Windows XP: What’s really happening on June 30, 2008
In a thinly-veiled publicity stunt, Infoworld is seeking sign-ups for an online petition to “help save XP” by sparing it the fate of “being discontinued on June 30, 2008.”
There are a couple of problems here. First, Windows XP is not being “discontinued” on June 30. Instead, as of that date — unless the software maker issues another reprieve like it did in September 2007 — Microsoft will no longer make XP available to OEMs for preloading and/or via retail sales.
Users still will be able to get XP preloaded on new machines from white-box vendors/system builders through January 31, 2009. And Vista Business and Ultimate customers with volume-license contracts can still get XP via their “downgrade” rights (as far as I can tell from attempts to decipher Microsoft’s fairly convoluted documentation around this issue).
