As a PC owner, I already consider myself a plebian in the society of Macs - but at least I’m not running Vista…right?

After the launch of Vista earlier this year was so ill-received, it is no surprise that many loyal PC users are banding together to try and save Windows XP. The now-outdated operating system is set to be removed from stores’ shelves this June; terrible news for the PC world.

In January, an online “Save XP” online petition was started, and has since accumulated more than 100,000 digital signatures and a slew of angered comments. These loyal users are voicing their opinion that XP should remain available for sale at least until 2010 (when Microsoft is expected to launch its next new operating system.) Angered users are going so far as to say that they or their companies will voluntarily downgrade from Vista to XP if provoked by the extinction of XP.
Statistics from the article reveal that it was estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP. This is a severe problem, considering that in April 2009 Microsoft plans to completely dissolve its full support program - including warranties and many of their free help hotlines/web servers.

What struck me as interesting about this article, however, is that fact that the biggest challenge faced by signers of the online petition is the diffusion of their ideals.

Ideally, if people begin to see their neighbors signing the petition and making a statement, they will see it in their benefit to do so as well. For if only a few people are interested in keeping XP, then truly it is of no benefit for the group as a whole to let this operating system survive. We can only hope that enough people hold steadfast in their loyalty to XP - thereby influencing the rest of the population to do the same.

And of course, if this petition is enough to strike the minds of Microsoft’s Board of Directors, XP users may also have to rely on the principles of cascading to save their beloved operating system:

If the first two directors to vote are in favor of keeping XP, perhaps a positive cascade could arise within the remainder of the board and consequently yield a desirable outcome for petitioners. For fear of the opposite occurring - and a negative cascade ending the world of XP as we know it - we must unite and voice are opinions to save XP.

Maybe your digital signature is the High signal that an influential board member has been searching for.