In a letter to some of Dells customers, they said that "XP Professional is available for OEM installation on your Dell PC purchases through at least 2009 and likely longer." The "official" OEM and retail end date from Microsoft is June 30, 2008, just a few weeks away. There has been much talk of whether Microsoft would bow to the demand of the consumers to keep XP alive, and with this it is still hard to tell if Dell bought a years stock of licenses ahead of time, or if this is the precursor to an announcement from Microsoft.
Dell"s plan for users is to have Windows XP Professional installed on their machines, but include the Vista install disk for when they are ready to upgrade. "With XP installed, we will send media for both Vista and XP with each PC so that when you are ready to migrate to Vista you may at no addition upgrade cost." The demand seems high, so let"s hope others follow suit to allow companies the time and resources to fully upgrade.
The email reads as follows:
Good Morning,
I hope you had a good weekend. The purpose of this email is two-fold.
1. Because you are in our Relationship division, XP Professional is available for OEM installation on your Dell PC purchases through at least 2009 and likely longer. I will keep you updated on its availability over the coming months/years as I receive information. The PCs that XP is available on at no additional charge are our Relationship lines: Latitudes, Precisions and Optiplexes. On Vostro units, there is a small charge that will vary but I will communicate that with each quote. With XP installed, we will send media for both Vista and XP with each PC so that when you are ready to migrate to Vista you may at no addition upgrade cost. Of course, XP will continue to be available if you are using Vista Business Open Licensing agreements" downgrade rights also.
2. My team and I"s phone numbers have changed as we transition to VOIP. Please note the information below.
If you have any questions/concerns about the XP/Vista issue or anything else please let me know.
Thank you again for your business and I look forward to speaking with you
Matt