[Update] OEMs Sticking To Windows XP For Netbooks This Holiday Season

Microsoft has tried to kill Windows XP but they haven’t been able to. And they can’t till OEMs stop bundling it with the lower end hardware. One of the major reasons why Microsoft couldn’t kill XP during the Vista days was that Vista was too good for the tiny little screens. If Microsoft wanted to put XP to rest the next Windows had to perform better on lower specs, it does. Steven Sinofsky did the Windows 7 demo on a Netbook. But OEMs haven’t dumped Windows XP just as yet, despite Microsoft dropping the 3 app limit on the Starter edition. I was on Dell’s website looking at the Inspiron Zino when I saw the following banner:

Dell is selling it’s Inspiron Mini range with Windows XP SP3. Funny since Netbook performance has been one of the highlighted factors when it comes to promoting Windows 7. Now that Dell was selling it’s Minis with XP, I decided to check out what HP was doing with it’s sub 10” range, not surprisingly, even the HP Mini series Netbooks come with Windows XP. I visited ASUS to see what’s on the EeePC, again, Windows XP; should point out that ASUS has documented their plans to support Windows 7 on the EeePC range Not sure but I don’t think that Netbook buyers are legible to a Windows 7 upgrade.

There is no doubt that Windows 7’s biggest competitor is Windows XP & Microsoft knows that. They can’t kill Windows XP as long as OEMs are selling Netbooks on Windows XP. Me has no idea why OEMs are still on Windows XP.

Update: ASUS EeePC 1202 N with Windows 7 has started shipping them as well.