I have not found anything on the site you mentioned. The U.S. Government obviously will continue to internally support XP, which should be for many years, but they can not require MS to support it, when MS discontinues XP. It is possible that MS will voluntarily sell XP for government use, under the guise of "national security" even though it will not be available for the general public.
The obvious danger to MS is that the U.S. government will follow other governments in selecting a Linux variant or mandating the use thereof. As you are probably aware, the U.S. military does use Linux for some purposes. But for all practical purposes, most buyers of new computers are buying Vista here in the U.S. A few who are not happy with Vista are buying Mac and an extremely small number are buying Linux. I have seen at least one customer at Best Buy who was very distraught last year and was told if they wanted to buy a computer from BB, they could either buy a Vista machine or order a Mac through mail order. (They must not be handling Macs anymore at that store). Linux software used to have a small presence at BB, but not for some time now as sales just were not adequate. This is probably due to the access through the internet, but it does lower the Linux presence to the public through the source that most consumers draw upon. To make statements that Vista is on its death bed is rather absurd. What might be possible is for MS to strip out the DRM and other bloatware and invasiveware. I absolutely don't see any indications that U.S. computer companies are going to discontinue installation of Vista on almost all new PC compatibles until a new replacement comes along. Although someone claimed that this could happen within a year, past history has shown that it is likely to be many years beyond what MS is claiming for a Windows 7 target date. Consider that something around 100,000,000 Vista machines have been sold so far. 73, Rick, KV9U AA0OI wrote: > > Hi Rick: > > The US government has now informed MS that they "WILL" continue to > support XP as they will not be using VISTA ( see MaxiumPC) VISTA is > now on its death bed..but no great loss.. WAY to many problems. > > > > Garrett / AA0OI >
