We’ve sort of been following the saga of Windows XP for some time now.  Clearly Microsoft would prefer all users to move on up to Windows Vista.  But for various reasons (mostly bad reviews and XP loyalty), a lot of users have resisted.

The availability of XP on new computer purchases has been reluctantly extended by Microsoft a few times already, and they were set to shutter it this month.  And whether it was due to user petitions or simply basic business math… Microsoft has decided to extend XP’s life yet again with a last minute stay of execution from Governor Gates.

Actually, they’re extending its availability through 2010–when the next Operating System from Microsoft (currently called Windows 7) will be released.

That’s right.  They’re going to let you buy XP all the way up to when Vista’s new baby brother arrives.

But… there is a catch (isn’t there always a catch?).  You can only get XP on new machines if you’re buying the lower-end computers.

From the article:

The extension Microsoft granted to XP for these low cost laptops, or netbooks, covered machines that have no more than 1GB of RAM; a hard drive up to 80GB in size; a processor running no faster than 1GHz; a screen no larger than 10.2in (25cm) and no touch screen.

So far Microsoft has laid down no specifications for the low cost desktops, called nettops, but it said it was working with 20 PC makers on these machines.

So, basically, if you want to buy a really slow computer that might have been top of the line 8 years ago, you can still get XP.  Sweet! It’s really kind of a bittersweet victory, though, isn’t it?

But seriously, if all you use your computer for is surfing websites and checking email, then you’re probably the target market here.  If you want to watch DVDs or play video games or do much in the way of multi-media… you’re stuck having to upgrade to Vista–which really isn’t as bad a thing as you might think.

New reports today suggest that, having walked away from their proposed purchase of Yahoo, Microsoft has turned its affections toward Facebook.

But wait–there are also reports that they’re trying to buy AOL.

Or not. Some reports are suggesting they’re still after Yahoo.

Man, does Bill Gates have some money burning a hole in his pocket or what?

Am I the only one starting to see Microsoft as the high school senior who just got $1000 in graduation money and can’t decide on what unnecessary & useless thing he wants to buy first? I mean, Yahoo, AOL, and Facebook are three very different companies… with three very different customer bases.

But they’re also very large companies.

Maybe Microsoft just wants to make a big splash. Maybe they’re more like the school bully who reigned for years until a new bully (Google) moved to town and starting stealing his press. So the first bully starts beating people up with vigor, left and right, just to make sure no one forgets that he was there first.

I’m not sure why anyone would be interested in buying AOL–I don’t even know what they do anymore.

I half expect to see headlines this afternoon like “Microsoft Submits Bid to Purchase NFL” or “Microsoft in Talks to Buy China.”  Personally, I’d rather see Microsoft take the billions of dollars they’re dying to throw away on some huge merger and instead spend it on, oh, maybe making Vista run faster.

But that’s just me.

XP users are a passionate bunch. 

While not yet at the discipleship level of, say, Apple fans, the XP-loving crowd is getting more vocal and organized by the day. 

You see, Microsoft is set to discontinue the 6-year-old OS in June of this year, and it will then no longer be available for purchase (off the shelf or pre-installed on new PCs).  For those not yet ready to embrace Vista, the looming retirement for XP is cause for concern. 

Vista has been plagued by bad reviews, from experts and users.  The biggest complaints are about Vista’s steep hardware requirements (it’s got more bells and whistles, so it needs bigger and faster hardware to run), incompatibility issues with some common software (such as the occasional crash of IE when trying to open an Adobe PDF file), and the annoyingly frequent security warnings. 

For some XP fans, those adjustments are just not worth the switch.  After all, they say, XP has been one of the most reliable and secure operating systems Microsoft has ever produced.  It’s the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” argument. 

Of course, once XP goes away, so will a lot of the official Microsoft support for it, such as security patches and system updates–but Microsoft has already said that support and updates will continue for XP through April of 2009. 

The movement’s unofficial leader is Galen Gruman, who started the website SaveXP.com.  The site has an online petition that asks Microsoft to extend the life of XP (something the software giant has already done before).  So far, over 140,000 people have signed the petition.

But Microsoft, so far, has no comment on the issue, except to issue a standard-sounding quote that says they:

“…will continue to be guided by feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs.”

The SaveXP folks make a decent point about the majority of Windows users still running XP.  From the article:

Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP.

Gillen said efforts like Gruman’s grass-roots petition may not influence the software maker, but business customers’ demands should carry more clout.

“You really can’t make 69 percent of your installed base unhappy with you,” he said.

Well, that’s all well and good… but if 69% of PC users are still on XP… then where are their digital signatures on the petition?  69% of Windows users would come out to a number in the tens of millions–140,000 signatures then represents a sad minority. 

So are XP users simply not aware that their favorite operating system is about to become extinct?  Have they not heard about this petition?  Or could it be that they are maybe just… ambivalent?  Unconcerned? 

The current target for the release of Microsoft’s next OS (Vista’s successor) is 2010, so this battle over XP and Vista is likely to end soon enough either way. 

But plenty of XP fans are fired up right now… hoping to keep it around for those next two years until Microsoft can release another–hopefully better-received–OS. 

My two cents?  I recently bought a new Dell laptop, and chose to get one with Vista pre-installed.  So far… no complaints. 

I learned how to turn off the nagging security warnings (and yes, they are annoying… until you turn them off).  I haven’t had any crashes of any programs or files.  Sure, I bought a machine that can handle the hardware requirements (and then some), so maybe I would have more issues with a tinier processor or a lot less RAM.  But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed Vista. 

The visual bells and whistles that the added hardware makes possible are quite slick (preview images on task bar mouse-overs, sweet transparency graphic effects, etc.). 

I think Vista was a bit more of a mess when it launched last year, for certain.  But now that we’ve passed the Service Pack 1 landmark, the Windows updates and patches will only make it more secure and more efficient. 

So while I may be in the minority, I’m not ready to call Vista a waste of time.  I would even go so far as to recommend it.  And I loved XP–loved it!  But after six years, and with Vista improving by the day… maybe this is a case of people just not wanting to change. 

I would love to know what some of our readers think… those still using XP and those who have made the switch to Vista.  Please feel free to let us know what you think below.  And if you’re still an XP devotee, then by all means… go let your voice be heard.