Last weekend I upgraded from Windows 7 Release Candidate to Windows 7 Home Premium. I have used many flavors of Windows over the years, and this is certainly the best to date.
I personally find it quite enjoyable to be running a brand new fresh-and-modern operating system. Everything looks better, runs better and so on. And there are many features that make 7 totally worth the upgrade.
So why am I writing an article about not upgrading to 7?
It’s because there are growing numbers of people that simply do not care about the OS anymore, citing the reason to the tune of, "All I want to do is turn my computer on and have it do what I want. As long as it can do that, I don’t care what runs it."
This is heresy to a fervent computer geek, because how dare anybody run something that isn’t modern, and why on Earth would you consciously choose to use something old?
There are several good reasons for this.
Cost
The upgrade price of $119 US for Home Premium Upgrade (which is what most people would use) simply does not resonate well with people in the current economic climate.
There have been arguments aplenty that even though this is a price drop compared to Vista, it’s still too expensive and that it should have been priced between $50 to $75. And it doesn’t help that the $119 price tag comes dangerously close to half the cost of a new nettop or netbook computer.
It doesn’t bring anything new that’s usable
The emphasis here is on the word usable.
If somebody asked me, "What can Windows 7 do that my XP can’t do that would convince me to switch/upgrade?", it’s doubtful I’d come up with anything compelling enough to convince anybody to take the plunge.
The only instance where I could truly convince anybody that 7 is better is for Vista users, because 7 is notably slimmer and faster than the Vista OS even with applied SP2 and all other available updates installed. That makes 7 much more usable and is a compelling reason to upgrade.
But for XP users, I haven’t any compelling reasons such as the above. Everything I’d mention would most likely be dismissed as, "Nice. But that’s not really anything I could use."
The migration process for XP users going to 7 is painful
When upgrading Vista to 7, everything is carried over. But from XP to 7 this is not how it happens. Everything you have is kept, but shoved into a folder called Windows.old. So you’ll have to reinstall all your apps all over again. Many consider this no different than formatting the hard drive and starting from scratch.
This is a situation absolutely nobody wants to deal with.
Now I want to make clear that there is no operating system on the planet that has ever been able to make migrating from one major version a newer one easy – not even Mac OS X. And certainly not Linux or UNIX. Migrating always and without fail just plain sucks. In fact it could be argued that Microsoft operating systems qualify as the "least worst" when it comes to migrating up from old to new. Even so, it still sucks because you will spend a good amount of time reinstalling apps, tweaking settings and so on. It will occur, and there’s no escape from it.
This is a huge, and I mean huge, reason people don’t like upgrading.
If it’s all about the browser, what reason is there to care about the OS?
The primary reason anybody owns a computer today is to do things on the internet. And this means the most important app that you use is your web browser.
Windows XP will run Internet Explorer 8 or any other popular browser offering such as the latest version of Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.
Every browser that 7 can run, XP can run. The only real difference is that 7 has more security to it because of the internal underpinnings of the OS. But XP’s internet security deficiencies can be patched up with a good security suite. Maybe it won’t be as streamlined as 7 is, but you can protect your PC reasonably well with third-party offerings.
If the vast majority of what you do is in the browser, you already know the OS doesn’t matter as long as a modern browser can run in it, and that the network security in place by the OS and optional third-party software is good enough to protect your PC.
XP will continue to hang around for a few years
When Windows XP was introduced in 2001, Windows 98 took roughly about 3 years to wean itself out as what people primarily used. This was a fairly brisk transition. Then again, people and corporations were buying computers left and right back in those days which I’m certain helped that along quite a bit.
Vista was supposed to kill off XP. It didn’t. The market viciously demanded that XP stay right where it is, so Microsoft complied until the launch of 7.
Win 7 will kill off Vista and XP in one fell swoop. Of that I have no doubt.
As for how much longer XP will continue to remain the #1 OS people use, I’m betting that it will be a longer span of time compared to the 98-to-XP transition. Possibly as long as 5 years. This is because the extended support lifecycle for XP will end in 2014.
I’m not saying to stick with XP until 2014 because chances are your computer has little chance of lasting that long, but if you’ve seen what’s new and aren’t too hot on the idea of switching to 7, I can’t blame you.
It’s not that 7 isn’t better than XP, because it is by leaps and bounds. But I do understand why there are so many who refuse to switch.
I must say that 7 looks very appealing, way more so than Vista. However, whenever I read articles like this, or any that discuss the pros/cons of different Windows versions, I’m glad I made the switch to linux. Whereas I do agree that ‘migrating sucks’ is a pretty universal truth, I’ve had decent success with it so far in Ubuntu, though I more often than not just reinstall completely. If Windows 7 were free, I may give it a try, but I can’t justify spending money on it.
I don’t have any windows machines at home, but have several at work. I must agree that sticking with XP makes more sense, and that’s probably what we’ll end up doing for a while longer. The strategy has been county-wide (I work for a public library), and every new machine we’ve bought, including several since Vista has been out, have all been with XP. Perhaps 7 will change this in the future.
Well, I installed 7 and find that it’s not really as fast as XP. And some things are slower. But it is pretty and does a pretty good job.
I agree Bruce, 7 is very fussy on its programs it will let run. Most of the software that comes with things from the store will not run on it. You have to go on line and upgrade to win 7 software.
XP sucked b4 SP2
I have two pc’s one with XP and one with Vista and I don’t see any reason to upgrade . Vista works fine I turn off all the frills and you cant really tell the difference between the two . One future shop employee tried to convince me that my PC would boot up faster so I went to msconfig and showed him the mile long list of start up items and told him thats what makes most PC’s boot up slow . I later shut down all the bloat and shut down all the start up Items on the display model and rebooted it I would swear my Vista machine boots faster. But than again I usually only turn it on once a day so if it is a couple of seconds slower who cares . My next upgrade is not going to be Windows 7 . May be a larger power supply or a new Graphics Card but not Windows 7 . To ad insult to injury I actually set the screen saver on that demo to come on in 1 minute and set it to the 3d text screen saver and typed in Vista . They probably still think its running Vista LOL.
Rich,
Thank god someone finally said the obvious about not upgrading.
If your computer does what it is supposed to do and its quick enough, then why mess with it? Vista is working just fine for me. Is it really cost effective to spend over a hundred dollars to shave off a second or two here and there? If so, go buy a 911 turbo…its way more fun.
I took advantage of the July $49.99 special on Win 7 Home Premium, 2 copies. I would not have bought if I had known that 80% of my existing software would not be compatible with Win 7. Win 7 Professional has a virtual machine that runs along side of Win 7 without having to create a vm, but Home Premium does not. I can use a vm within Win 7 but really don’t want to. I opted for a dual boot on both my machine & my daughters. I may be forced to upgrading software but not before 2014 or when Ballmer kills XP. I just may go to Linux then. Been thinking about it anyway, but I have a few hundred dollars in software that XP does well with. The along side vm should have been included with the other version of Win 7 due to the software problem, which I’m sure they knew about.
Upgrade to Windows 7? Definitely not any time soon. In the next couple of months, my old laptop with XP will migrate to LINUX, most likely Ubuntu. This should reduce the burden on the machine and take care of security in one fell swoop. However, XP will be kept for posterity and run virtually as needed. There are some useful bits and pieces of software I’d like to have access to as part of the original bundle from 2004.
The new laptop came fitted with Vista in early October (got it for peanuts effectively), and there is nothing wrong with it. Vista is a mature OS now, and will be fine and dandy for years to come.
Solution overall cost: zilch. Oh, and I am looking forward to the next MS OS entering the field – it will be a good time to buy another laptop and finally run Windows 7, no charge.
I made the switch because I installed a new HDD. & has some beaut software that was/is an addon for XP & yes, it is marginally quicker, but no it doesn’t warrant the expense over XP. Having said that, it’s way better than Vista (on the laptop, of course) & once the better half is comfortable, Vista is gone!!
Technically speaking, in 3 weeks of full-blown operation I’ve had only 1 issue with software incompatibility, which I found pretty amazing. Yes, I like Windows 7, but if you don’t have to have the latest, then XP is still right up there.
So you’re saying 5 years before XP/Vista are replaced? That’s not hard to believe since the majority of the computers running now won’t be used in 5 years.
The only reason XP stuck around so long is because the huge Vista backlash caused PC manufacturers to offer XP as an alternative for longer. That shouldn’t happen this time.
I have one XP machine, and the fact that I have to reload all my software packages REALLY TICKS ME OFF! What is this–punishment for not upgrading that machine to Vista? I would love to do the Win 7 upgrade, but I don’t believe it’s gonna happen on the XP machine.
Could the ability to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 at a reduced price compared to moving from XP to Windows 7 be Microsoft’s way of apologizing for putting up with Vista?
Hadn’t thought of that, David…interesting thought. But the more I think about it, I may just go rogue and get a Mac for home. Most of what I do at home is ‘Net surfing and photo editing, so I’ll optimize for that. Yeah, it’s going to cost more than a Win7 upgrade. I’ve always used PCs, but I like Macs, so maybe this will be the catalyst.
I used PCmover Upgrade Assistant and I was able to migrate almost all of my applications from Xp to Windows 7. It saved me a lot of time and I didn’t have to manually transfer any files. Brought over some hairballs from the old system but it did a pretty good job.
I upgraded my XP to Windows 7. I did the clean install. I didn’t really follow the Microsoft instructions. I took everything I wanted to save, then put them on my secondary drive, unplugged it from my power supply and motherboard. I then put in the 64 bit edition. Then restarted the computer to boot from the disc. I did have to hit a couple of the processes 2, to 3 times. But about 20 mins. later I had the new system in. Probably 20 or so mins. later to get all the security that I use back on my machine.
And then of course it took a couple of days to find the Google add-ons I like. Plus a few plug-ins to view movies on the Net.
I’m still tweaking my machine to get it working how I want it to run. But hey, I had the XP for 3 years, and was still tweaking it.
For me? It was worth the up-grade. But I’m only speaking for myself. As they say; Mileage will vary.
P.S. I did delete Windows old. It cleared up 20 GB’s from the folders.
P.S.S I did purchase the book “Windows 7 For **mmies”. It has helped.
What about existing AutoCad that runs on XP. AutoCAD is much to expensive to upgrade from the 2006 version to anything due to hard core users have to start all over and pay several thousand dollars when Vista would not even run AutoCAD with the additional software that Surveyors and Engineers usually need for their work which add another couple of thousand dollars on the the other thousands of dollars that we cannot afford in this economy nor the time to mess with it and learn new tricks when we are good at the old tricks to get that project done efficiently and quality.
I was looking forward to Windows 7 until the day of release when I found out there was no way to upgrade from XP. I am not going to shut down my business to install this OS and then have to start reinstalling all software. In addition, only the more expensive editions will run older XP software such as earlier versions of Win Office. The cost of moving to Windows 7 is just too high in money and in time. This is just another example of Microsoft’s screwing over their customers. I go back to the original windows OS and before that DOS. Upgrades were easy in those days – install the upgrade and all software in place remained installed. Somewhere along the way Microsoft forgot about that idea. Perhaps they will have a change of heart (unlikely) and when Windows 8 – the new and improved with no problems version – comes out in a year from now they will allow XP users to upgrade seamlessly.
I think you can be pretty assured that Microsoft will come out with a new OS within 3 years. Selling new operating systems, whether or not they are necessary, is how they make a huge chunk of their money.
In addition, making them upgradable makes them less money.