Just today I received my regular OEM Newsletter from Microsoft and the lead story was quite interesting:
Windows XP End-Of-Sales (January 31, 2009)
Microsoft will soon discontinue selling Windows XP through our sales channels. In industry terms this is called "End-Of-Sales" (EOS). The last day Microsoft Authorized OEM Distributors can purchase Windows XP from Microsoft will be January 31, 2009. For major PC manufacturers, this EOS date was June 30, 2008. OEM Distributors can continue to sell Windows XP to their system builder customers subsequent to January 31, 2009, while they work through their existing inventory.
So this is it – Windows XP and all its versions will not be available for purchase through OEM channels as of the end of this week and then once they exhaust their inventory. I wonder of any OEM’s have made a run on last minute purchases to keep a supply available. I am thinking based on everything I have read on Windows 7 that XP’ers might be upgrading this time around.
This will be the end of an era for a very popular version of Microsoft’s operating system.