Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Windows XP Lives! Again!!

Thanks to some heads-up research by Michael Pietroforte, also knows as 4sysops in the Twitterverse, we got word today that the life of Windows XP has been extended again! (Good job, Michael!)

He points to an eWeek story which says Microsoft will allow HP to ship computers with XP on them through April 30, 2010. That's good news for many network administrators who want to delay hardware and software changes that may be necessary when updating systems from XP.

Speaking of Windows OS updates, BTW, I've been using Windows 7 beta as my exclusive PC OS since early January this year, and have found it to be solid. I'm looking forward to seeing the final release candidate!

5 comments:

David S. said...

I saw the tweet from 4sysops too :-) I too have been running Win 7 as my primary OS (at least on my personal laptop) since it was released as a Beta and love it. I’d like to skip Vista (which I like just fine on my work desktop but only have a few users on) and hit Windows 7 full force. Sadly, the cost will keep me from doing that since I only have Software Assurance on newer machines but I may still upgrade what I can when it comes out :-)

Nick Nicholaou said...

I agree, David. Many in enterprise IT are going to leap frog Vista... kind of like they did with DOS 4.x and Windows 98/ME.

Ross Gile said...

Read your article. You are running a BETA VERSION OS as your primary OS? Have you been checked by a doctor recently? Are you feeling good? You need to bicycle more with your wife.

I used to know a Nick Nicholaou who hypnotized me on never using beta versions of anything – because we “need to have OTHERS beta test software”.

We are in changing times and this one takes the cake!!!!!!

David S. said...

Well, assuming you're a client of Nick's, he's just one of the OTHERS beta-testing it for you :-D That's what IT guys do after all. But seriously, I strongly prefer Windows 7 Beta to Vista SP 1 although I've not had terrible experiences with either. The RC and RTM versions can only get better.

If I had the licenses and Windows 7 Beta didn't expire, I'd probably contemplate deploying it to at least several users right now.

Gardner recommends companies not wait for Service Pack 1 to deploy Win 7 already, still this early. Windows 7 is kind of like "what Vista should have been" so it's not new as much as a refinement of Vista anyway. But very good refinements!

Nick Nicholaou said...

Well said, Ross! Beta versions shouldn't be deployed in church or ministry offices. Teetering on the bleeding edge is what we do for our clients and The Church at large!

When DOS 5.0 was released, we adopted it almost immediately! It was what DOS 4x should have been. The same was true with Win95... it was what Win98/ME should've been. Microsoft is repeating history in that it Win7 is what Vista should've been, like David said.