It looks like Microsoft has heard the cry of the Customer again and is extending the OEM period of windows XP through May 2009.
Microsoft system builder partners who’ve been feeling queasy about the impending Jan. 31, 2009, deadline for selling PCs with Windows XP pre-installed can now breathe a bit easier, as Microsoft is giving them a way to obtain XP licenses through distribution after the deadline.
In an e-mail to ChannelWeb, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the existence of a flexible inventory program that will allow distributors to place their final orders for Windows XP OEM licenses by Jan. 31, 2009, and take delivery against those orders through May 30.
At Amazon Aric Annear has a theory why this is the case:
Some are speculating that Microsoft is extending this deadline to ease the overlap into the release of Windows 7, slated to drop in mid-2009, rather than risk losing Vista-averse customers in the downtime between XP’s demise and Windows 7’s arrival.
Of course if windows 7 is the dog Vista was then I might see my grandchildren buying XP systems.
Full disclosure: I am typing this on a Vista system that I “upgraded” from XP two years ago.
You know Microsoft actions concerning Windows XP remind me of the old Robin Williams live performance mocking Libya and the “line of death” back in the 80’s. Maybe he can modify it as Bill Gates with the a “deadline of death” skit.
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