Windows XP continues in undeath

Robert Hallock (Thrax) The chaps at InfoWorld have started a petition to save Windows XP. It's gained >30k signatures in < 7 days.

January 18, 2008 10:51 AM ET in News,

What do you do when a company’s best operating system is doomed to die in less than five months? You start an internet riot, and that’s just what the lads at InfoWorld have done by rolling out a Save Windows XP petition. The rather amazing part is that it has gathered more than 30,000 petitions in less than six days.

XP is dead. Long live XP.

16 Comments:

  1. What good it will do I have no idea, but I did "sign" the petition.

    Makes me wonder if MS has considered revamping XP. No, SP3 doesn't count. Perhaps something as simple(?) as modest graphical interface changes and an Aero-type effect?

    Skinny chance in Hades?

  2. How about DirectX 10?

    -drasnor

  3. Has there been a real world benefit actually observed with DX10? All I've read about is theoretical benefits.

  4. Crysis, UT3.

  5. Yes Sir, I understand there are games coded for DX10 now, but does it make the gaming experience (hate that term) better? This is not rhetorical, I really don't know.

  6. Yes Sir, I understand there games coded for DX10 now, but does it make the gaming experience (hate that term) better? This is not rhetorical, I really don't know.

    I would say yes.

  7. Long Live XP PRO.... I wish they would just fix the security issues and offer some sort of skin that gives aero capabilities to XP (that is if you need/want the eye candy. Of course that does not fit in with the marketing departments orders ...orders which must be obeyed at all times....
    XP does stand for Experience, so I'm guessing that the Windows Xperience ends at the end of support for this particular OS...and if Vista is any sign of future windows "innovations" , that very well may be the case.
    Vista SP1 better be good.

  8. Yes Sir, I understand there are games coded for DX10 now, but does it make the gaming experience (hate that term) better? This is not rhetorical, I really don't know.

    The problem is that some of the latest batch of games are coded for only DX10 (e.g. Halo 2 PC). This trend can be expected to continue.

    -drasnor

  9. I've only played about 5 minutes of Crysis so I can't offer an opinion on the game as to whether DX10 adds any benefit, but I have played Halo 2 for PC and quite frankly I think they can keep DX10. I see no difference to the graphics. The load times are longer and the HDD seems to spin continuously.

    My PC isn't a CPU crunching, bone crushing behemoth that eats frame-rates for breakfast, but it's no slouch either. I expected more from DX10.

  10. LEt me put it this way: What they do in Crysis could not be done in DX9.

  11. Microsoft should keep Windows XP available until at least 2009, not end the majority of sales on June 30 as currently planned,
    said analysts at Gartner and The Burton Group.

    "A good rule of thumb in any OS transition is that you have to have the original and new products available for at least two years to handle customer [migration] needs,"
    said Richard Jones, a Burton Group vice president and service director.

    But Microsoft gave customers just 11 months in its original plan, in which new XP licenses would have ended on Dec. 31,
    and even the additional six months that Microsoft granted when it changed the date to June 30 is not enough, he said.

    Ref,
    Keep Windows XP until 2009, analysts tell Microsoft

    Save Windows XP! The clock is ticking

    Microsoft responds to Save XP petition

  12. The problem is that some of the latest batch of games are coded for only DX10 (e.g. Halo 2 PC). This trend can be expected to continue.

    -drasnor

    So you are saying that Halo 2 will not play at all on an XP machine or even a machine with Vista that only has a DX9 capable card such as a 7900GTX? If so, they don't want to sell many copies of their game then. Because there are many, many machines out there that fit the above criteria and probably more so than fit their Vista/DX10 card scenario.

  13. While the common denominator is certainly not DX10, that is exactly the case, Mud. There are games in development/released for windows that will only be playable on DX10 capable systems.

    Halo 2, however, will run on Vista with a DX9 card.

  14. Boy, those game developers will surely be cutting their own throats then. What's Vista's present market penetration now, a year since first release? Maybe 5% of the computers. And unlike with XP, you don't see many people upgrading to it on their present systems much becuase (A) XP works just fine for them, which wasn't the case so much when XP was replacing that dreadful WinMe and (B) The hardware requirements of Vista seem to be much steeper for a computer than XP was back in it's first year of introduction. Hopefully some bright programmers will be able to port DX10 to XP unofficially.

    BTW, I do have Vista and while it's workable I rather the performance I get out of XP on the same system (my laptop).

  15. We're talking like, .5% of games, here. Those games are backed by Microsoft studios, too. Shadowrun, Halo 2, and Alan Wake are the three that I was thinking of. Not sure if there are any others, but I know those were the larger of the games being pushed for DX10. ...especially Alan Wake.

    Almost positive it is impossible to put DX10 on XP - though why that is I can't remember at the moment. Something to do with the backbone of it I think...

  16. i think Steam stats showed 19% vista systems so far, so its more than 5%

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