When Windows XP Goes Away, HP Thinks Businesses Will Start Buying PCs Again

Business Insider ^ | 06/15/2013 | Kevin McLaughlin

[SeekAndFind]

Microsoft was hoping Windows 8 would be such a hit with enterprises that they'd stop using Windows XP, an aging operating system that debuted in 2001. That hasn't happened, but HP thinks enterprises will have no choice but to upgrade to new PCs when Microsoft stops releasing security fixes for XP next April.

"We think this will bring a big opportunity for HP," Enrique Lore, SVP and GM of HP's business PC unit, said in a press conference Monday on the eve of HP's Discover customer conference, as reported by Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau.

Lore said 40% to 50% of businesses are still using PCs running XP. But HP isn't assuming they'll upgrade to Windows 8 PCs.

John Tomesco, an exec in HP's PC and printers group, told IT World Canada's Nestor Arellano that businesses could choose Windows 7—which he described as "a very popular OS"—or Windows 8, depending on their needs.

Microsoft has been trying to get XP users to upgrade for several years now. But Windows XP still had about 38% of the worldwide PC market in May, according to NetMarketShare.

Enterprises will have to upgrade before next April because that's when Microsoft will stop pluggin security holes in XP. Many will choose Windows 7 because they don't want to train employees to use Microsoft's new Metro interface in Windows 8.

[Zeneta]

It’s funny how Mister softy finally built something that actually works !!!

And, abandoned it for what “they” thought people wanted.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Neighbor had an Acer with similar issues, ended being a hardware problem(bad GPU/motherboard).

[Pontiac]

I have been working on Windows 7 for two years now and have freezes just about daily on practically every ap I run.

I will never buy a Windows machine again.

I have an old Power Mac that has run nearly flawlessly for me. Unfortunately Apple no longer supports the OS and because it is a IBM mother board I can not upgrade the OS.

So I have told the wife that in the near future we will be getting a new Apple. Probably a Mac-Mini. I just can’t justify the cost of a Mac Pro

[The Great RJ]

I recently rebuilt my desktop and installed Windows 7. I am very pleased with its stability and features and won’t be missing Windows XP. I have tried Windows 8 and find the learning curve quite high. Things are very different than previous versions of Windows and I will not be in any hurry to upgrade to Windows 8.

[fremont_steve]

Really - REALLY! OpenVMS was killed last week! I guess you missed it’s obituary!

[867V309]

I was "forced" to buy W8 because most all the new notebooks have it, and getting a similar new W7 notebook would have cost me hundreds more. I think W8 Pro allows you to revert to W7.

The Metro(sexual) start screen is Fischer Price, but can be configured to be somewhat useful, though it takes some work. Feel free to delete the crap you don't want. W8.1 is rumored to bring back the traditional start button, which would correct a huge mistake.

That being said, W8 shuts down and boots fast. It has a traditional desktop, and you can toggle between it and Fischer Price with the Windows key. God mode is useful. W8 Home lacks the group policy editor and virtual machine, but if you need to run XP on your W8 Home, this page will save your butt: http://lifehacker.com/5965889/how-to-run-windows-xp-for-free-in-windows-8

[Lancey Howard]

I’ve been using my Dell w/ XP for - I dunno - 8 years? At least?
It’s going nowhere.

[Nowhere Man]

XP is so much better and easier to operate next to Vista and Windows 8 that I will keep my XP. It is a Jewell. I would guess that the kids will like Windows 8 because it looks so much like a game and they can’t easily hit the wrong key and mess things up because everything is so hidden.

It seems like it is so easy to screw up what you're doing in Windows 8. My mother is fighting breast cancer and the home nurse comes weekly to change the dressing on her picc for chemo. The home nurse brought a trainee with her and he was using the laptop/tablet PC and the was Windows 8 was set up, even if you move the arrow over a button, it "clicks" and there was a screwup because of it but it was later resolved.

I have two Vista systems and one XP system, I think I'll stick to Vista/XP for now.

[fremont_steve]

Welcome to Free Republic!

[molson209]

Just install Linux ,there are some amazing ones out there

[Ron C.]

"...never bought a factory built computer for myself"

Same here. I've been buying boxes, and all 'puter innards since they became available. Oh, wait, I did buy (at awful high prices) one of the first rat-shacks to hit the market.

But after that, it has always been cheaper to build my own box, putting in the best available, often far better than name-brands.

But, I soon found that in order to help others with their machines I needed to know about the MS op-systems, so began to buy and install those, at exorbitant prices.

Now I've quit doing that - was bad enough.

[Nowhere Man]

Windows 8 is a natural progression in the post-literate society. We first moved from command line driven operating system shells to visual icon driven programs, where you can’t talk directly to the OS, to where, most of us being illiterate we see nothing but pitchers in Windows 8 tablet interface. progres. Give me the command line.

Makes you wonder if we are headed into an idiocracy.

[Chode]

i really don't think they care what people want... it was just time to obsolete everything and make more money by making everybody buy new stuff... but that's just me

[Lancey Howard]

If Microsoft was smart they would release a super-fixed, super-SECURE, super ...whatever... version of the exact same XP they sold a decade ago. Sell it to oldsters like me. Tons and tons of them.

Sell the latest gadgety kid’s thing to the kids.

Microsoft CAN have two products at once, I believe.

[meatloaf]

OpenVMS? Is EDT still available for PCs? I had a copy years ago. It was a real timesaver in many ways with the control K feature.

[longtermmemmory]

The issue is not the individual unit merits.

It is the value in bulk.

20 employees with 20 xp boxes

vs

10 employees with 10 win8 boxes

= same amount of production.

I have no reason to change or upgrade.

especially with idiot companies like adobe pushing subscription bs.

[OneWingedShark]

Really - REALLY! OpenVMS was killed last week! I guess you missed it’s obituary!

You fail to realize the depth of my hatred of *nix.
I always feel like the "OS" is "out to get me" (or at least make life difficult) — I loathe the C philosophy it's built on, too. (No, everything is not a stream of bytes... and whose idea was it to have shit like joysticks [dev/js0] be on the filesystem!?)

[Semper911]

You will be quite happy with the MacMini. It’s a fine machine for home. Don’t hesitate on pulling the trigger — you’ll be glad you did.

[Zeneta]

I was really reluctant to buy an HP machine in the first place, but the price was right.

HP/Compac, crap. Nothing but problems, and I’ve owned many of them.

I’ve got an HP DV-7-1245DX.

Lost my touch pad early on, later lost the keyboard, and had to remove the battery constantly to get it to work. I resigned myself to using a USB mouse and keyboard in order to use the POS.

I’d like to restore this machine because it has a lot of stuff I don’t want to lose.

[The Cajun]

If Microsoft was smart they would release a super-fixed, super-SECURE, super ...whatever... version of the exact same XP they sold a decade ago.

If only they would!

I use XP and my wife uses Win 7.

I do like Win7 some, but XP is just a lot slicker, logical, faster, etc, etc to me for what I use a computer for.