Microsoft XP formally ends general availability. Even the OEM version will be available only until the end of the year. This combined with Gates' "retirement" truly marks the end of an era at Microsoft.
Arguably, Windows XP was the best operating system Microsoft has ever released. It's taken years of bug fixing and continued development to get it to be as stable and secure as it is today. Yes, in spite of this, Microsoft pushes all clients to its questionable Vista environment.
We've been in many conversations where even the most diehard Microsoft Fanboys will NOT move to Windows Vista. It's a sound move. In the early days, XP adoption was slow too, yet eventually it ruled the Microsoft roost.
XP, however, offered some compelling upgrades over Windows 2000. Vista, unfortunately, really offers no substantial improvement to entice Microsoft's strong business client base, leaving opportunity for up and coming environments to gain market share.
The other nail in Vista's coffin is the already announced Windows 7. Microsoft is offering that release as damage control for Vista's shortcomings. While full feature lists have not yet been released, we're betting most XP clients will wait until Windows 7 before considering a major client side operating system migration.
We're telling our clients to make sure all XP install DVDs are clean and ready for use...
Microsoft XP formally ends general availability. Even the OEM version will be available only until the end of the year. This combined with Gates' "retirement" truly marks the end of an era at Microsoft.
