News - One year of support left for Windows XP and Office 2003

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Support ceases on 8th April 2014 but old OS still accounts for 39 per cent of PCs worldwide.

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Read more.

Oh good, another excuse to upgrade my machine this year :)

When they start denying activations is more important to some.

Why is someone with such a dated computer writing for a computer news site? Surely someone with a genuine interest would have upgraded by now.

XP still does what it needs to do and is very easy to deploy in an office environment.
Vista sucked so very few businesses upgraded and Windows 7 required upgraded PC's for the most part, so businesses gave it the cold shoulder. Windows 8 is just a PR disaster. Microsoft haven't a clue any more, honestly like, they've too many airy faerie "c-level" socialites working for them these days. Once XP support is gone, it actually makes more sense to upgrade to a decent Linux distribution with a free office suite rather than the cost incurred of switching up to another Microsoft OS along with MS office. Don't even bother with Apple, artsy fartsy fancy doorstops.

In my opinion XP is still the best OS, This OS is like " Do whatever you want to do with me I won't let you down " You can run almost anything on this OS - Fastest, reliable & moreover where we gonna find so many viruses. :P

It is an OS and is there as a platform to run your stuff. I took up the W8 offer as I figured the price was Ok (really don't think any OS purchase is worthy of more than £30). W8 gives me access to Dx10/11, not much else really. Of course I shall have to set up a partition with XP so I can use stuff that doesn't work under W8 or 64bit (In my opinion Microsoft could do better on the backward compatibility front)

Joke is that XP is still the most compatible OS by a long shot. With some renewed interest in openGL it could even hang around some more.

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Originally Posted by 5teviewonders

Why is someone with such a dated computer writing for a computer news site? Surely someone with a genuine interest would have upgraded by now.

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Most people who write tech news get to play with the latest and greatest hardware free of charge as part of the job. If I knew that tomorrow I'd get to play on some new uber-tech, I wouldn't spend my own money on something mediocre in the mean time. Besides, there's more to tech than uber gaming rigs - it's possible to be genuinely interested in computing and technology without being a PC enthusiast.

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Originally Posted by 5teviewonders

Why is someone with such a dated computer writing for a computer news site? Surely someone with a genuine interest would have upgraded by now.

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Probably for the same reason I read Hexus everyday with a Sony TX1 Pentium-M 1.1GHz WindowsXP notebook! You don't have to own a Monet to enjoy art! (can't believe I just said that!)

I'm firmly in the XP just works and that's the way I like it. Upgrade path will be Linux me thinks.

nobody else has even considered there might be 3'rd party people/companies who love xp so much they will take over from microsoft and keep patching it in their place?
think mozilla with firefox, afaik, they dont get paid to do what they do
linux distro's?
there will be some fanatic out there who will start up a website and carry on where microsoft left off...

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Originally Posted by ionicle

nobody else has even considered there might be 3'rd party people/companies who love xp so much they will take over from microsoft and keep patching it in their place?
think mozilla with firefox, afaik, they dont get paid to do what they do
linux distro's?
there will be some fanatic out there who will start up a website and carry on where microsoft left off...

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I can't see it to be honest, a third party would need the original source code which MS wouldn't release.

There is some hope to those who dont want to upgrade just yet, Windows XP Embedded and Windows POSReady 2009 are still to be supported 'til 2016 and 2019 respectively. Because they both have XP Pro underneath them I would expect that patches will still be available to standard XP Pro and Home editions even though their support ends next year. For my line of work XP is still very much alive for the forseeable future.

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Originally Posted by 5teviewonders

Why is someone with such a dated computer writing for a computer news site? Surely someone with a genuine interest would have upgraded by now.

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As someone that has been writing for a variety of computer magazines for, well, 20 years or more, and that has, at last count, over a dozen machines here, please explain why I would need to upgrade them all, when many are doing the job I need of them, just fine, on XP?

For instance, one machine runs some dedicated hardware, and the software doing it was designed and writen for XP. It's been doing that job for years .... but it's an Athlon XP processor with 256MB of RAM. So you think I should upgrade it? I need a lot more memory, and a processor upgrade, to do a decent job of running Win 7 or Win8. So I'm going to end up replacing motherboard, processor , memory, etc, and effectively buying a new machine, and that's before paying for a new OS licence. So, say, £500. And that's ONE machine. What about all the others?

Suppose, for argument's sake, the bill comes to £5000. Just what do I get for my five grand? I mean, those machines are doing the jobs I want of them, just fine, and the £5k upgrade buys me what, exactly?

Just because someone writing for a computer site has an XP machine doesn't mean they don't also have Win 7, Win 8 or Linux machines, because I do .... as well as the 10" tablet this was written on, and so forth. I also have one machine currently running on an Intel golden sample processor, not available to the public to buy, and about half a dozen AMD processors supplied for test.

I've spent the last 20 years with a home office packed with more hardware than your average high street shop, and regularly, it's been pre-release, or at the very least, pre-shipping. And, for the most part, if I want something and have a good reason for it, I make a phone call and a loan item duly arrives.

Despite all that, those XP machines still work fine. One does my accounts, basic admin, WP, etc, and it's an Athlon XP 1400. It runs everything it needs to, gives perfectly adequate performance with my accounts software and the Office 98 that's on it. So why spend hundreds of pounds replacing it, and upgrading the OS and software, for no real world gain?

What you appear to be missing is that for many people, and certainly most businesses, a PC is a tool to do a job, and if it does the job, you don't need to constantly upgrade it to keep pace with the latest releases. Would you expect a plumber to replace his wrenches or blowtorch every time a new model is released, or an electrician to constantly replace his screwdrivers?

It's about cost/benefit analysis. What does it cost to upgrade a PC, or screwdriver, or blowtorch, and what benefit do you get from doing it.

Sometimes an upgrade is justified. Sometimes not. I've got an old butterfly plane I got from my father, and he got it from his. I also have modern power tools, and thank god for them, but for some jobs, that old, probably antique, butterfly plane just does the job. And, as it happens, does it superbly well.

But don't think that just because I've got, and use, a 100-year old butterfly plane, I don't also have a range of mains and Li-Ion hand power tools, or for that matter, a large sliding compound mitre saw or a bench drill press. And ditto, for PC's.

Oh, and for the record, I didn't write the article this thread is about, and for that matter, don't write for Hexus at all.

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Originally Posted by wombat

Of course I shall have to set up a partition with XP so I can use stuff that doesn't work under W8 or 64bit (In my opinion Microsoft could do better on the backward compatibility front)

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You should look into Window's XP Mode. It runs program under XP in a Virtual PC but seamlessly integrates their windows into Win 7 (and presumably also Win 8) allowing drag and drop, cut 'n' paste and saving to the local disks. This may be much easier, depending on what you want to do, than having a separate boot.

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Originally Posted by nacasatu

XP still does what it needs to do and is very easy to deploy in an office environment.
Vista sucked so very few businesses upgraded and Windows 7 required upgraded PC's for the most part, so businesses gave it the cold shoulder. Windows 8 is just a PR disaster. Microsoft haven't a clue any more, honestly like, they've too many airy faerie "c-level" socialites working for them these days. Once XP support is gone, it actually makes more sense to upgrade to a decent Linux distribution with a free office suite rather than the cost incurred of switching up to another Microsoft OS along with MS office. Don't even bother with Apple, artsy fartsy fancy doorstops.

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As I recall XP 'sucked' too mostly until it hit SP3..

Vista SP2 is fine, just when it was first released with new driver model, increased hardware requirements, running slow with default setup options people made the same ruckus they made when XP first came out, which had the same issues over 95/98 and the slated ME of that era.

Now instead of persevering with unpaid service packs to make their OS desirable they turn out rehashed new versions with screwed up interfaces for what seems like no good reason at all.

No doubt all very nice for MS to make money from their certified engineers retaking new exams to find the new options and menu placements...

Surely its very easy to include a 'make this windows look exactly like the previous version' option and that would quell so much anxiety and complaint...

Linux is still too busy fighting itself and still very far away from being a general consumer release, and never will be until they sort out some kind of uniform package install.

The thing about Windows, as much as you can hate it, its easy and to the most extent just works for the average consumer without having to think too much about it.