Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Will XP's 'exec

Speculation continues to swirl regarding when and whether Microsoft will extend the June thirty, 2008, cut-off date on which countless Pc makers will likely be expected to cease bundling Windows XP with new PCs.But some pundits seem to have forgotten that when Microsoft in the beginning granted Windows XP 5 much more months to live,Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, back in 2007, the business left alone a loophole. (And I don;t imply just the early 2009 cut-off date it granted white-box vendors/system builders). Late final 12 months, Microsoft officials stated that vendors preloading Windows on PCs aimed at “emerging markets” wouldn;t have to stop selling Windows XP until 2010.From Microsoft;s September 27, 2007,Microsoft Office Professional 2010, press release: “(S)ince some of the systems that ship in emerging markets don’t meet the requirements for Windows Vista,Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus, we will probably be extending availability of Windows XP Starter Edition to June 30, 2010. This will allow our OEM partners who sell PCs in emerging markets extra opportunity to offer genuine Windows licenses.” The new question that company watchers are asking this week is regardless of whether Microsoft will extend this 2010 date to cover “low-cost” PCs — like the Asus Eee ultra-cheap laptop — even if those PCs aren;t running XP Starter Edition.I would expect Microsoft would find offering XP for another year-plus on those PCs to become a lesser evil than conceding the low-cost Computer market to Linux. If these machines do not have enough processing power to run Windows Vista (not even the Home Basic edition), what else can Microsoft expect their manufacturers to do, other than to continue to offer the systems with XP?Will Microsoft extend its XP-preload cut-off date again,Office Home And Business 2010, outside of these fringe cases? My bet is no. Microsoft will probably be shooting itself in the foot if it does this, as it would be concedinng that there are real reasons that users and its hardware/software partners may perhaps not want its latest Windows release (which is now over a 12 months old,Office Home And Student 2010, mind you)….What;s your take? Will any amount of outcry stop Microsoft from making good on its June 30 XP preload cut-off date?