06/03/2008, 3:10pm, EDT
Tuesday, June 3rdMS to keep Win XP for ultra-budget desktops
Microsoft today acceded to demands and said it would continue support for Windows XP on "nettops," a term coined by Intel that describes any very low-cost, small desktop designed for Internet access, including the Eee Box. The move is credited to the success of a plan to extend XP for micro notebooks such as the ASUS Eee PC. Users want the familiarity of Windows on these systems or an easier path for those new to computers, Microsoft claims, alluding to a tendency for some budget systems to ship with Linux to lower the price.
The Windows developer doesn't say how long it expects the extension to continue but set a June 2010 limit on the extension of XP sales for portables. The guidelines set certain maximum specifications for systems to qualify for the extension and will likely phase out most offerings as performance improves over time.
Microsoft's past extension was widely believed to in part be a response to a backlash against its June 2008 cut-off date for normal sales of Windows XP, which in turn was an extension after businesses and some PC vendors complained about a lack of full support for Windows Vista from crucial applications and hardware. Most of the lowest-cost computers are incapable of supporting Vista Home Premium's extra visual effects and often run slowly due to limits on their processor performance and maximum memory.
Filed under: computers
Other story tags: Microsoft, Intel, Linux, ASUS, Vista, Eee PC
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PC vendors will howl!
This will drive sales towards the low budget, low margin computers...
heh!
"Microsoft claims, alluding to a tendency for some budget systems to ship with Linux to lower the price."
It's definitely NOT because folks would like to use something other than a Microsoft product. No, no. :P
ultra-budget only? Ha!
You know that they'll only be able to sell decent numbers of XP, not Vista or it's re-skinned rehash of a little brother. Announcements like these say to ppl, "We're thinking about getting rid of XP, but we can't bring ourselves to do it entirely since no one is really buying Vista yet."
I'd say this is on par with the continuing Gates retirement announcements, dragging out the whole media story to give the company SOME sort of coverage, when it can't get any otherwise. That is, aside from THINKING about moving on from XP. How fitting that MacNN would be the one to post such "news."
FreshStart?
I was holding out doing a FreshStart license for donated computers, and they went from 98SE to 2000Pro. So I bit. I hope they eventually apply XP to the program. I know 200P is essentially XP without the shiny bits, but people do get confused when they see the gray bits.