Steve Ballmer is reported to suggest Microsoft’s Windows XP’s life may be extended beyond the planned termination of sales and some support soon.

To be honest, it feels like a lot of spin by Microsoft.  Ballmer is quoted as saying:

“If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter”

If this is the source of media speculation XP may be extended, they’re being rather hopeful, as it’s so vague as to be nonsensical.

Ballmer does seem to be continuing the spin with other comments in that report.

But Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”

“That’s the statistical truth,” he told reporters at a press conference at Louvain-La-Neuve university.

That’s probably entirely true - the problem is, it omits to mention that most OEMs are only supplying (or by default supply) PCs with Vista pre-installed.  After all, Microsoft had announced it was terminating XP, so manufacturers would be unlikely to push XP over Vista, and most “man on the street” PC buyers wouldn’t buy PCs with a soon-to-be-discontinued Operating System.

So trying to use sales statistics for Vista are kind of disingenuous, as is this quote:

Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.

Statements such as this are simply trying to deflect the disquiet over Vista, and omit another part of the debate - IT departments are buying XP because Vista has so many problems they don’t have confidence in its ability to run to begin with.  What IT department is going to implement broken software?

I’m reminded of the much-vaunted yet ultimately-ignored Windows ME.  Assuming (with an author’s willing suspension of disbelief) that the upcoming Windows 7 will be released relatively on time, and be an improvement over Vista (which I don’t think would be all that hard to do), history might need to repeat itself - consumers should jump over Vista, using XP until Windows 7 is released.

Of course, if Microsoft extends XP again, it would be seen by many (myself included) as a long-overdue admission that Vista is a “failure”.  Personally, if XP is given a reprieve, I can see Microsoft trying to spin it as somehow doing consumers a “favour”, catering to a “loyal fan base” or something.

If XP is given that reprieve though, at the end of the day whatever face-saving pronouncements Ballmer and the rest trot out will be irrelevant - users will have the ability to use a working operating system, and not get stuck in the perpetual (money making) upgrade cycle.

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