It would appear that Dell’s Website No Longer offers Windows XP Pro as an option on their range of Optiplex computers. I assume this kicked in early April.

At the time of writing you can still get equipment from the Latitude and Precision ranges with XP

Dell Optiplex are the range of Business Class Desktop PC’s.

Naturally this forces business users to Choose Windows Vista.

I have been dreading this day because neither I nor my customers now have a choice.

I have hundreds of XP machines in the field and haven’t had to worry about driver support for a long, long time.

Example: I can’t now just order a printer alongside a new pc without checking its got Vista drivers.

Example: If an existing business user needs a new PC. I can’t assume all of these existing things are just going to work!

Digital Camera
Skype Phone
Scanner
iPod
USB Microphone
Mobile Phone Connection or Mobile 3g Data Card
Various exotic printers

What Joy…….

Update 12/04/2007: According to my Dell Account Manager “You will be able to choose Windows Xp Pro until Dec 2007 on Optiplex and Latitude”. Its not available on the website you need to ask for it from an Account Manager or Sales Rep.

To make this worse the date for low cost Windows Vista Express Upgrades has passed (31/03/2007) so if you Get XP now and want to upgrade later you will be doing so a the full cost. Ouch.