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XP versus Vista

Nice article at Infoworld:

Why XP must be saved
The costs are too high and the benefits too low to be forced to switch to Vista

The clock is ticking: Microsoft will end OEM and shrink-wrapped sales of Windows XP on June 30, 2008, forcing users to shift to Vista. (System builders, meaning those who do white-box PCs, can sell XP through December 31.) Don't let that happen!

Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don't see a need to change to Vista. It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place -- even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) -- just doesn't sit right. Maybe it'll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don't have any other reason to move. That's exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there's really no reason to move to it -- yet we don't have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft).

But come June 30, even that option goes away.

It is also interesting at the MSFT store. As an ex-employee, I have shopping privileges and when Vista came out, I spent all of my annual allowance buying copies of XP for use on future machines and upgrades. When I worked at Microsoft, Windows 2000 had shipped and when Win2K came out, all of the previous versions of NT were stripped off the shelves. I was afraid that this might be the case with XP and Vista but I needn't have worried -- XP is still for sale at the Company Store. I have one machine running Vista and it is a slug and I am having major conflicts with it and Adobe Flash. Halfway tempted to upgrade... Posted by DaveH at January 21, 2008 3:02 PM