What do you do if your flagship operating system isn't designed to run well on a popular new class of hardware? It's a problem currently faced by Microsoft. Budget laptops like the Asus Eee PC with minimal amounts of RAM, relatively slow CPUs, and solid state storage have proven popular, and Vista wasn't designed to operate well within such hardware confines. In response, Microsoft is reportedly planning to extend the availability of Windows XP for the budget laptop category.
Originally, XP was scheduled to shuffle off this mortal coil this past January 30, but Microsoft relented last fall due to pressure from customers and resellers. Windows XP is now facing a June 30 end, which is the day Microsoft will stop selling the OS to most manufacturers and system builders. Small resellers who build PCs to order will still be able to obtain copies of XP through January 2009, which is just a few months before XP exits the mainstream support phase. Windows XP Started Edition will be available through June 2010.
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