Daily Debrief 2nd Edition: Say goodbye to Windows XP Video

Daily Debrief 2nd Edition: Say goodbye to Windows XP Video Transcript

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>> I'm Kara Tsuboi CNET News.com, welcome to the Daily Debrief Second Edition. I'm here with Senior writer Ina Fried to talk about the end of another era for Microsoft. First, Gates resigned last week and today, Monday, June 30, no more XP. Tell us about that.

>> Sure, well, XP isn't going away entirely. You will still be able to find it in few areas. Things like computers from smaller PC makers, on the system builders, on real low-cost PCs like ASUS's Eee PC, as well as in some emerging markets, but by and large, you're not gonna find it on big name machines and you're not gonna find box copies in Best Buy or Circuit City for much longer, they may have a little inventory, but it's going away.

>> Now it seems like XP was pretty popular. People got used to it. People start liking it especially compared to Vista. Why would they take it away if it was somewhat beloved?

>> Well interesting, I mean operating systems tend to become more beloved when there's something new out for people to grasp about, but you know to a large extent, there are people that would like to see XP continue. The reason that Microsoft eventually stops selling the older operating system is in order to get people actually writing software for Vista, they need as many people as possible on Vista. So, it's the Microsoft's incentive to get people moving. There are some other benefits to consumers that are hard for them to take into account. Things like security, but you know, Vista is said to be a lot more secure than XP, but security is hard to touch. It's hard to feel, you know people are like, well, you know, I've got an antivirus software in XP, why should I bother.

>> Now talking about the big picture and the scheme of Microsoft's operating systems, it's been several years before we saw anything new from XP, is this -- where's the game plan gonna go forward from here, you know. How can they keep up with, you know what Apple's doing or what Linux based systems are doing.

>> Well, they have talked about trying to move well beyond this, you know taking 5 years or more to come out with a new release, but it is a challenge for them. I mean the new release that they're talking about, Windows 7 is gonna come out -- if there are no further delays, which there usually are some delays. You know, sometimes late 2009 or early 2010, which would again be 3 years from Vista and that's for an operating system that doesn't significantly change the core of Windows, I think there is a real issue of how can Microsoft really make significant changes to Windows. We see Apple come out with all these releases, often every 10 months.

>> Right. And it's sexy and flashy.

>> Yeah, I mean, there's a marketing piece.

>> Right.

>> I mean, Microsoft clearly can do better when it comes to making its features pop. And I think that's something that they can do relatively easy. The harder part is making changes, you know. Apple, they like compatibility, they want it to run all their software, but if it doesn't, they're okay with that. They are okay with saying, you know what, if you want all the latest converge these features, you need new hardware, you need new software. Whereas, Microsoft tends to you know, it has lots of businesses running on it, they focus on compatibility and that has made it really hard to change the operating system.

>> Absolutely. So for people who are in-love with their XP system, what should they be doing right now? Just continue to enjoy it and upgrade in a few years?

>> Definitely. I mean, if you like XP, there's no reason you have to stop using it. Microsoft will continue to support it for sometime.

>> Right.

>> So, Microsoft can make it disappear from shelves, but they're not gonna make it disappear from your computer. There's no, you know huge reason that people have to move. When they really start feeling that pressure is either when they wanna buy a new computer as in they tune in and probably move to Vista or when they start seeing applications that they wanna use, but require Vista, and that's still some time off.

>> Yeah, we're still in the wait and see period to kind of see what Microsoft can offer up next.

>> Definitely.

>> So, alright. Thank you so much Ina. Senior writer Ina Fried, I'm Kara Tsuboi, News.com. This has been the Second Edition of the Daily Debrief. We'll see you next time. ^M00:03:54 [ Music ]