Goodbye XP, I knew thee well

The death knell has officially rung for Windows XP, as the long awaited (by Microsoft) and long dreaded (by customers) day is fast approaching. June 29th will be the last day that computer manufacturers will be able to sell PCs with Windows XP pre-installed.

This marks the end of a prosperous and relatively stable era for me and Microsoft. I wax nostalgic about Windows XP Pro in particular: it was the first operating system I didn’t have to reinstall every 2-3 months, and I kind of liked that. In fact, not once did XP Pro fail me in six years of use! Sure, there were numerous strange errors and times I had to format and reinstall, but those rare occasions were more because I didn’t want to troubleshoot anything after spending all day doing the same thing at work. I keep regular backups, so wiping the hard drive and starting anew with a nice Norton Ghost image has always been a simple and fast solution.

But alas, it seems computer makers aren’t letting XP go without a fight, or at least a workaround. According to News.com’s Ina Fried:

• XP will be available on PCs from smaller computer makers known as "system builders" until January 31, 2009.

• XP will be available for so-called ultra-low-cost-PCs until June 30, 2010.

• The low-end Windows XP Starter Edition will continue to be available in emerging markets until June 30, 2010.

• Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Business come with downgrade rights. Some computer makers are using this option to offer machines that appear as Windows XP products but are "factory downgraded" to XP. The downside is that only pricier versions of Vista qualify, but the benefit is that the machines come with the option to eventually move to Vista for no added fee. Microsoft says it will continue to make XP discs available to computer makers to enable downgrade rights through at least January 31, 2009.

• Microsoft is not ending support for Windows XP. Mainstream support continues until 2009, while extended support is not due to end until April 2014.

If you’d rather not spend more for a Vista Ultimate or Vista Business machine just so you can downgrade, you can still purchase XP Home, XP Pro with Service Pack 2, and XP Pro with 64-bit support from Amazon.com. And if you’re tired of reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your operating system, and all your most commonly used applications, check out Norton Ghost. ZDNet's Larry Dignan also has some great info and possible alternatives to Windows Vista on his blog.