Sounds like they needed a face-saving way of keeping XP on sale.
Microsoft Taking Official Petitions to Keep XP Alive
If you can remember back a few weeks, Steve Ballmer went on record saying that Microsoft would consider extending the life of Windows XP if enough people asked for it. After all, many people don’t want to upgrade to Windows Vista because they are perfectly content with XP. The problem was there was no way to ask for it. Sure, you could sign one of the many online petitions, but Microsoft considers those “non-official complaints” and the rest of us simply consider them silly.
Well, word has been passed down to the tech support teams (and then on to Neowin) that they are to begin logging any calls that come in for the sole purpose of requesting an extension to the retail life of Windows XP. The calls will be logged and, if enough complaints are filed, Microsoft will consider giving XP some more time (no pinky promises, though).
If you wish to file an official petition yourself, you can simply call the Windows XP Home Edition support numbers for your country and let the operator know that you wish to file an official complaint.
► United States: (866) 234-6020
► United Kingdom: 0870 60 10 100
► Canada: (800) 936-8479
#20 Steve S said,
“Many of the smaller application products like ATM’s and Point of Sales Terminals use Windows XP Embedded which does not have an end of life date yet. These devices often are low power fan-less computers that would not work well with the higher CPU requirements that Vista has.”
Thanks for clearing this up for me. I actually work as an engineer for a Sun Microsystems product so I don’t know all the details for those products. I will talk to the engineer tomorrow over the Point of Services machines and ask her if she has heard anything about the future of XP on them.
Bah, let Microsoft go down the tubes with Vista. Why help a company that has dedicated its life to destroying open standards. If Microsoft made PC’s, every model would have proprietary ports on the back that change constantly.