Staying current with Windows version vs running XP

most people use xp. Most programs have more support for xp compared to vista or win7. Why upgrade to win7 and be a beta tester and have no support for some programs.

 

Afaic, posts 24 and 25 are spot-on...

 

Some vendors even go as far as still offering it. I talked to Toshiba today and happened to ask, It's still a option with them on "some" models. Also netbooks are still shipping with XP. I honesty don't see XP going anywhere for years to come.

 

I've kept my XP up-to-date with the new Service Packs and other updates, so it's not really the same OS that was released 10 years ago.

And how long was Vista around before Windows 7? 1 or 2 years? When will Windows 8 be released and why not just wait for that rather than update OS every year or two?

 

I would argue the line of thought that hardware manufacturers really want or need to support XP anymore. With every new computer out there sporting windows 7, with directX 10 and now 11 on the graphics side and new games etc wanting to support that, it seems to me manufacturers are starting to move away.

I take a look at many new laptops people get, and they want to put XP on them. It is becoming harder and harder to find drivers for many of them from the computer vendor (like hp or dell), but you have to go to the actual hardware manufacturer to find them.

Like I said, I don't really see the actual need to leave XP, but I have been feeling compelled to lately due to issues like these. I wonder what the numbers of people out there are that only upgrade when they buy a new hp/dell/etc versus the numbers that actually build thier own. I think the number is vastly higher that just buy a new machine, thus getting the new OS, thus driving the hardware manufacturers to support that.

Is it lack of desire to develop a driver for older OS? My Intel board is already phased out and will not get any more driver upgrades, so where does that leave me? lol, of course they just want me to upgrade, which is the whole business model. They are all in bed together to get my hard earned $$. Will XP still be on 2/3 of the computers in 1-2 years, if 1/3 of the users upgrade thier computer?

This is an endless topic, as it comes down to preference only. You cannot say, in the hands of a knowledgable user, that one OS is better than another.

Sul.

 

I'll be running XP for a looooong time yet,no hurry to upgrade to Windows 7.


XP has been rock-solid for me

 

Well, and that's why I said IMO. You can LOL all you want, but Windows 7 is fast, loads fast and has been rock solid for me. I can't say the same about XP when I used it at all.

Hated Vista, but 7 is an excellent OS. 7 may look a lot like Vista, but may things have changed. Things are faster, Windows is more stable and everything just works. 7 is what Vista should have been. Very much the same as Vista on the surface, but under the hood, not even close. 7 is solid.

 

Had some issues as of late ("fixed" most of them without reinstalling xp). Thought about buying 7, but eventually didn't. My pc is very safe and worked well for yearsss without reinstalling. XP is supported for a long time still and I don't see/experience issues related to XP that force me to "upgrade".

 

lol, the sentiment that everything just works in 7 is a half truth. Tonight I was messing with some oddball programs, and one was Hamachi. It does not operate in 7 in the same manner as XP. On XP it was pretty simple, but 7 proves it an exercise in learning new things lol.

I can say, having migrated for the moment, that if you XP 'power users' are quick learners, 7 is not really as bad as I had thought. It introduces a lot of complexity with networking and sharing over XP, which is proposed to be better. It is more complex in file structure to be sure, at least it is different enough you dont' exactly get what they are doing. But overall, so far anyway, 7 is not the ugly beast that Vista is. What little Vista work I have done turned me off extremely towards it. 7 is, from a pure geek stand-point, umm, interesting.

On a side note, after much pilfering around in the OS and a lot of googling, I have managed to get my hdd read/writes 'almost' up to snuff on 7. I am simply amazed at all the 'crap' 7 is doing all the time. Honestly, it makes XP seem very very light, from a technical standpoint. But in real life, I have a hard time telling that 7 is doing so much other than hdd speeds. I am also quite astonished that something with so much going on is so nimble.

You could call me 'half converted'. Long term stability as well as how to finish getting it 'streamlined' will likely determine whether I stay with it or get fed up and say screw it and go back to XP.

Sul.

 

lol, I distinctly remember that. I remember trying it out, and thinking those exact things. It took me some time using XP until I found it was better than 9x/2k. One thing then that was remarkable was how few BSODs you had on XP vs 9x. I have already seen 7 myself present a better effort in that area than XP.

You have some sound logic in your thoughts IMO.

Sul.

 

One thing I noticed with my XP and Win 7 ... is XP sucks at 16:9 ... 1920 by 1020 res. I dunno if it's just me but I have done a lot of fiddling to get it looking good and it still not right. In Win 7 the default taskbar and folder icons all works perfectly - Text is easily more legible. There is no way I can max it with XP, 1600 by 900 res works.

 

I would upgrade to Win 7 but I have an older computer that won't support Win 7's bells and whistles. And for me, running out and buying a new computer is not in my budgetary realm at the moment. So as long as my computer is running along I am fine with runnig XP.

 

Even Microsoft acknowledges this fact when the next version of MS Office [2010, I think they are calling it] will be backwards compatible with Windows XP. Originally, they intended to make Office 2010 only compatible with Vista/7 but realizing that the enterprise (the costumers where MS gets a big chunk of cash) is still in love with XP they made the decision of making Office 2010 compatible with Win XP.

Although, myself, I don't use Win XP at all [except for my employer, who stuck with it] I haven't moved to Win 7 either. I tested it while on Beta/RC stages and got a copy of the Pro retail version for US$30 but I noticed that [like a poster on this thread wrote] there is too much activity on the Hard Disk. A lot more than XP or even...VISTA !!! Unbelievable...

It definitely uses less RAM memory than Vista but it access the HDD more often than Vista. May be it's the “optimized” SEARCH function or something else but I decided to stick with Vista SP-2 for the time being and wait for a SP for 7 before making any switch.

Regards,

Carlos

 

I'm one more XP user who's "holding out" simply because I'm quite happy with it. Plus one other factor that I don't remember seeing mentioned, although I'll admit I quickly skimmed previous posts, and that's that upgrading to Vista or 7 would require major new hardware (see my sig), and what I've got is still working just fine too.

I'll take it one step further, I miss 98SE, mainly because it still had most of DOS still functional -- I wound up having to ditch many many great old games because they'd never been re-written for the Win OS. Quite a few of those would even run quite happily in a DOS window and didn't need a command-line startup.

My switch to XP came about simply because when my equally antique previous computer finally died of old age (that one started out as a 386 back in DOS 5 days), XP was all that dealers offered in new systems. Major learning curve making that conversion, that's for sure.

Like many others have commented here, I've no particular need or use for "new and improved" versions just for their own sake, which seems to be what MS and others have gotten into. The planned-obsolescence thing just doesn't work for me.

 

I've never ever had a problem with XP, Vista, and W7.
Specially Vista, i heard so many people complain randomly i even though they were just jumping in the "i hate Vista bandwagon"
I used Vista since launch and never had major issues
Now with W7 it's the same, everything smooth

 

agreed, same for me

 

Since I remember this was your big - to me mysterious - problem with Win 7 I would be interested what exactly was the problem and how you 'cured' it?

I guess a few days later you are already full converted?
If not - as I said - put 7 on fast SSD and you will be.

I hate(d) Vista so much and now LOVE (!) Win 7 more then I ever loved XP.
And that was - OS-wise - the love of my life until recently.

I am quite sure you XP-aficionados soon will have similar experience.

p.s.: Only thing I miss is the ability due to lack of working driver
to use my old but great Epson Perfection 1200S Scanner (9 years old?)
from every application with TWAIN.

With Vuescan I can use this hardware on Win 7 but it's of
course not the same. - All other things I got to work with 7.

 

I wouldn't count on it .