Let’s face it, XP is old. Really old. However in the business world, Win2000 and WinXP still have a strong foothold on the desktop. But thankfully XP is finally losing its grip. By the end of 2010 it’s speculated that 50% of business will be using Windows 7. This is largely due to the fact that more IT admins have given Win 7 the thumbs up as a real-world business use Windows OS.
For those that don’t work in corporate environments, you may be wondering why business has chose to stick to XP/2000 for so long. The answer is a relatively simple one – XP simply worked. An XP or 2000 box with MS Office connected to Exchange is an easy setup.
Windows 7 has proven to be a reliable and stable operating system, and done so in a way that gives IT admins enough confidence to use it.
What does this mean if you’re using XP at home now?
Corporations buy more PCs than anybody else and typically dictate what ends up in the computer marketplace.
XP at this point is hanging on, but it isn’t going to be long before Big Corporate gives XP the old heave-ho. As said above, the end of 2010 is projected to have 50% of business using Windows 7. By the end of 2011 it may be 75% or even higher.
When that occurs, you’ll see less support for the XP OS on store shelves for new products. Both hardware and software designed for Windows will be “Vista and up” compatible only.
What you can do to prepare for the future is one or more of the following:
- Start stockpiling hardware if you plan on sticking with XP for a few more years. For example, if you have a favorite mouse or keyboard, consider purchasing another as a backup.
- Upgrade to Windows 7. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do because the upgrade really isn’t an upgrade (it’s an OS replacement), but it’s an option.
- Switch to Linux. Also not exactly the easiest thing in the world because Linux does things differently than Windows does. However, if you want something to look forward to, Ubuntu 10 will be released next month.
And yes, I’ll be downloading Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to try it out. It will be the best Ubuntu yet. Of that I’m sure of. 
Watch for my write-up here on it.
What about you?
Sticking with XP? Using Windows 7? Going with Linux? Using all of them?
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We’ve upgraded at home. Well, I upgraded by using 7 on my new PC.
At the office, we plan to upgrade our Vista machines, but not the XP machines. Just too much cost vs relatively little gain. New PCs will be 7, though…so eventually XP will be phased out. Eventually…
All of my home computers run XP. Four of my seven home PC’s can run Win7. I will not switch to Win7 until an app comes out that is a “must have” and does not run on XP. It will be another 4 or 5 years before current hardware at the office running XP comes up for replacement, so I don’t see it happening as quickly as one might anticipate, unless some Win7 viral application shows up.
Windows 7 is slick. The sooner I can move all my systems over to Win7 the better. Hardware requirements for Win7 are not nearly as onerous as Vista and Win 7 runs just fine on a P4 with a decent video card and 2 GBs of RAM.
If you do much with media – audio, pictures, graphics, video – Windows 7 is a huge leap over XP. Plus much better security.
I’ll upgrade when I can actually be bothered. Got the disk and key sitting here. but at the moment, XP is working for me, as it has for the last almost 8 years now.