By no surprise Microsoft announced to extend the availability of Windows XP until 2010, which was supposed to be discontinued this summer. We all know Windows Vista’s got quite bit beefy system requirements and no way suitable on ultra low cost PC’s like Asus Eee PC or similar. So Microsoft decided to allow system vendors to preloads the Home edition of Windows XP on "ultra low-cost PCs" (ULCPC) for an extended period.

It’s not that Microsoft don’t want users to go for Windows Vista but to experience all of Vista’s features, PC users need a computer with at least a 1-GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, and a 40-GB hard drive. On the other hand, Windows XP Professional requires only a 300-MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 1.5-GB disk. ULPCPC’s Like Asus Eee PC, which sells for less than $400, use discount-line processors and integrated graphics adapter, is completely incapable of handling something like Vista.

So why Microsoft so worried about ULCPC’s? Emerging markets like India, China and South East Asia are experiencing growing sales of ULCPCs. Now OLCPC vendors like ASUS won’t have any choice but preloads all their system with Linux, unless Microsoft has something to offer. So Windows XP lives another few years, but only for OLCPCs.

Microsoft has now set the phase out date of XP to June 30, 2010. On the other news, Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates reveals that the next major OS release from MS, Windows 7 will arrive as early as next year. Well maybe some beta, as I am not sure if Microsoft will really want to come up with another new OS at this time, when business organizations are barely swallowed Vista-never mind digesting it :).