REDMOND, Wash. (TP) — Microsoft Corp.’s digital quagmire, Windows Vista, could not push its predecessor Windows XP off the hard drives of business and home computers and now faces extinction.
Microsoft said it will shut down support to Vista in October and will discontinue sales of the PC software by June. XP will still be made available for sale until the new Microsoft Operating System, Windows 7, hits shelves this fall.
Vista was first sold to users as an improvement to Windows XP on January 30, 2007. Critics quickly questioned some of Microsoft’s decisions including the fact that Vista did not work with current drives, networks, and video cards. In hindsight the fate of Vista lay in the decision for Microsoft ad executives to spending $400 million in trying to convince the public to buy their product instead of making the product better or even compatible with current machines.
Vista gained little edge over XP over the years after users faced frustrating installation hurdles and costly hardware upgrades. Many businesses simply did not upgrade to Vista from XP which made sales suffer. Meanwhile, Apple Computer and Linux-based operating sales doubled forcing Windows to rethink their Vista blunder.
“People today want an operating system that will work on their computer, not bog it down and frustrate them,” the Redmond, Wash.-based company said in a statement on its Web site. “Apparently they would like a software that installs onto a computer while not requiring expensive hardware upgrades and still allow for networking. That is why we are recalling Vista and issuing refunds to anyone with the misfortune of using Vista.”
The company said customers sending hate mail and burning effigies on the Microsoft campus had nothing to do with the decision. Information about the refunds will be disclosed on the Microsoft website later this week.
