It has been a long time coming. It has been threatened many times, been announced only to be taken back in the end again and again. Each time XP had been given a final, absolutely End of Sale date…Microsoft stepped back from the brink. They KNEW, despite themselves, that Vista was not going to be able to fill the whole the loss of XP would leave in Redmond’s product line. They allowed XP to be sold for netbooks and other lower performance machines because they realized that if they refused to install XP on them, Vista wouldn’t be either. They would end up running one of the netbook Linux flavors like Ubuntu Netbook Remix or Jolicloud, or at least a sizable percentage of them would have…and Microsoft didn’t even want to think about that.

So XP lingered on, a slowly fading workhorse. Microsoft announced a date once again, October 22 2010 back in 2008. It seemed an eternity away, always time to push it back further if needed. Then Windows 7 arrived, wiping away Vista almost as if it had never been at all….so XP can finally be put down once and for all, says Redmond.

No reprieve is coming this time, no last minute letter from the Governor, or Bill Gates…October 22 is End of Days for XP. Full stop. Exclamation point. Just four months away.

Here is Microsoft’s reminder to us all…

Just a reminder that – as announced in April 2008 – as of October 22, 2010, OEMs will no longer be able to pre-install Windows XP Home on new netbook PCs. 

Of course, it is possible that most people will not even notice. More than 80 percent of all netbooks sold with Windows are now sold running some flavor of 7. Early fears that being sold with 7 rather than XP would jack up the prices appear to be unfounded, or at least no one cares. Finally, the concern that most netbooks would only be able to run the somewhat crippled Windows 7 Starter, and certainly not Windows 7 Ultimate were proven to be a lot of worry about nothing. Most netbooks run Windows 7 Ultimate maxed out just fine.

So, farewell XP. Everyone hated you when you were released, but then for a while they refused to give you up. You lingered on far longer than anyone ever dreamed you would. However, once their heads were turned by Windows 7, people realized how badly you were showing your age. Off you go now, I think the Atari 2600 is saving you a seat on the bus tour.

Windows XP, we hardly knew ye. Godspeed.

So what about you? Will you miss XP? I know I will, and support or no support, I am keeping a couple install disks with OEM licenses around just in case….you never know when you might need to do a quick reformatting with XP to save the day.

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Posted by: pybadyfyto at 12:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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