Many not yet giving up on Windows XP
Microsoft is removing Windows XP from stores in an effort to hook users onto Vista. But many users are still attached to the old program, and Janet Babin reports problems with Vista mean XP might still be around for awhile.
Boxes of Windows Vista software sit on a store shelf. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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Scott Jagow: Microsoft is yanking Windows XP from the store shelves. After today, you won't be able to get the shrink-wrapped software at most stores. Microsoft is trying to nudge people toward its new operating system, Vista. But for a lot of people, they might only go kicking and screaming. Janet Babin reports from our Innovations Desk at North Carolina Public Radio.
Janet Babin: For a lot of computer users, Windows XP is like an old shoe. Stable, reliable, comfortable. Not so with its new system Vista, that's been on PCs since January. Users still complain about the glitches.
Twon Tran is a technology analyst with Morningstar:
Twon Tran: Windows Vista has been somewhat buggy, and Microsoft is still working out the kinks. Right now, there's some portion of customers though that just want XP because they're familiar with it and it works.
Microsoft received so many complaints about Vista that the company's pledged to continue servicing the old XP system through 2014.
Ninety percent of the world's computers run on Windows, and Microsoft collects a toll from all those PCs. But it still wants to keep customers happy. Especially now that you can access word processing applications -- like Google Docs -- right over the internet. No shrink wrap required.
I'm Janet Babin for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Encinitas, CA, 07/01/2008
I've been using Windows since Win286 came out in the 1980s as both a user and a C/C++ developer. We have 4 computers in the house which until recently were 2 XP and 2 Vista. Vista is such a resource hog, is so slow, and has caused so many problems (akin to the initial release of Win 2000 which was a disaster), that I have reverted one computer to XP and am preparing to revert the last hold out. What a mistake getting Vista was. With Microsoft's products, the rule seems to be to wait until the second service pack before trying it out.
From Irvine, CA, 06/30/2008
Windows 3.1 was like a breath of fresh air in 1992, I just remember smiling ear to ear because it worked. XP has provided me with countless hours of computing bliss with a low frustration factor. MS has got to realize that people have choices today and we will go with products we want to use, rather than ones they try to force us into using.
From Silverthorne, CO, 06/30/2008
After years of poor Microsoft operating systems, XP has been wonderful. It actually works well. Vista is still a half finished product, so why switch?
From Boise, ID, 06/30/2008
My computer tech told me how many Vista's he has removed from PC's, at the request of customers, and installed XP. That made me decide to stay with XP.
From Greenport, NY, 06/30/2008
A PC user since 1989, I tried Vista frequently on my wife's laptop. The time has come for me to buy my first Mac.
From Dover, OH, 06/30/2008
If Vista is Microsofts only choice, I'll be doing the switch to linux. I have no idea why MS is shoving this up our bum's.
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