Discussion on:

End of XP support: Why so many CIOs are still not ready

Just how many programs might work well with something like DosBox or the like. I've seen it run a variety of programs quite well with Win 7, and hear it works well for Win 8 as well

> Just how many programs might work well with something like
> DosBox or the like

It's called Wine (http://www.winehq.org). Unless you're running something that needs kernel-level access, or direct connection to a USB device, it will probably do anything you need. And the USB support is being worked on.

It seems that companies that don't want to move to Win8 (or even Win7 if they happen to have licenses kicking around for it) should consider supporting the Wine and/or ReactOS projects, rather than continuously submitting to the dictates of MS.

I hope you like duct tape and bailing wire.

Windows XP was the first, and so far only, windowed operating system to absolutely dominate the marketplace. It continues to work well, and probably does upwards of 90% of the tasks that businesses require. So, in a time of fiscal restraint, why spend money to upgrade software, hardware, and training when any increased productivity may be negligible?

If dinosaurs like COBOL and Fortran can survive, Microsoft may just have to come to terms with the reality that XP evolved into an excellent operating system that still suits the needs of millions of customers.

I had a client make the switch to Windows 7 as soon as they found out they could still run their XP only archaic database application within XP mode. That was very nice that the vitalization technology was built into Pro. Windows 7 IMHO is the next rendition of XP in terms of lifespan. Windows 8 just isn't cutting it for me unless it's touch screen only. Can't stand Metro.

Unfortunately way too many things still do not work in XP Mode and for that reason alone I can not see a move from XP any time soon for most of my clients.

Col

XP Mode is free, easy to install, works reasonably well, and benefits from a nice integration with the Win7 Start menu. All to the good. My preferred virtual machine, however, is VMWare Player. It just seems to work better for me. Player does require an XP license, but you probably have plenty of those in hand.

The big drawback to the virtual machine approach to preserving XP is that you now have two PCs to maintain, and the user needs to have a good understanding of PCs in order to benefit from the hybrid. So, even though I have a VM on my own machine, most of the machines I support stay with one OS.

Remember, if Windows came installed on your computer you cannot transfer it to another machine. That is the licensing restriction. Buy the OS separately at the store and that is different. So unless you just happen to still be running 7 year old computers you probably don't have a bunch of licenses just laying around.

Why fix something if it isn't broken
MS Windows 7 (n) - A 64-bit extension of a 32-bit extension of a 16-bit shell of an 8-bit operating system for a 4-bit processor from a 2-bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.

The security model is badly flawed. Microsoft is regularly patching flaws that could "allow a remote attacker to gain control over the system". They've mostly stayed ahead of the hackers. But once they stop patching the hackers have plenty of time to catch up and the risk to your data rises significantly.

After all in any business you shouldn't be having your Internal Workstations in Direct Contact with the Outside World.

You also make an Excellent Case for not using any Microsoft product because what you are saying about XP holds true for everything else that they make.

Many American businesses and hospitals are still using WIndows XP (VA Medical Centers that I have seen). Microsoft needs to wake up to the fact that Vista, WIndows 7 and Windows 8 all FAIL to meet the real world needs of most of the civilized world! Wake up Microsoft! People don't want the Microsoft Store pushed down their throats by making everyone go to Windows 8 and Windows RT!

XP Support is minimal anyways. The patches do nothing to prevent viruses or improve stability. And everyone knows the standard "support" is to format and reinstall.

Agreed. I am changing all my computers to Ubuntu. At least the upgrades are free and you can edit the code if you want and are not tied into MS' hard and fast useless ways. Open Office allows you to put in dates BEFORE 1900.

when support for an OS dies, the hardware manufacturers will begin to stop supporting the old OS usually prior to the end of the OS [why bother creating drivers for an OS that has say 3 months to live].
You also have software developers who may stop any support such as Google Chrome [guarantee they will do that!], Firefox, etc. AV/AM software will continue for the current version but no new versions.
Plugins such as Java [yeesh!] and Flash could be stopped as well.

It's a fairly recent thing that browsers stopped supporting Windows 98.
As I understand, Win7/8 only have a few new API's worth using, and apparently there is already a patch to make XP support them.

XP and Office 2007 were the last Microsoft products I ever voluntarily purchased. That was only because I could use a staff discount of a friend. I only ever asked Microsoft for support once and that was NOT a good experience. My laptop came installed with Windows 7 basic and Office 10. The first thing I did was uninstall Office 10 and remove it from my laptop. I then installed Open Office and have not looked back. Windows 7 will probably be uninstalled very soon and I will be installing Ubuntu.

Have you used Unity much? It's still pretty buggy and made my Ubuntu experience falter. I prefer good old Gnome 3, newest version of that shell is WAY better than Unity. As far as bad experiences, just wait until you update packages that break other functionality in Ubuntu...point is that all software & OS's suck, some more so than others.

I use it everyday outside of work and haven't run into any issues. To me it's a fantasticaly well designed interface. I think i haven't booted into win7 at home in like 2 weeks. I also installed it on an old core duo laptop from 2007 and there it wasn't as smooth as on a new system, but it was still very good.

I think that as the economic situation tightens for a lot of companies smaller outfits aren't going to be able to justify the cost of upgrading. I still say there needs to be a final SP created for XP to give it on last set of "enhancements" and then let it go the way of it's predecessors. I am always going to keep a copy (a VM) around just in case....;)

I hope Kubuntu or Xbuntu with Wine and/or Crossover will fill the need to allow continued use of XP based software if Micro$oft doesn't.

sounds as if a bit of black mail made from Mirosoft I now have win 7 but give me back xp any day it ranso much smoother

> There is no real reason not to make the jump to Microsoft Windows 7
> other than lack of knowledge.....

Perhaps the fact that Win7 is no longer sold is a reason you can't make a jump to it? Sure, you can pick up questionable copies from feeBay, or if you're some mega-corporation you can install it from your enterprise license, but your regular small and medium sized company is stuck.

On 24 January I purchased a Dell Precision M4700 with all the best hardware components I could buy, and with Win7 Sp1 and XP mode, somewhat panicked that without fast action I would be stuck with Win8. I am glad I bought the M4700, although learning how to setup and use Win7 is a severe time sink. Win7 books are huge.

actually pay you for advice like There is no real reason not to make the jump to Microsoft Windows 7 other than lack of knowledge..... ?

Having passed the age of 65, my brain is not as flexible, nor does it work as swiftly as it used to. Corel WordPerfect, Corel Draw, and JASC Paint Shop Pro have served me well since the 1980s, and filled all my home-user requirements. Why change now?

I also use WordPerfect, Corel Draw, and Paint Shop Pro and am just passing 64. I've used them (and a lot of other stuff, professionally) on DOS, Windows 3,1, 98, XP, 7 and now 8. They work well on all of them. They are both faster and more secure on 7 than on XP, and faster and more secure on 8 than on 7. Once the OS is set up. the only real difference is where to find the icon to launch the program. XP , 7 and 8 have all been on the same hardware, a dual-core AMD Athlon X2 on an Asus motherboard with 3 gigs of RAM.

@gman49@...
Just curious, was the migration from XP -> Win7 -> Win8 done with clean installations or using "upgrade options".
Would be quite a track if you had managed to do this from DOS through to Win8 using upgrades but I see with your hardware change you probably started with a clean installation of WXP.

While you're no doubt correct about how quickly you learn it's no reason to not bother!
Both my parents have cruised through 65. Together we've just finished updating their PC and laptop to Win8, they've Android phones and an iPad to boot. Far from struggling they're relishing the new interfaces, the faster responses and just the excitment of learning something new. They now want a touchscreen for their PC.

Give new OS'es a shot regardless of vendor or prejudice and you might just enjoy learning again.

Loads of words linked together with emotion, not a shred of logic.

Change doesn't mean new
new does not mean better
and who said your definition of better was applicable?

Know your audience...

Are you buying them for everyone? Do you need my shipping address?

"Everyone love's (sic) a new and better car"
You're implying that new is automatically better. What does a new car do better than an old one these days?

We had bought a used 2002 Mercury GM a number of years ago. We recently traded it for a 2011 Mercury GM (last year they will make them and the Ford Crown Vic). While the car is a "top-of-the-line", it lacks a lot of features we had in the 2002. Also, the mileage is no better.

BTW, I wouldn't be surprised that those advocating change and saying it is good are Microsoft shills. Since Microsoft is not a H/W company, they must keep "revolutionizing" their S/W. Unlike IBM, which is big-time into services besides H/W and S/W. IBM learned their lesson years ago and now evolves the S/W slowly, always keeping backward compatibility in mind. The base of their "z" series OSes go back to the mid 60s (nearly 50 years ago). It is also highly unlikely that Windows will ever be as secure as those "z" series OSes.

You must not have to deal with in-house government applications. Some are tied to custom hardware like sign cutters, traffic loggers, traffic display boards, et-al.

There are a lot of user apps tied to WinXP/hardware peripherals with no easy virtual compatibility option. Of course if the user apps are static you don't really need OS support from Microsoft.

Well they had a chat with the money boys, and they responded with do we need to spend it now. Guy was honest enough to answer no, or not credible enough to get an agreement after saying yes....

Next question.

While going to Win 8 full timex is unlikely for me [I've tried it and don't like it], Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista [which I won't get into] and Windows XP.
First, with Windows XP, many computers running them are at least6 years old [when Vista first came out] and some are breaking down or just dying a slow death. So if a company is using Windows XP and a system dies, what are they doing? Buying a system with Windows 7 or 8 on it, scrapping the OS and putting Windows XP on.
No way of knowing but I'm sure most Win XP systems are strong enough to run Windows 7.
Now Windows XP is an old OS. You need drivers to install the latest hardware. Wireless was problematic [which is why manufacturers included their own wireless utilities]. USB3 support wasn't built in. Neither are other recent technologies.
Deploying Windows 7 [while bulkier] is easier than than Windows XP.
If in a workgroup, Homegroup feature kills that problem of accessing resources from another computer. No need for passwords, duplicate accounts, etc.
Group policies for domains add much more options to locking down systems.
I can go on and on.
Now as for why CIOs aren't pushing? They are a bunch of idiots. They have had years to prepare for the change but it seems like few bothered to look ahead [I know of an ex-boss who was like that]. Then they will rush to migrate which will probably cause problems and mistakes.

For IT this year and how much of that was specifically set aside to move away from XP?

I'm betting no where near enough.

Col

As CIO I started phasing out XP in 2010. Any reasonable office desktop hardware purchased in the last 5 years will run 7 or 8 with a minimum of fuss. The last hold-outs got a 2nd Enterprise-grade HD with Windows 8 deployed and a dual-boot setup, and they have 30 days to get their data migration done before the network will no longer recognize their login. As an administrator it is my job to make decisions that maintain the productivity and security of the corporate infrastructure. I deploy Windows, Solaris, Linux, Unix, all of which have their place in a productive environment.

Not all companies are moving away from XP quite so quickly.

Here I suppose it all depends on what Specialised Software and peripherals are in use and the cost involved in rewriting/replacing them is.

Currently I still support Specialist Software that will run on nothing newer than NT4 and at the moment is given away with multi thousand $ bits of Plant to be used on Construction Sites. The Hardware is useless without the software and the work can not be done economically without the Hardware.

Or the Medical Profession who uses their 1 of 2 Programs which as of yet are not Certified to run on 7 or latter Desktop OS's and has only recently been certified to be used on a 2008 Server.

Specialised Software used in some places simply is not rewritten as fast as most companies would like and a lot slower than I personally prefer.

Of course bigger places can use more of the available options or probably are forced to use different things to just Microsoft depending on what it is that they do. However most small business is stuck with Microsoft as they are the people rightly or wrongly who own the Desktop and small network environment.

Col

Spending the money to prepare for future problems is unacceptable in today's MBA-run companies. Future-proofing means a reduction in *THIS* quarter's inflated/tweaked numbers; it matters not that the result of not fixing it *now* will cost you 5x as much down the road. By then the decision-makers hope to have abandoned ship for the next sucker to hire them.

You spend money to beef up your network security all the timre. Isn't that a form of "future problems"?
Nobody says a company will migrate eveything over in one quarter. Place I worked for took over 9 months from the time they purchased the computers to the time the migration was done. In the mean time, dead laptop batteries were replaced, cleaned up some licensing issues [a few illegal pieces of software installed] and standardized on others. Went from a dozen different FTP software clients to one that is supported.

great

While I am retired and so do not have commercial pressures I still have the problem. Several programs I use frequently do not work on Win 7 or 8. It is not the cost of upgrading that stops me, It is that the "upgrade" programs are vastly inferior. In particular I have JASC Paintshop Pro 9 which fits my needs ideally. Corel Paintshop Pro X which works on Win 7 I regard as unusable. When Corel took over JASC they imposed their practices on PsP and ruined it. I have a legacy of documents from Lotus Smartsuite which I still want. While MS Office can do marvellous things I do not need, it is very difficult to do some items that are easy in Smartsuite. I have just bought a PC with Win 8 pro so that I can keep on using Win XP when my old PC dies.

I prefer using xp on office, because there no nagging messages, and after a period of time most of the important problems in the software have been sorted out. If I keep to the standard software - why would I need support.If I use XP for every day data, so why would I want to change something that is not broken. Win7 and Win8 have their advantages, but for every day data they are still bloated compare to XP.

And new hardware doesnot have drivers for XP. Already there are few laptops who no longer support XP.

And if it works fine, and isn't broken, then spending money to replace it is a bad business decision.

Software may be a capital expenditure, and it does depreciate over time. But the replacement lifecycle for an operating system is not 18 months any more. It's more like 8 years because the technology has matured. Unfortunately, Microsoft is addicted to the 18 month replacement cycle paradigm and hasn't evolved.

At work we are migrating to WIn7 - Office 2010 from XP-Office2003 later this year. I am looking forward to better interface and software (we are stuck with IE8 at present as IT refuse to provide Firefox/Chrome), though supporting users to transition from Office 2003 - Office 2010 is not something I'm looking forward to.

At home, any new PCs I've bought recently have been Win7Pro, but older PCs are likely to get ubuntu/xubuntu. HTPC is on Vista, and is likely to be replaced with Mythbuntu when I get round to it. I enjoy Win7 so far, so any new PCs would have to have it but the cost of licences for older machines, in my opinion, is not worth it.

I operate two Dell Dimension CA 2005 vintage. One with Windows XP for Tax and other software which won't run under Wine on the Ubuntu 12.04. I have both running at the same time and use a switch to go from one to the other. The Ubuntu PC boots in about 40 sec and shuts down in 10. The XP PC boots in about 2-3 min. My advice to anyone considering replacing Win 7 with Ubuntu is to remove the HD and store it away. Then put a small 60 - 80 GB disk in the PC and install Ubuntu. Or if you must clone the Win 7 disk and put the copy away. Then install Ubuntu as a dual boot system. I haven't tried this but it should work. If you don't like the Ubuntu Unity interface, Linux Mint is like Windows XP and it is based on Ubuntu.

I just don't understand the philosophy that makes companies stick with whatever MS has decided to force on users this time around, regardless of how much trouble and pain there is in retraining for a new interface. If you're going to have to spend all that time and money in retraining, re-coding, migrating, etc, why not just make the jump to Linux? With Linux you could customize the system to look however you want/need, you aren't beholden to someone *else's* product expiration cycle, you can spend your IT dollars with providers who actually *listen* to your requests, and save money in the process. (probably all those MBAs and executives getting kickbacks from the existing vendors would be my guess).

Aldough I have followed the Microsoft OS from the early beginning ... till Windows 7, and got since then a LOT of problems, because of the constant changes Microsoft is making,
I will NOT continue with Microsoft Operating Systems, There is Nothing giving hope to get a Good Service . The Windows XP +SP1 was a Very Good working OS. I had NEVER problems with this OS.
Or Microsoft will continue to give Service for Machines working with XP or XP+sp1 or I guess a lot of people will switch to another Even FREE Good working OS.
We are still in Crisis, and most Companies are not in the position to change All Programs to AGAIN a new OS of Microsoft. Why where they Still Selling XP till last Year ....

I've been using windows ever since they started selling it. Only twice in twenty some years did I call support. They were practically useless. In fact, the last time, through persistence, I finally figured out the answer. I called MS support back and told them what it was. SO you're going to worry if they stop supporting something? I don't use MSWord, Excel, etc. I have found that OpenOffice works fine. Lets support that. I have used different flavors of Linux on machines that I don't have MS keys for. Sometimes Linux's a problem with older hardware. Have to find the right distro. I have one machine with a couple of big hard drives that I archive my photos and such on. I think the plan is to cut MS loose and stop supporting them although I did buy a couple of HPs with VISTA, because the price was less than it would have cost me to build them.

There's an obvious difference between single users and corporate enterprise. Recently I installed Ubuntu 12.10 on and OLD Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop that had been running XP. I used a bootable USB stick to try it for a few days before I made the switch. Now I've completely replaced XP with Ubuntu and have noticed the machine is MUCH faster!

I'm not proposing that corporations can easily make this switch, but certainly single users can - and they will have SUPPORTED software. I won't exactly say free, because in order to fully embrace a new OS one probably has to purchase a book or 2! Still much less than purchasing a new OS and documentation.

People asking why change, well the answer is that QA standards often require you to use supported software. No ISO certification, no business.

But anyway, my main client switched to Vista years ago, Vista is actually a bigger problem because people just don't support it much anymore. Yes you still get security updates but that's about it. Office 2013 and IE10 aren't supported for example. So how do you make the case to get rid of Vista when the client still sees it as one step ahead of XP? They use Office 2003 as well, which also has a support end date the same as XP.

My computer collapse after I had down loaded Ubuntu. So I brought another hard drive and tried out Ubuntu and to my surprise I found it to be the best OS ever. It read data from my old hard drive that went back to Windows 98. I was able to recover data files I thought I would never see again, that had some lasting memories. Thanks Ubuntu and I donate every month now. Ubuntu boots in seconds and shuts down even faster then that, almost instantly.

Is that so bad? Surely everything that needs fixing on XP must have been fixed by now? I could do without updates every time I switch the PC on, and I expect Mozilla and Google will keep their browsers up to date for me..

What a bunch of tech pimps. You really make out like people are stupid for not getting all frothy about the latest (even if it's not so greatest). This isn't Supermarket Dash and smart people aren't racing to clear the shelves.

We would be more than happy to buy (at a reasonable price) a set of CDs or DVDs that have an app for selecting and installing all the security and other update updates.
Once they kill Windows Update support repairing/reloading a system becomes nearly impossible.

We still support Win 3.1 and Win 98 on client PC's! Why worry about moving off Win XP? That is the platform some of our clients are considering moving to!!

And you ask why? It is all a matter of the cost of porting legacy software or newer OS's not supporting existing infrastructure.

I have worked in a number of research labs and factories that have to use the older OS's to run their equipment. We updated the computers and reinstalled the I/O cards. Microsoft is in the business to sell new OS's, not provide support. Windows XP and 98 are useful and are not dying because Microsoft says so. It takes a year or more before the new Windows is stable.

One size doesn't fit all and this can be seen in the real world. Why is it that the bone heads at Mcrosoft refuse to address this reality that also extends into the virtual world of computers.

The surface sucks, tablets are for passive consumer content subscription (ah, ah, don't argue how many people would be willing to hunch over a phone, tablet, etc. to do a days worth of typing etc. for work) and Windows 8 is virtually useless for anything but a tablet. I find the small keyboards on laptops a little tedious as well. And I am not willing to trade carpal tunnel for other injuries inspired by the jump, wave, slap and tickle interfaces coming into use today. These scratch and sniff GUIs are good for watching movies but...useless for real work.

What is needed is a replacement for XP, if anything. I have found it in the conservative Linux distros. but it would be nice for Microsoft to keep making room this type of system.

The best thing Microsoft could do is make an OS more XP like with these qualities:

Small 2 to 4 GB

Fast 20 sec. from power button to desktop

Fewer versions, say small (tablets with Metro GUI), medium (all the home user stuff like the camera editing etc. and light networking). large (all the business stuff like encryption, virtual PC, and so on. I liked the old windows 2000 idea of being able to make it work as either a workstation or a server, like Linux does now: Hint.

Less expensive i.e. 50.00 a pop for any version and 10.00 for add-ons.

Less buggy
Doesn't have that mysterious "I have lost my clients" network setup THAT HAS BEEN BROKEN FOREVER. I can remember testing this issue in NT 4 and SMS and it is still not fixed.

Old GUI (with the ability to snap on and off other GUI's) You want Classic select A, Metro click on B etc.) Some form of module swap for the GUI so business people don't have to retrain hordes of people. One place that Linux people have been bone heads they pulled out screen savers. Yes, I know they aren't necessary, but people want screensavers, and the ability to trick out their desktops and GUIs. Apple gets this why are the rest of these wise guys so dense.

More user friendly (I hate that phrase, but there you have it) It used to be you could just click a few settings and you got what you want. Now you have to be a registry wizard to add right click options to the right click property menu etc. or have to resort to third party apps. If I am going to have to go through all this fuss to change things I might as well use Linux, oh yah, I do.

I am sure a roomful of users could add to this list. This attention to the user has been why Microsoft has had their butts kicked by Apple on and off for decades (everyone needs to rest after a butt whipp'en); first in the beginning with the GUI and now with the phone and tablets.

You would think that the beat downs would change their thinking...no I guess not.

Yes, I know that there is software that doesn't run native on Windows 7 or Windows 8, but did run well on Windows XP. So what if Microsoft is ending full support of XP? XP will still run, and, for those who need Internet access, more recent OS's work well The way to having it both ways is either XP Mode under Windows 7 Pro or XP installed in the Hypervisor under Windows 8 Pro, or, is one is really desperate, and one's software is really old, one can run DOS Box under Windows or Linux. And any computer that ran XP well can run Ubuntu well. I think I'm reading all too much bellyaching.

And for the gent who has passed 65, I'll only state that I'm 69, and I do fine with modern software.

The posters here are mostly IT pros, it seems. I'm just this guy, you know? So...
When you say "support" I think you mean, 'Someone at MS and the hardware and app vendors spends part of her workday writing code, and that will stop in a year.' Is that right? If not, then will MS delete all its site's updates to my beloved Xp and Office 2000 at that time?

they aren't going to check to see if it work on XP. That's anything from office, security patches, drivers. Saying that, they haven't always been brilliant at checking anyway.
If you want to stick with the hardware and software you have and you are behind a hardware fire wall and no further critical security threats are found in XP.
The killers will be how much use you make of things like flash, new games, and if you have to mess with your hardware, say your video card died.

Good point about cards and such. I just did a full re-install of Xp when I came across Xp Pro (up to SP2) in a thrift shop. (Did I mention I'm not a power user? ) Also of course my Office 2K etc. As long as I can get the last updates and add-ons for those I'm too cheap to worry about it.
Doug

In fact the less supported it is, the more interesting arcane techno wizardry we can be proud of mastering.

I tend to change OS's when my hardware finally dies as well. Moved to Vista when my XP box died a horrible death. Just to exacerbate things I tend to pick the best hardware mix I can get for the current OSes and dual boot with Linux.
All chugging a long quite nicely. Win 7 would be nice, but no ROI, Win8, not interested. Not many tablets about with 12 Sata, 2 IDE, 16 USBs, two NICs....

Do you also have a medal for sticking with "infamous" Vista?
Doug

Sure it's not my Cup of Tea but now there is very little difference to 7.

When it was first released it had issues because Microsoft didn't make the code available for the hardware makers to prepare drivers but that was a long time ago now and has long since been sorted.

If Vista is supposed to be terrible then 7 must be terrible as 7 is Vista Developed. Today there is no real reason for the domestic user to move to 7 from Vista as the improvements are not much more than the contents of a Service Pack and to be perfectly honest how many Domestic users need better Networking Security?

All of the Down Side of Vista are incorporated into 7 so we still have an Annoying UAC and so many things moved to different locations in the Menu Systems of 7 though if you can find it in 7 you can find it in Vista just as easily.

Unlike most End Users when I buy a new computer I buy Quality not on price and I get the best that is currently available so things like a Core 2 Duo running SATA only Drives and 24 GIG of RAM will run 7 or 8 just as well if not better than a new i7 system with 4 GIG of RAM and a slow HDD.

Sure it cost a lot more but on the up side I can do much more with it and it lasts a lot longer so I get a better ROI for my money. I don't need to upgrade every Second Week like a lot of Budget Buyers feel like they do. Or the Apple users upgrading every 12 months to stay current.

Col

The wankers disliked Vista for other reasons: lack of drivers for the OS. Lack of 64-bit apps. Different interface.
Most of the wankers where those who used the leaked betas and RCs or bought it in the first day of selling and then moaned that certain things didn't work.
Fast forward 2 years after its release. I installed it on my system. No driver issues, no software issues, no BSOD [the system had Win XP and was built prior to Vista coming out].
UAC is part of Win 7 but toned down.

But SP1 was out before I got it at work, and SP2 when I got it at home.

Actually thinking about it, anyone who relies on version 0 of an OS is certainly someone who's opinion I don't value that highly.

When it was first released a lot of people complained and many where accurately complaining that it required much more Hardware than 98 did.

At the time Microsoft sold 98 and XP side by side and 98 dramatically outsold XP till it was removed from sale sometime around the release of SP1.

Actually it wasn't until SP1 was released that XP really got accepted and turned into the OS that many don't want prized from their Cold Dead Flippers.

Seems that the more that things change the more that they stay the same.

Col

and never looked back. Like it much much better and have seen my company's trouble tickets reach.... no more than 6 per day and even then they aren't OS-related.

Win XP was the best and Microsoft should restart support to it. If they have made business errors, why should the users suffer? By now, they must have realised that continuously launching windows versions and making the earlier ones redundant is no total progress; there is a customer exploitation factor inherent in such policies. After all the earlier windows versions were paid for. Microsoft maneuvers could inadvertently influence piracy at every launch.

Just like they brought out Chromebooks for $200 that do most everything a home user needs with no fuss or hassle, they could make a power user desktop with the same lack of Microsoft drama. Us geeks like our obscure Linux distros, where we can fiddle to our hearts' content, but the n00b masses just want something that works. And has a screensaver.

Both of you mentioned problems that laypeople like myself had. I never needed it because (1) I had a good [legal] Xp/sp2 disc and (2) the later one I found in the thrift shop was an "Anniversary Edition" with Xp Home and Pro, sp2, and Xp-64bit- all for USD one dollar. (How's THAT for ROI?) My wife had already bought a returned/serviced Toshiba laptop in part because it came with Xp after Vista was released. All our H/W so far works fine, and all the S/W we want has Xp versions still available, so far.
In the past MS has kept updates for older OSs online, and I wanted to make sure that was still the case, that 'dropping support' didn't mean the older Tuesday stuff was gone. But I do go back far enough to recall when server space was more expensive, so some sites would do housecleaning, I guess, and there would go my upgrades!)
BTW Mr Gates or whoever isn't fooling me. "No more blue screen of death" didn't mean 'no crashes', it just meant the crashes no longer produced the BSOD. Plus, the SysRestore has saved me many times, so I dont need a newer OS for that, as you know.
I once thought of going Linux but: the learning curve would be steep, I would certainly have driver problems, and I have a life outside computing!
TUVM for all your helpful notes.
Doug

The above was meant for Tony and HAL 9000.

I suspect that if you download a distro like ZorinOS, SolusOS or Mint with MATE and burn to a CD/DVD and boot the CD/DVD (without installing) and give it a try, you might be surprised. You can run some of the Linux distros from a CD without affecting your HD. It is a good way to find out how small the learning curve can be. ZorinOS can support 3 desktop environments - Gnome 2 (very XP like), XP and Win. 7. Any Linux distro hat still supports Gnome 2 should be an easy "learn" for an XP user - unless you really want to get into the "nuts and bolts". As for driver problems, you may be surprised and not have any.

BTW, at one time I would have suggested Ubuntu, but in release 11.04 they went with Unity as their desktop and it is nowhere near an XP desktop. If you can download Ubuntu 10.04/10.10 (they were using Gnome 2 as the desktop) and burn to a CD, you should find that easy to pick up.

It isn't just Business applications... I have a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED film and slide scanner, which cost me $1000 in 2004, which needs Nikon Scan v4.something, which Nikon have stated they have no plans to upgrade for post-XP OS's. That means I will have to keep my XP laptop going, somehow on my local network but isolated from the Internet for security reasons, to scan all those slides going back to the 70's when I retire.
Get another scanner? Nikon doesn't make slide scanners anymore, they have gone digital (as have I, camera-wise). The Coolscan 5000 can output in Nikon RAW format, as can my Nikon digital camera. So preserving my XP laptop is the only way to stick with Nikon RAW.

XP continues for account for 43% of enterprise desktop infrastructures in UK, it may include cost for migration.
XP is phased out only when new systems are taken to consideration.
Sentimental aspect is, people have no intention of moving off from Windows XP, even if Microsoft discontinues support.

1. Win7 doesnt support only 8% of the programs compared to Win XP.
2. They can be made compatible by installation of new softwares like by using DosBox to enlarge the window preview.

2. XP has poor performance because it doesnt support 3D acceleration.
3. XP start up time and shut down differs:
Startup: XP-0.49s Win7-1:03s
Shut down: XP-17s Win7-11.5s

MANJUSHA L

Im betting Microsoft will EXTEND XP till the end of time, it will be called "The Tardus"