Making the rounds this week is a bunch of news stories going on about the fact that the Microsoft Windows XP operating system is officially 10 years old.
I can’t say "Remember when we used to use that Windows?" because a ton of you out there are still using it.
What has made XP such a beloved OS for so many? Two things. Longevity and support.
People like things that stick around for a while that they can get to know because it brings a sense of comfort from familiarity. The computer industry does not operate this way and forces new crap on us every 3 years – but XP is an odd duck in this mix because it stuck around for so much longer than that. Many people cling to XP because they simply know it. You could list off every reason in the world why Windows 7 is better, but those who are XP Cling-Ons won’t budge.
When I speak of support, I’m not talking about Microsoft but rather the fact that so much stuff is supported in XP, both for hardware and software. It’s still true that even now you can walk into any electronics store, buy just about any peripheral and it will work on XP. The same can be said for most software titles. Again, this is a source of comfort because you don’t have to worry if the whatever-it-is will work on your PC or not, because there’s a very good chance it will with XP.
Will XP ever truly go away?
This chart shows that after all this time, Windows 7 is very close to overtaking XP as the most-used desktop OS on the internet worldwide. What this means is that XP is on the decline, but the speed of decline is as slow as molasses.
It has been said many times by many people that Win7′s biggest competition is XP itself, and that’s still true even now.
Yes, XP will eventually go away. It’ll probably happen the next time the Cubs win a World Series.
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I always liked XP: Even when I started using Windows 7 from the beta version onwards, I still mainly used XP. Only this year have I stopped using it. I think the greatest thing about XP is the speed with which it executes 2D graphics and runs office-type applications. – As an office and general-purpose o/s not even Windows 7 can touch it. Having said that; XP doesn’t support multi-core processors like Win 7 does, has no support for ACHI as such… And lots more.It is, after seemingly aeons, falling by the wayside.
For many XP still gets the job done. It is sort of like driving an old reliable car, why get rid of it if it still works?
Of my bootable partitions XP is ahead 7 to 6 and the 6 are not Win7. This is across multiple machines. But then again some of them give access to MSDOS so staying with XP is not a new thing.
I suspect that the rise in use of 7 is linked more to the refusal to supply XP by MS than any great need for it by the masses.
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If all you do is surf, play games made for xp, listen to music, download a few files and look at pictures why would I/you need 7?
I’d probably still be on Windows 2000 Pro if it would support later versions of IE. I never saw a ‘blue screen of death’ in Win 2000 which is more than I can say for XP!
I don’t feel any need to go to Windows 7 at present – and here in the UK it costs about twice as much as in the US.
I have a ton of programs & utilities on my computer – until MS provides an upgrade path that will move everything, AND make it all work, I’m sticking with XP. That doesn’t even consider the fact that I hate giving MS any more $ than I have to.
I have just managed to load XP onto a new netbook I bought in Feb. MAGIC. Its twice as quick as win7 and I have 5Gb of programs that work on XP. Basically XP was a great operating system deriving in part from VAX/VMS & the NT project – and underneath win7 is still the same.
Window XP will take a very long time to go away. I work at a large manufacturing facility and there are many machines that use Windows in its user interface application. There still machines operating that have Windows NT, 2000, 2003 and XP and there is no good reason to change them. In industrial applications these Windows versions will still be around for quite a while.
In my particular case, I used XP for nearly 10 years and moved over to Windows 7 only because I had to replace my computer. And even then it didn’t happen immediately because I built the system myself so I had a choice on what to use. I changed because I has using 32-bit XP and was unable to use the full 4 GB of RAM in my system.
It’s not just longevity and support. XP was and still is a very good OS. Stable and fast. It does what it does very well and reliably. Only changing hardware requirements have dated it as a usable platform. On my Windows 7 notebook I run Virtual Box with a trusty XP installed for older applications I can’t do without, and because I still prefer using the XP interface
Thank you, ‘actprime’ – you’ve brought back very many happy memories of VAX/VMS. How have the mighty fallen! DEC to COMPAC to HP.
I shall consider Windows to be nearly grown up when file names include a version number, automatically incremented every time one ‘saves’ the file; it would eliminate the need for me to use ‘save as’ and manually change my own version number.
The ability to grant individual ‘privileges’ was great and the facility to print a directory listing without have to invoke the command prompt, save the DIR output to a file and then print the file.
Happy days, long gone!