[Info-vax] Some good news !

[Joe Hunt]

"Steven Underwood" <nobody at spamcop.net> wrote:

>
><VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG> wrote in message 
>news:00A8A9C9.A7971EF4 at SendSpamHere.ORG...
>>
>> So what you are saying is that M$ _is_ forcing people to downgrade.
>>
>> -- 
>> VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker 
>> VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG
>>
>You appear to consider the latest version of the MS operating system a 
>downgrade.  I do not.  My XP machine needs to be rebooted a lot more than my 
>Vista laptop has.
>
>MS is not FORCING anything.  You can still run XP as long as you can keep it 
>running.  The license does not expire.  You just can not purchase the old 
>version any longer and it is officially unsupported.  I still run Win98 on a 
>few (older) machines, nobody forced me to change those systems either.
>
>Digital/Compaq/HP never forced me to upgrade my MVII from V5.2 either, but 
>it is also unsupported and not available for purchase.  That box, to my 
>knowledge is still running happily in the back computer room of my previous 
>employer doing the same thing it has for the last 10 years.  I also run 
>unsupported V7.1 on VAX and Alpha at my current employer.
>
>I also drive a 9 year old car that is out of warranty, but it keeps running 
>as well.
> 

According to this blog, Microsoft plans an interesting approach to the
problem of users not upgrading from XP.

"XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a
fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will
be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional,
Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft
web site."

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

or, in case the above url gets mangled,

http://tinyurl.com/dg22sm