Today marks the first year anniversary of Windows 7. Microsoft"s latest operating system has become its most popular and well-accepted OS to date. In just a single year, 240 million licenses have been sold. With much of the tech world"s attention on this monumental occasion, people seem less focused on what else October 22nd marks.
Mary Jo Foley, over at ZDNet (via TechFlash), points out that today marks the end of Windows XP being pre-loaded on new machines. As noted, netbooks were the last category of PCs remaining that were allowed to come with the 9-year old operating system loaded from the factory. It"s clear that Microsoft wants the world to move full force into a new era of PC computing. In their minds, and rightfully so, Windows XP hinders that possibility.
Unlike with Windows Vista, businesses seem to be jumping onto the Windows 7 bandwagon. Major corporations all over the world are beginning to roll out the new OS as their de facto standard. Windows XP was a great operating system and truly changed the way we, as consumers and businesses, compute. With Windows XP, Microsoft brought stability--a core feature that continues to be improved upon. Before Windows XP, program freezes and driver issues would turn a PC inoperable, forcing you to reboot and lose anything you were working on. Little do we realize just how pivotal XP was. It was such a well oiled OS that companies refused to let go of it and take the leap to Vista. A year ago, it seemed like Windows XP was the OS that would never die. Today, however, it does.