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450

Dell: Support Microsoft's latest move with regards to XP

450 points posted to Operating Systems, Sales Strategies by cosh 09/28/07

Here's a quote from a news article from the BBC web site:

Customer demand has forced Microsoft to extend the shelf life of Windows XP by five months.

Microsoft was scheduled to stop selling the six-year-old operating system on 30 January 2008 to leave the field clear for Vista. Now the date on which many sellers of XP will no longer be able to offer it has been lengthened to June 30, 2008.

Microsoft said the change was to help those customers that needed more time to make the switch to Vista.
Read the full article here


My idea is simply that Dell support this move by continuing to offer preinstalled Windows XP to those customers who need it for as long as possible, now June 30, 2008.

It would be good to get some pledge on this from Dell now, so that companies who still need to use XP know they can continue to rely on Dell for the foreseeable future.

(Edit) Lots more about this here: http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&ncl=1121355739

benjesuit
09/28/07		 And somehow impress upon MSFT to release DX10 for XP. TIA.
jmxz
09/28/07		 And note that even after Microsoft stops selling XP, Dell can still sell them.
Just this year the city of Munich bought significant volumes of Windows 2000 licenses.

I hope Dell keeps selling XP so long as there is customer demand - regardless of what Microsoft says.
kalstolyn
09/28/07		 Microsoft had a small temper tantrum when Dell STARTED offering XP again due to customer demand after the release of Vista.
msdestynie
09/28/07		 You're right jmxz - as long as there is customer demand for XP, Dell should keep selling it. I don't want to be forced to go to vista until I'm ready. Both when I buy business computers and for my own personal purchases! Please give us options! :)
pentox
09/28/07		 I think that it is a good thing that Dell is offering XP still and hope that they will continue to do so. I don't believe though that they should do anything particularly drastic to continue doing so. By the time that MSFT stops offering XP for OEM purchases I believe that Dell should move forward as well. Moving to Vista is a rather significant jump, but it is not reasonable for a major PC company such as Dell to offer a product past it's support time. This will cause additional problems for other companies who would need to support Vista and in order to support the new pcs tha would still be running XP from dell.
jdelidc
09/28/07		 so now that you got more time to sell it, put it on more models
lorax1284
09/28/07		 The fact is even if Microsoft stops supporting XP, there is now 6 years of shared intelligence about XP on the 'web etc. that even if MS stopped supporting it, it would hardly be unsupported.

I say offer XP until it's out of copyright and becomes public domain! It can be open source then! (ok, not for 120 years, but...)
winoffice
09/29/07		 As long as Dell will still offer Windows Vista, fine.

Note: this has nothing to do with lorax1284's comment. This is a direct reply to the idea.
cosh
09/29/07		 Yup, well Dell could hardly stop offering Vista.

@lorax1284
June 30 2008 is just the date they stop selling XP. Searching for "Windows XP" at the Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search (http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=Windows+XP&Filte...) shows that mainstream support will still be available until April 2009, while extended support will be available until April 2014! ...

Windows XP - the operating system that just won't die...
winoffice
09/29/07		 And that means that Windows Vista must certainly be offered the next day, or July 1 2008...

And that means that since Windows Vista will soon be the only option for Windows, Dell will certainly offer it on July 1.

That means also that Dell should continue offering it now.

That means that it is probably a safe bet that Dell will still offer Windows Vista.
aikiwolfie
09/30/07		 Or maybe Dell should just commit PC suicide and go the whole hog with Ubuntu.
jmxz
09/30/07		 @aikiwolfie: "Or maybe Dell should just commit PC suicide and go the whole hog with Ubuntu."

It's not suicide. Note that computer vendors that do have some control over their software do much better than Dell. Apple (BSD-based) and IBM (mostly Linux based these days) are good examples - Apple's profit margin : 12.92%; IBM's of 10.38%; Dell's profit margin: 5.10% back when it was discussed on deastorm in May. I wouldn't call doubling their margins suicide.

It's pretty obvious that most of the profit on computers these days go to the software suppliers.

While it might be tough short term - it'd be great for Dell long term.

And it might not even be bad for Dell short term if Microsoft decides to try to buy back their loyalty (remember the $2 billion Microsoft gave Sun) rather than punish them for their insubordination.
winoffice
10/01/07		 "Or maybe Dell should just commit PC suicide and go the whole hog with Ubuntu?????" Never!!!!!
winoffice
10/01/07		 jmxz: "And note that even after Microsoft stops selling XP, Dell can still sell them."

That depends on what type of selling you are talking about.

The retail versions might still be available, but when Microsoft discontinues the OEM copies, Dell cannot preinstall XP. Only OEM is licensed for preinstallation, and Dell cannot preinstall retail copies. And when Vista OEM is cheaper than XP retail, people who need Windows will probably start buying Vista with their new PCs, even if they are reluctant to do so.

If you are talking about selling retail XP as a standalone product (that is, not bundled with a PC), then Dell might still be able to sell, but the retail copies will also be sold out not long after July 2008, if not earlier. After all, Microsoft already discontinued XP as a retail product (that is, XP is available only for preinstallation), and Dell cannot make illegal copies to make more copies of XP.
winoffice
10/01/07		 jmxz: "...when it was discussed on deastorm in May."

"deastorm?" What is that?
mxyzplk
Apr 18		 I want XP to be available for as long as a) MS supports it and b) I want to buy it. Save me the time of reimaging all the computers when they come into my shop please.
aikiwolfie
Apr 19		 I'd just like to add there is no point in owning XP unless Microsoft are willing to support it or open up the source code so that a third party may support it. Windows is infamous for it's security issues. It needs regular patching and fire fighting to keep bad people away from your personal details.
jmxz
Apr 19		 @aikiwolfie: "I'd just like to add there is no point in owning XP unless Microsoft are willing to support it or open up the source code so that a third party may support it. Windows is infamous for it's security issues. It needs regular patching and fire fighting to keep bad people away from your personal details."

I'm not sure about that. I still have my old Win98 image from last time I bought a box with Windows; and anytime it gets hacked I could restore the entire image from backup. Seems WinXP might be quite useful for someone who wants to open the old powerpoints that don't display the same (font sizes mostly) in openoffice.
jdelidc
Apr 19		 powerpoint viewer works perfect in wine. and more efficiently than openoffice.... imo
aikiwolfie
Apr 19		 Well the Powerpoint problem just highlights the issue of proprietary lock-in. Now not only do you need a copy of the old application software. You also need the old OS as well. There has to be a better way.

As for restoring the old image. That's fine. It gets you up and running again. It doesn't protect your data though.
 
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