Users Still Not Willing to Abandon Windows XP

I'm thinking MS knew this would happen all along, they certainly have been making a valiant effort to sway public
opinion I'll give them that..

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Users-Still-Not-Willing-to-Abandon-Windows-XP-343603.shtml

Counting down.......
Hogndog

 

When Windows 7 came out MS had to choose between allowing a full upgrade from XP (would lock XP users to 32 bit and create a support nightmare as apps stopped working) or force a regular install knowing that migration this way is a big PITA and a lot of people would not want to do it.

Looking back maybe the only real solution would have been have a 7 64 pro or higher feature where while installing 7 your existing XP install would be pushed into a XP mode VM. This would allowed a move to 64 bit AND a more painless transition.

Its way too late now though.

 

Windows XP was the best version of Windows Microsoft ever made. Windows 7 is much better. People are shunning Windows 8 in droves.

 

After 2014, everybody staying on XP will have to deal with the issues without any help from Microsoft.

 

Yup I'm one of them and have no issues or worries.

 

Given the turnover rate in this market, the new computer and OS you buy today will be obsolete in a couple years. And the security issues will remain mostly unchanged, because software developers are still playing the same old bug-chasing game. A lot of people probably think, "Why even bother upgrading if it won't change anything?"

And you know what? I can't blame them for that. Even if it comes back to bite them.

 

I thought support actually ended on November 20, 1985? You mean to tell me they had support this whole time? sheesh.



On a more serious note, its sad to think that there are millions of people who actually depend on microsoft for such things. I am thankful I rarely need anything in way of support from them. Makes things like EOL a non-issue.

Sul.

 

And you may not. What you will likely start seeing after Microsoft ends support is that it will be hard to find new 3rd party software that will run on XP. If that is not a concern then it does not matter. If you want to run the latest and greatest of anything else, you will likely need a newer OS.

 

The likely good news to come out of this is that, eventually, even hackers will stop caring about XP Honestly though, move to 7 if you can. There are several things I liked more about XP than 7, but if you want new software and not have to worry about abandon-ware or doing this and that work-around, you're going to have to move up at some point.

 

What is the user base of XP.
Im sure it must be one of the most used operating systems in the world with a strong following.
Microsoft are taking a big gamble in stopping support for XP as this may sway either way.
1.XP users will be forced to newer OS.So this could be a marketing ploy to bump up the numbers for windows 7 and 8.

2.The large majority of XP users will dump microsoft altogether and use alternative systems.

Time will tell.

 

It'll eventually come to the point where the user will have to drop XP and use another os just to surf the web, but I don't know how far off that is. Surely the average user will have moved on long before that time comes.

The only thing that I miss from XP is native DirectSound3D. From a headphone gamer's perspective it's been a bit of a regression in terms of positional audio cues and spatialization after MS removed the audio HAL and deprecated DirectSound. If you're a headphone user playing games nowadays, you usually have to set Windows speaker config accordingly (5.1/7.1) and rely on your audio hardware/software to virtualize the pre-mixed multi-channel audio that the games sends it, something that onboard audio doesn't do on it's own, just so that you can get down mixed virtual surround over headphones. 3D audio is better than virtual surround.

 

Gamble? They already extended support for XP, they can't keep supporting it indefinitely and if XP users move on to alternative systems after 2014... so what? IMO, XP from an economic perspective means only one thing for MS these days: costs (marked to end in 2014, with no more returns).

 

And a big portion of those "users" still using XP never bought a license anyway.

 

For MS, it's time to move on, beyond XP. XP has been supported longer than any of their OS's I think.. for an unbelievably long time. I would have expected them to drop support much sooner, to be honest. I think it's completely reasonable. Apparently they will also support 7 forever too. I don't see any problem...

 

Good to know, thanks JR...

 

Talking of older 3rd party apps, there is always OldApps.

 

Would be interested to know if that proportion any different to the proportion of pirated Vista or Win 7 (or even Win ?

Cheers, Nick

 

Which is where security problems really start to rear their heads. Outdated third party apps pretty much == insecure system.