With much fanfare, Microsoft has been promoting IE 9 and its Bing search toolbar as an improved computer experience. At the same time, it is thumbing its nose at Windows XP users by refusing to make IE 9 available to them.
One might think there is something inherently wrong with Windows XP that makes it unsuitable as a platform for a “modern browser”, but Google (Chrome) and Mozilla (Firefox) seem to disagree. Rather, this is the latest move by Microsoft to cast Windows XP as a second class citizen and use its ability to create obsolescence in its older products to sell its new ones. It is, at best, a questionable practice.
Many individual and small business Windows XP users may already be inconvenienced by Microsoft’s decision to make it difficult to share files and printers over small networks that have a combination of Windows XP and Windows 7. Want to print from your Windows 7 laptop to a printer connected to a Windows XP desktop computer? Sorry, a Windows XP printer cant be shared in this way with a computer running Windows 7.
Its unfortunate that Microsoft has chosen this direction, because many perfectly serviceable Windows XP computers remain in use today. Many are fast, powerful, and trouble-free. Unlike large businesses, individuals, schools, municipalities and non-profits may have higher priorities than replacing PC’s every few years on a planned upgrade cycle.
For these computer users, Mozilla’s Firefox 4 and Google’s latest version of Chrome offer similar benefits to Microsoft IE 9 and The Coach’s Advisor appreciates that they are available for Windows XP in addition to Vista and 7. Firefox 4 and Chrome will only enhance what is already a perfectly acceptable and familiar computing experience for the large number of businesses and individuals still using Windows XP.
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