Windows XP Users Want Extension, Not Vista

By: Jennifer Hong
Published: Apr 15, 2008
Updated: Mar 14, 2010

Windows XP operating system will be pulled from shelves on June 30, but users can't embrace Vista.

Windows XP Users Want Extension, Not Vista

Windows XP operating system will be pulled from shelves on June 30, but users can't embrace Vista.

Microsoft Corp. will pull Windows XP, Microsoft's best operating system, from store shelves on June 30, in an effort to force computer users to make the switch to Windows Vista.

Windows XP fans want a voice before the software giant retires the 6-year-old operating system.

Microsoft is finding out the hard way that just because Windows Vista runs on higher hardware requirements doesn't mean that all users will make the switch.

Windows Vista just can't impress all users as they complain about hefty hardware requirements, it's less than faster performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows. The distastes for Vista is strong and widespread. Minor panic is setting in as the impending disappearance of XP and its technical support in the coming years.

For example, Galen Gruman is a longtime technology journalist and is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them. However, after talking to Windows users for months, he realized his distaste for Vista and strong attachment to XP were widespread.

"It sort of hit us that, wait a minute, XP will be gone as of June 30. What are we going to do?" Galen Gruman, a longtime technology journalist said. "If no one does something, it's going to be gone."

As a result, Gruman started a Save XP Web petition, gathering since January more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments, mostly from die-hard XP users who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.

On the petition site's comments section, some users proclaimed they will downgrade from Vista to XP while others criticize Microsoft for profiting from the switch and having the power to enforce users to drop XP in favor of Vista. Many users are threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.

Microsoft already extended the XP deadline once, but it shows no signs of doing it again.

Earlier this week, Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said that Microsoft's Windows product is collapsing and the company must make radical changes to its operating system or risk becoming doomed.

"Windows as we know it must be replaced," Gartner said in its presentation.

The analysts pointed out the slow adoption rate by businesses, just 6% to date, and that the Vista code base is too large. That means changes take years, and only high end computers can really take advantage of its 64-bit operating system.