There are many ways of peering into the future. Me, I prefer to stick with the tried-and-trusted method of reading between the lines of Microsoft press releases.

Like this one:

Today Microsoft announced the worldwide extension of the availability of Windows XP Home for an emerging, new class of mobile personal computers commonly known as ultra-low-cost PCs, or ULCPCs. Windows XP Home for ULCPCs will be available until the later of June 30, 2010, or one year after general availability of the next version of Windows.

This U-turn on the availability of Windows XP – at least for the Home version - originally scheduled to be withdrawn on June 30th this year, was inevitable the moment the Asus Eee PC turned into an overnight sensation. As I've discussed elsewhere, the idea of putting Windows Vista on an Eee PC is so ridiculous it's not even funny. Windows XP was the only option if Microsoft wanted to avoid handing the entire ultramobile sector to GNU/Linux. But let's look a little more closely at what Microsoft has to say on the subject:

Microsoft has heard from partners and customers that they want Windows broadly available for this new class of devices, because they want the familiarity, compatibility and support only available on the Windows platform. Extending the availability of Windows XP Home for this category reflects Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to deliver the right version of Windows for new device categories as they emerge.

Well, no, not really. Microsoft customers have been begging for all varieties of Windows XP to be available for every device, not just the Home version for ultraportables. Far from any “ongoing commitment to deliver the right version of Windows for new device categories as they emerge”, Microsoft has been desperately trying to stuff Vista onto any machine that has processor – including systems that are woefully underpowered for its inordinate resource demands. Windows XP Home is not “the right version of Windows”, it is simply the only one that was at all plausible.

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