Posted on 07/30/2008 11:26:26 AM PDT by Salo
Business PC buyers are still overwhelmingly opting for XP, computer giant HP has revealed.
HP's revelation, made at the launch of a new range of business notebooks, flies in the face of Microsoft's persistent PR claims that Vista has sold tens of millions of copies — and is selling at a faster rate than XP ever did.
However, HP explained how Microsoft is coming up with these "Vista" sales figures.
"From the 30th of June, we have no longer been able to ship a PC with a XP licence," said Jane Bradburn, Market Development Manager, Commercial Notebooks for HP Australia.
"However, what we have been able to do with Microsoft is ship PCs with a Vista Business licence but with XP pre-loaded. That is still the majority of business computers we are selling today."
So, in other words, Microsoft counts a sale for Vista, even though the computer manufacturer has really sold XP.
Rob Kingston, Group Manager of Commercial Product Marketing for HP said, "Looking into the crystal ball, I don't think businesses will see much value in upgrading to Vista until late next year, and even so, Microsoft will probably have come out with something else by then."
HP's revelation casts doubt over Microsoft's claims about how many copies of Vista have been sold, as HP has made clear that although a sale may be counted as 'Vista', it may actually be XP.
Microsoft has told HP it will no longer be able to do this after January 2009, but HP's Jerel Chong, Market Development Manager, Commercial Notebooks, said the number one PC maker was already in discussions with Microsoft about how it could push this deadline back.
He said it actually suited HP well only selling Vista licences but actually being able to ship either Vista or XP on the computer. "There's a lot of extra administration that goes with offering both XP and Vista on every computer, and it's all in one now," he said.
He said the feedback he was getting from customers was that they simply hadn't had the time to do full compatibility testing of all their business applications with Vista yet and that the high time and monetary cost of rebuilding system images wasn't worth it while the economy was down.
Tech ping.
They should have named it, Windows ME 2007
Fixed it, no need to thank me.
Ping.
Bring knee pads...
Interesting.
The hd shot craps on my laptop.
I figured it was worth 50 bucks to replace it rather than buy a new one with Vista.
Nobody I asked said Vista provided any advantage to them so........
About 4 hours of work, but worth it IMHO.
Has anyone other than Microsoft released a Vista only program yet other than cutesy screen gadgets? It wasn't all that long ago when developers finally abandoned Win 98 compatability and started requiring XP.
Bring knee pads...
Dang!
I have one steaming pile of crap desktop with Vista. A driver can’t be found for the new printer I bought at the same time. It runs hot, shuts down when it overheats. Just a general pile of junk.
Big box store screwed up my order for an XP desktop replacement and a laptop and now can’t find the machines I want with XP.
So, after being with Microsoft since the beginning of time to run my small office, I’m switching to a Mac.
If I put out a piece of junk like Vista, my company would be dead.
Microsoft’s determination to force Vista down the throats of its unwilling customers has a lot to do with DRM.
Windows BOB 2007.
you forgot windows 2000, which was a big improvement over 98, but you are spot on.
vista BLOWS.
Windows 2000 Pro was a very good OS.
Wow! Almost a half hour and the Microsoft vendors haven’t showed up and flooded this thread with multiple “Vista is really wonderful, you are just too stupid to realize it!” or “Vista is great, it’s your fault for not spending $1000s of dollars & weeks of you spare time upgrading your brand new computer” posts.
Must be a record
Windows 2000 was an update of NT, not 95, 98, Me, or any other OS designed for home use.
Heh. Microsoft just recently announced that it will be ending support for Windows 3.11 embedded.
Because moving from one version of Windows to another just means you have a whole bunch of new bugs to learn how to get around.
Still is. My old desktop keeps a' chuggin'...
But mostly I'm using my XP laptop which is a lot newer.
“Windows 2000 was an update of NT, not 95, 98, Me, or any other OS designed for home use.”
So is XP
aside from a couple of minor annoyances, I’m actually enjoying Vista
What?!?!
XP and Vista both are as well.
W2000 is where I stopped. If I upgrade again it will be to Linux.
I have XP at home and my primary server at work, and Vista Business 32 bit on my work station. They are connected via speedstream router/modem. Mostly they get along, there are some glitches.
Not the most honest marketing approach by Microsoft, but at least people are getting a free Vista license with their copy of XP so that if Vista ever becomes a better product for them they can switch over.
It would be nice if they released more accurate sales numbers, but at least customers are getting both what they want now, and what they may or may not want in the future.
I have no reason to change, at least not yet. Of course, most of the time I don't design nuclear weapons or do animation for Hollywood movies.
I’d be willing to risk Vista, under the same conditions I’d risk any other Microsoft OS:
After the first several million paying beta testers have run it through its paces and the 3rd service pack has been released.
DING DING!
We have a WINNER!
I got a new work laptop on June 29. Vista was deliberately removed and replaced by XP on my machine.
I don’t see any signs that we’ll ever switch to Vista. It would be far too expensive and complicated to re-qualify all of our software for a bug-ridden operating system that is not always backward compatable. If Microsoft ceases to support/provide XP, some enterprising new company(s) are going to do a lot of business, at Microsoft’s expense.
I've got the Vista 64-bit at work and the only problem I have encountered is with a customized application developed for HP that runs off of iTunes (different registry location - the application won't recognize iTunes) ... and then everything I open in Vista by default is super tiny despite the settings I've applied. I'm getting too old for these teeny tiny screens.
I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I have always known Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and 2008 to be on the NT line. Maybe I’m missing something.
Vista is going to end up on the short list of impossibly stupid business blunders that make it into all the B-school marketing textbooks. Right up there with GM’s attempt to market the Chevy “Nova” in Mexico (few Spanish-speaking people were interested in buying a car that advertised itself as “no va”, though plenty had a good, deep belly-laugh at it), and the infamous “New Coke”.
The kneepad comment was unnecessary - his calluses will do just fine. ;-)
A cool thing that XP does that I never saw work on NT 4 or Win2000 is that XP sees when someone adds a shared printer to a PC somewhere else on my network...and updates *my* XP desktop to show that newly added printer as an available option, automatically.
So I don’t have to consciously do anything to XP to get it to recognize a new printer. And of course, unlike Vista, XP has all of the drivers for existing printers.
So if I want to use the new printer on someone else’s desk...I just choose that new printer.
No installation. No driver issues. It’s automatically available as a printer when I clink “Print.”
And it all happens in the background for me.
In contrast, Vista won’t even *see* some Win2000 and NT 4 machines on the network, much less that those PC’s added their own shared printers.
But XP does.
XP sucked when it came out, but it finally got service-packed into goodness. Eventually, Vista will get good, too, unless MS does WinMe it and replaces it with Windows 7(?). At this point, it’s pretty badly tainted, so MS might not have much choice.
Vista IS wonderful. The box is just perfect for leveling one of my old bookcases, it crushes JUST enough without the box failing.
The software inside is a steaming pile of . . .Obama. . .
Plenty harder. But his skull is thick and hard and numb enough that he usually doesn’t notice.
I didn’t want the guy to get Kneelaria too...
An off topic tech question if you will. Is it possible to make it look like someone sent you an email (they know the email address), when in fact they didn’t? I’m asking because we have a dispute with a customer that insists they canceled an order by email, they forwarded said email for proof, but we have no record of it. We don’t delete emails for 12 months.
Thanks.
I like the Vista interface much more than XPs - very pretty :)
Welcome to the light! :)
Yeah - you can screw around with the headers to make it look like almost anything happened. Is it possible that he legitimately sent the email, but that you didn’t get it? Like it was caught up in a spam filter or something along those lines? Frankly, it seems like it would be more trouble to fake the email.
Actually, the first thing I do with any XP I work on is take it out of Teletubby Mode - I prefer the classic interface.
That's one reason I will NEVER upgrade.
I have a friend that is 71 years old. I sold him a six month old Gateway laptop as his first computer. No sooner had the warranty run out, the MoBo fried. Yes, I felt badly about it and offered to replace the laptop, but he wouldn’t hear of it, he wanted to buy a new one.
So, he buys new Dell, a 1525 I think. It came with Vista. He was confused with it, his software didn’t run on it. His aircard didn’t work with it. And so it went.
I called Dell and explained the problem, and emphasized that he was 71 and had less than a year’s experience with computing. I asked if they would exchange Vista for XP. No. Could I pay them to sell us XP. No. But then, something else happened. The fella on the phone says to me, in a very strong, almost threatening, way...and if we find out that you put XP on it, you’ll not have a warranty on the machine. We ONLY warranty that purchase with Vista installed!
Even longer story made sort...I ordered him a Sager, sans OS, and installed a new OEM WinXP on it. I sold the Dell at a loss of $400.00 just to be rid of it.
Dell will not get one more dime from me or anyone I have any influence over. Period.
Yes it is. Stop being stupid. Open a command prompt and read the first line.
NT was 3.5x and NT 4.x
Windows 2000 was Windows 5.0
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
Windows 2003 Server is 5.2.3970
“Windows 2000 Pro was a very good OS.”
Probably their best Windows OS ever.
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