Windows XP Home: obsolete sooner than you expect

Ars Technica ^ | 3 January 2006 | Ken "Caesar" Fisher

[VOA]

bump

[Sensei Ern]

Clusty it, or Google it.

It is too complicated to explain on a post.

[PreciousLiberty]

"For those who can't stand Microsoft, get a Mac. It's your only serious alternative."

If you wait just a bit, you should be able to get a new Intel Mac. The first ones will be announced next week at MacWorld. Then you'll be able to get software to run your old Windows software just fine at full speed, and you'll be able to run superior new Mac software.

2006 may well be the "year of the switch"!

[TXBSAFH]

For some limited applications you are right. I know of a business the has a custom built aplication that is vital to there work. It dates back to 1985 and has to run on just the favor of unix. The hardware it runs on is 15 years old.

[Petronski]

Then you'll be able to get software to run your old Windows software just fine at full speed, and you'll be able to run superior new Mac software.

YES! ME WANTEM!

[The KG9 Kid]

"... If you wait just a bit, you should be able to get a new Intel Mac. The first ones will be announced next week at MacWorld."

Call me when Apple retails a boxed 'OSX for Intel Processors' that I can install on my existing non-Apple PC.

Actually, I'll call you. I can practically hit 1 Infinite Loop with a rock from where I'm sitting right now.

[doc30]

We had an old instrument that ran on DOS 2.0 and was still in use until the hard drive controller failed. No replacements available so a $100K instrument was turned into a boat anchor.

[TXBSAFH]

It happens with legacy equipment. Did you try to run it on an emulator on XP pro? I know of people who have had success with that.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

My personal pet peeve is that Windoze seems to degrade with time, no matter HOW much security patches, anti-spyware etc. etc. you do or run - it just doesn't make any difference. Maybe some server running in the closet doesn't suffer from this malady but a basic Windoze machine is going to get slower and slower and slower until it finally grinds to a halt. I don't know if this is registry bloat, or swapfile fragmentation, or the heartbreak of psoriasis but it just seems to be a universal law of the universe of computing. If Windoze doesn't fix this issue they are digging their own grave eventually.

I personally wonder how many new computers have been purchased because the old one "gave out" when, in fact, the hardware as perfectly fine but it was really Windoze that "gave out"?

[LEPEN]

You people really need to switch over to MAC. I have, and i'm not ever looking back. Heck, Rush did the same thing. If you don't listen to me, at least listen to El Rushbo

[N3WBI3]

Actually office XP can run in close to the same speed..

[Still Thinking]

We had an old instrument that ran on DOS 2.0 and was still in use until the hard drive controller failed. No replacements available so a $100K instrument was turned into a boat anchor.

What's the big deal? Was the hardware some kind of special proprietary PC or something? You could easily build a DOS PC today. I occasionally boot my laptop in DOS to run some old software, and it works just fine. Also, DOS 2.0 should work from a current machine running a Virtual PC session. In fact I'm sure you could probably upgrade to DOS 5 or 6 and the app would still work fine.

[andyk]

XP Home is the same base as Windows XP Pro, except that it cannot join a domain and is crippled in a few other ways in regards to networking (no Remote Desktop, IIS, group policy) and simplified security (no file-level access control) and no multi-processor support.

Bingo!

[N3WBI3]

Yes xp is running the NT5.1 kernel... 2000 runs the NT5 Kernel and NT4 ran (well the NT4 Kernel)..

[Still Thinking]

Or even a DOS window in Windows 3.1 or 9x (still had direct hardware access used by DOS programs).

[aft_lizard]

And you can call me when Mac makes it for all x86 processors and not just Intel.

[Paleo Conservative]

That said, there are advantages to a subscription licensing architecture but you're completely at the mercy of a marketeer who decides it's time to jack up the prices.

On the other hand the updates might not continue to run on your existing hardware. Lots of people still run Windows 2000 even though XP Pro has been out for over 4 years. XP is quite a bit slower and offers very little benefit over 2000. Subscription updates might just overload your existing system and force a hardware upgrade anyway.

[N3WBI3]

Ive had molre luck calling RedHat than I have calling Microsoft..

Linux has had goo support for about 5 years..

[andyk]

Where do you go to turn off updating???

Start | Control Panel | Automatic Updates

Click on "Turn off Automatic Updates". I personally don't recommend doing this.

[dfwgator]

My personal pet peeve is that Windoze seems to degrade with time...

It's called "WinRot."