Dell Brings XP Machines Back.

[SirNitram]

Link

Amid significant customer demand, the computer maker said on Thursday that it has returned to offering the older Windows version as an option on some of its consumer PCs.

Like most computer makers, Dell switched nearly entirely to Vista-based systems following Microsoft's mainstream launch of the operating system in January. However, the company said its customers have been asking for XP as part of its IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to help the company come up with product ideas.

"We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on its Ideas in Action page. Users get to vote on various suggestions, and the notion of bringing back XP got 10,000 "points," making it among the most popular requests but well below top picks such as adding Linux or OpenOffice.org to its PCs.

Windows XP systems became scarce, but not impossible to find, after Vista arrived. For example, Hewlett-Packard said it would continue selling XP on some machines aimed at small and midsize businesses, while CompUSA still stocks a couple of business-oriented XP systems in its retail stores. Lenovo has also continued shipping XP on many of its business systems.

Starting immediately, Dell said, it is adding XP Home and Professional as options on four Inspiron laptop models and two Dimension desktops.

Earlier this month, Dell added XP back as an option for small-business customers, but at the time, it said it would not add it back for home users.

"Dell does not have plans to launch Windows XP for home users as the preference, and demand is for the 'latest and greatest' technology, which includes Windows Vista," Tom West, director of small-business marketing at Dell, said in a blog posting at the time.

Analysts say Dell's move is not a good sign for Windows Vista.

"That there is remaining demand from some segment of (the) consumer market points to the inability of Vista to resonate with consumers," IDC analyst Richard Shim said.

There was an initial bump for Vista sales right after its launch, Shim said, but some of that may have been from consumers who delayed purchasing a PC late last year. Sales in the later part of the first quarter were less strong, he said. The overall response to Vista will become clearer throughout the year, he said.

Current Analysis research director Samir Bhavnani said most of the demand for XP he sees is from small businesses, rather than consumers.

"They know that XP works," Bhavnani said. "It's not that they don't want to upgrade to Vista. They just don't want to upgrade to Vista yet."

In a sense, the issue isn't the relatively small number of PC buyers demanding XP, but it's whether Vista is having any affect on the PC market as a whole.

In announcing PC sales data, Gartner said this week that Vista's launch "had very limited impact on overall worldwide shipment demand on a quarterly basis."

Bhavnani blamed some of the lackluster results on a lack of marketing, noting he sees more ads for Apple than for Vista.

"It's been a very soft launch," Bhavnani said. "I think you will see Vista create additional demand for PCs in the back half of this year."

Microsoft product manager Michael Burk said in a statement: "Dell is responding appropriately to a small minority of customers that had this specific request. But, as they have said before, the vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology, and that includes Windows Vista."

The software maker has said it will stop selling Windows XP to large PC makers by January. Smaller computer sellers, known as system builders, will be able to sell XP machines for an additional year.

In a statement last week, Microsoft said such a move is normal after a new operating system comes out.

"Windows Vista is safer, easier to use, better connected and more entertaining than any operating system we've ever released, and we're encouraged by the positive customer response we've seen to date," the company said. "It's standard practice to allow OEMs, retailers and system builders to continue offering the previous version of Windows for a certain period of time after a new version is released."

An interesting development in Vista's decidedly bumpy start.

[RThurmont]

This is actually slightly old news-the announcement of this came out a few days ago IIRC. However, it is interesting, in that it demonstrates just how terrified a lot of consumers are of running Vista. I don't recall any previous Windows release that was adopted with such little enthusiasm.

I personally really was looking forward to using some of Vista's features, but the lack of backwards compatibility, licensing restrictions, high cost, and mucho DRM have made it less than appealing from my perspective. As little as one year ago, I geniunely anticipated that I would be using Vista ATM.

[General Zod]

This is actually slightly old news-the announcement of this came out a few days ago IIRC. However, it is interesting, in that it demonstrates just how terrified a lot of consumers are of running Vista. I don't recall any previous Windows release that was adopted with such little enthusiasm.

Depending on what sources you go to, Vista is being rather rapidly accepted by consumers. Linky. So I don't think that people are exactly terrified of it.

I personally really was looking forward to using some of Vista's features, but the lack of backwards compatibility, licensing restrictions, high cost, and mucho DRM have made it less than appealing from my perspective. As little as one year ago, I geniunely anticipated that I would be using Vista ATM.

I've had very little backwards compatibility issues so far with Vista, and haven't noticed anything as far as DRM goes. There might be a few niggling hardware issues, but the blame can be equally spread between Vista and the hardware provider themselves.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I kind of hope they hang onto the XP option for a while, because when I finally get a new PC, I'd rather transition over from ME to XP rather than jump straight into Vista.

[General Zod]

I kind of hope they hang onto the XP option for a while, because when I finally get a new PC, I'd rather transition over from ME to XP rather than jump straight into Vista.

You're still running ME? You poor, poor bastard.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I got my PC literally a couple of months or so before XP came out. So yeah, poor bastard me...

Other than the occasional irritations, it doesn't give me a whole lot of trouble, though.

[White Haven]

Vista's compatibility issues are legion, from what I've seen with customers at work. It's an inspiring counter-example of how never, ever to release a new operating system. Let's see, you've got Roxio 8 incompatibilities, to tick off that section of customers, you've got Quickbooks incompatibilities, to piss off the small business sector, you've got various and sundry gaming issies including World of Warcraft, so the gaming community will tell you where to stuff it...

Yeah. I've built...two systems for customers with Vista since it became available. Out of dozens. It's great, Microsoft's drive to cram Vista down the world's throat is driving customers into our arms, since we don't care what Microsoft wants. I'm sure they looove our sales figures, too.

[Glocksman]

Heaven knows I'm not one to normally defend Vista, but most of my problems with it could be fixed by mature hardware drivers.
My other issues with UI inconsistencies could be fixed with a simple patch.
My gut feeling is that it'll be ready for primetime when SP1 is released, as the drivers will be more mature and MS will have patches to address the inconsistencies in the UI.
My big beef with Vista has more to do with Hewlett Packard's 'Fuck the customer' attitude WRT drivers for non-current hardware, and I can hardly blame Microsoft for HP's being run by fuckwads.

[Phantasee]

I'm always hesitant to switch to a new OS, especially if it's just been released. I'm not a get it right away kind of guy, I like to hang back and take a good long look at it.

I'm glad there is an option to get XP, at least now I can see if I want a new pc or not.

[Netko]

The main problem with this transition, unlike the previous ones, is that XP is a good, solid system that, at this point, just works. A lot seem to be forgetting that XP had the same growing pains (bad drivers, no drivers, compatibility) itself on launch, however that didn't matter because it was still an immense upgrade from the 9x line in terms of stability and usefulness.

And because XP was so good the expectations for Vista were high, and it doesn't measure up. Sure, it has some new nice things, and once the drivers get sorted out (which should already be done for current hardware but alas ...) there really is no reason not to go for it over XP, especially for a new computer. But, it doesn't really have anything killer to offer, and at launch it had XP RTM driver and software compatibility, while people expected XP SP2's. And thats hurting it right now, although not as much as some people would seemingly like, as noted above.

[Magus]

And because XP was so good the expectations for Vista were high, and it doesn't measure up. Sure, it has some new nice things, and once the drivers get sorted out (which should already be done for current hardware but alas ...) there really is no reason not to go for it over XP, especially for a new computer. But, it doesn't really have anything killer to offer, and at launch it had XP RTM driver and software compatibility, while people expected XP SP2's. And thats hurting it right now, although not as much as some people would seemingly like, as noted above.

That's a good point - but the inverse is also true. As long as XP can do everything I need it to with better reliability, I've got no reason at all to upgrade.

[Netko]

Hence the new computer part. By now, I'm firmly in the camp that its not worth it to pay for the upgrade (got mine free through MSDNAA).

But on a new computer where it costs equally to go XP or Vista? Go Vista - now and especially in a few more months when the driver situation should be fixed.

[White Haven]

I'd invert that, Netko. If you can go XP, which will do everything you want Vista to do, and do it with fewer software (not driver, SOFTWARE) compatibility issues, what's the draw to Vista? Congrtulations, you've just gotten your hands on a bouncing baby RAMhog that, essentially, is OSX layered over XP, with added compatibility issues.

[Netko]

Thing is, in time, the new interfaces in Vista will start paying dividends somewhere in the future and its likely that at a certain point, probably at a maximum as long as 9x hanged on , Vista will be required (and I'm not talking about marketing stunts like Halo 2). So its better as a long term investment to choose Vista if you plan to keep that computer for 3+ years.

If the Games on Windows Live and the easy-install method get popular (Halo 2 will be the first game using them) then the transition in gaming circles will be even faster. The fact that DX 10 is Vista only is an added factor for that.

So, sure, right now XP might be better from a compatibility standpoint, but the big question is how long will it continue to be such? With current computers having usage lives of 3-4 or more years, going now with Vista might be prudent. Hell, a gig of RAM is cheaper then a Vista upgrade ( ). And the software compatibility problems with Vista seem to be relatively minor, and, most of the time, have workarounds (since most of them happen because of UAC and related technologies).

[His Divine Shadow]

What really pissed me off when I tried Vista was how when I wanted to do something... lets say "administrative" it would always display a fucking dialouge box asking me this or that. After the millionth dialouge box or so I wasn't that into Vista anymore.

[Magus]

One of the most telling aspects for me is that, even though I get the best version of Vista (hate that crappy "home" edition nonsense) for free through my university, I haven't had any compelling reason to install it. It strikes me as very odd that I'm so indifferent about the new OS - usually I'd be all over wanting to install it. I even had a good opportunity recently, but I installed XP again instead of Vista. That's how little I see myself gaining by actually making the upgrade, which I think says a lot for the software's overall appeal.

[Molyneux]

I'm actively annoyed at Microsoft...won't be transferring to Vista for as long as it's feasible. I'm hoping that means 'never', but it likely won't.

[SirNitram]

So, sure, right now XP might be better from a compatibility standpoint, but the big question is how long will it continue to be such? With current computers having usage lives of 3-4 or more years, going now with Vista might be prudent. Hell, a gig of RAM is cheaper then a Vista upgrade ( ). And the software compatibility problems with Vista seem to be relatively minor, and, most of the time, have workarounds (since most of them happen because of UAC and related technologies).

This truly makes no sense. WHy would someone want to go with Vista now, if their computer is running fine now? The security improvements are a step up from XP(Damning with faint praise there!), but for most users it's... A Graphical UI update to XP. Nothing much else.

Most users will go to Vista once it's actually ready for prime time(Which it is notably not right now, not with all the driver issues), and comes on a new computer they buy.

As for the software incompatibilities? I think I'm gonna trust the guy who I know works with this on a daily basis over the 'No, really, they're minor' you belt out.

[His Divine Shadow]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

[SirNitram]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

Have you tried turning off Aero? It sucks down CPU time.

[Arrow]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

And how much ram did you get with your system?

[His Divine Shadow]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

Have you tried turning off Aero? It sucks down CPU time.

Well I was kinda expecting it to run Aero flawlessly. Maybe I was expecting a bit too much technological progress since my last computer, which was a 1.2ghz t-bird with 512mb of SDRAM that was literally falling apart.

I'm back to XP now anyway and have been for months. Vista refused to work properly with my sound cards(one for the telly and the built in one for the speakers) as well.

[Praxis]

What really pissed me off when I tried Vista was how when I wanted to do something... lets say "administrative" it would always display a fucking dialouge box asking me this or that. After the millionth dialouge box or so I wasn't that into Vista anymore.

That's the UAC I mentioned.

It wouldn't let me rename "Untitled folder" without typing in my username and password.

[His Divine Shadow]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

And how much ram did you get with your system?

2 gigabytes

[General Zod]

I found vista to be a bit slow at times. On my brand fucking new E6600 Core 2 Duo system I will not tolerate that!

And how much ram did you get with your system?

2 gigabytes

What type of a graphics card? Vista is rather dependent on the type of card you have available, after all. (I have noticed some sluggishness using Aero on my laptop, but given it's running an integrated graphics card that was expected).