According to multiple sources, Windows XP has received another six-month reprieve. This means that certain manufacturers and OEM providers can still put Windows XP on machines until the end of July, 2009.
I have lots of theories on why this is happening. XP has received two extensions already since Vista’s launch. While I have a couple machines running Vista now, my primary desktop machine at work is XP, and will be for quite some time. This is likely true in a lot of businesses and schools around the country, as upgrading to Vista is proving to be cost-prohibitive for most. The only machines that can run Vista here are ones we purchased especially to do so, which means they are extremely high-end, with at least 4 gb of RAM, which raises the cost of the hardware considerably. On a college campus like mine, where there are upwards of 2500 computers, that additional hardware cost is just out of our reach.
Is this third extension a result of Microsoft listening to its customers regarding the problems with the new Vista operating system? I doubt it. Since Microsoft (and most other businesses) are in the business of making money, the slow adoption rate of Vista is affecting their bottom line. That’s the kind of language they are likely to be listening to, and realizing that they can sell an awful lot of copies of XP while Vista sits languishing.
I, for one, am glad that XP has been granted a few more months to live.