Microsoft to Allow PC Makers to Downgrade to XP

mytrip pointed out a News.com story about a new Microsoft program to allow PC makers to downgrade from Vista to XP if they so choose. They're still pushing the new version of Windows very hard, but the option now exists for PC resellers to offer the now venerable OS. This is especially interesting as the article points out that OEM licenses for XP officially run out at the end of January. "Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its business models. 'For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge,' HP spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been. 'Since we've only been offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share on demand.' A Microsoft representative confirmed there were some changes made over the summer to the options computer makers have with respect to XP, but the representative was not immediately able to elaborate on those changes."

Downgrade?

[Tribbin]

Why do they insist on calling it a downgrade?

Downgrade?

[CaptainPatent]

I'll downgrade to XP in the same way I'll "downgrade" to a first-class airline ticket or a supersized meal.

On the other hand though, it is Microsoft making a correct move by giving consumers what they actually want while keeping the marketing in line with their "forward thinking."

Re:Downgrade?

[Ant P.]

Same reason they use words like "Genuine Advantage", or "doubleplusungood".

Re:Downgrade?

[Jerry]

the next OS,which "7" is supposed to be: something new, something improved (one hopes :cross fingers:).

When driving down a hiway at night Deer are sometimes caught in your headlights. They stand, transfixed, as you approach. You have to honk your horn and slow down to give them a chance to get out of their trance and leave the road.

So is it with some folks who, when MS releases PR memos about vaporware, fix their vision on this "future" OS, freezing themselves out of any current improvements. Just what MS wants.

Re:Downgrade?

[rucs_hack]

The problem is that Vista isn't being seen as a useful upgrade by microsofts biggest customer, the business world. They don't want it.

In a few years they will, just like they avoided XP till it had been around for a while. Its not that they don't like it, they just don't feel they can rely on it yet.
A new OS is a risk, even if it comes from the major player in the OS world. Yup, people here may not like it, but windows is the standard bearer, Linux is still a minority everywhere but serverspace.

Home users get the fallout from this. The simple fact is that vista would be a big improvement for most home users who are in the 'don't care, so long as my pc works' class. People who don't want it are usually reacting to the negative press and not realising that most of this doesn't really apply to them, vista will do everything they want, since what they want is a pc that will browse the web and play games. XP does this too, but the security model in XP is a disaster, Vista at least improves on it a bit. Linux fans may be angered by this, doesn't stop it being true.

I don't want vista either, I'd rather stick with XP, but I'll be buying it next year, several copies in fact. So will almost everyone on slashdot, unless they're really linux only bods. Hardly anyone falls into that group at the moment. I like my games, and Linux just doesn't do that well.

Re:News?

[miffo.swe]

The news is that computers will be sold with XP installed. Thats a huge difference to getting a recovery disc and doing it yourself.

Making Vista viable

[NemoinSpace]

1. Ultimate, Premium, Basic, Business, Enterprise... versioning rip-off. If Xp Home vs.Pro didn't piss enough people off?

2. Licensing - A 1x transfer? Businesses should stay away just for that reason alone.

3. Resource inflation. The amount of hardware you have to throw at Vista is ridiculous.

4. UAC. The epitomy of the Are you sure? box.

5. WinFS? ZFS?

6. The changes in the windows interface since 98 is schizophrenic

I like the search implementation. I would guess if you bought ME you'll buy Vista. Otherwise there's a _LOT_ of work that needs to be done to convince me (and my customers I support).

Re:Downgrade?

[Wowsers]

The simple fact is that vista would be a big improvement for most home users who are in the 'don't care, so long as my pc works' class.

After playing around with Vista on a friends new highly spec'd machine, I would say most home users are in the 'don't care it runs slow' class. They don't know how fast their new machines could be running (they can't/don't compare a similar machine running something like XP or Linux), Vista's turned their high spec machine into something resembled to running through tar.

Re:I have no real problems with Vista...

[dbIII]

Microsoft could dominate the PVR market

The really bizzare thing is that linux does instead. I have to put it down to licence costs and slow development on the part of MS - an updated Windows CE could be doing the job if they had put in enough effort.

Not quite...

[Joce640k]

Business users can see that Vista will:

a) Cost them millions.

b) Most likely cause a lot of incompatibility problems.

c) Not increase their productivity one bit even when they finally have it all working.

It's a lose-lose proposition for them.

Hubris

[Un pobre guey]

Microsoft's marketing machine has always tried to convey the idea that they are the de facto standard for everything, much as IBM tried to do in the 1980s. It didn't last long back then for IBM, and it is wearing thin for Microsoft today. If you really are the de facto standard, you are able to force things down the customers' throats and charge them an arm and a leg for it. When there are alternatives, such as a perfectly serviceable WinXP in this case, it is no longer that easy. Microsoft has to back down because a) XP works perfectly alright for most folks, especially on newer hardware, and b) Mac laptops (and to a much lesser extent GNU/Linux distros like Ubuntu) are distracting eyes and pocketbooks.

It's the natural evolution of a market. Frankly, it took a perversely long time, most likely due to Microsoft's monopolistic hold on pre-installed operating systems. They can't complain. They made a few bucks while it lasted, and are making more still.

Re:So very different...

[I'm Don Giovanni]

"Take a look at Mac OS X. The interface is pretty much the same for more than ten years. "

Um, OS X hasn't even been around for ten years. It was introduces in 2000 or 2001..
And OSX's interface is just as different from that of its predecessor, Mac OS 9, as Vista's is from XP's. There was plenty of whining in the Mac community over the "step back" that OSX 10.0 was. (It was indeed very much slower than Mac OS 9, but I think it's interface blew away Mac OS 9's).

Tried Vista Home Premium x86 in January...

[bealzabobs_youruncle]

and hated it, unstable and buggy to say the least. Installed Vista Business x64 last week and I'm very satisfied. It won't boot Fedora 7 off my main machine, but many of the issues are being ironed out. It is different and requires some re-learning and discarding of old habits/notions, but it isn't the junk that so many make it out to be. Too many people on tech forums have begun to sound like old women to set in their ways to learn something different.

Re:What's so good about XP?

[flyingfsck]

Sure XP is just as shitty as ever, but compared to Vista, XP is not just good, it is 'venerable'...

Re:I just setup Vista for a friend

[Mex]

Do me a favor. When your friend inevitably calls you up for help with his new Vista OS, tell him you can't help him because you don't know this new OS, and have him call Microsoft for support, as it should be.