It's IT Blogwatch: in which Steve Ballmer offers an olive branch to Windows Vista haters who want to keep XP -- or does he? Let's see what the collected wisdom of the blogosphere reckons. Not to mention, you need to dress a cat and you will say to a cat together with a family, "It has changed just for a moment"...
Gregg Keizer presents a sober account:
Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said there is a chance the company could reconsider its decision to begin retiring Windows XP on June 30 ... Previously, Microsoft set June 30 as the end of XP for computer manufacturers, and the date when it would pull the OS from its retail list. Small shops and individuals pegged as "system builders," however, will be able to preinstall XP on assembled machines for another seven months ... the second time in as many weeks that Ballmer hinted at a possible reprieve for XP ... however, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the company said that Microsoft's plans remain "unchanged." more
Preston Gralla is his usual self, natch:
Does this mean that Microsoft is throwing in the towel on Vista? ... Given the number of enterprises that have so far refused to switch to Vista, and show no signs of moving to it, don't be surprised if they start demanding that XP not go into end of life. And if what Ballmer says is true, Microsoft will listen to them ... With the life of XP extending, and the Windows 7 release looming, that may leave Vista out in the cold, with enterprises waiting to upgrade until Windows 7. Ballmer at times is a loose cannon, so it's hard to know whether he'll really back up what he said in Belgium ... I guess it's just one more example of Ballmer suffering from foot-in-mouth disease ... Microsoft, though, today backed away from Ballmer's statement ... "Our plan for Windows XP availability is unchanged" ... In other words, ignore Ballmer. He's the crazy aunt we hide in the attic. more
Emil Protalinski adds:
As [June 30] approaches, Vista-haters are yelling louder and louder about how terribly unhappy they are about XP's drop-dead date. Now, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has given them what they want to hear; or so they think ... Note that Ballmer did not say "XP support would be extended," or "we'll bend over backwards to keep the minority happy." Ballmer did not give any guarantees. All he did was unlock a door that remains closed ... Microsoft does have a couple of good reasons to keep XP availablefor businesses ... there are still a lot of businesses that use software that only XP can run ... as companies find themselves needing to buy new hardware because of refresh cycles before they're ready to go Vista, there's an argument to be made that Microsoft should keep XP around. more
John Murrell begs, but not for forgiveness:
We have located the peripatetic Microsoft CEO today in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium ... Its hard to tell what Ballmer might be waiting for in the way of feedback. Ever since the expiration of XP was announced, theres been a constant and rising wail from businesses and consumers who dont want to give up a tried-and-true OS and upgrade to Vista. And Microsoft has encouraged hopes by doling out small exceptions along the way, giving XP Home support a couple of extensions and deciding to allow XP to continue to be sold on certain budget laptops. But this teasing is getting old. If its over, its over break it off cleanly and be done. more
Vasanth Sridharan considers the lesser of three evils:
This is an embarassing concession on Steve's part. But it's less embarassing than tales of people paying extra to downgrade their Vista machines. Or even worse switching to Macs ... Do you hate Vista? You're not alone, but you might be in luck. more
Jeffrey McManus goes back to basics:
Last time I checked pretty much every company is in business to sell customers stuff they actually want ... Vista is becoming an evolutionary dead end ... the part of the Windows franchise known as Vista is already finished ... Microsoft will have to extend support for XP until Windows 7 is in its first service pack ... if Windows 7 goes into beta next year and it sucks even a little bit less than Vista, IT evaluations of Vista will be a waste of time. more
Christopher Neher offers his own take:
Delusional, mouth-powered-bulb-lighting, one-lucky-dorm-assignment, coattail-riding, monkey-boy-dancing, tongue-flapping, unqualified, bad-decision-making, crazy-ass ... Typical CEO-speak nonsense. And, to anyone who says that Bill Gates is smart, we need only offer up his choice of CEO in rebuttal. We'd only be wrong if Gates' secret goal is to see the company decimated within his lifetime. more
And finally...
- The tailor of a cat CAT PRIN [hat tip: Jez Nicholson]
Buffer overflow:
- Vasanth Sridharan: Has Nintendo Crested Already?
- Brian's Brain: Triple Core: Can AMD Even The Score?
- SearchEngineWatch: Dogpile.com Updates Search Algorithm, Design and Content
- Layer 8: Google, IBM and NSF offer up $5M for large-scale computing research
- The Old New Thing: User interface code + multi-threaded apartment = death
- Timothy Lee: Changing The Internet's Architecture Isn't So Easy
- Jeremy Reimer: Between black and white: the state of grayware on the PC
- PCMech: Is The Mac Overpriced?
Other Computerworld bloggers:
- David DeJean: Wanted: a clue on Windows licensing
- Heather Havenstein: Are enterprise mashups the Excel of our era?
- SJVN: Sorry, I'm not feeling social today
- David Haskin: Is Motorola the next Palm?
- Mark Hall: Hyping Hyper-V
- David DeJean: Bad Microsoft, good Microsoft
- Seth Weintraub: Microsoft backing down from Yahoo purchase? (Updated)
- Mike Elgan: The new best cell phone?
- Douglas Schweitzer: Trojan horses still saddled up, alive and kicking
- Shark Tank: Who says nobody does what IT asks?
- Shark Bait: That's NOT what we need
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
- Apple goes back to PowerPC? (and 41 hours)
- The OLPC resignations continue (and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)
- Velociraptor bites into hard drive market (and Error'd)