XP Prices Are Rising
Dell has tripled the surcharge it will charge users who wish to downgrade Vista PCs to Windows XP. Dell’s Inspiron 1525 notebooks and 530 desktops can be ordered with XP Professional preinstalled for an extra $150.
There is still a strong user base that prefers Microsoft XP to Vista, this is shown in the fact that the XP downgrade deadline has been pushed back a couple times now. Under Microsoft licensing, Vista can be downgraded only to XP Professional until July 31, 2009. Many are still requesting XP with their new PC purchases, but Microsoft’s downgrade fees are trying to force users into purchasing the unpopular Vista.
Though the Microsoft brand is linked with PCs in the minds of many consumers, that does not necessarily mean they will be herded like sheep into purchasing Vista. The demand for XP is still high, even if starting to slack a little lately. When Microsoft tries to penalize customers with fees instead of improving their current OS, there is going to be backlash. This may turn out to be the jumping point for some who considered buying a Mac, or it may lead some users to pirating their choice OS instead of paying extravagant fees, especially with the recent economic slump where people are trying to save every penny they can.
The stigma has been set, many people do not trust Vista and most of them don’t even know why. Regardless of the cause for the Vista hate, Microsoft is not fixing the problem by forcing users to purchase the OS. We’ll only have to wait a few days before the Apple ads roll out and start smack talking Microsoft about this latest feat.
Windows 7, the next OS in line from Microsoft, is the company’s hope of eliminating the stigma. Industry analyst Rob Enderle says, “Windows 7 is designed to fix this problem [the Vista stigma], but it will need stronger demand generation marketing than Microsoft has yet proven it can provide. Windows 7 is estimated to ship in 2010, but may come sooner if Vista acceptance does not improve.
My personal experience with Vista has been iffy. I tried to keep the prejudice out of my mind while using the OS, but I still found myself disliking certain elements from the very start. I use my girlfriend’s HP laptop with Vista often enough, and it is constantly riddled with error messages (many of which don’t make any sense). Much of the OS is clunky, but there are a few redeeming qualities.
I myself am a mac user, but I have owned nothing but PCs until a little less than a year ago. I am running Leopard but I also have a second partition on my computer, this is where I have XP installed. I will not be putting Vista on my computer anytime soon. XP has its own share of problems, but I encounter far more on a regular basis with Vista than I do with XP. Everything I still need to use on my Windows partition still supports XP and I don’t think that will change for a long time.
What do you think? Is Vista a needed or wanted upgrade? What are your experiences with XP and Vista?
Stumble It!
BingBong on Wed, 14th Jan 2009 2:11 pm
This is ridiculous. Vista works perfectly fine and Microsoft is constantly releasing daily updates.
What kind of “errors†are you having and how is Vista “clunky� Vista requires slightly more muscle then XP so don’t go blaming an operating system for a slow computer.
If you downgrade to XP you are making a poor investment. You not only decline free updates and improvements, but also future hardware and technologies.
XP is a reliable operating system but it’s done growing. Too often do people just fill up their computers with applications they don’t need. This extra stress, along with fragmentation, cripples old and “lesser†computers – NOT Vista, especially in SP1.
Kevin on Sat, 7th Mar 2009 9:22 pm
Last I checked, it’s still an affordable $0.00.
Tim on Sun, 8th Mar 2009 9:18 am
Ubunutu- free, stable, easy, small, lots of support, everything you need. Windows Vista made me switch.
Dave on Sun, 8th Mar 2009 12:26 pm
I’ve had no problems with Vista. A lot of people complain because they try to upgrade a system that doesn’t have the system resources that Vista needs. If you are on the low end of Vista’s requirements, your computer is going to be slow and you’re going to get annoyed. Then rather than try to tweak Vista you’ll switch back to XP because it is more stable on older machines.
I personally am looking forward to Windows 7. I think Microsoft has learned a lesson with Vista. Hopefully 7 will take up less system resources and be more compatible with older computers. However, if Microsoft tries to force 7 out early, I’m sure that it will be full of bugs and compatibility issues. Windows 7 has to make a good first impression or Microsoft will be in trouble.
Tony Spicuzza on Sun, 8th Mar 2009 3:42 pm
I have an XP network. I want to add another XP computer. I don’t want to either upgrade my existing 4 computers or mix the OS on my network. Most of my hardware items (e.g. printers) are not Vista compatible. I don’t want Vista. I don’t want to pay extra for backwards compatibility, either.
BillinDetroit on Sun, 8th Mar 2009 8:48 pm
What is all this talk about “older” computers?
My wife’s laptop came brand new from the factory with Vista. It had twice the speed (disk and CPU) and twice the ram of my laptop running XP / Ubuntu in dual-boot mode. When using XP, my computer is noticebly faster than hers and does not freak out when trying to use the elevator bar in a browser. When using Linux, my machine screams past hers.
That’s pretty bad. But then my Sister in Law gave me her Pentium4 Gateway laptop, which only had, obviously, a P4 cpu and 512 m. of ram. So I loaded WUBI on it, too.
Same thing happened. I’ve seen Vista suck on good hardware in comparison to both XP and Linux on far lesser hardware. I’ve been using computers since the XT was hot. I know major suckage when I see it and I see it everytime my wife boots her computer.
Microsoft agreed that Toshiba could put Vista on my wife’s computer, so any failure of hardware “oompf” is also on MSFT.
Vista sucks pig knuckles.
Casey on Sun, 8th Mar 2009 9:50 pm
Switched to Ubuntu an i love it!! Windows sucks, I even got sick of XP! You don’t need to do all the annoying crap you have to do with Windows like De-fragmenting your hard disk. YOU DON’T EVEN NEED AN ANTI-VIRUS!!!