Windows XP Lives, Thanks to Linux

CWmike writes "Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols puts his thumb on what really happened to spur Microsoft's change of mind on sparing Windows XP: The smashing success of Asus and others' Linux-powered UMPCs and mini-notebooks caught Microsoft completely by surprise. It turned out people wanted inexpensive, hard-working Linux laptops rather than overpriced, underpowered Vista PCs. If anyone thought this was a flash in the pan, that Asus just hit it lucky once, they haven't been paying attention. Intel is putting big bucks into its Atom family of processors, which have been designed for UMPCs, or as Intel would have it, MIDs. Intel has encouraged both the computer makers and the Linux companies in its Moblin initiative to run desktop Linux. The Linux companies have picked up on this. Canonical, Ubuntu's dad company, has come up with an UMPC-specific version of Ubuntu 8.04, the latest version of this popular Linux distribution, for Intel Atom UMPCs. At Computex, by my count, more than a dozen new UMPCs were announced both from vendors you've never heard of and from big name companies like Acer and Asus. You can also expect to see Dell releasing its 'mini-Inspiron' with Ubuntu by June's end."

Re:Caught between a rock and a hard place?

[rodgster]

I haven't checked recently, but I thought MS was going to remove XP from all distribution channels June 30th, 2008.

There's No Surprises

[mpapet]

Only complacent management at Microsoft.

Here's the loong tale of how this stuff happens.

This is how it works people. Smaller companies hit on a good idea all of the time. Every once in a while, the idea appeals to a very large group of consumers. Big companies just wait. Sometimes for quite a while.

All big companies, Microsoft included, have one guy running around corporate going "This UMPC thing is going to be big! We need to target it." This guy is completely ignored because there's no market data and Management pretty much ignores him because he's saying stuff like this all of the time.

Meanwhile, Asus figured out how to deliver the goods on the cheap. Microsoft's Asus rep ignored Asus's info about UMPC's because Microsoft's rep is used to waiting for corporate to deliver the pinata filled with money.

When Asus gets things rolling, Management panics because their high-priced market research has just come back with a new report saying cheap UMPC's are growing into a huge market. Some ass-kisser in Marketing is then tasked with stomping on the Linux Distro by preparing a pinata filled with money to deliver to Microsoft's Asus rep.

There's more waiting. More market research. More waiting. Presentations. Approvals. Meetings. More waiting.

Microsoft corporate delivers pinata to Asus rep. Microsoft's OS is then available as a SKU worldwide ~1-3 years after Asus's product launch.

Re:Caught between a rock and a hard place?

[Lumpy]

At least that's the press release.

Real reason? Vista sucks. Almost EVERY business I consult for ask for me to get them copies of XP for any new PC they get that has Vista on it.

Business and most people DO NOT WANT vista. That is what is keeping XP alive. MSFT refuses to admit it so they use another reason.

Re:EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.

[felipekk]

I have a Windows Mobile powered PDA and I love it. I frequently have to solve problems on Blackberries and I would hate my phone if I had half of those problems. iPhone is not a valid contestant right now because of no Exchange support. Plus, I'm on CDMA, so...

Re:EEEPC

[oodaloop]

Uh, no. There are no military-grade UMPCs available. Try that EEE mod then drop from shoulder height on concrete and let me know how it works out for you. Toughbooks get dropped out the back of C130s and survive. The EEE would probabky shatter if it fell off my desk. And that's not even getting into the water, dust, shock, freezing tests.

Working in the intelligence community, having deployed to Iraq et al, and being a former Marine, I've seen a lot of the systems we use. For rough field use, there's the toughbook, and pretty much very little else. There have been some attempts at deploying a rugged PDA-type device to troops, but technical difficulties and cost, among other things, have kept them from gaining widespread use. I have seen some, uh, unconventional forces use the Sony Vaio Micro PC 280P in a padded case. For light field use, it gets the job done, but it's hardly rugged. I happen to have one myself, and I wouldn't imagine dropping it or getting it wet.

I hope as these UMPCs or MIDs become more powerful and more popular, we'll see some rugged versions designed for military use. There's so much we could use them for. It might even spur the use of Linux in DoD, godforbid.

Re:EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.

[Andy Dodd]

Actually I know quite a few people who love Windows Mobile, including myself.

Many of those people are hardcore Linux users on the desktop, too.

The iPhone is a toy. It's shiny and cool but it isn't very flexible. My AT&T Tilt blows it out of the water in every aspect except user interface, and the UI of the Tilt is good enough for me, especially considering the significantly better functionality.

Android looks like it's going to cater to the Lords of Lockdown (carriers).

It's really sad that the most open mobile phone platform out there is Windows Mobile. Everything else is a nightmare of signed applications and lockdown.

(Yes, Windows Mobile has application signing, but every WM device I know uses this for warning purposes only, not lockout. In addition, WM will remember when you say "yes, I want to run this unsigned app" and not bother you again.)

Re:More like a stay of execution..

[homer_ca]

Depends which EOL date you're talking about. XP license availability was supposed to be discontinued 6/30/08, but Microsoft extended that to 1/20/09 for System Builders [microsoft.com] and probably longer than that for UMPCs. XP Home, Pro and MCE are all supported with bugfixes and security updates through 4/8/14 [microsoft.com]. There's another good 6 years left in XP.

Re:Just keep stalling..

[meringuoid]

I was never sure if WinME was a SP for the 9x line or a beta for XP

It was the last of the 9x series. Windows XP was delayed again and again, as you'll recall. '98 was pretty much '95 with FAT32, and even with the SE update it was showing its age. ME was a stopgap to fill the space between Win98 and WinXP.

Of course all the talent at the time was working on Windows 2000 and on XP - the NT lineage which Windows follows today. So ME was a half-arsed mess of an OS, and it's only a mercy its lifespan was so short.

Re:Thing is, Vista sells more in a day than linux

[Anonymous Coward]

I have and Ubuntu is a lot faster to install on a new 1200$ PC.

Re:One Pair of Glasses

[Goobergunch]

The fact that there is only a very minute chance that you managed to post your message without relying on some version of Linux sort of technically means that Linux *IS* related and germane to a whole lot of things in the world today.

In fact, given that Slashdot runs on Linux [slashdot.org], I'd say that it's impossible to post a message here without relying on Linux.

Re:EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.

[limaxray]

I have the same phone and IMO the phone is great except for WM sucks big time. I like OSX on the iPhone, but at the end of the day it lacks a lot a very basic functionality that WM has. When Android come out though, I'll be on that bandwagon in a heartbeat

Anyway, I strongly suggest looking into flashing it with a new radio and WM6.1 ROM. You can enable all sorts of great functionality like GPS, EVDO Rev A, and ICS (if you have VW and the bastards disabled it). Check it out here [ppcgeeks.com]

Re:Computers that just plain work

[evil_aar0n]

I'll second that. I ran my own business for five years supporting Windows, primarily, and a custom-app of Linux for one client, though I was into Linux when Linux wasn't cool (circa '94-ish). And, having since become a corporate prostitute - paperwork of running my own business was too much hassle - working on Solaris apps, I've dumped Windows for Mac. The interesting thing, and I noticed this the other day, is that I don't have to be an expert to get the Mac to do what I want. It just does it - except for Numbers, which is really weird, coming from OpenOffice. I totally don't care what goes on under the hood, anymore, really; I don't have to. "Edit the registry"? What's that?

Call me a fanboi, if you want - though you're wrong - but I can focus on what I need to do, rather than the stupid platform. And installing software on a Mac is light years ahead of Linux - sorry, guys, I know that's sacrilege on this site. Drag-and-drop. Bing! Done.

Anyone know if the Hackintosh will support UMPCs? I use a MBP, but I'd like Mac OS on one of those itty-bitty PCs.

Re:Not even close, try in 8 hours as many as Linux

[hostyle]

Have you tried ordering from the likes of Dell recently? Just go through the motions, no need to actually buy. You can still get XP, but its specified as "Genuine Windows® Vistaâ Ultimate with XP Professional installed". Says it all about Vista sales figures as far as I'm concerned.

Re:Windows is over.

[abigor]

twitter, you work at a university (LSU). You have no idea what businesses use and what they pay for Windows and Office. You also have no idea of the number of massive deployments or the conservative nature of large corps. Going on Slashdot and making broad, ridiculous claims and insulting people who actually know what they're talking about isn't going to convince anyone.

get the summary correct...

[EdelFactor19]

did he really say "dad company"? I know what he meant, and I'm sure plenty of others did but the expression is "Parent Company" this has been the case long before the concept of gender neutral writing and PC-ness were as rampant as they are today.

and seeing as Ubuntu isn't a company this is only made more inaccurate. Taken straight from the horses mouth: About Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a community developed and supported project. Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users around the world.

Ubuntu will always be free to download, free to use and free to distribute to others. With these goals in mind, Ubuntu aims to be the most widely used Linux system, and is the centre of a global open source software ecosystem.
About Canonical Ltd

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, is a global organisation headquartered in Europe committed to the development, distribution and support of open source software products and communities.

Canonical staff and software have deep roots in the open source community and a proven track record of success in the commercial software industry. Team members include leaders from the Gnome, Linux, Debian and Bazaar open source projects, helping Canonical to stay at the forefront of the rapidly changing open source software world.

World-class 24x7 commercial support for Ubuntu is delivered through the Canonical Global Support Team and its worldwide network of partners.

Canonical currently sponsors the development of a number of important technology products. See sponsored projects for further details.

Re:The market did wake up. M$ is Over.

[kesuki]

"..or Firefox which is starting to chip away the monopoly/OEM acquired marketshare of IE?"

There fixed that for you, netscape, owned by AOL Time Warner whatever is basically dead, as now even AOL is shipping firefox, instead of netscape. both were based off gecko, and firefox is to date developed by a grant from netscape that was paid for when AOL bought out netscape as one of the deal clauses.

it's a complicated thing, but right now google is paying for more of firefox's development than AOL is, because firefox is independent of the company that AOL acquired known as 'netscape'

Re:The market did wake up. M$ is Over.

[jonbryce]

Firefox is funded by their advertising revenue from Google. If you look at their accounts, they are actually pretty profitable.

http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/documents/mf-2006-audited-financial-statement.pdf [mozilla.org]

At 2006 (2007 is not published yet):

Surplus for the year $28m, total unrestricted funds $58m.

Re:EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.

[dave420]

Sure, if you listen to the sensationalist, bandwagon-leaping-on news stories about Vista raping cats and giving people AIDS, then you're going to get a very jaded view of the OS's adoption. I doubt you've read many articles covering people who are very happy with Vista, yet those users (and those stories) are out there. Those folks will probably buy Windows again. Vista has been doing rather well in stores, too. Sales have picked up rapidly, and couple that with the number of companies who are buying Vista VLKs (cue the tried and tested "ooh monopoly/vendor-lock-in/FUD-victims/linux-haters/whatever" response), and non-hardware-bundled Vista sales are doing very well. Those folks will probably buy Windows again, too. It is sustainable growth. You might not think it, if all you read is the aforementioned sensationalism, but that doesn't change reality. Making massive generalisations like "their customers are massively pissed" betrays the tenuous foundations (maybe wishful thinking) your argument is based on.