Licensing Loopholes allows XP to Remain OS of Choice

Ever since Vista’s launch, there has been a great swell of protest and resistance, from both enterprise IT to the average consumer, to installation of the operating system.

The good news is that many computer manufacturers: Dell, HP and Lenovo have found a licensing loophole that allows Windows XP to be used as the operating system. Under the Windows Vista licensing terms, XP is provided free under the terms of a downgrade license for select versions of the operating system. In many cases, the XP license option can be kept until 2009 with a possible extension to 2010. By then, the next Microsoft OS will be launched.

Today, Microsoft trotted out Steve Ballmer to talk about his unique proposition for Windows based users if you don’t like Vista, you can downgrade to Windows XP. Microsoft has already extended Windows XP installations for select low cost desktops past the June 30 expiration date for the OS.