c|net News.com
June 30, 2008 10:56 AM PDT

Windows XP's last hurrah

Posted by Ina Fried

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The mere fact that Microsoft will stop widespread sale of Windows XP at the end of the day has been a topic here and elsewhere for months.

So, rather than rehash things (though you can click here for a recap), I thought I would take a look at the Windows landscape.

The most immediate question is, with Windows XP moving off the stage, just where is Windows Vista?

On the plus side, the newer operating system has sold 140 million copies, according to Microsoft. But, as I've been saying for some time, that is largely a factor of how many people have wanted a new PC in the past 18 months, as opposed to an indicator of pure demand.

However, businesses, which get to choose which operating system they run, have overwhelmingly stuck with XP. Just a tiny fraction of corporate machines are running Vista, with some companies not planning any companywide Vista deployment at all.