From the goodness of their heart, Microsoft offers manufacturers the possibility to install Windows XP on their devices, 9 years after Windows XP has been released! The deadline of selling the operating system along with laptops was prolonged at least once, however now Microsoft promises that this date is definitive.
Further more, they are bragging that in the US, 81% of sold netbooks come with a version of Windows 7 preinstalled, the impact on the market being reduced. Those who have Service Pack 2 installed will no longer receive updates starting with July 13 and it is recommended that they install Service Pack 3. SP3 will have support until April 2014, which makes us believe that, 13 years after the release of XP a lot of people will still be using it. Are you surprised to find out that Windows XP had two months ago a 56% market share, being the most used operating system world wide ?
Let’s also remember the beginning of Windows XP. According to Microsoft, Windows XP can run even on a system with a 233 MHZ processor, 64 MB RAM. Pentium 2 owners can let go to WIndows 98 or 2000, and a 800×600 resolution is acceptable.
All these aspects made Windows XP to be the best operating system for netbooks, systems with lower performances than the average. As Windows Vista required too much system resources, XP ended up being a contemporary of Windows 7. If we were to consider the fact that Windows 8 will be released in 2010, we will eventually have 4 Microsoft operating system, each one having their own chunk of the market. We are not going to say goodbye to Windows XP just yet, but it’s days are numbered!
