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January 4, 2006
Microsoft Soon to Be Between a Rock and a Hard Place?
Microsoft will, of course, want everyone currently running any flavor of Windows on their PCs to upgrade to some form of Windows Vista when it's launched. That much is a given.
However, Microsoft's own support policies, as detailed by Ars Technica may put it in a difficult position.
On one hand, if Microsoft is too lenient about supporting Windows XP users, it may find that its current user base adopts Vista far more slowly than the company needs it to.
On the other hand, if Microsoft pushes people to move to Vista too hard, it risks alienating them -- many consumers might be just as happy to go plunk down $500 and buy a Mac mini or some other OS X machine.
So, the whole migration to Vista looks like it will be an interesting experiment for Redmond. I've yet to see a wholly compelling reason to move away from XP (it's the first version of Windows I'd say is as stable as it is full-featured) in favor of Vista, so Microsoft may find it challenging to motivate users to switch to Vista without resorting to support restrictions or other implied threats. The company may find itself just having to wait out the PC upgrade cycle, which is how most consumers end up with the OS version they have. And that won't sit will with management.
Posted by Craig in Computing
and Industry