The end of XP is just right around the corner. As of June 30th Microsoft’s most successful operating system, Windows XP will be discontinued. Both Hewlett-Packard and Dell will be selling windows XP as a downgrade option. The computers will be Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that have been factory downgraded to Windows XP at the customer’s request. When the customer buys a PC from Dell or HP it will have Windows XP but already has a Paid-For upgrade to Vista when the customer chooses to do so.

HP said that they will be doing this beyond XP’s deadline until July 30th, 2009. Dell also said that they are planning to do the same idea as HP but are unsure of the time. Other PC manufactures are exploring other options to sell Windows XP beyond the deadline according the CNET News.com

There are limits for the PC manufacturers to have a Windows XP option, Only Windows Vista Business and Vista Ultimate will have downgrade rights. Retail stores are finding it difficult to sell windows XP as a downgrade option, because they can’t show Windows XP being installed on one of the display computers. But they can offer windows XP as a downgrade option if the customer’s requested to do so.

Lenovo and other PC manufacturers are selling Windows Vista with a Windows XP recovery disk so if the customer wants to have Windows XP installed they just have to pop in the XP Recovery disk and reboot the system and install Windows XP. Lenovo said they will be selling XP beyond 2009, more than likely up till 2014 when Microsoft stops supporting XP. These are just latest ways of getting XP on retail machines.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has left the door open a crack for windows XP, But Steve Ballmer said “XP will hit an end-of-life” “we have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments”

But users still want to keep Windows XP on the market and InfoWorld is starting a petition to save Windows XP. You can visit this Partition and sign it: D Below

http://weblog.infoworld.com/save-xp

I should get shirts made that say “Save Windows XP, Sign the petition at InfoWorld!” And give the URL.

So spread the word and maybe we could save XP for a little longer!