Microsoft announced today that it is extending the sales availability of Windows XP another five months--until June 30, 2008. If I were Microsoft I'd add another six months to that date. Maybe even another year.
No matter, extending the availability of XP is a good idea.
Why am I bullish on XP? In large part because of what Intel is doing. Especially with Silverthorne we're going to see lots of low power, resource light, computers over the coming couple years and XP is a better match for them than Vista--from what I see now.
And as mobility keeps ramping up, Vista is in the wrong place at the wrong time. It needs more mobility features. Sleep and hibernate have to work. I don't care if it's the fault of the drivers or the OS. If it doesnt work, I can't recommend it. Boot and shutdown times ought to be more mobile friendly too. And then there's battery life. Some have suggested that Vista only lugs the battery life by a mere 4%. It could be, but that's going in the wrong direction. An OS well-timed for today's increasingly mobile market would have longer battery life--not less.
And then there's my concern about connectivity. There's no doubt that Vista's connectivity support trumps XP''s. However, I still can't seamlessly move between EVDO and WiFi with the ease that I think you should be able to. When WiMax hits the streets next year, Vista better be ready.
Finally, about the driver issues in general. The next iteration of Windows better get this right. This is particularly true for mobile users where devices can't be swapped in and out. Everything in a notebook has to work. Period. External devices I'll give some time to. But if it's built-in it better work. Period. XP does so much better here--even with its SATA installation challenges.
My suggestion to Microsoft is still the same: Take a version of XP that exists now and clean up its shell for mobile users. Call it Windows XP Mobile or whatever. With the above issues addressed I'd switch to it in an instant. I'll leave Vista on my desktop.
Oh, and one more suggestion: I'd give a bonus to every developer that moves their development from a desktop to a notebook. Yes, it would be painful, but short of that I don't see how the developers can really understand the issues and really believe that they are developing the best mobile code---except maybe if they get an iPhone, iPod Touch, or a MacBook or MacBook Pro. Get it? I do. Yes, I expect more from my OS than I used to. That's the nature of the marketplace.



Incremental Blogger