Windows 8 going cheap!
 

MS is offering an upgrade to Win8 Pro for only $40. The really interesting bit is it includes upgrading from WinXP.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade- to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx

They are also offering an upgrade from Win7 to Win8 Pro for $14.99 for newly purchased systems (June 2 2012 - Jan 31 2013).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/upgrade- offer?ocid=O_WOL_EVE_INTL

https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en/


Now we know how MS is going to entice people to use Win8.

La Pingouin has a laptop running Vista & I'll seriously consider doing it. I won't quite say it's a no-brainer for WinXP users but you're going to have
to do something by April 2014.

Yes, the Metro interface is a fair turn-off for many users, but I'm betting the third party programs (such as ViStart) that work now will continue to do so after release.

Frankly, in it's present form, that's about what it's worth. I almost never bother to use it after the initial couple of weeks, it will need to improve it's interface for PC use before I'll bother with it.

The UK Microsoft approved wholesalers have been pushing a similar deal for a couple of weeks - except the UK upgrade price is around £15, not $15
Essentially with each Win7 OEM Windows licence will come a certificate allowing an upgrade to Win8 later. The offers out now.
In theory only Microsofts OEM system builder partners can take advantage, and based on previous similar deals they'll want to see some kind of proof of purchase by the end customer of a complete PC from the System Builder- NOT proof of the purchase of a Windows CD / licence.

gg, that's what something like ViStart is for - gives you back the Start button and saves your sanity by largely avoiding Metro on a desktop system.

WinXP dies April 2014 and needs replacing with something.

Milo, if I was running Win7 I doubt I'd bother.

Perhaps true for some businesses but surely it will continue to be adequate for many users for some time beyond? Or are you saying that that XP simply won't work from this date?

It'll keep working but will be unsupported, so no more security patches. Continuing to use any unsupported operating system on-line is not smart as once a new vulnerability is discovered you're forever vulnerable. Avoiding the seedier side of the Web won't help either - reputable websites source ads from third parties and hacking ad servers is a favoured way of delivering exploits.

Not to mention third party software support slowly ceasing - your anit-virus will work for a while but after a year or two will quite likely no longer receive updates.

Windows XP isn't going anywhere. I guess that it has a market share of more than 70% in the large corporate market and this isn't going to change in the next couple of years.

If you pay enough money you can continue to install new versions of XP. If more than 50% of PCs are running on XP then I can't see how Microsoft can discontinue support.

The real problem is that none of the subsequent Windows version offer anything more than XP

By 2014 the bug and other infection writers will have made domestic pcs a thing of the past.
You heard it here first.

Link doesn't work for me

404 error

Not sure what happened there:

Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99

Microsoft Windows - click on Windows 8 upgrade offer

Phineas, why would MS continue support? There's no money in keeping WinXP alive, only costs, and a whole pile to be made selling licences for new Win7 capable software.

The corporates will suck it up because they can't afford to risk being caught out running an unsupported OS. What's the lead in time for a corporate migration? 18 months? Two years?

Not to mention third party software vendors cutting off support on XP. Risking running an unsupported OS and critical business software doesn't sound terribly smart to me.

And that just leaves the home user. Definitely no money to be made there continuing support.

XP will die
Essentially the codebase is old, it includes stuff from Win9X, OS/2 / NT3.5, and - allegedlly - Xenix!!!! A lot of its not documented and can't be patched to plug security holes, or properly upgraded to 64-bit
Its unsustainable.
MS need to make the same jump that Apple did with OSX. Each new OS since Win 2000 was an attempt at this, but every time the attempt was aborted mid-jump with a compromise as the end result
This time its make-or-break time. However just bear something in mind: the focus of this new OS is going to be toward a could model, with - if M$ can pull it off - your data hosted in "pay by the gigabyte" cloud storage, your applications hosted on the web in "pay rent for the use" cloud application servers, while you access it all not through a PC with local storage, but instead through something akin to a souped up tablet or kindle

How did Win 95 die?

Was it a painful deth or in its sleep?

It died very very quickly
I started on desktop support around 1999 - four years after release, and the breakdown of support calls was roughly Win98 92% Win95 7.5% DOS/Windows 3 <0.5%
Machines had very short lives in those days, both from obselesece and because they weren't reliable!

Everything you say about XP is true but at least it is better than Vista. Walk into your local government office, bank and airline and the probability is that they’ll be using XP. The are less than 2 years left for XP and I can’t see them all ugrading by then, if you ask Microsoft nicely they will still sell you XP licenses. I don’t think the metro interface is enough for large corporations to rewite their line of business software.

"Walk into your local government office, bank and airline and the probability is that they’ll be using XP."

Thats for other reasons
Last year I was part of a major rollout of new laptops to the Dept of Work & Pensions. I was in a team building the software loads on thousands of new machines,
We had to downgrade these machines from 64-bit Win7 to 32-bit XP Pro. Why? Quite simply because the DWP runs a number of small-user legacy databases which will not work in Win7, even under compatibility mode. One at least is 16-bit DOS mode and the DWP will not pay to upgrade these. This has created a situation in that the needs of a small minority of users has prevented the whole estate from upgrading by a few bits of software used by less than 5% of the staff.
I was told that a knock-on effect was that the MOD could not get a much needed upgrade to one program (stock control??) because the DWP were the lead customer and refused the expense.
This situation has an even bigger problem in that these legacy software systems also required us to install legacy versions of other programs - some had to have Office 2003, and ancient version of Adobe Acrobat - with all the security risks that brings
The users, and the IT team wanted the upgrade. Cost cutting management who declined to understand the risks refused it

I agree about the continued use of way out of date software - I've even seen a recent project to upgrade from NT4 to Server 2008! And that was was in the private sector.

Lots of installations of W2K still out there, both on server and desktop!

SD

Phineas, MS selling you XP is money for jam for them - pure profit and they'll bite you for more for Win7. There's no particular urgency to run Win7 now and you can't know what planning is going on in the back room.

We changed from WinNT to WinXP desktops over a few weeks. Have a look at those banks, government offices and airlines again in September 2013.

Unless MS releases a Win8 Corporate that is radically different to the review release Win7 will be the new WinXP.

I have a nagging suspicion that Windows 9 is what Windows 8 should have been. In other words, Win 8 will have a short life and things will have been sorted out when Win 9 is released.

(Something like Vista and Win 7.)

MS desperately needs something to put on tablets or risk entirely losing that important market, thus Win8 is rushed out.

No one talks about Windows Millenium any more!:)