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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

Will Linux force Microsoft to give XP Pro more life?

21 comments

TAGS:deskop, Linux, Microsoft, Seven, Windows, XP
IT TOPICS:Emerging Technology, Hardware, Linux, Mobile & Wireless, Operating Systems, Windows & Microsoft

Microsoft has been forced by Linux's popularity on UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) to extend the life of Windows XP Home. My only question: How long will it take before Microsoft buys a clue and gives XP Pro a new lease on life as well?

The boys from Redmond seem to be in denial. Let me go over the fundamentals for them. 1) Vista is a flop; 2) People want comparatively low-powered, inexpensive computers; 3) Linux runs greats on these PCs; 4) Nothing Microsoft has, except for XP, will run on these PCs; and 5) Microsoft seems to think that only consumers will want these tiny laptops.

Wrong.

Business users are going to eat these PCs up. Intel estimates that 37% of its Atom-powered UMPCs will have Mobile WiMax on them. I can see businesses snatching these up as fast as they come out.

And, you know what? Every business is going to buy their systems, whether its from Asus, Acer, Dell or HP, will be running Linux.

Why? Because XP Home is useless on any kind of business network. Oh, there are ways to get XP Home on a serious domain or AD (Active Directory) network, but they break the network's security.

Desktop Linux, on the other hand, can fit right on any business network, no matter whether it's Unix and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) or Windows and domain or AD based.

Ironic isn't it? Linux-powered UMPCs will actually work better on Windows networks than Microsoft's offering. Like it or not, Microsoft is going to have to either give up on the small form factor laptop or extend XP Pro's lifespan as well.

I see Microsoft as being on the horns of dilemma. They can certainly keep selling XP. They'd just much rather be selling Vista. And, lately, it seems pretty clear to me they'd like to sweep Vista under the rug and replace it with Windows Seven. There's only one little problem for Microsoft. Seven, like Vista, appears to be another fat operating system. It's not going to fit on UMPCs.

Desktop Linux is the right operating system at the right time. Microsoft will be forced to go backwards. The next few years will see Windows rocked on the low-end by Linux and on the high-end by Macs.

Unbelievable? Join me as we go through the years together and watch it happen.

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Business Owners Are Looking For Mini-notes

Submitted by Orin on February 9, 2009 - 2:53 P.M.

How ironic I am out on the internet today looking for what this article is talking about. We are looking for some low cost mini notebook computers for field service personnel with Windows XP pro and integrated broadband but cannot fine them because of the Windows Vista Force-Feed going on. If Linux can motivate mfg to get drivers going I think Windows will be chopped off at the knees. Its time Windows had some competition. I think MS's pride is more valuable to them than their customers and that is the reason they do not throw Vista away. However, I cannot take my small company and try and hurt MS by lowering my pc abilities. In my opinion let the best OS win. Go Linux! I will help in anyway I can as soon as you allow me to. For now we are settling on HP2140 with XP-Pro downgrade option and external WWAN card. Plenty of good machines but they have Vista only in the minis that can run biz software. To my knowledge - Linux W/broadband wireless supporting our service software cannot be found at this time. As soon as it we will "gobble them up as fast as they come out" (as stated in article).

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UMPC/Cloud Model Will Make MS Irrelevant

Submitted by Simplicissimus on June 8, 2008 - 9:28 A.M.

I can't tell you how extremely happy I am to have my docs in Google Doc Land. There is absolutely no way I'm going back to having a different version of each document on 3-4 different machines (and another one on a jump drive). These little UMPC machines are more than adequate to allow me access to my docs.
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Now, having said that, I have to stress that Google Docs is not quite ready for prime time for most folks. The usability is not quite there yet. How long until it's there? Maybe a year. WiFi proliferation + cloud computing + ever-increasing desktop Linux quality will cook MS. Once the tipping point comes, it will happen quickly, my friends.

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WinXP Pro HP UMPC / UMPC Hype

Submitted by Anonymous on June 8, 2008 - 8:47 A.M.

WinXP Pro is currently available on the HP Mini-Note PC.

In spite of all the hype, UMPCs are still a teeny tiny niche. Due to lack of power, that's all they will be in the near future.

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I thought like this until I

Submitted by Anonymous on June 8, 2008 - 6:46 P.M.

I thought like this until I bought my Eee PC running Xandros Linux. I've been using various Linux distros in the past 11 years so this one did not make any difference. I have to tell you, though, that this is not a niche market.

I can do with that little gizmo as much as with a laptop. I took it to a library just to see how it goes. Here are the results:
1) network connectivity: awesome
2) writing documents in OpenOffice: awesome
3) keyboard touch and feel: more than sufficient. I have to be fair here. The keyboard is much smaller than your regular size but still workable.
4) screen size: small but one can get used to it.
5) coolness factor: awsome.

Some people were saying that iPhone was the next thing. I will disagree and say that ultra portables are. They are much more functional.

Providing you can hook it up to your regular LCD along with your keyboard, I will venture out and say that yes, it might potentially replace laptops and/or desktop for those who are not into heavy gaming/multimedia but simply use it as a 'tool'.

All in all, I am very impressed with my ultra portable subcompact PC :-)

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It's not Linux, it's that

Submitted by Chuck on June 7, 2008 - 6:32 A.M.

It's not Linux, it's that piece of crap called Vista that's doing it. More and more people are getting Vista shoved down their throats and are rebelling over it. They are willing to take the time to buy a new PC, pre-installed with Vista, and rip Vista out by the roots, hunt down drivers and install XP.

Microsoft has got to be aware of that.

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I concur. I bought a new

Submitted by Ed on June 8, 2008 - 1:43 P.M.

I concur. I bought a new laptop for my daughter, which had Vista, and I start from scratch using XP Pro. I had to make sure the laptop would support XP and it did. I did this at her request and she's not a techie.

Vista's a dog, requiring you to beef up the memory, if you want to run decent.

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Already replaced Vista with Ubuntu

Submitted by Knut Carlsen on June 8, 2008 - 9:54 A.M.

We have already wiped Vista out from 5 PCs and installed Ubuntu with XP running in Virtualbox for two applications we can't live without. But these 5 licences are all counted as sales in Microsoft books, and I guess we are not alone.

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think that only consumers...

Submitted by Feign on June 6, 2008 - 5:15 P.M.

I don't understand... It been my experience that consumers want the highest powered machines they can (or can't really) afford. Businesses want machines stripped down to the bare essentials.

Vista, it seems to me; like MAC OS X; is a consumer product... Of what possible value is Aero in a business environment? It may be "pretty", but if pretty mattered, would so many workers be slaving away in gray cubicles?

True, you don't need to install Aero - can't on 90% of PC's in offices today - but I ask: What's the point of Vista?

I've yet to see any real improvement in security in Vista vis-a-vis XP. So the user is asked "Are you sure you want to install "KeyLogger.exe" from BadGuys.com", 9 out of 10 will just click thru - Yup... Yup... Yup...

And yes, users should not have Administrator Rights, but my guess is that 90% of them do... Too much hassle running windows if they don't

So yes, if MS forces Vista on me (read: my clients), I will take a long, hard look at the alternatives - I'm doing that now, but so far the issues of converting to Linux (Apple is no more that a MS proprietary wannabe, in my view) outweigh the pain of remaining with XP - just barely.

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Some of this will depend on the business

Submitted by Brian Masinick on June 6, 2008 - 9:07 A.M.

Steven, I think that the financial services company where I work would be delighted in some ways to ditch Microsoft altogether. At one point, I heard a rumor that the company founder said, around the time that Vista was introduced, "I hope we never have to pay for one of their corporate licenses ever again!" A couple of years later, we are still using XP on desktops and Windows 2003 Server on servers that are Windows based.

We have a decent Linux presence. It is mostly displacing high priced Sun servers. I've seen advanced development projects to look at Linux in thin and thick client desktop replacements, but so far, nothing like it has trickled into the every day workforce. I can tell you this, though. Microsoft had best not force our company's hand to abandon XP. If that happened, I could see a major effort greatly stepped up to look at other alternatives. Not only would the licensing costs for such a change be astronomical, the cost of changing the way we do business could be even higher.

I have little direct impact on this, but I sure hope we do indeed move to a different platform on at least a percentage of our desktops. Web centric platforms have the best chance of moving that way, and the advanced development efforts are taking that into account.

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Boots Were Made For Walkin'

Submitted by nickjacket on June 6, 2008 - 12:51 A.M.

I just installed service pack 3 onto my XP Pro machines so Redmond must be still with us.
Vista Business came with my Vaio SZ750 but it also came with an XP Pro "downgrade" DVD that was cracked open less than a day after taking delivery 6 weeks ago.
Faster booting, nearly a third less memory used and a resident Twain that runs my old UMAX scanner were the first things I appreciated after dumping Vista with the "downgrade".
Linux may be a win-win for manufacturers and networking gurus but just try buying Linux ported Symantec and Adobe suites and it's like looking at Earth from a gas giant. Ubuntu looks promising but many job descriptions for business savvy PC users still carry the Windows brand.
As for Apple, no one is asking them the serious questions like why do only the most powerful Macs come with any business usable software? Garage Band is cute but it froze a brand new MacBook Pro here in the office while just sampling the Blues. How ironic.

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