News MS promises 18 months for XP downgrade

I think that Microsoft pushed XP support for marketing and image reason. Since end of XP, before Vista, Microsoft REALLY wanted to change their image from a cruel buisness, to a more responsible, respectful and listening company. I mean the speculation of Microsoft forcing people to Win98 by paying companies, true or not, really hit hard on Microsoft image.

I mean lets look back to Opera vs Microsoft for IE. You can feel that Microsoft had no choice in accepting defeat. If Microsoft won the case, Microsoft would be looked as "bad" in Europe, potentially losing sells to Linux and Apple as no one wants to support evil businesses except the lead of extraordinary evil people. Accepting defeat, made Opera look bad, but they know that won't affect Opera too much on the long term, but on the short term it's a potential hard hit. That is why Opera was not happy at the end. Anyway, Microsoft will tries to make everyone happy. But I am sure they know that if it's not Win7 that will make you change, it would be the huge cost of replacing the system and the long hours IT would have to try to make new tech work on a OS that don't like anything new. Also, it's not to annoy netbooks users that paid extra on their system for XP.

Microsoft knows that their "XP support" is not real. I'll be REALLY surprised if they release bug fix or fix small security holes on that OS. They just say that to make everyone happy....

Well that is my theory.

 

Honestly, Microsoft has kept extending its overly gracious XP downgrade scheme for quite a bit. They are basically giving away a free 130-280 dollar license (Go try to buy XP Pro from a store, even OEM it costs quite a bit). They want to phase out XP. They gain almost nothing by continuing to support an aging platform that does not take advantage of a lot of the newer technological innovations that have come out in the meantime. Yet, as an act of good faith to the business community, who often runs legacy software to do their business, they have thrown them a bone. Then they extend this to a larger one, and yet they are insulted and ostracized for offering one in the first place, let alone giving out a bigger one. I honestly can't understand the mentality.
Then there is the fallacy that Windows 7 is just a dressed up Windows Vista (which was just a dressed up XP, which was a dressed up 2000, which was a dressed up NT, ad nauseum). Go through the whitepapers. Read the TechNet notes and developer discussions on the new tech going on in there. The basis of the kernel is from Vista, yes. However, there are massive portions of it re-written, streamlined, slimmed down, improved. There are entire new technology streams in there, updated driver model capabilities, improved memory management, more processor support, and tighter, more granular security control abilities. Then there are iterative improvements, the much maligned Aero UI, the new taskbar system, improved and more cohesive control panel UI, and an incredibly improved set of system networking features.
People look at other OS and generally go "ooh" and "aaahh" over the new features, new UI changes and other things. They claim it is the next big thing, even when it too runs on the same base kernel as prior versions. This happens with Linux (How long have we been on the 2 series kernel, and how long were they on the 2.6 series of Linux based kernel?) yet there continue to be improvements and innovations. Even with Mac I could make the same false assumption of OS X 10.4 to 10.5, or even to 10.6 (snow leopard). It is all just OS X, they just use the same kernel, it is just gussied up with some fancy new doodad or UI. It is patently false.
I would honestly hope people would actually investigate for themselves a little further before blindly spouting the same old lines that have been seen before. Windows 7 will be an evolutionary move. It doesn't reanimate your dead dog and make you a millionaire. Yet it is full of solid improvements, and numerous innovations. I for one will be upgrading my Windows machines to it. When Snow Leopard hits, I will upgrade my Mini and my MBP. I will update by Ubuntu dev server as new versions hit (although I haven't modified my Slackware Linux based file server in ages). I look forward to the updates, and am pleased to see them coming through.

 

Well said!
+1

I think it's pride and laziness. IT Managers and IT in general think they know everything and that looking at a help doc, release note, techNet notes, it for idiots... they just guess what the new product is. Many businesses and school, thinks that XP is all wonderful since SP2, but no it's still bombarded with security holes and bugs, as they don't take the time to read anything more then deadlines on cheap untrustworthy/blog website which also guess everything, because it too much effort to read such document.

 

there's alot of places they still run windows 98.. even up at the schools- you might have a point state and federal money going to things other than an upgrade..

some places have the budget to upgrade all day (and they do).. I'm gonna get it on this weekend and see how much more productive it is than vista 64- might even run some speed tests between the two god forbid! XD I think it'll be the same though- most of the hype is coming from xp users going to win 7... mooohaavvee *cracks the whip