Vendors push away Vista and offer XP to stay competitive
Microsoft announced their plans to retire Windows XP licensing to OEMs and via retail chains by June 30, 2008. However, according to ARN Net some top PC vendors such as Dell are planning on using a loop-hole to get PCs out the door to businesses with XP pre-installed on them rather than Vista. What’s the loop-hole you may ask? The loop-hole is a clause in Vista Ultimate and Vista Business that allows one to downgrade their operating system if the customer wishes to do so.
The Microsoft’s “Downgrade Rights” are only applicable to Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and does not apply to Vista Home Basic, nor Vista Home Premium as outlined on Dell’s website.
Dell has announced they will switch over to offer these downgrades starting June 18th, when a consumer chooses the “Vista Business Bonus” or “Vista Ultimate Bonus” option.
Dell is not the only vendor utilizing this loop-hole to offer XP pre-installed on the PCs post June 30th. Lenovo, HP, and NEC have also verified they will be offering the downgrade option as well. HP Australia spokesperson Brad Swiney, indicated amidst increasing Vista interest, there still remains strong enough XP interest to warrant a solution to meet those demands.
According to ARN Net, in contrast to vendors like Dell, Acer has announced their desire to align their support behind Microsoft’s plan on retiring Windows XP for vendor manufactured PCs. However at this time Acer has not confirmed nor denied if they will completely rule-out possible downgrades in the future.
Considering that Dell has received some flak in the past for pushing XP over Vista to consumers, it’s not surprising they are the ones spearheading this move to extend the life of XP into the second year of Vista’s launch. With Dell overtaking the top spot from HP as of 2008 as the largest PC supplier in the U.S. one can suspect they may have a slew of shrewd business folks locked in a conference room somewhere with a good deal of insight into market trends.
This really begs the question- with some venders planning on offering XP on their products all the way into 2009, will Vista ever make near full market penetration before Windows 7 launches in 2010?
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May 5th, 2008
with every component inside a laptop or pc falling in prices; you name it, memory, hdd, lcd, etc.
even intel are now shipping more than ever cheap chips, like atom.
you must think about, how many time the OEMs will keep letting microsoft that high prices for a crappy operating system.
the only component in a pc that go up in price instead the trend of reducing price is windows, that crappy software, that you keep buying.
you never wondered how many times you have bought windows xp? many people buy it like 5 times the last decade.
buying 5 times the same OS, thats just insane.
OEMs must start standing against microsoft, they dont need microsoft, microsoft needs them.
more than 90% of the money microsoft make come from OEMs, OEMs would not be hostages of microsoft, they must unit and make microsoft slave of them.
May 5th, 2008
The Vendors are simply giving what the public wants, which is XP. Giving the public what it wants, what a unique concept its just too bad that MSFT doesn’t believe in that concept.
Its about time someone stood up to MSFT. As much as I personally like XP, I can’t wait for the day for Linux or even Apple to get a double digit share of the OS’ market. That would be a happy day for a lot of people. I don’t think its really that far off.
May 5th, 2008
I believe every OEM mentioned in this article offers OS choices. Even though “XXXX recommends Windows Vista”. Linux is available (I think from all).
May 5th, 2008
Well, it’s not exactly a “loop-hole.” Loopholes are not designed by the company itself. I’ve had the following PDF posted outside my cubicle for months now, letting people know. As you’ll see, you can even downgrade XP Pro to Windows 2000.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/4/5f4c83d3-833e-4f11-8cbd-699b0c164182/royaltyoemreferencesheet.pdf
It’s a nice convenience that Dell is offering this already done for you, though.
May 5th, 2008
Well, I don’t think Msft thought of the clause so OEMs could rape Microsoft with XP sales over their planned Vista strategy, thats why its a loop-hole, they are gearing mass distribution even have the option put into the customization, using that clause to the limit.
May 5th, 2008
I’m trying to work with Vista and I hate it. I am at my wits end trying to get through the security so I can work from my firm’s FTP site. I’m done. Going back to MAC, and NEVER should have taken this Dell in the first place.
May 5th, 2008
I’m trying to work with Vista and I hate it. I am at my wits end trying to get through the security so I can work from my firm’s FTP site. I’m done. Going back to MAC, and NEVER should have taken this Dell in the first place.
May 6th, 2008
Mac… it just works, but not with much.