After some time in June, OEMs won’t be allowed to ship PCs with Windows XP pre-installed. However, Dell and other vendors may get around that by offering to assist businesses in exercising their “downgrade rights”. Microsoft gets to count the sale for Vista, but the XP image that comes with Vista is pre-loaded for you.
“Downgrade rights”, XP image to overwrite Vista, … there’s a message here somewhere … maybe upgrading to Linux?
I have to admit that I run XP in a VMware virtual machine — to access the Exchange server at work; I would just use OWA, and forego Windows entirely, but it’s also more convenient than finding another system when I have to help someone with a Windows problem.
I first saw this on Slashdot, which linked to the CNET blog post; follow these links for more information:
4/25: Dell Will Offer XP Past Cutoff Date (Slashdot)
4/24: Dell: We’ll install XP for you, even after the deadline (Defensive Computing – CNET Blogs)
4/23: Who’s selling Windows XP in July? (Defensive Computing – CNET Blogs)
