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[Operating systems]

Friday 4th April 2008

XP granted second stay of execution 8:53AM, Friday 4th April 2008

Microsoft has announced that it will continue to sell XP Home edition for another two years on ultra low cost laptops such as the Eee PC.

Microsoft was originally slated to stop selling XP on 30 June, but as the emerging class of diminutive laptops don't have the necessary hardware to support Vista, XP has been granted an extension until 2010.

However, the company is not altering its technical support strategy for XP, with free live support and warranty

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support ending next April, and paid-for customer support coming to an end in 2014. Downloadable security updates will continue to be free.

Microsoft was keen to squash any suggestion that this could lead to a reprieve for other versions of XP saying that it was happy with the "progress" being made by Vista.

This is the second time XP has dodged its death sentence, after extending sales by an extra five months amidst poor uptake for Vista.

Intel has recently revealed its Eee rival, the Classmate PC 2 which the company has earmarked for European sale, unlike the original. Read about it here.

Stuart Turton

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