By Ian Fried, 24 September 2007 08:16
NEWS
While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.
The programme applies only to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions, and it is up to PC makers to decide how, if at all, they want to make XP available. Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.
Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris said: "That's going to help out small- and medium-size businesses."
HP also started a programme in August for many of its business models. A spokeswoman said: "For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge." She added it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been, "since we've only been offering it for about a month".
A Microsoft representative confirmed there were changes made over the summer to make it easier for customers to downgrade to XP. Under Microsoft's licensing terms for Vista, buyers of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate Edition have always had the right to downgrade to XP but in practice this could be challenging.
In June, Microsoft changed its practices to allow computer makers that sell pre-activated Vista machines to order Windows XP discs that could be included inside the box with PCs, or shipped to customers without requiring additional activation. Microsoft noted in a statement that neither it nor the PC makers are "obligated to supply earlier versions to end users under the end user licensing terms".
While there is always resistance by some to move to a new operating system, there appears to be particularly strong demand, especially from businesses, to stick with XP.
One of the challenges, for both businesses and consumers are Vista's hefty graphics and memory needs.
Lenovo, for its part, has details for its downgrade programme on its IBM ThinkPad website.
A Dell spokeswoman said Dell has been offering businesses that have a Premier Page set up the option to order systems with XP, Vista or Vista with XP downgrade rights. There is no extra charge for the downgrade rights. "We've been offering it and we're still offering it," she said.
HP, Gateway and others also still sell machines with XP on them, nearly a year after Microsoft first started offering Vista to businesses. Vista went on sale broadly to consumers in January, at which point XP largely disappeared from retail shelves.
However, demand for XP has remained. In April, Dell brought XP back as an option even on consumer PCs.
There is an issue, though, over how long PC makers can keep selling machines with Windows XP as the preloaded operating system. Microsoft is requiring large PC makers to stop selling XP-based systems as of 31 January, though some PC makers would like to sell XP machines for longer.
Farris said: "We're all lobbying for it."
Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Anthony Hunt
Having used Vista Ultimate for two months now, I am planning my XP reinstall. Also, having experienced Office 2007 (Ultimate) I am looking into using Thunderbird for my email (I already use Firefox).
Basically everything runs slower. Mysterious lock ups, total lack of drivers and drivers that don't work.
It's been two months of suffering. I miss my scanner and webcam and Palm and I hate my games running slower.
2. David Fletcher
If they instead offered an upgrade to something like Kubuntu Linux that would make far more sense.
3. Chris Goodman
Simpler would be to include a dual operating choice with both Vista and XP installed.
I am now getting used to Vista and am learning to like it but I find it a nuisance to have to use another machine with XP to run a lot of my software.
4. Jay
looks like M$ shot themselfs in the foot! lol!
5. Roger Huffadine
Demand for XP is so high that ebay prices have increased for XP packs with a Certificate of Authenticity.
If Microsoft stick to their position of Vista or nothing then, as availability of XP dries up, all they will do is proliferate unlicenced copies of XP.
Sadly MS don't have the balls to make both XP and Vista widely available in retail outlets.
6. steve Johnson
I put together PCs for friends and lately have installed Vista on 3 machines - I hate the nag screens they slow everything down so much. Also some of the defaults now seem a bit bizarre - but in common they are all to take to control away from the user and place it in the Op system. Funny just as the world becomes more computer literate and better able to make the choices themselves. Also the inability to make it fully able to run in compatibility mode so run legacy software I think shows clearly Microsoft's ability to write code.
Whereas Microsoft was our saviour by introducing standards across a widely disparate market its fast becoming the problem as it tries to control everything you do.
I don't like and don't want Vista I just wish there was an alternative.
7. anonymous
Having recently dipped our corpoate toe in the water with Vista, it is understandable why many companies will want to stay with XP for the forseeable future. The difficulty of configuring Vista and the lack of tools, for example, for re-configuring disk partions, all serve to make to make life difficult. Why can't I relocate user profiles entirely and simply to a different partition without complex editing of the registry? Why does Vista refuse to shrink volumes that have 120Gb of free space? Plus the lack of Vista certification for some of our commercial apps and the need to run legacy code all make Vista a corporate nightmare.
After weeks of wasted effort, it looks like wiping off Vista and installing XP.
Will I re-visit Vista? Well, maybe next decade!