Users Finally Giving Up on Windows XP

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
It has taken a while to get the message across that Microsoft really, really means it this time: Windows XP is going the way of the Dodo bird and will no longer supported as of April. Latest figures on XP usage shows an eleven percent drop this year alone.

There were reports that IT managers weren't taking migration seriously, and many casual users were unaware of potential security threats, but that stance is finally changing.
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Sad to hear XP going the way of the dodo, but probably the most Epic OS that MS made. Windows 7 is probably one of last greatest OSes out there. W8(.1) is getting there, but alot of its features are really good for touch input but not soo good with the old mouse and keyboard.
 
They need to institute an option in Win8 to allow classic shell, period. No tiles, no hidden menus on the side without any indication they are there...just something unrelated to touch devices.
 
true, but with current motto being "one os experience across all products" its gonna be hard
 
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It was a good OS, especially coming from WinME, lol. I wish I had gone with 2K back then, but I was new to it all.
 
Finally had to break down and buy my wife a new laptop because hers was still on XP (working just fine) and I wasn't going to throw $100 at MS to put a new OS on hardware from 2007.
 
Spire3660 said:
Finally had to break down and buy my wife a new laptop because hers was still on XP (working just fine) and I wasn't going to throw $100 at MS to put a new OS on hardware from 2007.
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That's funny for two reasons:

1) For that $100 you get an OS that has no peer in terms of after the sale support with updates that are *free* and continue for years. I've got a number of pieces of software for which I paid considerably more than that which are nowhere as well supported, unfortunately. Windows is probably the best software deal going.

2) Even if you put a new OS on your '07 hardware at the moment, when you do get your newer hardware you can take your $100 OS with you, for as many hardware iterations into the future as you care to.

XP is so old it creaks--it's so old that your "old" hardware from 2007 is brand-new comparatively. XP first shipped in late 2001, remember. Even on what you think of as your "old" hardware, Win7 on up would make a world of difference in your everyday environment. Not only is everything far more secure; Win7/8 (especially the x64 versions which everyone should be running now) support much better hardware drivers than XP ever saw. Everything runs better under Win7/8.

The OS is the most fundamental and important piece of software most people ever run. It makes everything else you do on a computer possible. Yet it is often the least respected in many people's assessment. Go figure.
 
Spire3660 said:
Finally had to break down and buy my wife a new laptop because hers was still on XP (working just fine) and I wasn't going to throw $100 at MS to put a new OS on hardware from 2007.
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2007? That should be a very modern computer. That thing came out a full year after Vista (which brought with it the driver-model and security changes that Windows 7 and Windows 8 also rely upon).

Windows 7 or 8 should be fine on it. Well worth the upgrade from XP.
 
sonsonate said:
It was a good OS, especially coming from WinME, lol. I wish I had gone with 2K back then, but I was new to it all.
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My first operating system was WinME. Then I got a copy of Win98 that I dual booted for a little while until I got a copy of Win2k Pro. I never booted ME or 98 again. :eek:

I didn't get Windows XP until December of 2005, when a Dell laptop I bought had it preinstalled. I gave it a shot to impress me since it was free and never bothered to install anything else on it. Completely skipped Windows Vista, but got Windows 7 in November of 2010.
 
Spire3660 said:
Finally had to break down and buy my wife a new laptop because hers was still on XP (working just fine) and I wasn't going to throw $100 at MS to put a new OS on hardware from 2007.
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Put 8.1 on it and slap in an SSD and it will run like a champ. SSD's will make just about any "old" computer run like a brand new machine. Granted processing power will still be what is was before but to most people it is irrelevant.
 
sonsonate said:
It was a good OS, especially coming from WinME, lol. I wish I had gone with 2K back then, but I was new to it all.
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As someone who tried to switch from 98 to 2k early on, it was an experience in frustration. Most consumer hardware makers had no interest initially in rewriting their drivers to work on the NT kernel (since it was still viewed as a business-only OS), so win2k was a no-go on a lot of computers at the time.

It wasn't until XP came out in 2001, and OEMs were dragged (kicking and screaming) into the NT world, that win2k finally got decent driver support (since any driver that supported XP could also be tweaked to support win2k)
 
Spire3660 said:
Finally had to break down and buy my wife a new laptop because hers was still on XP (working just fine) and I wasn't going to throw $100 at MS to put a new OS on hardware from 2007.
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$100 for a new OS - possibly a little more for some more RAM, or a bit more money for a new system altogether are your choices. Or Linux, if your wife is up to it. Like everyone else here said, 2007 system should be just fine. My parents' Dell Inspiron E1505 (Core 2 Duo + 2GB RAM + GeForce Go 7300) runs Windows 7 flawlessly. It can even do Aero just fine too. But hey - it's your money.
 
WaltC said:
That's funny for two reasons:

1) For that $100 you get an OS that has no peer in terms of after the sale support with updates that are *free* and continue for years. I've got a number of pieces of software for which I paid considerably more than that which are nowhere as well supported, unfortunately. Windows is probably the best software deal going.

2) Even if you put a new OS on your '07 hardware at the moment, when you do get your newer hardware you can take your $100 OS with you, for as many hardware iterations into the future as you care to.

XP is so old it creaks--it's so old that your "old" hardware from 2007 is brand-new comparatively. XP first shipped in late 2001, remember. Even on what you think of as your "old" hardware, Win7 on up would make a world of difference in your everyday environment. Not only is everything far more secure; Win7/8 (especially the x64 versions which everyone should be running now) support much better hardware drivers than XP ever saw. Everything runs better under Win7/8.

The OS is the most fundamental and important piece of software most people ever run. It makes everything else you do on a computer possible. Yet it is often the least respected in many people's assessment. Go figure.
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I put windows 7 on a netbook with a 1.0ghz atom cpu and 1.5gb ram, and it ran far better with win7 than it ever had with XP (It shipped with XP during the Vista era because Vista was too much of a hog).
 
Windows 8/8.1 finally reached 10% of marketshare last month. Windows XP STILL sits at 28% marketshare.

if your product from 13 years (and 2 versions) ago is 3x more popular than your current product, it's a sign that you may have done something horribly wrong with your current product.
 
Just formatted my Mum's laptop to have Ubuntu 12.04 on it instead of WinXP. She likes it better already. I hated Unity but now I can see what they were aiming for.
 
sir-gold said:
if your product from 13 years (and 2 versions) ago is 3x more popular than your current product, it's a sign that you may have done something horribly wrong with your current product.
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So a product that had been deployed to like a billion PCs over a decade before 8 came out is still much more widely deployed a year later, ok. That doesn't really mean more popular. A lot of these XP machines are going to be around until they blow up and then might be replaced, they're never going to get OS upgrades. And XP certainly isn't more popular for gaming than 8.x.
 
FTFY
heatlesssun said:
So a product that had been deployed to like a billion PCs over a decade before 8 came out is still much more widely deployed a year later, ok. That doesn't really mean more popular. A lot of these XP machines are going to be around until they blow up and then might be replaced, they're never going to get OS upgrades. And XP certainly isn't more popular for gaming than 7
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Windows XP is a good OS, but yeah, its old and doesn't even take advantage of today's modern hardware.
 
sir-gold said:
Windows 8/8.1 finally reached 10% of marketshare last month. Windows XP STILL sits at 28% marketshare.

if your product from 13 years (and 2 versions) ago is 3x more popular than your current product, it's a sign that you may have done something horribly wrong with your current product.
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Or it shows that most people follow don't fix what isn't broken mentality and won't buy new OS when old one still works.
 
Don't you think XP will work fine for people who cannot afford an upgrade if they stop using IE?
 
phred15 said:
Don't you think XP will work fine for people who cannot afford an upgrade if they stop using IE?
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Nope. Zero days still affect XP users through other exploits. It's not just the browser. Emails and attachments. Shared media. Flash. Lack of updates for plugins and apps in XP since Microsoft will have officially stopped supporting it.
 
Old OS's have their place in specific industries/hobbies. I prefer anything over XP, even Vista after it got decent driver support.

That said, I run XP on my MAME cabinet. It's air-gapped and doesn't get used for anything else. Every once in a while I consider switching over to Linux, but my preferred front end is Windows only. Newer versions of Windows are more of a pain to work with as the arcade monitor in there has a 640 x 480 max and they more or less assume at least 800 x 600 minimum. You can make them work..but why bother. MAME is pretty much single thread dependent so it doesn't benefit much from better multicore support in the later OS's.
 
So long XP... you had one hell of a good run.

Anyone else thinking that 7 is the next heir to the XP throne for longevity? I mean unless Windows 9/blue/whatever blows me out of the water I am not budging. If I bought a new laptop today I would probably yank 8 off and install 7.
 
Burticus said:
So long XP... you had one hell of a good run.

Anyone else thinking that 7 is the next heir to the XP throne for longevity? I mean unless Windows 9/blue/whatever blows me out of the water I am not budging. If I bought a new laptop today I would probably yank 8 off and install 7.
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I've often wondered that. I don't intend to upgrade to 8 or 8.1 anytime soon. :eek:
 
Burticus said:
So long XP... you had one hell of a good run.

Anyone else thinking that 7 is the next heir to the XP throne for longevity? I mean unless Windows 9/blue/whatever blows me out of the water I am not budging. If I bought a new laptop today I would probably yank 8 off and install 7.
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If 8.2 does the Start Menu the way it should have been from public release of 8, I would say 8 is the next in line. But until that happens... 7 -_-
 
I love windows 7, after xp. Its simple and fast.

I would love to upgrade to the future of Windows, but not until they realize that not everyone like interfacing a tablet OS with a mouse and keyboard :)
 
Some comments I read on Win8: steeper learning curve, some incompatibilities with software etc., somewhat still in Beta stage.
 
sir-gold said:
Windows 8/8.1 finally reached 10% of marketshare last month. Windows XP STILL sits at 28% marketshare.
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Many of those XP installations are ni business settings where (incompetent IT staff)/disruption of work is costly enough to put off for years, and in old PCs that will never be updated. The number of PCs sold has flattened and shrunk a bit, but the installed base continues to grow and so a 15 month old OS like Win8 will not really reach a plurality for years, like Win7 did before it (almost 3 years after release). XP is likely to have >15% share for many years to come.
 
Burticus said:
So long XP... you had one hell of a good run.

Anyone else thinking that 7 is the next heir to the XP throne for longevity? I mean unless Windows 9/blue/whatever blows me out of the water I am not budging. If I bought a new laptop today I would probably yank 8 off and install 7.
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Oh yes, Windows 7 will be here for a LONG time. The only way it won't is if Microsoft does some serious hand-forcing.
 
coolpurplefan said:
Win7 updates until 2020 to those wondering.

That XP deadline has me scrambling for solutions. :eek:
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Ubuntu + Wine. 80% of the software that people commonly use is cross platform. Wine can run -most- of the rest.
 
I still have one box on WinXP, a ten-year old Shuttle XPC. I use it only to rip CD/DVDs (dbPoweramp) and search & d/l album art. Still on original PSU, a first-generation WD Raptor drive and the last great Northwood chip. Running 24/7 and pleasantly surprised it's still working after all this time.

Despite of all XPs glaring issues, and the dangers of running end-of-life, I still want to soldier on with this one. Am I nuts?
 
HvyMtl said:
Begun, the forced migration has...
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Forced migration? Microsoft is going to shut off the Windows XP activations servers and prevent new installs?

Oh wait, no, that's not happening :rolleyes:

In fact, the Windows XP activation servers have to remain online until AT LEAST January 14, 2020. Why is that? Because of Windows 7, oddly enough...

Windows 7 includes downgrade rights to XP. Windows 7 also includes Windows XP mode. Both of these features would cease to function if Microsoft turned off the XP activation servers.
 
Unknown-One said:
Forced migration? Microsoft is going to shut off the Windows XP activations servers and prevent new installs?

Oh wait, no, that's not happening :rolleyes:

In fact, the Windows XP activation servers have to remain online until AT LEAST January 14, 2020. Why is that? Because of Windows 7, oddly enough...

Windows 7 includes downgrade rights to XP. Windows 7 also includes Windows XP mode. Both of these features would cease to function if Microsoft turned off the XP activation servers.
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Ok, be realistic. How many of the new PCs out there come with 7 Pro, or higher, on them? Not a large percentage. And out of that small percentage, few will opt to install XP Mode and Virtual Machine. (As you have to install them, they are not on the system by default.) And how many average users know about XP Mode, or "downgrade" rights?

In effect, yes, the forced migration has started. Where will you be able to go and buy a new computer with XP pre-installed after April? Few boutique places...

Joe Average will have the choice of 8 or 8.1. Why? Because they buy at Wallymart, or Beast Buy, or Office Despot. They have not the clue of other places to buy (Amazon, and (sm)Dell, yes, but not any heavily business oriented places.) They are going to be pressed, if not forced, into 8 machines.

And from my anecdotal experience selling computers to the Joe Average, they hate 8. They hate 8 to the point of delaying replacing their old machines. Now, as the deadline for support ending looms, they will go and buy an 8 machine, and cuss about it, because there are few to no locations for them to buy anything else. Or they will buy an Android tablet.
 
sir-gold said:
Windows 8/8.1 finally reached 10% of marketshare last month. Windows XP STILL sits at 28% marketshare.

if your product from 13 years (and 2 versions) ago is 3x more popular than your current product, it's a sign that you may have done something horribly wrong with your current product.
Click to expand...

Really? I'd like to question your logic there. An OS from 2001 that has been deployed over 7+ years compared to an OS that's less than 2 years old. Why don't you compared XP rates in 2003 to Win8 rates in 2014? Same time frames after launch. Of course WinXP will be more 'popular' with more market share. It's done with it's life. Win8 is gaining share where XP is losing it.
 
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