Windows XP Diehards - Whatchya gonna do?

[wrdwrght]

8 April marks Windows XP's end-of-life. No more updates. Worse, no more security patches...

Since 2004, I've been writing a book on a Windows XP desktop machine in FrameMaker, and have since bought a Windows 7 laptop where I also write when mobile. If a pain to upgrade, neither OS is really that bad, but my proprietary writing tool has actually kept me glued to Microsoft.

I'm just wondering here if Microsoft's orphaning of you, the XP user, has encouraged you, as it has me, to stop dabbling with Linux and actually commit to it.

My new Pogo[linux] desktop machine is running Linux Mint's Cinnemon desktop environment, and I have XP and Windows 7 running as virtual machines so I can finish my book. Once 8 April arrives, I will shut XP off from the outside world to avoid security issues.

Anyone else converting all their old XP machines to Linux?

[fanglekai]

I quit using xp when 7 came out. Xp is ancient at this point. I hope people finally move on.

[JNewell]

7 is IMHO a great replacement and not that different. But...

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...I just built a new machine and for a variety of reasons, after having had several weeks to demo and abuse a machine with 8.1 installed, I built the new machine with 8.1 and I have to tell you that the few UI issues are worth dealing with. If I were really unhappy with the UI, I'd install something like Classic Shell and never notice that I have 8.1 running under the hood.

[ugaarguy]

There's a free XP virtual machine for win 7 available from Microsoft. You can use that to run XP in VirtualBox on Win 8 or a Linux machine with a little work.

[bh49]

I used windows XP for 8-9 years. computer never crushed. In last November i replaced it with Windows8 machine. I hate W8, which are not desktop user friendly and already crashed few times.

[JNewell]

Windows 8.0 is actually, literally and irremediably unusable. IMHO... 8.1 has a learning curve but (IMHO) the benefits outweigh the burdens. YMMV!!!

[Evil D]

I just built a PC a few months ago, and it's the first Windows I've used beyond XP...get this...since PRIOR to XP's launch, because I've had a serial free developer's version of XP ever since it came out. No security updates, no nothing, and I still haven't had any major viruses I couldn't easily get rid of and no real issues besides some newer games requiring SP3 (which I found a simple work around for by editing a registry). That said, I'm loving Windows 7 Pro and really don't care to go back.

[foldingknifehq]

Man I went from using XP a lot to using Windows 8.0 and I suddenly remembered what it was like to be computer illiterate again. I couldn't open up apps, I couldn't do what I wanted to do - thoroughly frustrating.

I've upgraded to 8.1 and while it is a bit better, I still hate it with a passion.

[bh49]

Man I went from using XP a lot to using Windows 8.0 and I suddenly remembered what it was like to be computer illiterate again. I couldn't open up apps, I couldn't do what I wanted to do - thoroughly frustrating.
I've upgraded to 8.1 and while it is a bit better, I still hate it with a passion.

I was quite frustrated for the first two days, than it got a little better. I updated to 8.1, but I do not see it as much better. Also help file on computer is almost non-existent.

[rodloos]

The only computer I have that still runs XP is an old netbook that I don't think has the resources to run anything later. I don't use it that often anyway, but once support is no longer available for it, I may just put Linux on it.

Windows 8 was a [four-letter-word of your choosing] !! Don't know what Microsoft was thinking! I think they really just want to change the user interface on each version so they can keep selling training on how to use the crap. One add-on I've found useful (I understand it was written by a guy at MS) to give you the standard "shell" and menu structure back is http://www.classicshell.net/

[wrdwrght]

The only computer I have that still runs XP is an old netbook that I don't think has the resources to run anything later. I don't use it that often anyway, but once support is no longer available for it, I may just put Linux on it.

Windows 8 was a [four-letter-word of your choosing] !! Don't know what Microsoft was thinking! I think they really just want to change the user interface on each version so they can keep selling training on how to use the crap. One add-on I've found useful (I understand it was written by a guy at MS) to give you the standard "shell" and menu structure back is http://www.classicshell.net/

Yeah, I reclaimed an old Dell and an IBM(!) Thinkpad with Linux Mint's XFCE desktop environment. Why throw a working machine away because of Microsoft's bloat or end of support? Windows users don't have too steep a learning curve with Linux Mint's distros.

[WMR]

One more alternative to Microsoft, if your computing is mostly online, is the Chromebook. It is fast, fairly secure and inexpensive. I picked up one from Amazon for $200 and I love it.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Chromebook-1 ... chromebook
Oh, and add me to the list of Widows 8 haters. Microsoft's sales are off enough that they may (hopefully) be getting the message.

[JNewell]

Man I went from using XP a lot to using Windows 8.0 and I suddenly remembered what it was like to be computer illiterate again. I couldn't open up apps, I couldn't do what I wanted to do - thoroughly frustrating.

I've upgraded to 8.1 and while it is a bit better, I still hate it with a passion.

I was quite frustrated for the first two days, than it got a little better. I updated to 8.1, but I do not see it as much better. Also help file on computer is almost non-existent.

Take a look at Classic Shell. It's free and can be configured so that you feel like you're back with XP again.

[JNewell]

The only computer I have that still runs XP is an old netbook that I don't think has the resources to run anything later. I don't use it that often anyway, but once support is no longer available for it, I may just put Linux on it.

Windows 8 was a [four-letter-word of your choosing] !! Don't know what Microsoft was thinking! I think they really just want to change the user interface on each version so they can keep selling training on how to use the crap. One add-on I've found useful (I understand it was written by a guy at MS) to give you the standard "shell" and menu structure back is http://www.classicshell.net/

I think what they must have been thinking is "touch screen," which means they weren't thinking at all, not even a little.

[bdblue]

I have an old computer at home with XP on it, my previous CAD workstation from my office. It is still a very fast machine, probably faster than the new Dell XEON workstation that my company provides for me now, but it has XP on it. I'm not using it right now and it is my only machine with XP so I won't do anything with it right away. If I decide to use it for some reason I would have to buy a Win7 upgrade on ebay to put on it.

I have a laptop with Vista, I can continue to use it for awhile. I have 2 other machines with Win7 so those are good for now. My wife has a new computer with Win 8.1. She managed to get used to using it.

There is nothing Microsoft could do that would force me to Linux. I managed a Unix machine for a long time, before the PC era, and served my time there. I don't need to go back to it. A year ago I got the interest in creating a new Linux machine to use as a fileserver at work. I downloaded a few distros of Linux and installed them on the machine. When I tried adding a second hard drive and setting up a RAID, everything fell apart. I could not get it to work in any way shape or fashion. I eventually built 3 different machines, tried 2 or 3 different distros of Linux, and a whole pile of different hard drives, Linux just keeps spitting out unintelligible crap. I finally remembered that Linux (and Unix) exist just to make fun of people that don't know how to use them, and Linus Torvald is a domestic terrorist intent on destroying our civilization.

[bh49]

Take a look at Classic Shell. It's free and can be configured so that you feel like you're back with XP again.

John,
Thank you. I do not like W8.1, but learned few things, which I need. Also there is sufficient help on the web. I don't think that microsoft will go back to old interface. So I had to learn.
Roman

[JNewell]

Roman, I almost threw the first W8 computer I encountered through the window. :) I am still a bit rough with 8.1, which I think is a huge improvement, but I persist because (1) realistically, it's got a support lifetime that's going to be way longer than W7 (which I really like - but is not going to be supported for much longer, at least in theory) and (2) my subjective experience is that it runs a good bit faster than W7 does, which is never a bad thing.

If they gave me my druthers, and if security weren't a big issue, I'd go back to what I consider the best version of Windows ever released, bar none: Windows for Workgroups 3.11. :)

- John

[einstein2001]

I switched to Linux and never looked back.

[IG-88]

One advice, upgrade to anythnig you like, WIN7, 8, OSX, Linux, as long as you are away from XP on april 9. 0-day exploits are a certitude.

I adopted WIN7 when it was released and will wait for "WIN all wil be solved in the next release" and skip 8 :)

[paladin]

If they gave me my druthers, and if security weren't a big issue, I'd go back to what I consider the best version of Windows ever released, bar none: Windows for Workgroups 3.11. :)

- John

If I had my druthers, I'd go back to DOS 4, 5, or 6...much cleaner, faster, and simpler. Windows OS marked the downfall of personal computing for me. People who were too lazy to learn some basic programming and commands demanded "simpler" icon-based operating systems. I could boot up my old 486 DX running 4 megs of RAM and get into DA menu and access a batch or EXE file in under 9 seconds. Now Windows requires gigabytes of RAM and I'm tapping my foot WAITING on my computer...quite ironic, wouldn't you say? Now back to chasing kids off my lawn...