Update: 30,000 ask Microsoft to save Windows XP
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Thirty thousand people have now signed InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition, which was launched four days ago. Roughly half were from the U.S. and the rest from other countries.The petition asks Microsoft not to discontinue Windows XP as planned on June 30, but to instead keep it available alongside the newer Windows Vista indefinitely. InfoWorld will deliver the petitions to Microsoft later this springMore than 100 people have added their own comments to InfoWorld's Save XP blog, and many external sites have promoted the campaign by adding InfoWorld's countdown clock to their sites. The vast majority of comments supported the petition drive, providing a variety of reasons that both individuals and companies do not want to lose the option to obtain new XP licenses available after June 30. Lack of compelling benefits in Vista, coupled with the training, support, and other costs of upgrading was the most cited reason. Some cited compatibility concerns.Some commenters thought the campaign was silly, arguing that change is a fact of life in technology and that there's no sense in sticking with older technology. This argument drew retorts that change for its own sake was not a worthwhile approach.In an interview, Burton Group executive strategist Ken Anderson suggested that the strong emotional support shown in the comments indicated a fundamental shift in how people, including IT staff, now think of operating systems. They have become a familiar extension of what we do and how we work, thus not something want to change often. "When technology becomes part of you, you don't want people to mess with it," he said.Anderson likened the reaction to XP's impending demise to what happened in the 1980s when Coca-Cola replaced its classic Coke soda formula with New Coke, causing massive protests and forcing the company to bring back the now-rechristened Coke Classic. "XP has come to the point of being Coke Classic," he said. Related Stories:- Stories, podcasts, and other stories about the campaign - InfoWorld's analyses on Windows Vista and XP
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The key security update for Windows XP looks set to cause trouble for thousands of firms reveals a survey.
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There&#39;s only one problem with Microsoft&#39;s Service Pack 2, a key upgrade to the popular Windows XP operating system: It turns some computers into large, expensive doorstops.
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Windows XP is turning five years old, but will anybody want to celebrate the occasion?
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It seems that Microsoft will release a Second Edition of Windows XP: If you thought that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP was the last of the big updates, think again.
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Microsoft Corp. has put the finishing touches on one of its biggest software overhauls ever after conceding that its Windows XP operating system -- which runs as many as 300 million computers worldwide -- is susceptible to security breaches.
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Still waiting for full version, though Microsoft has flung open the door for anyone interested in getting their mitts on release candidate 2 of Windows XP SP3.â¦
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Microsoft&#39;s big Windows patch gets snapped up by consumers, but many businesses are still testing it. By John Foley. Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP Service Pack 2 is now in the hands of more than 100 million users, the company disclosed on Wednesday.
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PC owners will be able to download a major security update for Windows XP as from Wednesday.
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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. (See InfoWorld's live XP countdown clock. To use this clock on your own Web site, please e-mail Executive Editor Galen Gruman for the code snippet.)So what to do? Let Microsoft decide where your personal and enterprise software "lives"? Or send a loud and clear message that you don't want to move?We're going for the loud-and-clear option. Join us, and tell Microsoft that you want to keep XP available indefinitely. Not for another six months or a year, but indefinitely. Sign InfoWorld's petition today. And consider submitting a "Save XP" video to our site to help spread the word.And ask your friends and colleagues to join in, too. Just point them to SaveXP.com.Don't think Microsoft will listen? Consider this: Although Microsoft denies that anything is wrong with Vista or that most people don't want it, the company has already postponed XP's demise by six months. That's a start, but it's not good enough.Microsoft doesn't have to admit failure; it can just say it will keep XP available indefinitely due to customer demand. It can take that opportunity to try again with a better Vista, or just move on to the next version that maybe this time we'll all actually want.There is a precedent for that, too: In many respects, Vista is like the Windows Millennium Edition that was meant to replace Windows 98 in 2000 but caused more trouble than it was worth. At that time, Windows 2000 was promising but didn't support a lot of hardware, so users were stuck between two bad choices. Without admitting Millennium's failure, Microsoft quietly put Windows 98 back on the market until the fixed version of Windows 2000 (SP1) was available. Microsoft needs to do something like that again today.Make your voice heard to Microsoft. Sign our petition to save XP today. We will present it to Microsoft.For more on why Vista isn't the right replacement for XP, check out InfoWorld's analyses: The (post-SP1) Vista verdict: Wait for Windows 7 Randall Kennedy's assessment is that for the vast majority of enterprise IT shops, Vista is not -- and likely never will be -- the right choice for their immediate desktop computing needs.Service pack vs. service pack: XP SP3 beats Vista SP1 According to tests by Devil Mountain Software comparing the release candidates for the last Windows XP service pack and the first Vista service pack, XP SP3 performs twice as fast as Vista SP1 on the same machine -- and slower than the initial release of the Vista OS as well.Businesses having second thoughts about Vista Fewer businesses are now planning to move to Windows Vista than seven months ago, according to a survey by patch management vendor PatchLink.Forrester: Businesses still saying no to Vista An anticipated rush by businesses to adopt Windows Vista hasn't materialized as IT managers stick with familiar systems and wait for the release of Vista Service Pack 1.Microsoft: Vista follow-up likely in 2009 With Vista just out the door, Microsoft is now drawing up plans to deliver its follow-up client operating system by the end of 2009.Farewell Vista, hello XP From PCWorld.com: How to make the switch back and deal with the gnarly problem of transferring your Vista e-mail, contacts, and user data back to the old standby operating system.HP CEO: Vista never had its moment in 2007 From CIO.com: Wondering what's happened to momentum for Microsoft's Vista operating system in corporate America? Fact is, enterprise IT has continued to decline the Vista plate like it's an undercooked holiday casserole. Listen to what Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd said: HP never saw a "Vista moment at any time over the past year."UK government report: Don?t upgrade to Vista Report warns British schools not to upgrade to Microsoft's Vista OS and Office 2007 suite, and to avoid Microsoft's OOXML document format because of compatibility concerns.
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InfoWorld - A Microsoft spokesperson today acknowledged InfoWorld's petition effort asking the company to keep Windows XP for sale indefinitely rather than drop the popular OS from most sales outlets on June 30 as planned.
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Microsoft officials are aware of InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition effort, which is asking the company to keep Windows XP for sale indefinitely rather than drop the popular OS from most sales outlets on June 30 as planned.A spokesperson noted that Microsoft had already delayed XP's demise by six months from its original Dec. 31, 2007, end-of-sales date, as software vendors, customers, and others complained that the deadline was too soon, coming less than a year after Windows Vista's release. "That's what informed our decision to extend the availability of XP initially and what will continue to guide us," another spokesperson told Computerworld Australia.The first spokesperson told InfoWorld that Microsoft's rationale for the June 30 end-of-sales date has not changed since the delay it announced in September, though Microsoft officials continued to monitor customer feedback and had taken note of the petition effort, which has gathered more than 85,000 signatures as of the evening of Friday, Feb. 8. "We're aware of it but are listening first and foremost to feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs," the second spokesperson told Computerworld Australia.The first spokesperson expressed some surprise at the resistance some users have expressed to adopting Vista, recalling that many users were upset that Vista's original release had been delayed. She also noted that Microsoft has several options for people to install XP on new systems after June 30 and that the company planned on supporting XP for some time after it is no longer available for sale.
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Aug. 23, 2004. Microsoft has offered up yet another way for businesses to block the automatic update of Windows XP to the big-deal Service Pack 2 (SP2) upgrade.
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InfoWorld hopes that its petition campaign to save Windows XP will persuade Microsoft to keep selling XP licenses indefinitely.
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SEATTLE Oct 21, 2004 - Microsoft Corp. says it has distributed about 106 million copies of its major security update for the Windows XP operating system.
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Within 36 hours of the full launch of InfoWorld's petition drive asking Microsoft not to discontinue Windows XP as planned on June 30, 12,621 people had signed the online petition. And dozens of the site's readers added their own comments to the InfoWorld Save Windows XP blog. Many external sites have promoted the campaign as well. InfoWorld will deliver the petitions to Microsoft later this spring.The vast majority of comments supported the petition drive, providing a variety of reasons that both individuals and companies do not want to lose the option to keep new XP licenses available after June 30. Lack of compelling benefits in Vista, coupled with the training, support, and other costs of upgrading was the most cited reason. Some cited compatibility concerns.Some commenters thought the campaign was silly, arguing that change is a fact of life in technology and that there's no sense in sticking with older technology. This argument drew retorts that change for its own sake was not a worthwhile approach.In an interview, Burton Group executive strategist Ken Anderson suggested that the strong emotional support shown in the comments indicated a fundamental shift in how people, including IT staff, now think of operating systems. They have become a familiar extension of what we do and how we work, thus not something want to change often. "When technology becomes part of you, you don't want people to mess with it," he said.Anderson likened the reaction to XP's impending demise to what happened in the 1980s when Coca-Cola replaced its classic Coke soda formula with New Coke, causing massive protests and forcing the company to bring back the now-rechristened Coke Classic. "XP has come to the point of being Coke Classic," he said.
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Hindi version of Windows XP costs just $36, as the software giant aims for gains in the populous nation.