Ten years of Windows XP: how longevity became a curse

[DainBramaged]

Windows XP's retail release was October 25, 2001, ten years ago today. Though no longer readily available to buy, it continues to cast a long shadow over the PC industry: even now, a slim majority of desktop users are still using the operating system.

Windows XP didn't boast exciting new features or radical changes, but it was nonetheless a pivotal moment in Microsoft's history. It was Microsoft's first mass-market operating system in the Windows NT family. It was also Microsoft's first consumer operating system that offered true protected memory, preemptive multitasking, multiprocessor support, and multiuser security.

The transition to pure 32-bit, modern operating systems was a slow and painful one. Though Windows NT 3.1 hit the market in 1993, its hardware demands and software incompatibility made it a niche operating system. Windows 3.1 and 3.11 both introduced small amounts of 32-bit code, and the Windows 95 family was a complex hybrid of 16-bit and 32-bit code. It wasn't until Windows XP that Windows NT was both compatible enough—most applications having been updated to use Microsoft's Win32 API—and sufficiently light on resources.

In the history of PC operating systems, Windows XP stands alone. Even Windows 95, though a landmark at its release, was a distant memory by 2005. No previous PC operating system has demonstrated such longevity, and it's unlikely that any future operating system will. Nor is its market share dominance ever likely to be replicated; at its peak, Windows XP was used by more than 80 percent of desktop users.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/10/ten-years-of-windows-xp-how-longevity-became-a-curse.ars

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustomb=0




PS, Mac isn't 5%

[hobbit709]

1. If I have to use Windows, I prefer XP X64.

[DainBramaged]

3. Meh blech, bad driver support bleh yecchhh

7/64 my fav except for Win 3.11

[hobbit709]

8. Never had a driver problem.

May have had to go manufacturer website instead of using driver CD that came with whatever hardware, but never had a problem finding 64 bit driver.

[backscatter712]

52. On modern systems, 64-bit Windows 7 isn't bad.

Windows Vista was a pig, I skipped that version, but I'm finding on my current desktop, Windows 7 is fairly well-behaved.

Windows XP is pretty long in the tooth now, and you have to do a lot of hacks, like burning custom Ghost images or boot CDs to install it, or scrounging for a floppy drive (nowhere else do you see people still using 3.5" floppies) for that RAID & SATA driver that XP absolutely needs to talk to your hard disk, etc. etc. Once you get it working, it's OK, but getting it working is a real pain these days.

But in geek circles, all the cool kids run Linux. :evilgrin:

[hobbit709]

53. Floppy? I've been able to install XP without a problem from the CD

Even on the latest AM3+ motherboards. The only time I've encountered a SATA driver issue is on some laptops.

[WinkyDink]

70. X64 doesn't show my Yahoo mail; only 32 does.

[hobbit709]

71. i have no problem getting my mail on my yahoo box

[snooper2]

2. Still using XP at our work...stable, no issues..

4000 people multitasking away :)

[Arkansas Granny]

17. Smaller office, but same here.

[MedicalAdmin]

46. OUr medical office still uses a few older laptops for ...

industry specific programs (mostly diagnostic) and our admin office still keeps one XP running for quickbooks.

Other than that we run networked apple. It just costs less for us to keep running. For others that might not be true, but it does for us.


I must admit that i am an apple fan and know a lot more about how to use them effectively than windows XP. That said, when looking for certain applications I consulted a friend of mine who does network and data security for a hospital system and asked his advice. He said the best way to make sure all records are secure is to write it down on paper and lock it in a cabinet. ....

For that an a host of other reasons having to do with patient information privacy, the windows systems don't get within a country mile of online. Of course they are tasked with tasks that don't require online access. Mostly diagnostic purposes.

[annabanana]

4. A curse for WHO?

Not for long satisfied users...

It must be annoying the "planned obsolescence" crowd. Profit, Profit, Uber Alles

[DainBramaged]

5. Exactly, Microsoft will have to pry XP from their cold dead mouse

[msongs]

9. haave you heard the news? horses and buggies are making a comeback lol nt

[Warpy]

27. Excuse me? There's a lot of software out there that doesn't work with Vista or MS7

XP is rock stable and has the widest array of software available for any system out there. It makes a great deal of sense to hang onto it, and if the marketers at Microschlock had any active brain cells among them, they'd rename it and re release it as an option on new computers.

XP was much better for me when my vision was kaput. The screen adjustments just aren't there in Win7. A lot of other stuff is missing, too, replaced with eye candy that gets to the intrusive and annoying stage very, very quickly.

Win 7 is also a massive resource hog, requiring much beefier processors, more disc space and more RAM.

I'll continue to keep my wheezing XP boxes going, thanks, until and unless Microshaft comes up with an OS that will run its software.

Horse and buggy, my ass. More like planned obsolescence that didn't work as advertised.

[canetoad]

64. Of all the OSs I've used

And that goes back to classic Mac, DOS, early windows, Linux,Win7, I still find the venerable XP to be the most productive.

I speak in terms of an OS that enables you to run hard and soft ware to accomplish daily tasks with a minimum of unwanted, so-called 'helpful' intrusion on the part of the vendor.

Sure, a fresh installation needs to be tweaked to death to slim down the unwanted crap, but once done, XP is the most efficient OS I have encountered in terms of running peripherals and actually being able to do serious work on a computer.

For those able to secure their machines and connections, XP will take a lot of beating.

[Silent3]

30. A curse for software developers like me, and indirectly a curse for users too

When a large number of users cling to old platforms it makes it very hard for software developers to take advantage of features in new platforms. It means that Quality Assurance teams have to test whether software still works on the old platforms as well as newer platforms. It means keeping messy workarounds built into software for bugs and quirks in old platforms that have been fixed in newer platforms.

One prime example of this problem is Internet Explorer 6. IE6 is a HORRIBLE web browser from the standpoint of properly supporting web standards. At least IE6 is finally dying off, but some users have been clinging to IE6 for years, and it can make web development hell. You'll get a web page working with everything but IE6, find out it's broken on IE6, fix the page for IE6, then find it's broken everywhere else. Eventually you find a solution that makes your web page work everywhere, but now the code you've written is more complex, harder to maintain, and more prone to bugs because it's more complicated than it should have to be.

Users are affected by these things. The just don't see the effects in an obvious way. They don't know which bugs they struggle with were caused by software developers trying (and occasionally failing) to jump through hoops to handle old, crappy platforms. They don't know which nice features were never added to their software because old platforms still in use by too many users won't support them.

Not EVERYTHING is a Snidely Whiplash for-profit conspiracy.

[leftyohiolib]

37. Not EVERYTHING is a Snidely Whiplash for-profit conspiracy.maybe not

but software is

[Silent3]

42. Gee, here I am writing code, including open source code...

...and I had no idea! Gosh, I guess I've been a pawn all along!

[MedicalAdmin]

45. Better a pawn than a prawn. n/t

[Silent3]

47. Fookin' prawns!

Sorry, that's the only "prawn" allusion I could think of at the moment.

[MedicalAdmin]

58. District 9? n/t

[Silent3]

59. Indeed n/t

[MedicalAdmin]

60. Would you like a sweety? Here's a sweety for you. n/t

[canetoad]

68. Please don't tell me

You've ever contributed to software with a black interface. :)

[Dawson Leery]

6. For whatever you feel about Microsoft and Gates,

The Windows OS has been highly successful as it is use friendly. XP has few problems, which is why the program is still in use.

[dtexdem]

16. And because successor systems are such crap.

They pry us away from it by refusing to support it, forcing us onto the nonsense they replaced it with.

[hobbit709]

19. what support?

If the OS has worked with everything you have why bother calling their useless support in the first place.
Just because they no longer support it-which won't happen until 2014- doesn't mean it stops working.
I know people that use 98 on their computers-it does what they want to use it for.
90% of computer users don't even use one tenth of the capabilities of their system.

[RockaFowler]

7. Glad I didn't change to Vista

We just got Windows 7 here at work. It's OK, but to be honest I kind of liked XP (still have it at home). It works

[hobbit709]

14. I just downgraded my new laptop to XP from 7

It responds much faster now. I still have the hard drive with 7 on it in storage so that I can always put it back but XP uses less system resources in my book.

[ikri]

22. Really?

My experience is the exact opposite, Windows 7 runs far better on all the older hardware I've installed it on. Aero doesn't necessarily work but if you can live without the graphical bells & whistles it's great.

About half the desktops I herd are still on XP but I'd upgrade almost all of them (except the ones that run critical software that require XP) tomorrow given the opportunity.

[hobbit709]

26. While 7 is infinitely better than Vista

It still has some quirks that I prefer not to screw with. Especially when 7 decides to "Limited or no connectivity" on wireless.

My order of preference for OS is XP X64, then Linux Mint-I got pissed at Ubuntu when they started Unity-if I wanted eye candy i would have gone to 7.
\
Most of the computers that I fix have XP-either Home or Pro.
If I build one for someone they have their choice of OS-most people want XP, although I'm starting to see a good percentage now of people wanting some flavor of Linux.

[canetoad]

65. I tried to do the same

But no graphics drivers available, so reluctantly back to Win7. Even I can't live in a 640 x 480 world.

[hobbit709]

69. I was lucky.

Needless to say Compaq didn't list any XP drivers but Intel and Realtek were very helpful.

[IDemo]

10. IMO, Win7 may become the next XP, even if not for as long

As much of the 'wow' factor Win8 is getting, 7 works very well and will likely reside on many machines for a long time. Well, on mine at least!

[NYC_SKP]

11. Windows XP runs on most of my PCs, I've got 7 on two Macs running bootcamp.

Just because I am forced to for using Solid Works and to run some tools.

AutoCad finally has a Mac flavor, thank goodness.

I always found Windows 98SE and XP to be pretty solid, for a Microsoft product.

:donut:

[csziggy]

12. I'm using Win 7 (desktop) and Vista (laptop)

Hubby still has XP on his desktop. We've really not had a problem with any of those operating systems.

Hubby wants and upgrade on his computer and I may give him a new one for Christmas, in which case he'll end up with Win 7 and the old XP system will go to my Dad. At 88 he does not want to mess with a new OS but he has issues with his current computer and needs a replacement.

[totodeinhere]

13. Actually new boxed licensed versions of XP are readily available on the Internet.

But oddly enough it generally costs more than a Windows 7 disk. Why I'm not sure.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3qagos4

[hobbit709]

15. Before the company I used to buy software from went under

I bought a stack of sealed XP Pro Not For Resale disks for $40 apiece. Both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions. Fully legit with keys and M$ will validate every one of them.

[myrna minx]

18. We just converted to 7 at work, but were happy with XP lo these last 10 years.

[Rex]

20. Slim majority my ass! Most people still have WinXP if not pro

then home edition. I see a lot of Windows 7 systems...but XP is still the prevalent OS for IBM/PCs.

[totodeinhere]

39. According to this it's Win7 42% and XP 36%. But the amazing thing is that Vista is only at

5.6% and of course it is much more recent than XP. What a dud Vista was.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

[L0oniX]

21. UBUNTU ROCKS ...when XP support drops I will not be upgrading.

Serious ...check out Ubuntu. They have a live Cd version so you can test it out. All my hardware works with it ...2 printers, flash drives, camera, sound, ATI Radon, SATA2, ...everything that XP used.

[edhopper]

23. Just wait till Windows 8

Big changes.

[L0oniX]

35. Just wait till Windows 10. n/t

[DainBramaged]

78. Windows 8 is the Crayola operating system

no thanks, and corporate America has already shrugged it's collective shoulders. Windows Millennium for a new generation......


And remember folks, most Puke basement dwelling shit stains approve of XP since they haven't bought new computers since the socket 478 days........

[AsahinaKimi]

24. I have windows XP

I like it. :thumbsup:

[applegrove]

61. Me too.

[AsahinaKimi]

63. Okay... so after posting this

today, wouldn't you know it, I somehow picked up a huge virus on my computer. I am working off an older one till the end of the month. Guess I will be buying a new PC and hopefully, I can saves some of the files from the infected computer.. sigh.

[Xithras]

25. I think that Win 7 will eventually do the same.

There's such a huge leap from 7 to the upcoming Windows 8, that a lot of people who prefer the traditional "Windows" interface will hang onto it as long as possible. I actually like the Metro interface on 8, but I seem to be in the minority on that.

As it happens, Windows XP has a built in death date. April 8, 2014. That's two years, five months from now. On April 8, 2014, Windows XP reaches the end of its extended support cycle. After that date, Windows Update will no longer work, the Service Packs will no longer be available for download, and security holes will no longer be closed. From Microsoft's standpoint, XP will become a non-existent product, outside of the MS history books.

That date will mark the beginning of the end for XP, because it will mark the point where you will no longer be able to reinstall and re-patch an XP system. When something DOES go wrong and you find yourself needing to reload the OS, re-installing XP will mean running whichever generic version you have sitting on your CD. You will not be able to close and patch the security holes that were identified and published after your disks were printed, which means you'll have a highly insecure system. XP cannot continue to flourish once Microsoft turns off Windows Update. It may continue to exist as a niche OS (I still have OS/2 running on a machine), but it's widespread use will vanish pretty quickly.

[hobbit709]

29. Out of all the current patches for XP I use 6 of them.

The last virus I got hit with was 6 years ago-it came on a CD from someone I trusted. I get on all the dangerous sites like the Warez and hacker sites and have no problems. As far as the updates go-I have copies of all of them saved if I really want them. so I can install a new system and get it fully updated as of today for instance without even going online.
Just because support ends doesn't mean the OS will magically stop working- guess I'll have to tell my neighbor to keep an eye on his 2000 system.

[lbrtbell]

31. I've never updated Windows in my life

And I've never had a problem. As long as you surf sensibly and use web-based e-mail, you won't get a virus or spyware. If you're stupid enough to view porn sites, for example, you deserve what you get.

[lbrtbell]

28. I'm still using Windows 98

I mostly use Linux, but I refuse to upgrade any higher than Windows XP. The latest Windows releases are utter bloatware, with "features" that are a total waste of time.

Microsoft's problem is that they're too busy trying to copy Macs. If I wanted a Mac, I would buy one.

For me, it's Linux all the way, except for a handful of programs I need in Windows.

[totodeinhere]

40. I would like to do that but some software that I use no longer runs on Win98.

A good example is iTunes which I use almost daily.

[Blue_In_AK]

32. I still have XP

It works fine for me, so I see no reason to change.

[blogslut]

33. I still miss Windows 2000

God, I loved that OS.

[orwell]

34. I have XP/32...

...Vista/32 and Win7/64 as well as Suse Linux.

I like them all.

My current fav is Win7/64 with an i5 processor and an Crucial M4 SSD for the OS and programs. I use a traditional 500 Gig WD spinner for data.

It is mind blowing how fast it is.

It boots to a working desktop in less than 20 seconds. Everything is instantaneous.

Best computer I ever built...

[hobbit709]

36. all my computers boot from power on to desktop in about 30 seconds

But I tweak the install on all of them for best performance. and that is with standard hard drive, not SSD.
About 3/4 of what gets loaded on startup doesn't need to be-especially anything related to printers.

I built one box using an Atom D525 and an SSD and it booted in 11 seconds on XP and 12 in Ubuntu.

[orwell]

83. Most of mine boot to the desktop in around 30 seconds...

...but I said a "working" desktop.

In other words, booting is finished and I can load a browser page or start and application and use it without delay.

Over half of the boot time on the ssd machine is for the bios to finish.

It really is the best upgrade I have ever done on any computer in over 25 years of building them.

[Old and In the Way]

38. Very satisfied user of Win 7.

Used XP for 7 years or so, until I got a new laptop with Win7. Upgraded my office box last year and that had Win 7 installed, too. While I never had any issues with XP, I've also had no issues with Win7. I suppose Win7 is optimized for handling new generations of hardware, but I had less issues with the transition to Win7, then I did with XP. It was painless and I actually like the file structure better than XP, especially the taskbar feature.

[canetoad]

67. The reason I'm not fond of Win7

Is there is too much pre-empting of what I may want to do. The libraries are a disgrace, though admittedly My Docs, My Pix etc on XP is not much better.

As computer users, we have grown out of needing Microsoft (or Apple) to tell us where and how to store our files and how to name the folders.

I'm sure this has grown from a marketing philosophy of Microsoft's that people like computers to be idiot-proof. That may have flown well ten or twelve years ago, but I think they have mis-read computer users and the adherence to XP proves this.

There are lots of things I kind of like about Win7 but in general, XP is easier to hone and tweak and far less intrusive.

[MindPilot]

76. +10000! I wish there was "quit trying to help me" button. n/t

[Old and In the Way]

84. I don't pay much attention to the library structure.

My business file organization drills through a single desktop folder through upwards of 20 levels of subdirectory file structure. When I moved from XP to Win7, it was basically copying a single folder from the old machine to the new one. It did screw up all of my shortcut links, but it wasn't a big deal...most of those were links from the desktop into certain subdirectories that I access frequently. I have used the Win7 libraries for my music, photo's, etc rather than using custom folders as I did on XP...that seems a little better with more customized control for these types of files.

For me, I really don't see a whole lot of difference between XP or Win7 as to how I interact with the information. In both cases, I've found them to be painless to work with, but the learning curve with Win7 was much less than my jump from Win95 to XP. My introduction to Linux (primarily playing with PCLinux2007) was completely different...but I attribute that to my limited knowledge of Linux and my tendency to frame the OS in terms of my experience with MS. Plus, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. :-)

[TreasonousBastard]

41. I've had XP almost since the beginning and it's been almost perfect...

never crashing and doing just what I want it to do most of the time. As good as it's gonna get for any OS.

I did learn something years ago when WIN98 was all the rage-- buying the MS disk and doing a clean install eliminates most of the problems everyone (including me) had with 98. Compaq was probably the worst, but PC vendors simply couldn't keep their hands off of the OS and loaded it with sample software, their "improvements" and just plain crapware. Other machines infected with this junk crashed all the time and gave me great grief in general, but the one I did the clean install on worked flawlessly. Or as flawlessly as a WIN98 machine can run.

Same with XP-- Revo uninstaller works wonders getting rid of all that stuff and without it my current XP machine works without complaint.

New laptop is WIN 7 and I am almost impressed. Some of my favorite 32-bit software gets a little weird on it, but in general it does exactly what it should do. Aside from the dual processor and 64 bits making it much faster, I haven't noticed any significant improvements, but it sure is pretty.

Having tried various flavors of Linux and been tempted by Apples, I don't see what the big deal is. They both work reasonably well, but so does Windows. And neither has anything to compare with the features I use in WordPerfect And a few other Windows programs. Some of them, I noticed, are quite featureless in their Apple incantations.

[sweetloukillbot]

43. I do tech support for an ISP and XP can be quite frustrating

Not because of XP itself, but because of the brand-name laptops that it is installed on. For whatever reason, Dell, HP, IBM etc. all included a 3rd party wireless networking program on their XP machines. These damn things are a pain to get connected and a pain to talk a customer through bypassing. XP itself does a fine job w/ finding wireless, but those 3rd party programs are evil. But then some certain Vista laptops use wireless cards that can't even connect to new DOCSIS 3.0 Motorola modems...

XP was a great OS, but I prefer Win 7/64. Vista did what I wanted it to, it just took a while for me to figure out all the settings I needed to tweak and disable to get to that point.

[rox63]

44. Still use XP at home, and I'm fine with continuing to use it for now.

Use Win7 at work, and it seems to work fine. I'd consider upgrading to Win7 at home if I was sure that my 4 year-old laptop could handle the stress/memory-hogging of all the new features.

[TheCowsCameHome]

48. Still happily using XP at home, don't like Vista in the laptop. n/t

[quinnox]

49. XP was awesome, the only reason I moved to Vista was

that I like games and they (Microsoft) forced you to move to Vista to get the latest direct X for graphics in games.

XP has it all, its easy to understand, powerful, easy to navigate.

At first I hated Vista, but now I actually have grown to like it. Yea, I know, I'm a rare bird, but I like Vista and think it runs fine. I still think XP is the best, but I'm happy with Vista.

I know in Win 7 they really changed things up, and made it even more dumbed down and a stupid new re-organization of everything.

I will stick with Vista for the foreseeable future, and Win 7 and above I will avoid like the plague.

[Thegonagle]

54. Vista is fine with its latest service pack (it wasn't fine upon release), but

it's also pretty similar to 7. No reason to avoid 7 at all, much less avoid like the plague. Only reason to avoid it is so you don't have to pay for it. But your next notebook or desktop probably includes it with the purchase price, so why avoid it at all?

[backscatter712]

55. Windows 7 streamlined a few things, compared with Vista.

Vista was a pig. Windows 7 has some improvements in performance and boot-times, compared to Vista, and I haven't had problems with it so far.

[bullwinkle428]

50. We're still running XP Pro at work, and we're part of a BIG corporation!

[DainBramaged]

51. Last stat I found was that about 62% of corporations STILL use XP Pro

older hardware, software were written for XP, can' find the drivers and compatibility in Win 7.

[SoCalDem]

56. My new Toshiba came loaded with XP and with a CD for 7

in case I want to "go there" later.. I won't..

I paid extra to get a new laptop with XP, but I like it..so there!

[eppur_se_muova]

57. I tried to reinstall Windows XP home version ...

Still had the installation CD. But after the install, I had to connect to MS via the Web to register -- and registration is no longer supported for that version. Working computer, working install CD, but permission denied.

Eventually, this will become my first serious Linux box.

[hobbit709]

72. Register or authenticate?

i never register with them. I just authenticate the install with no problems whatsoever.

[eppur_se_muova]

81. Whatever it was, I couldn't login until I did it.

I called MS by phone, and they said I couldn't get that info anymore. Apparently your license to install the software expires after so many years, but I can't remember the details now. Wish I'd known that before I did the reinstall.

Fortunately, I'm not dependent on that computer for anything important.

[hobbit709]

82. License doesn't expire

If you have the authentication key-the number on the sticker-you can reinstall no problem. It gives you notice that you have 30 days to authenticate after the install finishes. It goes online and does it when you tell it to. The register with Microsoft is a question it asks during the authentication but you can check that one as NO.
I do this all the time on various computers that I repair or wipe to clean out a particularly nasty virus.

Never had a problem.

[Skip Intro]

62. Running XP right now. nt

[Lugnut]

66. I'm using XP.

I've never had a problem using XP. It's stable and it works for me. Why fix something that's not broken?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

73. Dell is still selling PC's with Windows XP

We just bought forty Dell Vostro 460's for that very reason, their licensed for Windows 7 but out of the box their running XP Professional. Hell, we were still using Office XP which is even older until a few months ago. The long and short of it is nobody cares, most people here run nothing more than Office and FileMaker.

[JoeyT]

74. It's the first one I remember that was stable

that you didn't have to drop back to DOS to play games in. (Like 3.11)

95, 98, 98SE(My favorite before XP), and ME were kind of a pain in the ass. Most games could be played in windows, but they weren't particularly stable. ME was just awful and is a strong competitor with Vista for "Worst Operating System Ever".

You also didn't have to tweak the hell out of XP to make it work decently. It helped, but it wasn't actually necessary. Vista you have to spend two hours turning stuff off that no one uses, or stuff that's just a resource hog for the sake of being a resource hog. (Like Aero) I dunno if 7 is the same or not, I'm finally getting around to installing it this afternoon, so I'll know shortly.

I still have XP dual booting for old stuff Vista wouldn't run, and I'll probably keep it for the stuff 7 won't run.

[MindPilot]

75. Several thousand users at my work happily cruising on XP

No immediate plans to move to 7; that will probably be driven by driver requirements of newer hardware, but so far our major supplier, Dell, has been very accommodating in providing backward compatibility on their latest machines.

I have have 7 on my machine at work (I can do that cuz I'm the IT guy) and on all but one at home. I found 7 has returned some significant performance improvements over XP on the same box. BUT, getting an XP box to see a shared drive on a Win 7 machine can be a bit of a PITA.

[n2doc]

77. Still using it on my scientific instruments

Many of the data acquisition board drivers for instruments have never been updated for the new Windows versions. So I stick with XP, like it or not.

[Scout]

79. my home computer is still running XP...

haven't had a real need to upgrade yet, i can do everything i want to do so far.

[rjj621]

80. Still heavily in use

My company, like many, still use XP on the computers. In fact one of my jobs is to build the XP image that's used on every computer in North and South America. It's much easier to configure and set up than Windows 7 or the utterly awful Vista.

On a personal note I have 7 installed one every one of my home laptops and I love it but for business XP is still king.