Windows XP execution date set

OEMS WILL BE DEPRIVED of Windows XP by the end of the year, as the Vole will begin to foist Vista upon them.

According to APC by early 2008, Microsoft will oblige its army of box-shifers to ship Vista and ditch XP.

The mag talked to Frank Luburic, a ThinkPad product manager at Lenovo, who said: "The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January... At that point, they'll have no choice."

The market reaction to Vista has been luke-warm to say the least and computer buyers are quite happy buying XP machines, thank you very much.

But, since Microsoft rules the desktop, the only real competition there is to Vista is coming from itself. And that'll have to stop. µ