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30,000 petition MS to "save Windows XP"

updated 09:05 am EST, Fri January 18, 2008

Petition to Save Win XP

An online petition conducted by InfoWorld has managed to collect over 30,000 signatures asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP available, the magazine has revealed today. Called just Save XP, the petition argues that Microsoft's already extended June 30th cutoff point for sales of the 2001 operating system is still too short and that it should continue to sell "indefinitely," according to the organizers. The publication points to a lack of clear benefits to upgrading to its Windows Vista successor as well as problems with the new OS, such as slower performance in Microsoft Office tests as well as the expense of upgrading established business networks to the updated software. Regardless of where the computers are used, the limitation to Vista-only sales by July will be arbitrary, the petition maker says.

"It's like having a comfortable apartment that you've enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice," the site adds. "For most of us, there's really no reason to move to [Vista] -- yet we don't have a choice."

Vista is further likened to the often criticized Windows Millennium Edition, which was released as a stopgap update between Windows 98 and XP but which is widely accepted as having provided little advantage over 98, prompting Microsoft to temporarily return the earlier software to market until conditions had improved.

Microsoft in 2007 is generally believed to have quickly lost momentum for its new version of Windows after its late January debut. Growth slowed after customer demand forced PC vendors such as Dell to restore an option for Windows XP to some systems. Vista was touted as having reached the 100 million-copy mark by the end of the year but ultimately accounted for just 37 percent of all PC sales in the year, indicating that XP continued to outsell its replacement.

By Electronista Staff
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  1. mgpalma

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2000


    30,000 doesn't seem like

    very many. If it is that big a deal for Windows users then maybe they should advertise to consumers more.

  1. testudo

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Aug 2001



    maybe we can petition Apple to keep selling Tiger, since we're all comfortable with it and the advantages offered don't seem that great!

    Also not sure why they say they 'don't have a choice'. People in the mac world will tell you, yes you do. Don't upgrade. No one's forcing you. Is that computer you're running all of a sudden unuable because Vista came out? (sure, you could argue it's unusable because it has XP on it, but that's not the argument!).

    Oh, and since when did MS say that businesses had to upgrade? They, with their business accounts, usually have no problem running the ol' reliable years after the new version is released (something you can't do in the Mac world, since Apple won't update drivers to get the new hardware to work with the old OS). h***, they probably just converted to Windows XP a couple of years ago from 2000.

  1. ViktorCode

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2006


    better vista?

    Why these people don't start petitioning for faster, better and cheaper Vista? Microsoft could do some work on it.

  1. ender

    Junior Member

    Joined: Mar 1999


    re: hey

    Sure, you can keep your old hardware running old software. But eventually your business has to upgrade the hardware either because it has failed or because they have other software that requires newer equipment. As soon as you can no longer buy hardware with XP installed you are in trouble. And please don't suggest that they "just transfer XP from the hardware they are replacing". Also, if you think the situation with drivers and Vista is messed up, trying certifying all your business's custom apps and system interfaces to work on a new OS.

    I'm not saying Apple is any better in this regard (can you still buy Tiger?). But Apple as a very different customer base than MS does, and that should be taken into account. Upgrading your computer at home is a far cry different from upgrading 5000 computers in a business.

  1. smitch

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2005


    Clearly portends

    that Windows is an OS at its end of life... where does MS go now? No innovation. No vision. They'll certainly try to imitate these with cash.

  1. ZinkDifferent

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2005



    ...and truly a sign of desperation.

    To address testudo's (usually) stupid question about no one being forced to upgrade - when you buy a new PC, you usually get Vista on it, with very little choice. This is people wanting to not be forced to that - and likewise, if MS stops support of XP in June, no more fixes or security patches are to be released (which may actually be an improvement, considering MS' track record with security)

    Lastly, what a sad, desperate result of cognitive dissonance - if MS doesn't want to, switch to a Mac (though I suspect these are the kind of folks that can't stand the Mac).

    Then again, there'll always be the kind of IT managers who believe "Vista is the Future", and will ride their company's infrastructure off that cliff...

  1. dynsight

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2005


    Patches and Support

    In addition, how much longer will MS support XP with Patches? If a new vulnerability is found, will they support it? 2000 is not longer supported, and users had to go to third party for Daylight Savings Time Fix.

    Clearly users are not happy with Vista. Over 50% of the PC's in 2007 were sold with XP (according to MS Exec).

    Personally, I like Vista. It is a slow, and had some issues with Visual Studio, but overall it is a step up...just not on older systems.

  1. climacs

    Dedicated MacNNer

    Joined: Sep 2001


    re: end of life

    good point. If Vista is a stinker, how is MS going to sell the next iteration of Windows in five years???

    Vista is the best advertising for OS X Apple could have hoped for.

  1. PBG4 User

    Senior User

    Joined: Feb 2001


    Re: hey

    Have to agree. Got a laptop last January (after Vista's release) with XP on it. I was being upgraded from Win2K at work. Figure I won't see Vista until my work laptop goes out of warranty and has to be replaced.

  1. ZinkDifferent

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2005



    She's probably one of the 4,000 jobs getting canned, so your email would only bounce anyways... :-)

    Yeah, smart moves, Sprint -- only Sprint service I use is their data card, but I may be replacing that sooner, than later, as I found a cheaper offering. Sprint's customer service is decidedly staffed by morons.

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