Microsoft Is Killing Windows XP For Netbooks As Of October 22, 2010

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Despite having already been given a death date once in the past, Windows XP was eventually granted a reprieve on netbooks. And given that we are now talking about a 10 year old operating system, it seems long overdue for a rest.

That said, coming courtesy of the Windows Team Blog, we have a friendly reminder that Windows XP is only going to be around for a few more months. Well, a little more than four months at this point. The official end run date for Windows XP is October 22, 2010.

Basically, starting as of October 23rd, “OEMs will no longer be able to pre-install Windows XP Home on new netbook PCs.” Now initially, or at least back when XP was given the extension I had though it necessary. But now at this point in netbooks and available options for Windows it hardly seems needed anymore. After all, Windows 7 has come a long way and I am speaking as someone that has run Windows 7 on an Eee PC since the public beta was released back in January of 2009.

In addition, it seems that the numbers support my thoughts on Windows 7. Based on NPD’s Retail Tracking Service, as of April 2010;

“81% of netbook units sold at retail in the US came with Windows 7 pre-installed.”

Granted, much of those have probably been Windows 7 Starter, which does have some “quirks” but don’t get me started there. Moving right on, as of July 13th the support for Windows XP will end, that is unless you have the latest version (Service Pack 3) installed. And for those that will not give up on Windows XP, the end of life (even with SP3) will come in April 2014 at which time the support will officially and finally be over.

Of course, depending on your usage needs, there are also plenty of other nice options for a netbook operating system including Ubuntu as well as my personal favorite, Jolicloud.