Windows XP will survive till 2010, but only for ULCPCs

Last year, Microsoft had outlined a deadline to retire Windows XP, but that deadline got extended upto June 30th, 2008. As the deadline was approaching, InfoWorld made some effort to stop the deadline by launching a campaign called “Save XP“. As of March 27th, 106,491 people signed their petition, pleading Microsoft to stay the execution of Windows XP. But Microsoft has made it clear that they’ll go ahead with their plans, and Windows XP won’t be available after June 30th.

However, the sales of ultra low cost PCs such as ASUS Eee PC and Everex CloudBook are booming, not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries as well. This clearly shows that students and first time PC buyers are opting for ULCPCs rather than high-end mobile computers. Manufactures of such low cost computers are unable to meet the system requirements needed to run Vista. If Microsoft retires XP, these manufactures have no option but to switch to Linux, which has been known to runs quite elegantly even with low hardware specifications.

So, Microsoft has come up with a decision that they’ll extend OEM sales of Windows XP Home Edition for ULCPCs until 2010 or one year after the availability of the next operating system from Microsoft. They want first-time PC buyers and students to get a Windows experience. Otherwise, an entire generation of new PC users will move to Linux, and most likely, they’ll stick to it in future as well. It certainly makes some business sense to promote XP on ULCPCs. What are your thoughts over this?

Source: Microsoft PressPass