Vista service pack one is being pushed asap and the beta will be available in days/weeks and looks set for end of the year...but

Games developers have been talking to MS and Developers from E3 have while not saying anything concrete have been hinting to a number of things, this is from a lot of sources and I can not be arsed to link them but if you read game and tech sites you may have heard these.

There are quite a lot of games coming out this year on the pc and there are some great ones and many of them are and will be DX10(directx)

Recently is been shown that DX10 could work in XP and before you may  have read when someone here posted that a couple of DX10 games have been converted to run under windows xp, it is becuase the limits that MS first said it would be vista only are not actually the case and the main feature which you can see in the article that was making it vista can be turned off and actually is not used in any of the top games coming out this year at all anyway.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40913

Gears of war for the pc will be DX10 and uses the new Games for Windows platform for online play etc.
Games for Windows is basically xbox live for the pc and the connectivity and code to help support that as well as more, its a good thing for gaming and updates will improve it further this year.
The developers for Gears of war have said the online play uses Games for Windows and DX10 but will be on XP and at E3 this has been reflected by many developers, if you watch  World in Conflict video from gamespot here:
http://e3.gamespot.com/live.html?tag=event_nav;live

This again is highlighted and the game needs dx10 but coming to xp

Also as some of you know the graphics drivers for vista are still really struggling to be anything and SLI support etc still having issues, Vista should be a good gaming platform but its going to take a few more updates from all around before it actually starts working properly basically.

What everyone is basically saying is at some point soon MS will announce Games For Windows and with this DX10 for windows XP, XP support will end next year and no more but security updates after service pack 3.

Vista should really start flying next year but as a stop gap MS look set to back track a little for developers and gamers on PC to enjoy this year and their XP machines with some cool games and basically to please all and please developers a bit in development and sales (Because developers have said they are concerned about pushing for DX10 becuase it is cool but then this year suffering their sales due to it being vista only)

So while this is all in the air, there seems to be a good indication this will be the case since a lot of it is coming from the developer side, we will have to see but will be cool if it indeed happens.

Didnt Microsoft agree to support Windows XP until August of 2010, will they not be breaking agreements if they end the support in 2008?

Quote from: Grey M@aDidnt Microsoft agree to support Windows XP until August of 2010, will they not be breaking agreements if they end the support in 2008?

It wouldnt concern ms, a small court battle and a fine for $100,000 or something ridiculous no doubt, thats chump change to them.

Quote from: Bacon

Quote from: Grey M@aDidnt Microsoft agree to support Windows XP until August of 2010, will they not be breaking agreements if they end the support in 2008?

It wouldnt concern ms, a small court battle and a fine for $100,000 or something ridiculous no doubt, thats chump change to them.

I suppose it would give them a reason to make friends with the EU commision lot again

Quote from: Grey M@aDidnt Microsoft agree to support Windows XP until August of 2010, will they not be breaking agreements if they end the support in 2008?

End of 2008 all but security updates and fixes, no real true support updates will be on the system

AFAIK its the supply to system builders that stops in 08.