"Ditch XP for Vista," begs Microsoft

In Thursday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches Microsoft cajole and plead with IT customers to stop using Windows XP. Not to mention the oh-so-hysterical Cake Wrecks...

Eric Lai reports:

Microsoft Corp. [is making] its best case as to why corporations and large organizations should consider upgrading to the Windows Vista operating system, even as its successor Windows 7, looms ... At more than seven years old, [Microsoft] described Windows XP as being on "life support" because of Microsoft's plan to cut mainstream support in two months.
...
[These] arguments flesh out the same ones made earlier this month by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who said enterprises that continued to hold on to XP would get "hell" from employees running Vista and Windows 7 in their leisure time.

Joseph Tartakoff summarizes:

Microsoft's guidance for businesses already moving to Vista is straightforward: Continue.

For companies still running Windows 2000: Hurry up and install Vista because Microsoft's extended support of Windows 2000 runs out in mid-2010.

Microsoft's Gavriella Schuster pops in to say, "Hi":

With the current state of the economy, I understand that many companies are scrutinizing IT budgets and doing some “belt-tightening” ... the reality of customers’ deployment projects will typically take them 12-18 months of planning and testing before operating system deployments can begin.
...
Make sure you taken into consideration the risk of skipping Windows Vista ... You may find your company in situations where applications are no longer supported on Windows XP and not yet supported on Windows 7. You will want to take time to evaluate Windows 7 just as you evaluate any new operating system for your environment.

Tom Chamberlain scoffs:

Microsoft Just Has No Clue ... Schuster clearly thinks her customers are so stupid that they won't recognize a painfully tactless ploy to sell an Operating System that no one is interested in.
...
Newsflash: Right now there is not one vendor I've spoken to, not one, that has any plans to stop supporting XP. They'd have to be fools to even consider it ... Honestly the whole post was offensive. Beyond the fact that she's speaking to IT people as if they were 5 year olds she's giving advice that is clearly in her company's own best interest while pretending to have altruistic motives.

Lane "FlyingMongoose" Babuder connects:

This comes in light of the fact that Microsoft has an internal policy that it will not support major Windows Software versions more than 2 versions old, example: Windows XP was released Microsoft no longer supports Windows 98, Windows Vista was released, Microsoft no longer officially supports Windows 2000.

While it may no longer officially support Windows 2000, since numerous businesses and individuals are still making use of the old operating system, Microsoft still sends out updates for major security updates, but nothing more.

Benjamin J. Romano waxes cynical:

Of course, with Windows sales in the tank last quarter, Microsoft has every incentive to push Vista, the operating system it has in the market now, rather than Windows 7.

And finally...

• Cake Wrecks
  

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• IBM floats big blue clouds
• Google PowerMeter... err, powers your power meter
• Kindle 2 to fan flames for e-books?

Buffer overflow:

• Human Nature: LoJack for People
• David Pogue: At TED, Virtual Worlds Collide With Reality
• IEBlog: I found a web page that doesn't work, now what?
• Mike Masnick: Disappointing: Mozilla Siding With Bogus EU Antitrust Action Against Microsoft
• Layer 8: Last call: Anheuser-Busch IT guy tossed into prison for computer theft
• Michael Bullock: Cisco Takes on HP and Others in New Data Center War
• Coding Horror: The Ferengi Programmer

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• David Ramel: Clicking your way to clinical confusion
• Matt Peckham: PlayStation Home Developer Lineup Tops Two Dozen
• Michael Horowitz: Some quirks with Windows Update
• Preston Gralla: Microsoft's biggest challenge: All netbooks all the time
• Seth H. Weintraub: Google Ink rears its head
• SJVN: Silverlight, via Moonlight, comes to Linux
• David Murphy: Intel to launch 32-nanometer CPUs by September 2009
• Mike Elgan: New rugged smartphone has lifetime warranty
• Mark Everett Hall: What clouds are made of
• Eric Lundquist: Broadband access: $9 billion or $50?Douglas Schweitzer: Solid state hard drives are a double-edged sword!
• Shark Tank: It's all in how you ask
• Shark Bait: Phishing for users

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.