It seems like only yesterday (okay, so it was the day before) that I wrote a blog about Windows 7 not having “downgrade” rights to Win XP nearly long enough for IT departments to actually evaluate Windows 7 safely.  The news of this was from a fairly reliable source as these things go: Gartner.

But maybe, just maybe, Microsoft really isn’t that stupid after all.

Over at Vulture Central is news of assurance from Microsoft that the time limit to “downgrade” to XP is not 6 months, but 18 months!

Stranger though, is one caveat: That Windows XP “downgrade” rights get lost sooner if there’s a service pack for Windows 7.  It’s a strange clause, leaving an even stranger quandry.  Do we then hope for Microsoft to be very slow in developing the first Windows 7 service pack, knowing full well that security holes (like this one, known since January) exist in Windows 7?  Or do we hope for a quick fix to the no doubt countless problems still in Windows 7 (When is an operating system ever bug free?) and with the big patch known as a service pack, lose downgrade rights to Windows XP?  Decisions, decisions…

What is an IT department to hope for?

(Well, other than Microsoft simply giving 18 months of Win XP downgrade rights without the service pack clause, obviously.)