News Bits: LED backlighting increases, Averatec rugged notebooks, XP availability extended?

Ballmer says XP sales could be extended

CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft could reconsider selling Windows XP beyond June 30 if customers demand it. At a conference in Belgium, Ballmer stated "XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments." Microsoft plans to sell XP beyond June 30 for MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and other machines that are not up to par for running Windows Vista.

XP lovers, don't forget to sign the Save Windows XP Petition (Infoworld.com).

Full Story (News.com)

Vista a winner? Financial results say no

Although Microsoft says Windows Vista is a winner, financial results say otherwise. Revenue from the company's client division were under $4.03 billion, $300 million less than was expected. CFO Christopher P. Liddell gave two explanations for the results. The first was less customers in developing/emerging markets are buying upgraded versions of Vista, and second, Microsoft's piracy prevention programs did not help increase revenue. Naturally, Liddell dismissed claims that customers do not want Vista, and said "There are no Vista-related issues at all."

Full Story (NYTimes.com)

LED backlighting use in notebooks to increase rapidly
According to a market research report by iSuppli, LED backlighing usage in notebook computers will drastically increase over the next several years. The report says that nine out of ten notebooks with 10-inch and larger displays will have LED backlighting by 2012. LED backlighting is becoming more popular due to their low power consumption, light weight, environmental friendliness, and thinness. 17.4 million LED-backlit notebook panels will be shipped in 2008 compared to just 2.8 million in 2007.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Averatec announces semi-rugged notebooks

Averatec recently introduced its first entries into the semi-rugged notebook market, the Voya 4473 and Voya 6494 with 14.1- and 15.4-inch screens respectively. The Voya notebooks offer drop and vibration resistance and a spill-resistant keyboard and touchpad and have magnesium alloy cases. Specifications include Windows Vista and Intel processors/graphics. Pricing for Voya notebooks starts at $1,299 through online resellers and from Averatec direct. No release date is available.

Full Story (PRNewswire.com)
Via (Laptoping.com)

AT&T and Starbucks to launch WiFi May 1

AT&T and Starbucks recently announced that the rollout of AT&T WiFi service has begun at Starbucks stores. Starting May 1, AT&T high-speed Internet and WiFi customers will have free WiFi access at over 7,000 Starbucks locations across the country.

Full Story (Gizmodo.com)

 

Vista is ok but MS should keep XP around since Vista really does not add much if any productivity and takes 3X more resources. Businesses hate it. MS would be smart to keep it around until windows seven and make sure seven does not take a gig to load like vista.

 

Is that a 4:3 screen I see on the Averatec?

I pretty much agree with that. It's understandable that system requirements should go up somewhat, but not as much as Vista raised the bar, with not much to show for it.

 

As for XP's EOL, it may come anyway. Major OEMs such as HP have little or no driver support for XP on most of their recent consumer models, and I'd be surprised if the trend were suddenly reversed. Their support load would only increase having to develop & service two simultaneuos operating systems across all models. Apparently the ultramobile market is not enough to save XP, as Microsoft has not altered their support cycle schedule because of it.

Even if SP3 breathes some new interest in XP, it will likely be short. Without driver support, XP will wither away whether we like it or not.

 

Yeah IMO they should really start taking 64-bit processing seriously and make that industry standard ASAP, since right now 32-bit has pretty much reached its physical limit already in terms of processing power and Vista being such a resource hog just makes things worse.

I am, however, glad to hear there'll be many more LED screens coming this year. My next laptop is going to be sweet!

 

Most rugged notebooks come with a 4:3 screen ratio

 

Actually, HP and Lenovo have just publicly joined Dell http://blogs.zdnet.com/computers/?p=161
to provide businesses with downgrade rights to allow businesses to install XP through Jan 09. I agree that some consumer notebooks don't have XP driver support but business systems still do. There's no way at this time that a manufacturer would kill XP driver support on their business line.. That would be suicide. From what is said on these forums, I believe many people buy these business machines for their personal use just to keep XP. In the business community compatibility and specialized software rule the day with strong networking support a must. In these areas, Vista has performed like a dog. Like I said before, many businesses hate vista and will probably skip the release altogether. As for MS saying most people want Vista on the personal line that these manufactures are selling, well all I can say is we don't have much choice do we? I mean how many XP systems does BB have on display these days? And the sad fact is that MS can list those that exercise their rights to downgrade to xp as Vista users. MS is not in reality here.

I say let them kill off XP in June. They will learn the hard way and it will probably send them scurrying around to lean out windows seven.

 

Whatever they're doing I hope they do a really good job with Windows 7. See, I'm not exactly smiling when I try to imagine an alternate reality without my fav OSes, being Vista and XP. If me and my friends were to switch to OSX and/or Linux today, we can say bye-bye to all our LAN parties, our favorite programs and optimized drivers.

I for one is glad that MS are as big as they are today.

 

... I could care less if XP dies, really I have been using vista for a little less than a year with no problems at all,

also to the post stating vista uses a 1gb to boot, that's not true, mine uses about 600mb.

I have had less issues with vista than I ever have had with xp.

 

win xp for life

 

looks like most people are going to stick with XP until Windows 7?

 

Depends on how good 7 is.

 

I actually think Vista has much better network support then XP, for example at home, it took 30 mins to share my spare hard drive through the network so my room mates could use it under Vista. However XP didn't like it, and I had to trawl though 7-8 different sites to find the answer, and it's some obsolete option that needs to be ticked which couldn't be found without assistance since it is in no logical place. So Vista support for networks is better then XP, if only they didn't cripple the file transfer rates...

 

Signed the petition.

 

I hope XP gets extended. I will not upgrade my OS until hardware becomes Windows Vista and above ONLY. Everything I buy works with XP but not everything works with Vista.

 

Signed.

Live long Windows XP. Down with Windows ME 2.

 

I also signed the petition.

I said it before and I'll say it again - if Windows 7 is not a competent OS, I'll be switching to Mac/Linux pronto.

 

Sad to say it, but that looks like a high possibility.
I recommend linux
I also signed the petition.

 

Its not Windows XP, its Windows XD.
I can't believe I've been using you since 2002 with just about no problems. And Vista makes me appreciate you more.

 

i think exact the same!!!

 

XP now has SP3 and DirectX 10... I am not compelled to go to another OS.

And I am running Ubuntu with Wine and can play all/most new Windows games DX9 & DX10.

 

Interesting. They wasted so much effort with the whole WGA and annoyed so many users, and now they aren't seeing any gains?
Great investment that one...

 

Probably, but I'm concerned that some of those users are going to get a culture shock when it happens. By the time W7 is released, it will be so far removed from XP that it will likely bear no resemblence in form & function to XP. If anything, it could be perceived as being even more cumbersome than Vista.

Keep in mind that as hardware advances over time, new versions of software generally advance with it. New hardware + new features can up the anty when it comes to minimum specs & acceptable performance. I'll be shocked if W7 does not conform to this basic theme. If not, it won't be adding anything new to the table (which would just make it Vista with a fresh coat of paint).

On a side note, think about how well Vista will run after 2 more years of hardware development. Cpus, ram and chipsets will be much faster and more efficient than they are now, so Vista performance should only increase (as well as maturing driver support). At that time, W7 would be just arriving and being forced to run on "legacy" (Vista) hardware. It could be labeled as the new "pig" on the block just as Vista was/is........

 

Is Vista really bad? This guy did the best OS test. Please check it out. Apparently Vista outruns Xp(slightly) and it is much more stable than Xp. here is the link http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=242891

 

Funny, this is totally contradictory to everything else I have otherwise heard. PC World did an excellent article comparing XP, Vista, AND Vista SP1, and the results are very interesting. In all but one test, XP blew away Vista and Vista SP1. But the shocking (or not so shocking) tidbit was how a Vista machine running SP1 was actually slower than the other three, except for a file sharing test. A few bugs were fixed, but it hardly put a dent in the major problems plaguing Vista. The editors even recommended sticking with XP as long as possible, or at least until Vista manages to improve. Ill edit with a link to the article.--> ok heres a link testing SP1, ill try to find other sources..there are many lol. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/143608/test_results_does_sp1_fix_vista.html

 

people hate vista simply because it is overpriced..and many blah blah blah hardware compability problems
that happened in my country...
wish they'd think about lowering the price ,and they can shut down XP production by june,otherwise many customers would be angry cos they would have draw more money out of their pockets

 

What's 400mb right? Still, 600mb is rediculous, especially when I can load XP at about 130.
I've liked vista, but tired of the incompatibilities with old games, and slow networking. When SP3 comes out, I think I'm going back to XP exclusively.

 

Get both Vista and XP for free, whichever version I want. I choose XP Pro.

 

If I could get vista for free, or pay for XP, I'd still choose XP.


(Even though I DID get Vista for free ).

 

Id get Vista for free, sell it, then buy XP for cheap, and keep the difference. But anyway thanks for the news updates as always.

 

I don't find it worthwhile to sign the petition, because Vista works fine for me, but...well...actually, I'll sign it. I want XP to be around. It works well on lesser hardware, and I want to have a Windows OS available that works on lesser hardware. Then I won't be completely Linux-reliant. I like Windows, too.