XP license availability for OEM vs System Builder

[Russ P]

At this URL http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx it shows
a 6 month difference for availability of WinXP licenses for Direct OEM and
Retail versus System builiders. Every place I've looked on the MS forums and
website, I see OEM and system builder used interchangeably. What is the
difference between OEM and system builder in the context of the lifecycle
page above? More importantly, what does this 6 month difference in license
availability mean to the end user like myself for how much longer I can buy a
system with WinXP? Will I be able to buy an XP system between June 30, 08 and
Jan 31, 09, or what?

 

[Poprivet`]

At this URL
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx
it shows a 6 month difference for availability of
WinXP licenses for
Direct OEM and Retail versus System builiders. Every
place I've
looked on the MS forums and website, I see OEM and
system builder
used interchangeably. What is the difference between
OEM and system
builder in the context of the lifecycle page above?
More importantly,
what does this 6 month difference in license
availability mean to the
end user like myself for how much longer I can buy a
system with
WinXP? Will I be able to buy an XP system between
June 30, 08 and Jan
31, 09, or what?

What you've read may have little to do with the reality
of the situation. XP should already be no longer
available from the bigger companies and the smaller
ones just flushing out their current inventory. At
least that's pretty much what occurred in the past.
Several vendors, Gateway and Dell I know, at least a
month or so ago, were still offering XP on their
machines but you had to ask; it wasn't clear you could
get it from their offerings.
Technically XP is still "alive" and in fact awaiting
what is planned to be its last update, SP3, by this
fall. Support is planned to go away quickly once that
gets out and Vista has a good market share.
There are those that predict Vista won't make it an
XP will continue to be supported but I don't see MS
doing that - worst case they'll just have more people
to work on Windows 7 should Vista really go bust, which
I'm not so sure of either. MS doesn't put in time on
stuff that doesn't bring top dollar, so Vista and/or
win7 are going to happen, IMO, not any step back into
XP. Personally, I'm waiting for Win7 and skipping
Vista, same as I did with 2k and XP. And, I now also
have a win2k machine, and support for it is no problem
even though it's been dead for years.

Cheers,

Pop`

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

"Support is planned to go away quickly once that..."
Support for windows XP will continue for at least a few more years.
There is no association between ceasing distribution and stopping
support other than typically one happens years before the other.

At the release of Windows XP, Windows ME/2000 continue to be available
from the OEMs for at least several months and available in retail
outlets for a a few years.
What we are seeing now with Windows XP is very similar to what has
happened at the release of other operating systems in the past.

The link above refers to availability and says little about support.
This link is appropriate when referring to support:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];lifesupsps

 

[Russ P]

Thanks for the comments to my post, but I still haven't got an answer to my
question which is about WinXP availabiliity, not support. "System builders"
still have license availability until Jan 31, 09. Does that mean an end user
can buy an XP system between June 30, 08 and Jan 31, 09 or since OEM licenses
are available only until June 30, 08, will that earlier date be the deadline
for buying XP systems off the shelf? What's the difference between "system
builders" and "OEMs"? I'm not looking for predictions about whether anyone
will _want_ to sell an XP system but rather _can_ they according to the
lifecycle policy. Thanks.

 

[Daave]

At this URL http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx
it shows a 6 month difference for availability of WinXP licenses for
Direct OEM and Retail versus System builiders. Every place I've
looked on the MS forums and website, I see OEM and system builder
used interchangeably. What is the difference between OEM and system
builder in the context of the lifecycle page above?

I would imagine OEM refers to PC manufacturers. such as Dell, HP,
Gateway, etc. System Builder is probably smaller scale "system
builders," and I suppose this also includes hobbyists who build their
own machines.

More importantly,
what does this 6 month difference in license availability mean to the
end user like myself for how much longer I can buy a system with
WinXP? Will I be able to buy an XP system between June 30, 08 and Jan
31, 09, or what?

Probably that you may still buy certain PCs made by Dell, HP, Gateway,
etc., which also come with an OEM version of XP up until June 30, 2008.
And that you may buy a generic OEM XP installation disk/license as a
"system builder" up until January 31, 2009.

Do you want to build your own system or purchase something custom-built
from a neighborhood PC shop? Or do you plan on purchasing a Dell, HP,
Gateway, etc? If the latter, it looks like you have until the end of
June. Then again, there's still a fairly strong demand for XP, so it
wouldn't surprise me if the date is pushed back further.

Of course, I'm sure there will be a ton of used XP PCs out there for
quite some time. And if you choose to build a system ten years from now,
I'm sure you could still find a copy of XP -- if you would really want
to.