Windows XP Continues To Slowly Die
You know that it's a slow news day when Windows XP cracks the headlines, but you also know that the operating system is alive and well when its death is reported over and over again.
There's no free support left for Windows XP, and soon, Dell, once again one of the industry's leading PC makers after having survived a bit of a dip, will stop offering XP as the pre-loaded OS on its machines. Evidently, Dell doesn't really want to stop selling XP on its boxes. Read between the lines (or just read the actual lines) of a Dell blog post on the XP issue, and it seems pretty clear that Microsoft is the puppet master in this scenario.
Well, of course it is. Isn't that normally the case when it comes to PCs? Besides, XP is nearly a decade old. It's outdated. Shouldn't we all just move to Windows 7 now? Maybe...but we won't because XP still works just fine for most users and because now is still not a great time at many companies for IT investment that isn't absolutely necessary.
Still, Microsoft is just doing what it has to do for its own self-interest -- and the move is good for partners, who might just be able to sell some hardware refreshes and OS upgrades if they can make the argument that XP is going away forever and ever, like right now...even if it's clearly still with us.
How long do you plan to hang on to Windows XP? Send your answers to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on September 09, 2010