Pender's Blog

Blog archive

XP: The Eternal Operating System?

If Rome is the Eternal City, then it must run on Windows XP. Even with considerable hype around Windows 7 continuing to swirl, Microsoft said this week that customers will be able to downgrade from Windows 7 not just to Vista (as if anybody would do that) but to XP. Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley has the dish, as usual.

OK, we love XP. Everybody does. It's familiar and useful, and it still does most of what most of us need an OS to do. But at some point, isn't it going to enter a Willie Mays-with-the-Mets stage of its career? (For our foreign readers, that's another baseball reference; soccer fans, you might want to go with George Best with the L.A. Aztecs -- if you're old enough.) When does XP become antiquated? Our feeling is pretty soon -- when Windows 7, or maybe the first Windows 7 service pack, comes along and sends the legend into retirement.

Speaking of downgrades, we've been hearing that Microsoft's process for doing them is...well, not great. If you have any stories or complaints about it you'd like to share, share them at [email protected].

Posted by Lee Pender on April 07, 2009


Featured

  • MIT Finds Only 1 in 20 AI Investments Translate into ROI

    Despite pouring billions into generative AI technologies, 95 percent of businesses have yet to see any measurable return on investment.

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.

  • Windows 365 Reserve, Microsoft's Cloud PC Rental Service, Hits Preview

    Microsoft has launched a limited public preview of its new "Windows 365 Reserve" service, which lets organizations rent cloud PC instances in the event their Windows devices are stolen, lost or damaged.

  • Hands-On AI Skills Now Outshine Certs in Salary Stakes

    For AI-related roles, employers are prioritizing verifiable, hands-on abilities over framed certificates -- and they're paying a premium for it.