What do you think of Microsoft's plans to continue to sell Windows XP, but only for very cheap laptops?

They should at least support XP until they perfect Vista.

Who in their right minds would continue to support a product that has received such widespread criticism and dump what every one likes? oh, wait... I would think that the focus would be to make your OS faster, have a smaller running footprint and more intuitive features.

I like XP very much. I rarely have problems, not even security problems. Any problems I have are usually caused by myself cause I like to mess with things.
But, I do think Microsoft needs to generate income. Heck, over the last 20 yrs of my using Microsoft software I have paid them very little, usually just the small license fee they charge OEM's. Compare the cost of their daily used product to Gasoline and Broadband. I think people who begrudge them the ability to make more money are nuts. Every company needs to increase their income for very good reasons, it's just the way it is.
And since I have the podium, I must say I greatly admire Microsoft for all their work regarding Security. Let us remember, this broadly used software thing is kinda young. And crooks are hard to stop. I think Microsoft works their butts off on this.
(Re: Security, I can't help notice that Apples most used product, Quicktime, is updated for security reasons an awful lot. Welcome to the club Mac. It's called the "more targets club".)
Thanks Microsoft, for busting this computer world wide open for us. Your way has given us lot's of options on hardware and software, lot's of fun. It's been great.

Vista is too hardware dependent, it sucks up too much ram. Solve that problem and i will be fine moving onto vista, but until then xp is my favoured os from microsoft.

I work in computer sales and consumers have a common misconception about vista- too many glitches. I recall XP having the same issues when it was initially released. However, Vista's demand on hardware seems, to me, Microsoft's broader scheme tom keep consumers in need of more and more upgrades-32 bit os to 64 bit, 2gb ram to 4 gb and beyond, dual core processors to quad cores. They seem to keep raising the bar in manipulating consumer's demand on faster pcs. And why can't we downgrade Vista-run pc's to XP? HMMM... Easiest solution, pay a little more up front and get a mac. No, I don't work for Apple, but I do like the speed and overall value of Macs. If Vista ran with as little demand on hardware as XP or even Mac OS X, the world would be a happier place. And PCs wouldn't have to be constantly upgraded.

I switched back to XP from Vista Home Premium. My PC is a 2GB Athlon 2 core at whatever speed... "Vista capable". It now runs fast again.
What I want, if Microsoft XP is now touted as 'low end', is a big price reduction. 50% less. Microsoft owes us that.

well you have to look at it from a business stand point. Inorder to sell their newest product, microsoft has to get rid of the older versions. And also you have to remember that new computers have the hardware to handle vista, older computers of course will have a hard time with it. i think the company did the right thing.

Microsoft is making a classic error in marketing basics. They assume a monolithic customer (global) base that will accept the product (Vista) unquestioningly, i.e., the producer knows best. Virtually no product will survive over time with that attitude, an observation evidenced in this case by the growing base of OS resources readily available today. Many companies successfully offer variations of their basic product, modified to meet specific customer segments in response to "customer requirements". Obviously a segment must be large enough to warrant separate products, but Microsoft does not appear to have any sense of "customer segments". They would do well to conduct an intensive marketing research campaign to determine customer niches (customer profile) and how to meet customer needs within those niches. Clearly some segments could be eliminated, but those remaining would return the gesture with increased customer loyalty. Arrogance reaps negative returns.

Above and beyond the individual users, Microsoft is shoving Vista down the throats of hundreds of thousand of companies. In these times where a sneeze in the oil market raises gas prices by $0.10 to $0.15, what will be the effect to prices when corporate America has to completely rebuild their internal computer networks? Hello $5.00 a gallon gas. Thank you Microsoft.

My computer came with XP and a 'free' disk for Vista once it was available. I donwloaded it, and what a mistake. Not only did it take up a huge chunk of memory, it instantly made my computer slower than molasses, and several of my peripherals either worked poorly or not at all. And, if that wasn't enough, everytime I donwloaded 'critical updates,' I was unable to access the internet and would have to use system restore to undo what i had done. Just to show that I gave it a fair shot, I actually downloaded it a second time, after doing a system recovery after the first try at Vista, thinking, naively, that Microsoft wouldn't market such a terrible product! I am now back to XP and am very happy! Even my scanner works again!!!

the way Microsoft makes business dance is just wrong... we don't need a whole ne OS every few years... what we need is an OS that works as sold, and the manufacturer just needs to close up all the gaping security wholes they have created by themselves..

If Microsoft would simply produce a true mature business class OS and applications, I would be very supportive...

..as it stands now, I feel trapped, because the executives are sold by the shiny new objects they see in magazines and television ads... so 'I want that' is what we get...

Mr Softy has once again presented a bottom line that discourages upgrading hardware and OS. I have just upgraded my Laptop, and will likely upgrade to XP Pro before it becomes impossible to get it. (I thought I was getting a laptop with Pro, but did not get the order entered correctly after some other discrepancies in the form.) It took the collapse of my old notebook to get me off 2000Pro, and will now take a similar failure to get me to upgrade the next time around. The real fly in the ointment is the aging of my desktop systems, running a bit aged speeds and OS, but still on XP and not as capable of Vista as I would like, though there is a box or two running Vista. I will either make a threatened switch to Mac or have to consider keeping the older boxes and switching to Linux.

Another example of a "Big Corporation" (with enough capital of course) to shove something down the publics throat when their is absolutely no reason too, except to expand their tills, when in fact about 90% of the people want to see this product continued past the April 2009 deadline that Microsoft has thoughtlessly come up with!

A good example is the ISP's now want to "charge" for what they call excessive use of bandwidth on the internet, thats just another way of saying they don't want to put out anymore money for expanding their
company, and want the consumer to "pay for it"!

Come Microsoft, use your head for once, you have the BEST O.S. on the market (and you know it), but you want us to pay additional money so your CEO's can cash in on HIGHER then NORMAL "bonuses".

Whats the old say.........If its NOT broken, don't fix it, and this sure fits the process, thats for sure. Heres hoping Microsoft wakes UP and changes their minds on this ridiculous idea, and looks out for the little guy for the first time in their corporations history!!! Yeah ------ right and I'm going to win the "lottery" tomorrow!!!

marketing is providing the product the customers want so microsoft lets have xp or an uptodate resorce efficent system