WinXP: only 6 months left
Thread Starter
WinXP: only 6 months left
With WinXP officially being taken out behind the shed & shot in April what are current users intending to do?
Alright, the Win8 Metro interface is a dog without a touchscreen, but throw on something like Classic Shell and you have a perfectly usable Windows system.
FWIW here in Oz Win8 upgrade is still available for $68 from Officeworks.
No, I'm not flogging Win8 (I use Linux) but you need to plan to use something other than XP come April as continuing to use it is not a sensible option. Note that WIn7 only has 15 months of mainstream support left.
Alright, the Win8 Metro interface is a dog without a touchscreen, but throw on something like Classic Shell and you have a perfectly usable Windows system.
FWIW here in Oz Win8 upgrade is still available for $68 from Officeworks.
No, I'm not flogging Win8 (I use Linux) but you need to plan to use something other than XP come April as continuing to use it is not a sensible option. Note that WIn7 only has 15 months of mainstream support left.
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
Note that WIn7 only has 15 months of mainstream support left.
Microsoft Support Lifecycle
Let's have this discussion again in 6 years! Or, for Vista users, in 3 years time.
SD
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crewmeal
Microsoft would go bankrupt if they didn't strongly nudge the customer to buy newer, newer.
A dilemma of theirs is Office software. People buy a copy and use it for a long time ... during which MS get no additional money. This could explain Office365 ... which will produce a continual flow of income from its users.
It sounds as though Google may be working on ChromeOS to be pushed as a replacement for WinXP. We shall see. Interesting times.
Microsoft would go bankrupt if they didn't strongly nudge the customer to buy newer, newer.
A dilemma of theirs is Office software. People buy a copy and use it for a long time ... during which MS get no additional money. This could explain Office365 ... which will produce a continual flow of income from its users.
It sounds as though Google may be working on ChromeOS to be pushed as a replacement for WinXP. We shall see. Interesting times.
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We have three computers, two desktops and one netbook... the netbook and the older desktop are both on XP the newer desktop is on Vista... I for one have no intentions whatsoever of further lining the pockets of M/Soft by 'upgrading' to anything else.
Similarly, we use M/Soft Office Home and Student Edition 2003 on all three machines and are quite happy with its capabilities. If documents in the .doc format have been successfully used for so many years why do we suddenly need .docx? Its just change for change sake...
Firefox is my browser of choice, but it used to be so much better when at v3.16 after which it just got heavier and heavier with incompatibilities with other programs introduced at every upgrade...
AVG Antivirus... again, used to be good, but like FF got heavier and heavier slowing down everything. We gave it up as a bad job three years ago and went over to Avast.
Like they say... IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
Similarly, we use M/Soft Office Home and Student Edition 2003 on all three machines and are quite happy with its capabilities. If documents in the .doc format have been successfully used for so many years why do we suddenly need .docx? Its just change for change sake...
Firefox is my browser of choice, but it used to be so much better when at v3.16 after which it just got heavier and heavier with incompatibilities with other programs introduced at every upgrade...
AVG Antivirus... again, used to be good, but like FF got heavier and heavier slowing down everything. We gave it up as a bad job three years ago and went over to Avast.
Like they say... IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
Like they say... IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
but to whom are you talking
MS or the end users ?
Should the end user just keep on using it until it finally stops running having been taken over by a virus +
Heck if all it is being used for is a backup computer should anybody care?
Is it going to act like typhoid mary and spew its germs to all who come in contact?
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where this sort of microsoft upgrade really hurts is in the industrial controls environment. most of these systems are based on windows.
as the window of hardware availability has moved over the years the computers are getting less and less usable.
you need to set up a system with reliable connections. cant do that any more.
usb connections are great until the system reconfigures port names after a plug vibrates out.
apple will not allow their machines to be used in controls environments.
XP service pack 2 with all the drivers and hardware available was far in away the best interface and computer hardware combination to use.
one of the reasons I dont go back to control systems engineering is the sheer impossibility of getting windows current versions to configure for usable work.
linux mint may prove to be the new boy on the block as far as operating systems go.
as the window of hardware availability has moved over the years the computers are getting less and less usable.
you need to set up a system with reliable connections. cant do that any more.
usb connections are great until the system reconfigures port names after a plug vibrates out.
apple will not allow their machines to be used in controls environments.
XP service pack 2 with all the drivers and hardware available was far in away the best interface and computer hardware combination to use.
one of the reasons I dont go back to control systems engineering is the sheer impossibility of getting windows current versions to configure for usable work.
linux mint may prove to be the new boy on the block as far as operating systems go.
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The real question is, what will Microsoft do when they try to 'stop support' but there are still tens or hundreds of millions of XP machines in use by businesses around the world?
It's not as though they're all going to rush out and replace them with Windows 8 and its tablet interface.
It's not as though they're all going to rush out and replace them with Windows 8 and its tablet interface.
Thread Starter
Computing moves on and it becomes harder and harder to bolt improvements on to a clunky old chassis without cutting and welding. Why would any company do that if you aren't paying for it?
MG32, seriously, why would MS care? Those companies are probably too wedded to other MS products to change to anything different. If they really want to keep using XP they can start writing large cheques for the privilege of continued support or take their chances......
It's not like they haven't had however many years warning to plan a transition.
MG32, seriously, why would MS care? Those companies are probably too wedded to other MS products to change to anything different. If they really want to keep using XP they can start writing large cheques for the privilege of continued support or take their chances......
It's not like they haven't had however many years warning to plan a transition.
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Because the global infrastructure is totally reliant on computers these days, and it only takes one exploitable, unpatched and unpatchable XP bug to give the world a really bad day?
'Oh, it's not our fault, we warned you,' doesn't go down too well after something like that.
I believe Microsoft already extended support once because hardly anyone wanted to move away from XP. I won't be at all surprised if they have to extend it again, at least for major security fixes.
And smaller companies love spending money to replace computers that still do everything they need.
'Oh, it's not our fault, we warned you,' doesn't go down too well after something like that.
I believe Microsoft already extended support once because hardly anyone wanted to move away from XP. I won't be at all surprised if they have to extend it again, at least for major security fixes.
It's not like they haven't had however many years warning to plan a transition.
Thread Starter
I think you'll be sorely disappointed with MS extending support any further. How many years are you expecting MS to continue supporting people who refuse to change? People have to take some responsibility for their own behaviour.
A computer is not a toaster, despite what the marketoids have managed to convince people of! It's a highly complex device that needs maintaining. If a small company can't budget a few dollars a week per PC to cover issues known years ahead of time then more fool them. How the hell do they cope with anything else with a fixed and known lifespan?
A computer is not a toaster, despite what the marketoids have managed to convince people of! It's a highly complex device that needs maintaining. If a small company can't budget a few dollars a week per PC to cover issues known years ahead of time then more fool them. How the hell do they cope with anything else with a fixed and known lifespan?
Last edited by le Pingouin; 17th Oct 2013 at 06:01.
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Last I heard, about 30% of Internet traffic came from XP machines. It was reported that Microsoft hoped to get that down to 15% by the drop-dead date. That, of course, doesn't consider embedded systems.
One needs to consider Microsoft's imperatives as a business. They can't go on forever supporting operating systems or Office software which brings them no continuing income. Subscription software ("Office365") is an answer to their need for a continual flow of income.
There is perhaps a reason why MS has moved to the DOCX and XLSX formats. They are nearer the ISO standard which is used by OpenOffice / LibreOffice as their default. OO and LO read DOCX and XLSX documents without complaint. They can write DOC & XLS. I understand that recent versions of MS Office read OO and LO formats.
One needs to consider Microsoft's imperatives as a business. They can't go on forever supporting operating systems or Office software which brings them no continuing income. Subscription software ("Office365") is an answer to their need for a continual flow of income.
There is perhaps a reason why MS has moved to the DOCX and XLSX formats. They are nearer the ISO standard which is used by OpenOffice / LibreOffice as their default. OO and LO read DOCX and XLSX documents without complaint. They can write DOC & XLS. I understand that recent versions of MS Office read OO and LO formats.
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My main XP machine is so well set up with all the tools I require that it would be a costly exercise just to upgrade it for the sake of Microsoft.
If anything is going to kill it it will be because it's a 32 bit machine.
When I finally decide to make the move to new hardware my plan is to convert my physical machine into virtual form - probably VMWare. This way I get to keep my current setup in operational form.
I haven't investigated an easy way of converting an existing physical machine into virtual form, but I know I can shoe-horn it into there if required.
If anything is going to kill it it will be because it's a 32 bit machine.
When I finally decide to make the move to new hardware my plan is to convert my physical machine into virtual form - probably VMWare. This way I get to keep my current setup in operational form.
I haven't investigated an easy way of converting an existing physical machine into virtual form, but I know I can shoe-horn it into there if required.
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I am quite proud that my eldest, recently embarked on a computer science degree, has taken after his old man and delights in persuading his programmable calculator to accomplish with 125kB of RAM what his classmates are struggling to do with 4GB.
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Wish there were more around like your son!
I am frequently horrified by some piece of bloatware that takes up huge amounts of RAM to do what something 10% of its size used to do faster.
I am frequently horrified by some piece of bloatware that takes up huge amounts of RAM to do what something 10% of its size used to do faster.
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I suppose that I am living in an alternate universe, but I'm surprised to hear that anyone has based serious industrial control software on Windows.
I thought that Linux or various real-time operating systems were what was used on mission-critical industrial control systems.
I thought that Linux or various real-time operating systems were what was used on mission-critical industrial control systems.
Thread Starter
CelticRambler, some of those improvements include a better security model. If all they're using it for is data entry and such then the changes to the GUI are of little consequence, so how can they cause any hassle?
It's because they made the mistake of well and truly welding themselves to a given set of tools and didn't evolve that they're crying.
It's because they made the mistake of well and truly welding themselves to a given set of tools and didn't evolve that they're crying.
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seacue, most of the high end control interfaces are based on windows.
at one stage the advances of hardware and windows meant the end of serial ports. the usb edgeport fixed that and microsoft bought out an industrial version that was basically an XP interface with all the previous drivers.
I have no problems at all with the security being fixed up but leave the man machine interface at XP.
computers nowadays are far less useful than they were 10 years ago.
at one stage the advances of hardware and windows meant the end of serial ports. the usb edgeport fixed that and microsoft bought out an industrial version that was basically an XP interface with all the previous drivers.
I have no problems at all with the security being fixed up but leave the man machine interface at XP.
computers nowadays are far less useful than they were 10 years ago.