04/28/2008, 4:35pm, EDT
Monday, April 28thLenovo joins Dell in Windows XP extension
Late last week, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer Microsoft's downgrade rights allow anyone with either operating system to legally downgrade to the seven-year-old Windows XP Professional, creating a loophole usable by Lenovo to continue selling the earlier software past its official end date.
Dell's approach is slightly different, and is expected to last until 2012. The company will ship its PCs with XP pre-installed and include the relevant Vista discs as well as a backup media disc for Windows XP Professional. Technical support for both operating systems will be offered.
Some consumers and more businesses have been reluctant to adopt Vista OS because of the backwards incompatibility and increased hardware requirements, prompting online petitions as well as an ongoing lawsuit that accuses the Windows developer of setting misleadingly low requirements for the "Vista Capable" logo on PCs in late 2006.
Microsoft will continue to provide XP Home for ultra-low-cost PCs until June 2010. [via Ars Technica]
Filed under: Investor, computers, industry
Other story tags: Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, XP
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Mac users actually like upgrading.
All Apple needs to do is license someone to make a thumb keyboard that clicks on the port, then game over.