Believe it or Not, Windows XP Has a Passionate Fanbase

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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From our front-page news:
From the "Wow, who ever expected this?" files, Wired is reporting on the now obvious fact that Windows XP has a huge fanbase, part in thanks to the rather lackluster reception to Windows Vista. We found out just last month that XP's availability will end this coming June, and that support will end next April, so some consumers are now up in arms.

I was oblivious to such a petition to save XP, but 100,000 people certainly weren't, since that's just how many signatures the "Save XP" petition scored since launching in January. January! Will this seemingly new found love for Windows XP coerce Microsoft into extending support? Not likely, but I think it's obvious why the company is trying to get Windows 7 out the door as soon as possible.

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Al Gillen, an IDC analyst, estimated that at the end of 2008 nearly 60 percent of consumer PCs and almost 70 percent of business PCs worldwide will still run XP. Microsoft plans to end full support - including warranty claims and free help with problems - in April 2009. The company will continue providing a more limited level of service until April 2014.

 Source: Wired
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Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
I can see MS pushing Vista into the market by not supporting XP...but MAN.... 70% still using the OS
Yes, I loved XP.....but then I liked win2000 also and then moved along.

What happened is, that they waited too long to bring Vista out, most got too comfee with XP....and it's been out there, I think, Longer than any other OS....correct me if I'm wrong.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
Greg King

Greg King

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Think about it. Prior to Windows XP, users were forced to reboot their machines almost daily. I know 2000 was out but most didn't use it. For the typical user the upgrade path started at 95, ran through 98 and ME and ended in XP. (2000 was/is a great OS)

XP was the first mainstream OS that was stable enough to use for many many days in a row and not need to restart your PC, unless you updated or installed new hardware of course.

I don't think it's surprising at all that people love XP so much. It's cheap now, every PC built for something like a 5-6 year period has the OS installed... everyone uses it and loves it.

As bad as Vista was made out to be, there were legitimate problems with the operating system for the first 6 months or so of it's live. While I think it's far closer to where it needs to be now, in many people's eyes the damage has been done and their mindset is that Vista started broken and is still broken.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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I still firmly believe that Vista is still broken... I still run into a lot of needless problems. Since SP1, things have improved, but considering that "Windows 7" is less than two years away, Vista is nowhere near where it should be by now.

I agree though. Windows XP is a great OS. It began out rough, but smoothed out over time and is now a great solution. It's lightweight, which is my favorite feature. Vista is the stark opposite.
 
Greg King

Greg King

I just kinda show up...
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It's lightweight relative to today's needs. It was a hog just the same back when it first came out... then again, my first laptop in college was a used PII 366 MHz. I paid $100 for it and it ran XP with 128MB. Maybe it wasn't so demanding after all.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

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DarkSynergy said:
It's lightweight relative to today's needs. It was a hog just the same back when it first came out... then again, my first laptop in college was a used PII 366 MHz. I paid $100 for it and it ran XP with 128MB. Maybe it wasn't so demanding after all.
Click to expand...

The minimum requirements called for a 486/66... so yes, I'd say it's lightweight ;-)

When XP first came out, I believe Pentium 400MHz was the relative norm for a new PC. I think I had a 233MHz at the time, so I was running a little bit behind. I remember it running great though, despite not having a boatload of RAM.
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
On_Wisconsin said:
I'm curious where these "fans" were when SP2 came out...
Click to expand...
Most of us were adjusting to something new, a few problems like most...just like SP1 of Vista, you see a slow down for a while as the files adjust.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
Kougar

Kougar

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All of those are good points. Windows Vista goes beyond the hardware demands though, if that was the only problem with it I'd still be using Vista right now.

My XP SP2 box built on a Abit IS7 + "Northwood" Pentium 4. It was my main box, now lives on as a F@H box, network fileserver, and anything else. I took this before I was finally forced to reboot it, the Western Digital drive was acting up again and I wanted my music off it once and for all, but had to reboot to reinit the drive.
uptimefinal.png
 
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Rob Williams

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Kougar said:
I took this before I was finally forced to reboot it, the Western Digital drive was acting up again and I wanted my music off it once and for all, but had to reboot to reinit the drive.
Click to expand...

Isn't that a true kick in the pants? I had a good run (not that good) with my personal PC once... was at around 40 days and for some reason, the CD-Rom was stuck in an endless loop of open/close... I was forced to shut down and uninstall it.
 
Kougar

Kougar

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Rob Williams said:
Isn't that a true kick in the pants? I had a good run (not that good) with my personal PC once... was at around 40 days and for some reason, the CD-Rom was stuck in an endless loop of open/close... I was forced to shut down and uninstall it.
Click to expand...

LOL, I don't think I'd heard of that happening before! Software glitch-up, or some practical joke virus?

My music is on an external drive now, works well enough except I gotta reboot to use it since XP doesn't work with hot-plugging of drives (Score one for Vista). Just checked that box today, already at 80 days again. The WD drive in it "vanished" again from the system around a month ago, but since it is empty now it won't stop me trying for 181 days. :)

XP SP2 is just that stable... even for a (very) abused 2 year old install.
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
Kougar said:
LOL, I don't think I'd heard of that happening before! Software glitch-up, or some practical joke virus?.
Click to expand...

I remember that one, it has an automatice cup holder, but it just opened the drive

Kougar said:
My music is on an external drive now, works well enough except I gotta reboot to use it since XP doesn't work with hot-plugging of drives (Score one for Vista). Just checked that box today, already at 80 days again. The WD drive in it "vanished" again from the system around a month ago, but since it is empty now it won't stop me trying for 181 days. :).
Click to expand...
I took my WD drive out of it's case ( nice SATA Caviar drive )
WD has some software glich that disapears from the system.
And I still can not take the WD button out of my system, only shows in task manager even though I deleted the program

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
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Kougar

Kougar

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I use a Seagate inside the external HDD box, but I don't run it 24/7 as I do with my computer for the obvious reasons.

I also don't install drive manufacturer software unless troubleshooting, it's not needed and they would never tell you there is a problem with the drive unless it was a major problem... I've compared their program readings to actual drive SMART values and they tend to always paint slightly differing pictures. ;)
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
WinXP pro

WinXP is still available...probably till mid-summer
The OEM disk, that is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400

I always use the OEM disks, you just have to make sure you don't change the mobo or the CPU...any other changes in your system are okay.
Such as RAM, Video cards or any other cards.
The system, at install, sees the motherboard and CPU and set parameters for that install, so, if you change those items, the OS will not load.

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
madstork91 said:
Because...

Some say that Im a dreamer... but Im not the only one...
Click to expand...
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes.....
You just might
Get what you Neeeeee eeeeed
RS

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:
 
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