Windows XP Availablity?

[Brandon]

So today is June 30th. I thought all the retailers like newegg and such were supposed to stop selling them? I was wondering if I should buy a couple copies to have on hand? What do you guys think?

[Jm Boyd]

They can continue to offer the copies of XP that they still currently have in stock…but when those are gone that’s it.

[Crgky127]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

Us little guys can still use OEM cds until next year.

[Wheelie]

Up till the 30th you could get installed on a PC for no extra charge. Now it means Dell can charge you $100 to downgrade to XP.

[gunslinger]

Most of my customers are being forced into Vista now anyway. As for my personal system, I'll be running XP Pro on it until something better comes along.

[starfireone]

Given a preference I go for XP over Vista. But MS needs to boost lagging sales of Vista and this is there way to do it. The good news is that critical support from MS for Windows XP is good until 2014.

[rsavoia]

If your customer purchases a PC with Vista pre-installed they can still exercise their downgrade rights without having to pay the extra $100 to Dell AFAIK. They are charging the extra C-note for customers who want Windows XP pre-installed. Personally, think Dell is taking unfair advantage of their customers. No surprise there.

[Wheelie]

Originally Posted by rsavoia

If your customer purchases a PC with Vista pre-installed they can still exercise their downgrade rights without having to pay the extra $100 to Dell AFAIK. They are charging the extra C-note for customers who want Windows XP pre-installed. Personally, think Dell is taking unfair advantage of their customers. No surprise there.

If you do not have Dell deliver it with XP already installed the bummer is that someone has to spend a couple hours reloading the PC with Windows XP. So the $100 downgrade fee is worth it to me because I can be on-site making my hourly rate as opposed sitting in my shop losing revenue doing a free reload. Therefore, I simply will pass that cost along to my customers so the net effect is a $100 price increase to now keep XP (which is more stable, more compatible, and faster than Hasta-la-Vista).

[Wheelie]

But now that I think about it. Don't you have to buy the "downgrade rights" in order to maintain your warranty and to be "legal"? I think the answer is ya

[Artimus]

You need a copy of Vista Business OEM or Vista Ultimate OEM.

Home Basic and Home Premium do not qualify. These two editions are most likely what will be on your residential customers' computers.

Basically, your home users are out of luck. Businesses are ok. People with a ton of money (Vista Ultimate) that could already afford to buy a boxed copy of XP are ok.

I've yet to see a legit copy of Vista Ultimate on any of my customer's machines.