Windows Xp nears End Of Life (THANK GOD!) Zero Day Forever April 8 2014

[sammi]

I have no plans to change.

Oh you really don't have to, but if something goes wrong, don't expect anyone to know how to fix it.

[bugo]

"Forcing" people off of XP means they buy new hardware that can run modern software, and a fresh installation of Windows. That dramatically cuts down on the support calls.

What if it's an 80 year old couple on a fixed income that use their computer to look at pictures of their family?  Why should they be forced to pay several hundred dollars for a new computer because Microsoft is too cheap to support something they created just a few short years ago?

[on_wisconsin]

Microsoft is too cheap to support something they created just a few short years ago?

Since when is nearly 13 years considered a "few short years ago", especially in the tech world?

[bugo]

Many products last more than 15 years.  What if your refrigerator suddenly stopped working on a certain date?  What if your car quit running after 15 years?  What if your toilet quit functioning because the company wanted to force you to buy a new one? 

[sammi]

It isn't not working. They're not forcing anyone to buy anything. They just don't care about this particular version of Windows anymore because they're focusing on newer, better ones (7 and 8.1).

[bugo]

When these XP machines become infected with viruses (which they will), they will indeed quit working. 

[NE2]

Without planned obsolescence this country would have become a Russian oblast.

[bugo]

Yeah but most planned obsolescence doesn't end up with the product being unusable.  Before the '70s, car companies redesigned their cars every year.  They might have been out of fashion the next year, but they still ran.

[NE2]

Why do you think China makes our cars?

[jeffandnicole]

Did you have this particular love for Windows 98?  95?  Vista? 

This is hardly the first time Windows stopped supporting a product.  It's pretty well known they do stop supporting older versions of windows after many years.

Many products last more than 15 years.  What if your refrigerator suddenly stopped working on a certain date?  What if your car quit running after 15 years?  What if your toilet quit functioning because the company wanted to force you to buy a new one? 

No one is saying Windows XP won't work.  They're just saying they'll stop supporting the product.

And that does happen quite frequently.  In fact, products related to transportation, and especially products related to toll equipment, mass transit vehicles, payment machines, etc, they do hit a date the vendors stop making replacement parts.  Usually the maintenance staff is handy in keeping the machines running, and as units are taken out of service permanently, those parts are used to keep the other units going.

[ZLoth]

Many products last more than 15 years.  What if your refrigerator suddenly stopped working on a certain date?  What if your car quit running after 15 years?  What if your toilet quit functioning because the company wanted to force you to buy a new one?

The expected lifespan for a personal computer is much shorter for a personal computer than it is for a refrigerator, car, and toilet. And, quite frankly, the personal computer is much more functional than those items.

[Stratuscaster]

Why do you think China makes our cars?

Parts for our cars, perhaps. Last I checked, no Chinese-manufactured vehicles were sold in the US at this time.

[vdeane]

Planned obsolescence isn't just part of the tech industry.  Appliances, including refrigerators and washing machines, are guilty of being engineered to last just a few years before breaking and requiring the item to be replaced, though this is a relatively recent trend.  An appliance from 30-40 years ago is generally still usable.  An appliance from 10 is not.

[Stratuscaster]

Many products last more than 15 years.  What if your refrigerator suddenly stopped working on a certain date?  What if your car quit running after 15 years?  What if your toilet quit functioning because the company wanted to force you to buy a new one?

The expected lifespan for a personal computer is much shorter for a personal computer than it is for a refrigerator, car, and toilet. And, quite frankly, the personal computer is much more functional than those items.

By whose expectations?

The PC I am currently using runs a processor that was new back in 2006 - an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. It's 8 years old now. Does everything I ask it to do.

My PC can't keep my food cold, flush my crap away, or get me to work. It's functional, but not "more functional" than a fridge, a toilet, or a car.

Microsoft may stop supporting XP directly, but there is still 15 years of XP knowledge on the Internet to use.

I've encountered a number of XP systems in the last 6 months that were never upgraded to Service Pack 3, let alone had any other Windows Updates installed. I hope they all have backups of the really important stuff.

Moving to a new system and/OS is scary to some people. Perfect time for some folks to step up to  offer upgrades and training assistance, perhaps.

[Takumi]

Why do you think China makes our cars?

Parts for our cars, perhaps. Last I checked, no Chinese-manufactured vehicles were sold in the US at this time.

You're feeding the troll.

[sammi]

My PC can't keep my food cold, flush my crap away, or get me to work. It's functional, but not "more functional" than a fridge, a toilet, or a car.

A PC can't do the things a refrigerator can, but it can do more things than a refrigerator, hence "more functional".

And a PC can get you to work in some cases.

[myosh_tino]

They just don't care about this particular version of Windows anymore because they're focusing on newer, better ones (7 and 8.1).

Newer?  Yes
Better?  Yes for Windows 7, a definite NO for Windows 8! 

I still have XP in a Parallels VM so I can still play SimCity 4 along with some other older games.  My main Windows "PC" runs Win 7 installed in a Boot Camp partition which I also access through Parallels.

[formulanone]

Why do you think China makes our cars?

Parts for our cars, perhaps. Last I checked, no Chinese-manufactured vehicles were sold in the US at this time.

You're feeding the troll.

China does manufacture a lot of the aftermarket or non-OEM stuff.

Of course, China does make a lot of said troll's bicycles.

What's the harm in knowing how to support one more thing? If anything, it makes you that much more knowledgeable, and puts another tool in your skillset.

[SteveG1988]

Microsoft is anti user, forcing people to buy CD-ROM drives for windows 98, requiring a 486 for windows 95, requiring a DVD drive for vista and newer disc media. Not engineering in 16 bit and MS-DOS compatibility in their 64 bit versions of windows. Forcing users to install service packs for continued support (Vista SP1 and earlier is no longer supported, nor is 7 without service pack 1)

[sammi]

I am not "forgetting" how to maintain XP systems. I just don't have to know anymore. But if someone comes up to me and says their computer got a virus, it's because they should have upgraded sometime ago. (I'd try to fix it anyway.)

Newer?  Yes
Better?  Yes for Windows 7, a definite NO for Windows 8! 

I'm a tablet user. I actually like Windows 8.

[SteveG1988]

How about all the hard drive manaufactuers dropping support for IDE hard drives, western digital has stopped making them, once the last batch they made in 2013 goes out of stock, you're stuck.

[myosh_tino]

Newer?  Yes
Better?  Yes for Windows 7, a definite NO for Windows 8! 

I'm a tablet user. I actually like Windows 8.

Windows 8 on a tablet is probably OK but putting a tablet OS on a desktop PC is definitely NOT OK! 

[algorerhythms]

They just don't care about this particular version of Windows anymore because they're focusing on newer, better ones (7 and 8.1).

Newer?  Yes
Better?  Yes for Windows 7, a definite NO for Windows 8! 

I still have XP in a Parallels VM so I can still play SimCity 4 along with some other older games.  My main Windows "PC" runs Win 7 installed in a Boot Camp partition which I also access through Parallels.

SimCity 4 runs just fine on Windows 7, you don't need a VM for it. Though there are a lot of older games that don't run so well on Windows 7. Shortly after Windows 7 was released, I bought a game that for some reason only ran on XP, but required a video card that was released after Vista was. At the time, I had a computer than ran 7 that couldn't run the game because of the Windows version, and a computer that ran XP that didn't have a new enough video card... The game was called Shattered Union. I don't recommend it, when I eventually did get it running (bought a new video card for the XP machine), it turned out to not be that great of a game.

[SteveG1988]

They just don't care about this particular version of Windows anymore because they're focusing on newer, better ones (7 and 8.1).

Newer?  Yes
Better?  Yes for Windows 7, a definite NO for Windows 8! 

I still have XP in a Parallels VM so I can still play SimCity 4 along with some other older games.  My main Windows "PC" runs Win 7 installed in a Boot Camp partition which I also access through Parallels.

SimCity 4 runs just fine on Windows 7, you don't need a VM for it. Though there are a lot of older games that don't run so well on Windows 7. Shortly after Windows 7 was released, I bought a game that for some reason only ran on XP, but required a video card that was released after Vista was. At the time, I had a computer than ran 7 that couldn't run the game because of the Windows version, and a computer that ran XP that didn't have a new enough video card... The game was called Shattered Union. I don't recommend it, when I eventually did get it running (bought a new video card for the XP machine), it turned out to not be that great of a game.

A few badly ported games are like that. Star Trek Legacy for example does not let you change the control layout despite being a PC game, and is best played with the only joystick it supports...the xbox 360 controller. If you do play it on Vista+ you will lose out any multiplayer due to Vista+ changing the network stack for stability and faster transfers (xp is inefficent when doing file transfers between systems)

[Mr_Northside]

How about all the hard drive manaufactuers dropping support for IDE hard drives, western digital has stopped making them, once the last batch they made in 2013 goes out of stock, you're stuck.

Which sucks for me (and my band), as our ADAT HD24 uses IDE drives.  Getting a few extra is something that we've been planning on doing, and need to get around to.