Microsoft dictating what PCs can be downgraded from Vista to XP
There’s some bad news for folks thinking they can buy any PC with Vista Business or Ultimate and downgrade them to XP. As it turns out, Microsoft has put limits on the types of PCs that are allowed to be downgraded.
More specifically, these restrictions target home users, and mostly excludes primarily high end PCs geared for gaming. Meaning the gaming machines that costs thousands will be the ones to get for regular consumers wishing to downgrade their Vista to XP.
According to ComputerWorld Dell has announced there will be an additional $20 fee to downgrade for regular consumers, and $20-50 for business users. When Dell was questioned about the policy of dictating which PCs can be downgraded, a spokeswomen for Dell, Anne Camden, clarified that this is not by their choice but dictated by Microsoft.
The reasoning behind the allowance for downgrade seems to be to accommodate gamers who have specific XP needs that Vista is unable to provide. Also, to accommodate businesses who have XP sensitive software that needs to be run on that platform.
Some may interpret this as Microsoft’s plan to tighten the reins on XP downgrading and force users to use Vista out of the box. This may be in part true, considering the only way Microsoft will have profit gains is to sell more Vista or face shrinking profit growth.
It seems Microsoft did too good of a job with XP and not many want to move away from XP to Vista. As XP is end of life’d (EOL) at the end of this month, it will be interesting to see what other measures Microsoft will take to ensure XP is put into the least amount of consumer’s hands.
Related Posts:
June 19th, 2008
“There’s some bad news for folks thinking they can buy any PC with Vista Business or Ultimate and downgrade them to XP.”
There is some bad news for Microsoft. The European Union has mandated open source for its communities. Also China has started a investigation to see if Microsoft is a monopoly and they might have to pay a fine. The EU still has a Billion Dollar fine against Microsoft.
23,000 school computers in the Philippines are moving from Microsoft. Russia is moving to open source in both Government and in its schools. 1,000 school computers in Canada are going open source. 20,000 computers in Australia might go open source.
Mac sales are through the roof, Leopard is one of Mac’s biggest sellers. Mac up 60% according to Fortune/CNN. Acer bets big on Linux because of Microsoft. Wall Street becoming Linux stronghold to reach 72% Linux.
The way its going, it appears that MSFT will be lucky if we continue to use their products…never mind attempting to increase sales of Vista by trashing XP.
June 19th, 2008
Well i’m usin XP now since Vista was a real slowdown after 3 months of use.
I have a HP nx9420 (Compaq) with ATI X1600 Gfx. 1.83GHz C2D
Tried the basic stuff. Had 2GB mem to begin with. was kinda slow.
Then went to full spec with 4GB mem, and new fastest seagate 250GB 7200 rpm HDD. and Vista was still slow at opening the start menu !!!.
Initially after install the system was wery fast and usefull. but after 3 months it felt like i had to buy a new faster lappy. Installed SP1 for vista and it became even slower. Did the proper fix and reinstalled original licensed XP and now i only have 3.37 GB mem but! Who cares. Never gets fully used anyway. Vista is the new ME. We are waiting for the new 2000! or is it 7?