Yesterday, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, created quite a stir by stating that Microsoft would listen to customers if they really wanted to purchase XP beyond the June 30 deadline the company has set for OEM and retail availability of Widows XP. Company spokesmen, though, hurried to quash any speculation that this meant Microsoft would, in fact, give XP a reprieve. Citing their own research, we were told that cutting off the sales of XP was the right thing to do based on customer and partner feedback. In the meantime, Dell announced its intention to continue to offer XP as a downgrade option for its customers. Now two other computer makers are following suit as Lenovo and HP both indicated they would do they same for their customers. So if the top PC manufacturers are going to continue to offer a downgrade path for their customers, you have to believe there is ongoing customer demand for XP over Vista.