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Windows XP support runs out next week [vnunet.com]Windows XP will pass another milestone on the road to retirement next week when Microsoft withdraws mainstream support for the operating system.
While the company said that it will continue to provide free security fixes for XP until 2014, any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay for additional support.
AdvertisementMainstream support for XP will end on 14 April 2009, over seven years after the operating system originally shipped.
I know alot of corporations still use XP simply because Vista is deemed 'not ready for prime time' and many software packages don't support Vista.
Our experience with test Vista installations was Windows ME like in frustration.
We have been experimenting with Linux and Open Office as an alternative. Bye Bye MS.
dc
I don't think this will be a huge problem because a netbook purchased now will have reached the end of it's useful life by 2014.
OTOH, I definitely agree with the previous poster about vista "not being ready for prime time". It still has far too many quirks and converting to vista will be expensive for many companies at a time when they can least afford it.
There`s also no upgrade from WinXP to Windows 7. You have to do a clean install.
That's worrisome...
I hadn't read that. Do you have a link to a reference? If that's the case, a lot of IT departments are going to be feeling some serious pain in the coming months.
I know alot of corporations still use XP simply because Vista is deemed 'not ready for prime time' and many software packages don't support Vista.
None of the corporations I know of have made the switch to Vista in any significant way. There just weren't enough "wins" built into the switch, and there were so very many problems with compatibility, both in terms of software and hardware, that the pain and expense of migration couldn't be justified.
"Big IT", in terms of companies with hundreds, and in many cases, thousands, of deployed desktops has to be extremely careful about OS migration. The way Vista was rolled out, it's become clear that MS has lost touch with their biggest cashcow - the corporate user.
Caveat IMHO
Works great most of the time. Noting really special to write home Ma' about.
Crashes every now and then. Since I'm on a Dell laptop, the mouse touchpad acts screwy every now and then and stops working.
Apart from that, this is one more factor which may cause me to let Linux take a larger place in my computer use.
There`s also no upgrade from WinXP to Windows 7. You have to do a clean install.
Wow, that is so full of "FAIL" on MS's part, I don't know where to start.
So basically, they are reinforcing the fact in peoples outlook not to upgrade from XP as it would require too much work and lost data.
My stuff won't work on Vista and I'm too poor to upgrade 75% of my software. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Having learned their lesson, never again will they make a fast, stable operating system that people want to keep and run for years.
Considering brand new machines are being sold with XP today...
Although MS have moved things around again (a bit like a supermarket) some other changes at least are sensible. For instance, I could not see the logic of blacking the titlebar of maximized windows, and now it seems that neither can MS. The most significant change may be to User Account Control which now has four level settings. However, thus far I have been unable to find any information on how those changes have been implemented i.e. whether they result from bodges or core changes.
Going back to the subject - ending support for XP - this does seem a tad premature considering the vast size of the userbase. However, updates will continue, so in practice this may not cause huge problems. As for not being able to upgrade from XP to Win7, I would think that will be sorted before release. For the most part, an upgrade install merely means that all the software-related registry settings have to be preserved - this should be no more difficult to achieve in Win7 than Vista.
Kaled.
There`s also no upgrade from WinXP to Windows 7. You have to do a clean install.
any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay for additional support.
Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed that, while Windows 7 users will be able to downgrade to Windows XP, the reverse will not be true.Microsoft said in its Engineering Windows 7 blog that XP users will have to perform a full install.
"There are simply too many changes in how PCs have been configured (applets, hardware support, driver model etc) that having all of that support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be nearly as high quality as a clean install," the blog entry said.
When I built my last desktop 2 years ago, I swore to myself it would be my last Windows box, especially as I already had switched all my other systems over to Ubuntu by that point. This attitude from MS just re-enforces that decision.
Going over the list of apps on that system, you know what I'm going to miss with Windows?
Video Games.
I think I can live without that. I might even break down and buy a PS3 or Wii.
Since that time I have always recommended a clean install of a new MS OS. I wouldn't trust an upgrade from XP to Vista, and I certainly wouldn't to Windows 7.
To be realistic, most people will get a new OS with a new PC. Even in a corporate IT setting this is often the way they roll out a new OS. IT departments aren't falling over themselves to upgrade a major OS release on existing hardware. They'll just wait until that PC's lease is up, and get a new one with the current OS on it. The end of XP support will encourage IT departments to look at future planning that includes either Vista or Windows 7.
Until now there has been an XP fall-back option. That's no longer there as a supported option. Businesses with the Software Assurance licence have always had the option to downgrade to any previous version of Windows they want. They just have to pay when the product has ended its support cycle. Just because XP support is at an end doesn't mean that the OS can no longer be used now or in the future.
I have never used MS support for anything on any machine. If the security updates continue for a few years after the support stops things will be the same for me as they are today.
The only crash I have had on any of the XP boxes I have happened 4 years ago and it was my fault caused by tampering with system settings and "tweaking" the registry.
I have XP on this desktop and Vista on a laptop. Both machines run fine. I don't think the Vista machine has ever crashed on me (no freezes, no BSOD). XP maybe once or twice a year, Windows 2000 Pro about 6 times a year.
As far as Vista is concerned, I run XP on a second (older) laptop. As would be expected, the Vista machines smokes the XP laptop by a wide margin.
The worst part of Vista are those nag screens when installing software - but how often does that really happen. I don't get all the fuss.
Moving to Windows 7 is a great move by MS. With all the bad press on Vista, they're going to get a lot of people to upgrade earlier than needed. More money in their pockets.
Anyway, the "no upgrade" thing. I ran into a similar issue going from Win2K to Vista (wanted to do a clean install). There was procedure where you installed once to active your upgrade key, and then reformatted the drive and did a clean install as a "reinstall". Worked fine.
I can't think of a time I've ever upgraded an OS. I buy an OS and keep it until the machine dies. New machine gets a clean install. So I ran Win2K for eight years and was all the happier for it. Now that I've worked out the kinks, I doubt I'll be upgrading Vista until this computer reaches the end of it's life cycle.
And in our case, the equipment we run in our niche does not work on Vista. When equipment costing 10s of thousands of dollars & drives your business production doesn't work on Vista, you don't either.
