Microsoft originally said that new owners of Windows 7 who wanted to downgrade to XP would only have until 2011 to do so, but now the company has changed its mind and extended support for the old operating system until 2020.

That’s right. Windows XP, an operating system that is already almost 10 years old, will apparently still be relevant for another 10 years.


”We have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1,” wrote Microsoft in an official blog post. “Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7.”

» via TGDaily

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally.

» via Financial Times

During a special media event held today in Cupertino, Apple unveiled details about the next major update to the iPhone OS that powers its iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad mobile devices. Slated to arrive sometime this summer for the iPhone and iPod touch, the update will give developers access to over 1,500 new APIs to improve and extend the capabilities of their apps, as well as give users over 100 new features like multitasking and improved enterprise support.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs detailed seven major new features that he described as “tentpoles” for the OS. Addressing the number one request of most users is a new app multitasking system. Jobs explained that implementing multitasking is easy if battery life and application performance isn’t a concern, but Apple has taken its time to develop a system that it says avoids these common pitfalls. “We weren’t the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best,” Jobs said.

» via ars technica

The Mac reached a new all-time high for market share in March, Net Applications found today. It saw the largest gain of any OS in the month and jumped to 5.33 percent of all traffic online. Windows erased all its brief gains and, while still dominant, fell to 91.58 percent.

Most of Apple’s gains could be attributed to new Macs running Snow Leopard, but the reverse was true for Microsoft. Windows 7 cracked the 10 percent mark for the first time, but it wasn’t enough to offset declines in both XP and Vista users that may have been switching to alternate operating systems rather than upgrading to 7. Google reaped the greater rewards in web browsers as it gained half a point and now sits at 6.13 percent. Firefox recovered most of its small losses to hit 24.52 percent, but Internet Explorer continued its steady decline and represented 60.65 percent of browsers. Safari reached its own high but still had modest growth, with a 4.65 percent slice of traffic.

» via electronista

tingletech:

told from the point of view of the product manager /via slashdot

In 1985, almost all PCs sat on desktops, the Internet was a Defense Department research project, and the cell phone revolution had barely gotten underway. It was also the year that Microsoft launched a DOS front-end called Windows 1.0.

Over the past quarter century, Windows has evolved many times, and it will change again in light of Microsoft’s investments in cloud services, mobile platforms, and other new technologies. And as the way people compute and communicate morphs faster than ever, the challenges ahead for Windows are huge.

With that in mind, Technologizer asked some of the industry’s big brains about what Microsoft needs to do to keep its operating system relevant in the years to come. Their advice ranges from merely simplifying the interface to borrowing ideas from other Microsoft products such as the Xbox to giving the OS a complete reboot. Here’s what they (and we) have to say.

» via Technologizer

For those still waiting for the year of the Linux “desktop,” I regret to inform you that it has already come and gone.

Through the efforts of the open-source community, in conjunction with independent hardware and software vendors, as well as Web developers, Linux is well beyond its toddler years and is almost past its rebellious teenage years. Did you notice?

» via CNET news

I also completely disagree with those who see Chrome OS as “a nuclear bomb” aimed at Microsoft. It’s exclusively focused on the netbook market, not desktops and servers. It’s more of an experiment than a nuclear bomb.

Let’s assume that the Chrome OS cloud-only model does alienate users. In that case, could Google reposition Chrome OS as a secondary, instant-on operating system that might ship alongside other operating systems, or simply be downloadable to use that way? Could it be the OS that you hop into for a crash-proof, cloud-based experience, just as many people hop in and out of the Chrome browser for its stability and other reasons?

Seen at GigaOM

mnmal:

John Gruber again makes a great point in this post about why the Litl and Google ChromeOS make sense.

One thing that strikes me about Chrome OS and Litl is that neither bother trying to do everything Windows or Mac OS X can do. Not even close. I don’t think either even bothers trying to serve as one’s primary computer.

The idea that they’re designed to serve as secondary computers is a big part of the opportunity I see for new Web-focused OSes. I think that’s one of the implicit factors that define what people call “netbooks”. How many people use one of those as their one and only computer?

If you start with the assumption that a computer will be a secondary machine — something purchased because it’s cheaper, smaller, and lighter — you can make all sorts of different assumptions about what it needs to be capable of.

Google’s dual-pronged operating-system strategy will likely produce a single OS down the road, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Seen at cnet news

Microsoft Windows continues to dominate the PC market with a 90 percent market-share stronghold, but when it comes to smartphones, Microsoft is getting beat up worse than a mustachioed villain in a Jackie Chan movie.

Windows Mobile has lost nearly a third of its smartphone market share since 2008, research firm Gartner reports. Windows Mobile had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, and last quarter Windows Mobile’s market share plummeted to 7.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Apple’s global market share grew from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and RIM saw a rise from 16 percent to 20.8 percent, according to Gartner’s figures.

Seen at CNN