Windows XP to Live on in Ultra-low-cost PCs

Published by Omkar Joshi | Filed under Microsoft, Windows, XP, Vista, Linux, ULCPC, Windows 7, Intel, Asus, Eee PC, Mobile Internet Devices (MID)

The advent of the new breed of “ultra-low-cost PCs” (ULCPCs) has led Microsoft to extend the life of Windows XP Home to accommodate for them, well beyond the original deadline of 30 June, 2008.

Microsoft has now allowed OEMs to install Windows XP Home on ULCPCs until 30 June, 2010, or until one year after the consumer release of the next client version of Windows, depending on whichever comes later.

Microsoft expects to ship the next client version of Windows, code-named Windows 7 roughly three years from Vista’s January 2007 debut. However, earlier this week, Bill Gates indicated that Windows 7 could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule previously indicated by the software maker. It is still however unclear as to whether Gates was referring to early testing of Windows 7 coming within the year, as opposed to a widespread release or debut. An early test geared toward developers would be conceivable. The company has repeatedly said that it will accelerate the development of new Windows versions, largely as a response to Vista’s near five-year gestation period.

Many feel that the reason for Microsoft’s willingness to extend the availability of Windows XP is a direct result of the threat posed by Linux in the ULCPC market. However, Microsoft claims that it is consumers and partners driving the extension. “The feedback we’ve gotten from customers and partners is they want Windows on those devices,” Kevin Kutz, director of Windows Client for Microsoft said on Thursday.

At the same time Kutz also conceded that Microsoft also wants to see Windows on ULCPCs, and wants “to provide the best possible Windows experience for the device.”

It is obvious that if Microsoft is happy to allow OEMs to put a version of Windows on new devices up to nine years after its original release date, by which stage there will be two XP successors available on the market, it has recognised the threat posed by Linux in the ULCPC market. Currently the Xandros distribution of Linux is the OS running on Asustek Computer’s Eee PC, which was released in October 2007 as the first low-cost laptop.

Linux was also chosen to be the operating system on Intel’s new line of ULCPCs called Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), which are based on new Intel Atom processors due out later this year. Intel has reiterated numerous times that the MIDs would run on Linux, and an effort known as Moblin was established, in order to develop a new version of Linux for the devices.

Earlier this week, Gary Willihnganz, director of marketing for Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group said that the Atom-based MIDs will also run Windows XP and Vista now, in addition to Linux. It was also stated that the new platforms will “be enabled” for both Windows XP and Vista, suggesting that they will be designed with support for Vista in mind.

It is believed that Microsoft’s quick change to the availability of Windows XP was a direct result of Intel’s MIDs only being slated for release in the second half of 2008 -after XP’s original 30 June, 2008 deadline. Currently, due to hard drive and memory requirements, Vista is unable to be used on ULCPCs. Kutz also went on to say that Microsoft had no plans in the future to make Vista more suitable for ULCPCs but instead hinted that forthcoming ULCPCs would evolve to have enough brawn to run Vista.

“It depends on what an ULCPC becomes over time,” he said. “Right now we’re enabling as much flexibility and choice as possible.”