What does it take to get a PC with XP?

What does it take to get a pc with xp…

really?

REALLY?

Apparently so.  PC World, via Slashdot, features an article purporting to advise consumers about how they can purchase a new computer with an old operating system.   This would be interesting…well no it wouldn’t be interesting.  There are two major flaws with even the ideas presented by this article.  First, simply looking at the websites for major vendors reveals that some systems offer windows XP as a choice.  It’s rare, and every vendor doesn’t offer it, but there are some.  Second, anyone who purchases a copy of windows vista has the ability to “roll back” the operating system to either Windows XP or Windows 2000.   Special thanks to Paul Thurrott for pointing this out.   As Thurrott points out, this ability has been a long standing feature of Windows operating systems.   When you consider this, several thoughts naturally arise.   Did this writer do any research?  You would think he would have mentioned the specific ability for any consumer to roll back to XP or 2000 if he had.   Why even write an article about getting an out of date operating system for a new computer?

After considering such thoughts, one might be lead to suspect that this is the tech journalists version of a fluff piece.  He calls up a couple companies about getting xp on a new computer and boom he has an article.   Let’s take apart some quotes shall we?

“I won’t waste time rehashing the argument over whether Windows Vista is any good. The fact remains that lots of people prefer Windows XP, and they’ll go to great lengths to get it.”

Perhaps a better way to write this would be, “I know there’s no good reason to write an article about how to get an old operating system on a new computer, but I can justify it by harping on the “popular” demand.  In fact it’s so popular that, as Thurrott pointed out in the same article above, “BTW: 210,000 signatures represents about 0.03 percent (three tenths of one percent) of all XP users, assuming there are 700 million XP users worldwide. It could actually be higher.” Oh and while we’re at it, since “lots of people” would like to get linux on their new computer, perhaps I should await this guy’s, “Guide to getting gentoo on a new pc.”  NEXT QUOTE!

“To find out how difficult it is to get a new XP machine these days, I asked the nine largest PC vendors in the United States–Dell, HP, Gateway, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Sony, and Asus–about the specifics of their downgrade policies. Then, to see how closely the official story synced up with the reality in the marketplace, I called sales representatives for each company and asked them whether I could purchase a new laptop equipped with XP from them.”

Investigative journalism at it’s best people!  So he called a bunch of corporate headquarters, then he called and pretended to order a pc.  Too bad he didn’t, say, call Microsoft.  He could have saved 18 calls with one, since Microsoft readily explains that their operating system features a rollback feature.

“The verdict?”

Guilty by reason of inanity?

“Downgrade policies are all over the map, and more than a few rank-and-file sales reps have a sketchy understanding of those policies.”

So let me get this straight.  You called corporate headquarters and then sales and you found out that employees don’t always strictly follow the official policies and procedures of a company.  Wow.  Just.  I’m speechless.  So what?  You’ve described the situation at every single large corporation.

The writer proceeds to explain what he encountered but we can stop right here because of all this is meaningless because you can get either Vista, Xp, or 2000 simply by buying a copy of Vista or getting a copy of Vista with your new computer.  Also, Vista is a more secure, stable operating system, with more conveniences and features.  If you are buying a new computer, please don’t try to buy a system with XP, especially if you’re doing so because of all of the “problems” you heard about.  Vista had, repeat had, a problem with drivers, a problem caused by hardware vendors.   There is no problem with drivers now.  If you buy a new computer it will run with vista just fine, just make sure you have ~2 GB of Ram and at least 126-256mb of video ram to ensure you can utilize the aero glass feature and that you can multi task with no slow down.