Intel (News - Alert) is in no mood to upgrade its internal system to Windows Vista. The largest chipmaker in the world currently depends on Mircosoft Windows XP for its 80,000 plus computers. According to an anonymous source quoted in the New York Times, the company is planning to continue with the same operating system until Microsoft (News - Alert) unveils Windows 7 in 2010.
 
According to the source, Intel is testing Vista “in certain departments,” and it found “no compelling reason" to upgrade to Vista.
 
Intel’s decision would cause a severe embarrassment to Microsoft, considering the close association that exists between the two companies. It is an irony that computers running on Windows Vista have “Intel Inside” labels, but the same Windows Vista is “not inside Intel.”
 
Intel is not an exception. Many large corporations and government agencies show reluctance to upgrading their systems to Vista. The trend is surprising Microsoft, given the fact that Windows Vista was released 18 months back and that a service pack intended to fix a number of bugs was released by Microsoft recently.
 
The reasons for the disinterest were cited as the higher cost of the operating system, resource requirements and lack of compatibility with older applications.
 
To aggravate the situation, Bill Veghte (News - Alert), senior VP of Microsoft issued a letter to its customers recently. In the letter, Veghte conceded that Vista suffers from a number of compatibility issues.
 
"The architectural changes that improved security and resilience in Windows Vista led to compatibility issues with existing hardware and applications," the letter said.
 
Microsoft also prompted customers asking, “let us know you don't want to face the kinds of compatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista."
 
Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7, will be built on the same core architecture as that of Vista. This would enable easy upgrading of Vista-enabled applications and hardware to Windows 7.
 
In a significant decision favoring ‘anti-Vista’ users, Veghte said that Microsoft would continue to provide security updates and support for Windows XP until April 2014. This is crucial considering the concerns arising from the ‘end of sale’ of Windows XP, as well as the ‘incompatibility’ of Windows Vista.
 
“We recently released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP and we will continue to provide security updates and other critical updates for Windows XP until April, 2014. Our ongoing support for Windows XP is the result of our recognition that people keep their Windows-based PCs for many years and a reflection of our commitment to provide the highest level of support for all our customers,” Veghte wrote.
 
Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP in retail stores from June 30, 2008 and will license it to PC OEMs.
 
Rajani Baburajan is a TMCnet contributing editor.
 


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