Russia Probes Anti-Monopoly Over WinXP Cutoff Date

Not ready to abandon Windows XP in favor of the much-maligned Vista? Neither are the Russians, whose government recently launched an investigation into Microsoft's decision to stop selling the popular operating system on new PCs there.

Reports emerged yesterday stating that an official Russian anti-monopoly group had commenced an inquiry into Microsoft's controversial decision to cease the resale of Windows XP on new computers. The OS remains very popular in that country; most consumers there are against Microsoft's cutoff date of July 31, when it plans to prevent retailers from shipping XP machines. (Source: techspot.com)

Vista Demanding, Not Dynamic

It's expected that investigators opposing the July deadline will argue that Vista is too bulky and too demanding for the majority of PCs in homes and businesses.

Reports suggest that the Russian government also believes that Microsoft shipped Vista much too late (early 2007), and yet it offered few fundamental changes. That means that although Vista is demanding, it doesn't dramatically improve the user's computing experience. XP is still quite capable of performing basic, important functions, including web surfing, word processing, and even some gaming.

Russians Make Familiar Gripes

All of this anger about the switch away from XP to Vista probably sounds awfully familiar to Americans, who have expressed their own dislike of Vista. It's a big reason for the huge anticipation awaiting Microsoft's next OS, Windows 7.

Russia's anti-monopoly body is expected to continue researching Microsoft's XP cutoff, and reports indicate that it will launch a formal case on the subject on July 24. (source: pcworld.com)