Author Topic: Who is still runnig XP? (Read 21,739 times)

Joe Hone · « **on:** January 25, 2013, 04:32 PM »

Just curious if you are running XP as your main OS, and why?

I still run XP for my audio production work and have a PC I had built in 2008 doing all the heavy lifting. It works like new, has never crashed, and for stability and reliability purposes there is no need to change it. But I think change is coming - many of us stayed with XP because there were so many failures with Vista that developers stayed away and XP remains the most stable OS for many applications. But it appears DAW developers are moving toward 64 bit because of the speed - just because I was curious, I bought a Windows 7 64 bit laptop to try out a 64 bit DAW and it does many functions in about 20% of the time as the same program running XP 32 bit. At some point the speed alone will make working with XP less productive.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2013, 04:43 PM »

Quote from: Joe Hone on January 25, 2013, 04:32 PM

Just curious if you are running XP as your main OS, and why?

I still run XP for my audio production work and have a PC I had built in 2008 doing all the heavy lifting. It works like new, has never crashed, and for stability and reliability purposes there is no need to change it. But I think change is coming - many of us stayed with XP because there were so many failures with Vista that developers stayed away and XP remains the most stable OS for many applications. But it appears DAW developers are moving toward 64 bit because of the speed - just because I was curious, I bought a Windows 7 64 bit laptop to try out a 64 bit DAW and it does many functions in about 20% of the time as the same program running XP 32 bit. At some point the speed alone will make working with XP less productive.

I am, basically because I am of that crowd that likes to know about tangible progress when OS upgrades are made, not just to give companies random revenue. My rig was built by a buddy in about 2006. 64 Bit really seems to be the struggling point even now - Firefox just had another debate about whether 64 bit builds were worth it and the answer came back as "no".

Win 7 was "competent", but hardly a reason to do something as dramatic as switch, because I for one have 1,000 hours of "sunk time" in my comp of installed programs and notes and stuff. Now rumors/made-up-bs have it that Win 8 however irritating it might be, might run fairly light because of the whole shift away from Aero eye candy to more mobileOS devices with less power to waste on bells and whistles.

Now if we recall what I shall describe as nearly thundering marketing over Win8, (and MS has done pseudo-vaporware marketing for a LONG time, witness:
"Cairo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Cairo
"Longhorn"/"Blackcomb" (which became "Windows7-Beta1" and then the real release of Win7.)

So it's kinda amazing there was almost exactly ONE article that MS wants to release something next year, presumably either "8.1" or "9" aka "Windows Blue". THAT's the context I want to see. Then I just need to borrow a geek to see if my rig can handle it. I used pretty high-end-for-the-time parts in 2006 for just those cases, so we'll see if I get lucky and my hardware doesn't give out before then.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2013, 04:55 PM »

Distrust of Win7, 8, etc. There may be no DRM but I just don't buy into features of newer versions of Windows. (They are not exciting unlike new Linux DE features)

I miss the speedy-ness and simplicity of Win98 and if I could be sure I could troubleshoot and install all future software on it, I'd pick it too over WinXP. (Hate that default too many windows up and down arrow and you have x number of windows thing in XP. Hate the Mac look of Win7. Hate the Tablet look of Win8.)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #3 on:** January 25, 2013, 04:56 PM »

Quote from: TaoPhoenix on January 25, 2013, 04:43 PM

64 Bit really seems to be the struggling point even now

Really - why?

Been using 64 bit for years without noticing any particular issues.

Just upgraded a 4 year old laptop that came with Vista 32bit HP to Win 8 64bit and it installed fine and found all the drivers it needs without issue. Not got any software that won't install on 64bit (though I have some that won't install on 32bit any more).

Quote from: Paul Keith on January 25, 2013, 04:55 PM

I miss the speedy-ness and simplicity of Win98

I don't especially miss the crashes, freezes and BSODs - plus disk corruption!

Seriously it took me a while to move from XP to 7 but there is no way I would move back now and I'd go to Linux before returning to the misery of Windows 98 !!!

Josh · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:09 PM »

Man, if I could like a post, I would like Carol's above. Bravo!!!

On a side note, no, I am not running XP but on a handful of systems that are too old to justify loading Win7/Win8 on. I am in the minority that actually enjoys Windows 8 and I am running Windows 7 on my other systems. Like Carol, I have had ZERO issues with 64 bit versions of Windows since XP 64. The issues with XP 64 were developer/hardware manufacturer buy-in and as such the drivers sucked. Likewise, I would NEVER go back to any OS based on the 9x code-base. Microsoft releasing Windows XP and eliminating the antiquated OSes was the best move they could have made for the industry.

rgdot · « **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:10 PM »

I still use XP on my main pc, but the pc won't last too much longer. Even if MS were to offer to XP updates forever I can see using only 7 (and linux as a side thing) soon-ish.

Speaking of 98, I would take XP, 7 and 2000 over it.

anandcoral · « **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:12 PM »

Most of my project development tools were made on WinXP and they work smooth on Xp than on W7. I can not spend time debugging my tools in W7 as I need to debug my projects and develop them fast. I do not see still after W8, of removing Xp, in fact just reloaded Xp on two systems last week.

I earn (goodwill and cash) faster on Xp and all my projects work fine from Xp onwards.

Regards,

Anand

app103 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2013, 05:24 PM »

If it ain't broke, don't fix it...and anything worth doing is worth doing well. If my XP machines are running fine, I'm going to leave them alone. And if a new OS is worth running, it's worth more on new hardware.

I pretty much have a policy where a new OS = a new PC, one in which the hardware is intended to support that particular OS. And as I can't afford one of those right now, I have to stick with what I have.

Only once did I break that rule, with an old snail PC, and only because I really hated Win98 SE. (WinME was such an improvement in stability, once I worked out a quirky driver issue)

The last PC I purchased, I took advantage of an XP downgrade option, rather than using Vista. And with the additional hardware I recycled and put into that box, I am glad I did. There are no drivers beyond XP for the controller card I installed into it. Upgrading it would mean losing access to the IDE hard drives and the only burner that machine has.

I am also not convinced that all my software would make the transition to a newer version of Windows, smoothly (sorry but XP compatibility mode probably won't cut it for some stuff that was written before XP was released, which already suffer some buggy glitches running on XP). If and when I do decide to buy a new computer with a newer version of Windows, it is very likely I will end up running XP in a VM for a few things I can't live without. (if it wasn't for those few apps and my extreme love for the Windows taskbar, I'd probably make a 100% transition to Linux)

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:06 PM »

Quote from: app103 on January 25, 2013, 05:24 PM

And if a new OS is worth running, it's worth more on new hardware.

I mostly agree - however, on most hardware Win7 will probably be a smoother experience than XP SP3 - and Win8, moreso. Heck, I'd even take a (tweaked) version of Vista SP1 over XP SP3... given that there's no driver trouble, of course

Dunno about software compatibility, you probably run stuff that's more obscure than I do - but I haven't really come across stuff that didn't work on Vista, Win7 or Win8 - it probably helps that I ran the 64bit version of XP, though, which means I took some compatibility hits up-front, and learned necessary workarounds for software that was CRAPPILY PROGRAMMED.

I'll repeat that, and a bit blunter: software that runs on XP but not on Vista and later is CRAP PROGRAMMED, probably in the Win9x "everybody is an administrator" mentality. Unless an application is doing something Really Special Snowflake style, it really ought to run from Win2k and upwards. But since a lot of developers came from Win9x and never bothered to read the MS guidelines that's been around since, oh, probably pre-NT4, we have a lot of software that's... wank.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:06 PM »

Quote from: Josh on January 25, 2013, 05:09 PM

Man, if I could like a post, I would like Carol's above. Bravo!!!

On a side note, no, I am not running XP but on a handful of systems that are too old to justify loading Win7/Win8 on. I am in the minority that actually enjoys Windows 8 and I am running Windows 7 on my other systems. Like Carol, I have had ZERO issues with 64 bit versions of Windows since XP 64. The issues with XP 64 were developer/hardware manufacturer buy-in and as such the drivers sucked. Likewise, I would NEVER go back to any OS based on the 9x code-base. Microsoft releasing Windows XP and eliminating the antiquated OSes was the best move they could have made for the industry.

Yeah DC seriously lacks a like button.

40hz · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:51 PM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on January 25, 2013, 04:56 PM

I don't especially miss the crashes, freezes and BSODs - plus disk corruption!

Seriously it took me a while to move from XP to 7 but there is no way I would move back now and I'd go to Linux before returning to the misery of Windows 98 !!!

Agree. However, you could do what I did and not wait to be threatened with having to return to Win98 before taking that next step.

And here I was the person who always thought that Linux (despite my feelings about the philosophy behind it) would always (of necessity) remain my alternate OS. Funny how these things sometime work out.

f0dder · « **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:56 PM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on January 25, 2013, 04:56 PM

Seriously it took me a while to move from XP to 7 but there is no way I would move back now and I'd go to Linux before returning to the misery of Windows 98 !!!

Same here - and if MS continue too much down the path they've started with Win8, I might (begrudgingly) jump ship... but until that happens, why consider a second-grade OS?

wraith808 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 25, 2013, 07:16 PM »

Not on my main day-to-day machine, but I have WinXP on my backup machine. Mostly because it works, and why pay for another license I don't need? Whenever I get the motivation, it will probably be replaced with SBS, but until then...

40hz · « **Reply #13 on:** January 25, 2013, 07:20 PM »

Quote from: f0dder on January 25, 2013, 06:56 PM

Quote from: Carol Haynes on January 25, 2013, 04:56 PM
Seriously it took me a while to move from XP to 7 but there is no way I would move back now and I'd go to Linux before returning to the misery of Windows 98 !!!
Same here - and if MS continue too much down the path they've started with Win8, I might (begrudgingly) jump ship... but until that happens, why consider a second-grade OS?

I pretty much have. All my personal use, and about 75% of my profession use is now running on Linux. Not exactly something I planned on. Or asked for. Windows 8 was the last straw for me. And now that I've transitioned (and very rarely miss Windows now that I have) I doubt I'd move back to Windows even if they dropped Metro, fixed (or stopped playing games with) UEFI/SecureBoot, and rationalized their SKUs.

First rule in customer retention: Never do anything that annoys an existing customer so much they start shopping around. Because once they do there's a good chance they'll be leaving.

In my case, I'm gone. Not so much for technical reasons. Like many here, I've been around the block so many times with this stuff that I know how to work around most technical hassles. What I can't get my head around is the FU attitude I'm seeing from Microsoft about this. It's almost as if the user no longer matters to them - it's an "our way" and "mother knows best" vibe I'm getting. And while I may not be the smartest guy in the room tech-wise, I still don't like being talked down to. Especially when I'm writing the checks.
$:-\$

skwire · « **Reply #14 on:** January 25, 2013, 09:22 PM »

Before I built my new computer a few weeks ago, I had been running the same install of XP/32 on my old desktop since April of 2007. I am now running W7/64 but, since I use an alternate shell and turn off window themes, it looks just like my old desktop.

superboyac · « **Reply #15 on:** January 25, 2013, 09:28 PM »

Quote from: 40hz on January 25, 2013, 07:20 PM

Quote from: f0dder on January 25, 2013, 06:56 PM
Quote from: Carol Haynes on January 25, 2013, 04:56 PM
Seriously it took me a while to move from XP to 7 but there is no way I would move back now and I'd go to Linux before returning to the misery of Windows 98 !!!
Same here - and if MS continue too much down the path they've started with Win8, I might (begrudgingly) jump ship... but until that happens, why consider a second-grade OS?

I pretty much have. All my personal use, and about 75% of my profession use is now running on Linux. Not exactly something I planned on. Or asked for. Windows 8 was the last straw for me. And now that I've transitioned (and very rarely miss Windows now that I have) I doubt I'd move back to Windows even if they dropped Metro, fixed (or stopped playing games with) UEFI/SecureBoot, and rationalized their SKUs.

First rule in customer retention: Never do anything that annoys an existing customer so much they start shopping around. Because once they do there's a good chance they'll be leaving.

In my case, I'm gone. Not so much for technical reasons. Like many here, I've been around the block so many times with this stuff that I know how to work around most technical hassles. What I can't get my head around is the FU attitude I'm seeing from Microsoft about this. It's almost as if the user no longer matters to them - it's an "our way" and "mother knows best" vibe I'm getting. And while I may not be the smartest guy in the room tech-wise, I still don't like being talked down to. Especially when I'm writing the checks.
$:-\$

Seems to be a lot of that going around...

40hz · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2013, 10:11 PM »

Quote from: superboyac on January 25, 2013, 09:28 PM

Seems to be a lot of that going around.

It's still not too late for MS to regroup and do right by their users. Most want to stay with Windows if they can.

I thought I was going to go over to Linux in the wake of Vista. I gave MS the benefit of the doubt and was amazed they exonerated themselves with Windows 7 - something that shocked many in the Linux community who thought the dawn of the 'nix' order would soon come to pass...

Unfortunately, the lessons many people thought MS had learned from Vista (and applied to Win 7) seem to have been forgotten with the advent of Win 8. And MS seems to be intent on using their size to tough things out. Which is why UEFI/SecureBoot (as currently implemented) seems (to me) to be a very transparent obstructionist ploy rather than a genuine attempt to deal with system security issues. And there's enough of a gap between what MS is saying about it and how it's actually working that I have no reason to believe much of what MS is saying any more.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2013, 10:34 PM »

Quote from: "40hz"

something that shocked many in the Linux community who though the dawn of the Nix order would soon come to pass...

Wait...something actually shocked the Linux community?!

fenixproductions · « **Reply #18 on:** January 25, 2013, 11:16 PM »

Although I have bought Win7 box recently I am not willing to upgrade my hardware yet.

Two strange reasons:
- apps I use work well on XP - some of them I have on my work laptop (Win7 64bit) and I see no significant dereferences. The only software I can feel it is Photoshop CS5 (x64) which belongs to my corp.
- my current machine can handle OS update with no problems for casual software BUT it would definitely cripple my gaming experience.

So I am stuck with XP until I can freely toss some cash away for new RAM, mobo, CPU & power supply.

4wd · « **Reply #19 on:** January 25, 2013, 11:19 PM »

Still running XP Pro on my download/PVR machine because it works and I'm loath to screw up the DVB-T setup, still running XP Pro on my old Aspire One netbook and XP HP on an old laptop.

Although I'm going to try Win8Pro on the netbook, (before it jumps in price at the end of the month), to see if it's more efficient than XP on an Atom N270 based machine.

Shades · « **Reply #20 on:** January 25, 2013, 11:47 PM »

On most of my PC's there's XP. After 5 years of service my drive was dying and it was replaced with a new 1TByte one. When doing the cloning of partitions (to prevent re-installation) I also did partition alignment. Granted, the new drive will be the main part of the speed increase, but tasks that took a long time before are now almost instantly there.

So right now I don't see or feel the need to replace XP (or workhorse Windows 2003 for that matter) soon.

40hz · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2013, 11:51 PM »

Quote from: Paul Keith on January 25, 2013, 10:34 PM

Quote from: "40hz"
something that shocked many in the Linux community who though the dawn of the Nix order would soon come to pass...

Wait...something actually shocked the Linux community?!

Happens constantly. Mostly we're amazed at just how awesome we actually are.

But seriously, pretty much everybody sitting on the Penguin doorstep conceded that Windows 7 was a decent OS. It even interfaced with Samba rather well and generally played nice in a mixed OS environment. So yeah...maybe not shocked. But pleasantly surprised wouldn't be an inaccurate characterization.

Joe Hone · « **Reply #22 on:** January 26, 2013, 01:31 AM »

Some very interesting comments. I posted because I won a free copy of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro in the January giveaway (thank you DonationCoder and Janos Mathe!) and I was curious to run it on my XP system, kind of hoping the end was in sight due to the audio production/64 bit issue and I would be forced to migrate over. No such luck, everything is diagnosed at 100%. I'm not interested in recreating my stable of audio software just to accommodate a new OS, so it's going to be XP for the near future.

Tinman57 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 26, 2013, 02:05 AM »

I'll be on my XP machine until they stop supporting the security. Then I'm off to Linux-land. I'm tired of MS screwing us with crap like ME. I actually took ME off my computer and installed 98 SE. Then came Vista and Win 8, two more that I consider crap. I don't like the idea of having MS spy on my system every time I boot up just to make sure I'm in compliance, don't like being treated like I'm a crook, and damned sure don't like having to "Phone Home". I don't like having the OS glued to my motherboard so I can't just upgrade my system without having to pay homage to MS. Then there's the price issues, the compatibility problems, hardware issues, etc etc etc. Not to mention that I miss being able to access DOS like with 98.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #24 on:** January 26, 2013, 03:48 AM »

Quote from: Tinman57 on January 26, 2013, 02:05 AM

I'll be on my XP machine until they stop supporting the security. Then I'm off to Linux-land. I'm tired of MS screwing us with crap like ME. I actually took ME off my computer and installed 98 SE. Then came Vista and Win 8, two more that I consider crap. I don't like the idea of having MS spy on my system every time I boot up just to make sure I'm in compliance, don't like being treated like I'm a crook, and damned sure don't like having to "Phone Home". I don't like having the OS glued to my motherboard so I can't just upgrade my system without having to pay homage to MS. Then there's the price issues, the compatibility problems, hardware issues, etc etc etc. Not to mention that I miss being able to access DOS like with 98.

I'm almost with you Tinman, except lots of cute stuff especially from here is Windows based! I'd heard about Win Me but I was right in the pocket and had Win98 SE which was "almost coherent" and then went to Win 2000 and then Win XP, so it was a boring upgrade path, which only left me to spend one random week reading Win ME horror stories. However I sorta "saw Vista coming" and skipped it, and spent several different weeks reading Vista horror stories. Win 7 is again "almost coherent", Win 8 is "too hyped for anyone's good", so I need Next Year's Context to properly reply to any of these topics. This is what I designed my strategy as in 2005. Except for minor OS flaws from never reinstalling it, not too bad for a 7 year run on a rig.

Coda: Is there a such a thing as too many MS OS's (Non Linux/Apple?) Xp was .. XP. It was the close-your-eyes answer to 6 years of stupid-tech-scripts of "what OS do you have". It (sorta-mostly) Just Worked. Then Vista was Vista, and Win 7 was Not-Vista-and-therefore-almost-usable, Win8 is "Putting the WIN in Win8!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Some exclams deleted for coherency.) So then Win 8.1/Blue/9/____ will be "That", whatever "That" becomes. Then "That+1" will be ... something.

But are we at the creaking point where tech is no longer "cool", and "the new thing" stops mattering? I for one learned the "wrong lesson" to stay with Win XP for "too long", so I'm now looking for Equivalent copy for the 2000-teens. (Or whatever they call this decade. We're into it, what DO they call it?) Even Win 7 will be TWO OS's OLD if they live up to their promise to slam out another new one. Yes it's 8 years later and "competent", but why still go with a 2 year old OS? If I'm gonna upgrade I like to "bite the bullet, pick well, get stuff that lasts, then ride out the ripples of marketing".