Windows may or may not be collapsing, as two Gartner Group analysts indicated last week, but Microsoft is receiving substantial pushback against Windows Vista. With less than three months left until Microsoft says it will stop selling and supporting most versions of Windows XP, will customers be forced into an operating system they don’t want — or is Microsoft facing a customer revolt of stunning proportions?

Resistance is strong decent that InfoWorld Executive Editor Galen Gruman has launched a “Save Windows XP” online petition that has received more than 100,000 responses.

“Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don’t see a need to change to Vista. It’s like having a comfortable apartment that you’ve enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice,” the petition reads.

“The thought of moving to a new place — even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in that

year?) — just doesn’t sit right. possibly it’ll be more contemporary, but it will additionally cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don’t have any other reason to move.”

Will Microsoft Pull an ME?

Gruman wants Microsoft to do something similar to its handling of the disastrous Windows Millenium Edition — continue selling XP until an acceptable version of Vista can be developed.

It’s not clear whether businesses are really pushing back on Vista, said Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, in a telephone interview. “We’re just a few weeks past Service Pack 1 for Vista,” he noted. “The availability of SP1 is usually the trigger point for serious implementations.” While business implementation of Vista so far has been minor, “I expect it to pick up speed,” King said.

At the end of the day, though, neither Microsoft nor any other company…

Orginal post by Top Tech News