Microsoft doesn’t extend XP deadline. Nuh-uh. Nope.
It appears Windows XP really will not die. Microsoft has extended its retirement date yet again, though this time there is a notable difference.
Yup, the system’s new expiry date is neither a January nor a June. Instead the new cut-off point is May, 30 2009.
This particular date doesn’t affect netbooks and similarly low-spec laptops which can’t handle Vista: XP will still be available on those machines until 2010. (And look for that deadline to be extended unless Windows 7 proves an overwhelming success on netbooks.)
Instead, this is affects firms that buy and distribute computer systems. The final date they can purchase a license for XP is still Jan. 31 next year. However, Microsoft has come up with a creative wheeze to get a few months’ extra sales without technically backing down on the deadline.
Each firm now has until Dec. 31 to submit a forecast of how many licenses it expects to need between then and May. They then have to formally order the licenses by the original deadline of Jan. 31.
Distributors can then use those licenses at any point until the end of May. However, they won’t technically ‘take delivery’ of each license until they actually sell the relevant machine, and they don’t have to hand over the cash until this point. If they don’t need the license before the end of May, everyone forgets it ever happened. (If they need more than they ordered, they are apparently out of luck.)
That may sound confusing, but here’s the important point: even though the distributor doesn’t have to decide whether or not they need the license until after January, and even though the distributor only pays up if and when they use it, which could be after January, the sale (if it happens) will go down as taking place before Jan. 31.
So technically Microsoft isn’t putting back its deadline, XP isn’t getting an extension, there’s no need for an extension, and every computer seller’s customers are perfectly happy buying Vista.
Got it?
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December 23rd, 2008
The XP saga is becoming a little like a Monty Python sketch, or perhaps an episode of Mr Bean. The geniuses running Microsoft must be fairly squirming with embarrassment.