Microsoft will continue supporting Windows XP — at least on low-power laptops like the Eee PC — for several more years, potentially as late as 2011.
That’s an unusually long stay of execution for an OS whose successor - Vista - will have been on the market for four years or so by then.
Heck, Windows 7, the successor to Vista, will probably be out in 2010, so XP will be two generations behind by that point.
I think Vista has been unfairly maligned - it runs fine on relatively new PCs, seems a bit more secure than XP (albeit more annoying in how it constantly pesters you to confirm every click and keystroke) and, yes, is prettier to look at.
That said, Microsoft obviously bungled Vista’s launch, and XP has become such a stable workhorse of an OS that the average consumer (and certainly the average business) doesn’t see a compelling enough reason to upgrade.
Despite the blah reviews and retail launch fiasco, I have no doubt Vista will end up being a profitable product for Microsoft.
In a year or so, you won’t be able to buy a new PC with XP pre-installed, and the vast majority of consumers aren’t going to be interested in mounting a guerilla war against Vista and Microsoft. So they’ll sigh and move on.
But when Vista finally expires and we move on to Windows 7, don’t expect Microsoft to give Vista much of a eulogy.
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