Biggest competitor to Vista is Windows XP

THE CEO of Microsoft has acknowledged that one of the biggest hurdles to the acceptance of Vista is its existing OS, Windows XP.

Steve Ballmer, interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News, said Windows XP had a lot of "happy users" and it will be a challenge to get them to buy a new PC or upgrade the OS.

But the interview also reveals that Ballmer hopes it will inject new life into the PC industry. He said Vista will be a "boon" for PC manufacturers. Graphics card makers like Nvidia and ATI certainly hope so, that's for sure.

Ballmer didn't talk about the large existing user base of corporate users, many of which still haven't shifted to Windows XP, never mind the as yet unproven Microsoft Vista.

L'INQ
San Jose Mercury News