Users rally to save Windows XP from Microsoft
Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.
Microsoft cuts Vista prices to urge upgradesFans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
No matter how hard Microsoft works to persuade people to embrace Vista, some just can't be wowed. They complain about Vista's hefty hardware requirements, its less-than-peppy performance, occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows.
For them, the impending disappearance of XP computers from retailers, and the phased withdrawal of technical support in coming years, is causing a minor panic.
Take, for instance, Galen Gruman. A longtime technology journalist, Gruman is more accustomed to writing about trends than starting them.
But 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-" he said. "If no one does something, it's going to be gone."
So 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 - an option available in the past to businesses, but now open for the first time to consumers who buy Vista Ultimate or Business editions - if they need to buy a new computer after XP goes off the market.
Others used the comments section to rail against the very idea that Microsoft has the power to enforce the phase-out from a stable, decent product to one that many consider worse, while profiting from the move. Many threatened to leave Windows for Apple or Linux machines.
- 1 Film premiere of The X Files: I Want to Believe
- 2 UPA Govt. wins trust vote by huge margin, to go ahead with India-US nuclear deal
- 3 Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty launches fitness video
- 4 Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza
- 5 India among top 3 entertainment and media markets: PwC
- 6 Post trust vote victory, India Govt. to move forward with reforms, nuclear deal
- 7 BSE Sensex jumps 838 points as market pins hope on reforms
- 1 Reliance posts 13 percent jump in net profit for Q1 FY09 on high oil prices, volumes
- 2 Tech Mahindra's net profit jumps 52 percent in Q1 FY09, bags $700 million BT deal
- 3 Bharti Airtel's net profit jumps 34 percent in Q1 FY09, total revenues up 44 percent
- 4 Left sees red after trust vote defeat, expels Speaker from party
- 5 India among top 3 entertainment and media markets: PwC
- 6 Ford posts $8.7 billion loss in Q2, pins hope on small cars
- 7 Post trust vote victory, India Govt. to move forward with reforms, nuclear deal
|
- 1 Google unveils reference tool after 7-month test
- 2 China says has more people surfing the Web than US
- 3 Analysis finds TV buyers steered to costlier LCDs
- 4 Yahoo CEO remains upbeat despite lackluster 2Q
- 5 Yahoo settles with Icahn to avert August showdown
- 6 GM researches high-tech windshields to aid vision
- 7 iPhones hot even in places Apple has yet to reach
|
|
|
