Windows XP has hung on far too long. Someday soon, the panic will set in.
Microsoft recently announced that their newest web browser, Internet Explorer 9, will not support Windows XP. That’s because the browser will have features that are incompatible with the way XP does things.
Internet Explorer 9 won’t be the first program to deny XP users.
XP is old. Very old as far as computer software in concerned.
Microsoft introduced Windows XP in the autumn of 2001. If you were alive then, and using a computer, you would be using Office 2000 or Microsoft Works. A top-of-the-line computer would have a Pentium 4 processor, though most PCs probably had a Pentium 3 or Pentium 2. A 10GB hard drive would be just a ton of room, and 256MB of RAM was more than you’d ever need.
Windows XP isn’t so much stellar as Windows Vista was a disappointment. I didn’t mind Vista that much, and felt it was better than XP, but it wasn’t exciting. So lots of people stuck with XP and even today XP is the preferred operating system for netbook computers.
But XP is very, very old.
The problems with old software are always going to be support and compatibility. The support fades over time, but because of experience many users of old software don’t crave the support that new adopters need. Compatibility, however, is an issue.
The longer you use a program, the more likely you are to be left in the digital dust. At some point, only your computer — and folks you who have your exact same setup — will be able to use your files. Case in point: The original WordPerfect document format cannot be read by a modern word processor.
I have old graphics files from my early books that no program can read. On a lark, I wrote a program in NCurses that allows me to view the screen capture images I made when I used DOS. The program works, but because no one else probably has those same files (Hotshot Graphics), no one else needs the program.
While hardware will die someday, software has a theoretically infinite lifespan. As long as you can find a platform to run the software, it will run. Look at all those emulators for the ancient computers I wrote about a few weeks back. They work!
When you want to stay current, however, at some point you will need to update your computer.
I’d like to stay current, but to do that I’ve got to have enough money, something I don’t really have right now.
Windows 2000 is older than XP but I’m using it and it FLIES!
Though a lot of programs will not work on it.
Comment by linuxlove — March 26, 2010 @ 6:03 am
I only used Windows 2000 for about three weeks back in 2001. Included Windows 2000 info in two or three books. Then I reformatted the system and ran FreeBSD on it for about four years!
Comment by admin — March 26, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
That’s just the way it works, as the years go on, OS’s get more outdated and new software can’t support it because it would cost more to develop an XP version than to not. I have a tower in my closet that’s about 2.5 feet tall with Windows 2000 on it. Man I wish all the stuff on that tower could be on my laptop, I love windows 2000. But Windows 7 is basically Christ’s second coming in OS form. And I won’t be disappointed when XP goes away.
Comment by gamerguy473 — March 26, 2010 @ 5:47 pm
I think Microsoft has done well to address this problem with their XP mode emulator. I used VMware Player (free) before, but the XP mode just blows it away in terms of convenience – I can install a program in XP mode, and it is almost like I installed in directly in 7 (runs directly like any other program – not enclosed within a virtual machine window).
This let me run some old programs within XP, while still having the latest programs run too; and I didn’t pay much for the XP license either (student discount – XP+7 for 30 USD)
Comment by sriksrid — March 27, 2010 @ 9:30 am
I’ve set up the emulator on Windows 7 to help my kids run some older games. It works well.
Comment by admin — March 27, 2010 @ 12:23 pm