[ossig] The XP alternative for Vista PCs - Security - News - ZDNet Asia

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http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62032542,00.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnd

*The XP alternative for Vista PCs*
By Ina Fried 
<mailto:zdnews-asia at cnet.com&Subject=Feedback%20on%20%27The%20XP%20alternative%20for%20Vista%20PCs%27>, 
CNET News.com
Monday, September 24 2007 08:16 AM

*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 program 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.

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"That's going to help out small- and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu 
marketing manager Brandon Farris told CNET News.com.

Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its 
business models. "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," HP 
spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to 
gauge how high customer interest has been. "Since we've only been 
offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share 
on demand."

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 program 
<http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/VSTA-DWNGRD.html> on its IBM 
ThinkPad Web site.

Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden 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 
<http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62006866,00.htm> 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 January 
31 <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx>, though 
some PC makers would like to sell XP machines for longer.

"We're all lobbying for it," Farris said.


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