For PC users, the countdown to Windows 7, Microsoft’s next operating system, starts now.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant today is discontinuing widespread distribution of its long-running Windows XP, leaving most consumers buying a new computer stuck with the much-maligned Windows Vista through at least 2010.
Vista has been the subject of continuous drubbing in popular TV commercials for Apple’s Mac line of computers, and users themselves complain it is prone to crash.
Most retailers have been pushing Vista on consumers since its release 18 months ago, and Microsoft has sold more than 140 million copies of the operating system to date.
But that’s a small fraction of the estimated 1 billion Windows users worldwide. And many large corporate users of Microsoft’s software, including Intel, are yet to upgrade to Vista, with no immediate plans to do so in sight.
Tech consulting firm Evans Data Corp. recently reported that only 8 percent of North American software developers are currently writing applications to run on Vista..
PC makers like Dell, blocked from pre-installing XP on its computers, will still be able to re-sell it as a “downgrade” to customers buying Vista for an extra $50. It will also still be available on budget-oriented laptops that don’t have enough power to run Vista.