XP to Expire Soon
June 18th will be the last time to purchase a Dell Laptop, Desktop, or workstation with an OEM Windows XP License. The new update was not in Dell’s hands, but because of Microsoft’s Windows Life-Cycle, Direct OEM and Retail License Availibity for Windows XP will End-OF-Life Starting June 30th.
XP however will not be completely phased out of dell, but you will have to purchase Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate with a downgrade service to Windows XP Professional.
What does this mean? To quote Dell.com: “When you are configuring your system online or through the help of one of our sales experts, you will have the opportunity to select which operating system you would like on your PC. When selecting your operating system, you will see an option called “Genuine Windows® Vista Business BONUS” and “Genuine Windows® Vista Ultimate BONUS.” With these options, you may purchase the licensed rights to Windows Vista but have Dell factory install Windows XP Professional. You will also receive a backup media disc for Windows XP Professional as well as the media for Windows Vista so you can upgrade when you’re ready. Furthermore, with these options Dell will provide technical support for the factory-installed Windows XP Professional image and your licensed version of Windows Vista.”
If all that holds no interest for you then you can still downgrade on your own. But to me this looks like we are seeing an end to XP with the powers to be telling us it’s time to upgrade to Vista. Vista is a lot better than it used to be with the new Service Pack 1 updating the older Vista, not to mention all of the great security features that only ship with Vista. In addition we will start to see XP being phased out at an even faster pace once programs start to come out that will no longer be compatible with XP.
We may not like it, but sometimes change is necessary.
