it seems XP support will be continued for considerable time referring the window 98 support that they have extended up to 2006 while referring to the link by Pumazooma, "The turn off for Windows 98 was originally due to fall in late 2003".

[Cassie]

Are they also extending support for Win ME? - last time I looked there was no support at all for ME. One of the office computers is ME.

I just got a new computer made up for me and he gave me the option of XP or Vista - I jumped at staying with XP. In fact it was the main reason I opted for him to make me one rather than buying one from a 'pc world' which will only sell Vista machines. My daughters laptop has Vista and has lots of annoying little things happening - hopefully they will be fixed with SP1.

[Dan]

I'm not too fond of Vista, and i'm sure not everybody is. The only reason i use it is because of the OS compaitabilitys. Such as the RAM limits and SATA RAID limits.. processor limits and GFX limits. The interface is great such as the explorer menu i just don't like the transficiency in the browser headers.

[paul]

Are they also extending support for Win ME? - last time I looked there was no support at all for ME. One of the office computers is ME.

Most of the time they extended support due to Linux threat, the last news I read was this, news.com.com/Microsoft+puts+end+to+Windows+98+support/2100-1016_3-6092653.html

I don't think they will extend more support for both window 98 & ME.

[Pumazooma]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7017624.stm

Microsoft are extending the XP shelf life by 6 months due to customer pressure.

[kev woodman]

I'm amazed there's anyone left still using ME - what a f*****g awful OS that was

I don't see any need to change to Vista at the moment and the rumours about SP 1 aren't encouraging - it looks like a pile of minor bug fixes so it might be worth skipping Vista altogether and upgrading to Windows 2009.