By Victoria Ho
Tuesday, July 01 2008 06:31 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62043342,00.htm

update With mainstream support for Windows XP ending in April next year, it seems more companies may be planning to pay for extended support over the option of migrating to Vista.

Microsoft's mainstream support, which includes system software updates and patches is scheduled to end in April 2009. The additional option of extended support will stretch this deadline till 2014.

And some companies are opting for this.

Ng Koh Wee, executive vice president of IT at Great Eastern Life Assurance, said in an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia that the company would "most likely" opt for extended support, but added that the company is on an atypical migration track compared to most other companies.

Ng explained that up till January this year, the company's now-decommissioned mainframe system required a terminal emulator that would only run on Windows 2000. As a result, the company is only just in the process of moving to Windows XP.

"We will have to make the request [for extended support] in due course," said Ng.

Linus Tham, chief technology architect, group technology and operations at DBS Bank also confirmed the company plans to stay with Windows XP, but did not specify whether it would apply for extended support.

Hardware giant, Intel, also dealt a recent blow to Vista: according to a New York Times report, Intel's IT department "found no compelling case" for upgrading to Vista.

But systems integrator, Datacraft said it encourages clients to move on.

"Datacraft does not recommend staying indefinitely on a platform that will not have functionality updates or any new development," a spokesperson said via e-mail.

It said it is currently touching base with clients on migration plans, but added that bigger clients may have to remain on XP "for a while because of the sheer size and magnitude of their deployments", and recommends they start planning their migration before the deadline is up.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet Asia that some 140 million Vista licenses have been sold as of end-March this year.

"We continue to see solid momentum for Windows Vista in the market.

"Windows Vista is on par or slightly ahead of where XP and Windows 2000 business deployments were during the same timeframe," the spokesperson pointed out, citing Gartner statistics from April which showed XP's installed base in businesses in 2002 and Vista's in 2007 were both 4.7 percent.

Gartner also forecasts a greater business installed base for Vista this year at 21.3 percent--XP's was 16.9 percent in 2003.

Microsoft also cited a March IDC report which quoted IDC research vice president, system software, Al Gillen, saying: "We believe the sluggish adoption is caused more by the maturation of the client PC than by concerns over Windows Vista specifically...we expect that 2008 will mark the beginning of a much stronger adoption curve for Windows Vista on the business side, especially now that Windows Server 2008 has launched."

Yesterday was the last day shops would be able to sell Windows XP as a boxed product. From today till January 2009, shops can sell XP by way of exercising the "downgrade rights" that come with owning a Vista license--HP and Dell have said they would continue to sell XP via that route.

A Dell spokesperson confirmed that the company is offering this option in the Asia-Pacific region too, and that the company will provide support for Vista and XP through the customer's warranty period.

However, this is limited to an installation of XP by way of downgrading Vista. Dell does not offer support for XP installed via a retail or volume license, said Dell.