6 ms·

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level comput

by bruceb 13y ago

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level computer? Nothing really worth paying for. I am surprised MS doesn't get more credit for XP which could be seen as a relativity dependable workhorse. Problem is for MS of course they ended the need for the users to upgrade.

freehunter 13y ago
Improved security is a major feature that most people should care about (but they don't).
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  I'm not very familiar with Windows 8's security features (besides the inclusion of an improved Windows Defender and a sandbox by default). However, what security can one speak of when it's only (enhanced) security against uninformed third parties? With features such as SmartScreen snarfing your requests, security goes only as far as the will of the vendor or their cooperation with an institution of power. Windows malware threats still seem to be going quite consistent.
  - superuser2 13y ago
    Windows XP will stop receiving security updates and 0-days will never be patched.
- kunil 13y ago
  If my computer is letting me to play solitaire on my free time, I don't care which bot net it is contributing on its free time
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    Until it steals your important data, or crashes your system, or sets your laptop on fire from maxing out your cpu for bitcoin mining. Depends on the specific malware obviously.
bluecalm 13y ago
Weren't there some issues with 64bit XP version though ? I remember having trouble with it but maybe I was just unlucky. Would be interesting to see what % of those XP users have 32bit version still.
- pmelendez 13y ago
  As far as I remember... One of the service packs solved the 64-bit issues
huskyr 13y ago
I just travelled through Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) for two months and, indeed, everyone still uses Windows XP. I was actually pleasantly surprised when i used XP again after many years in internet cafes and noticed it to be good in terms of user interface. Things 'just work'. Maybe because i've used XP for many years, but i had the impression that many things were in logical places, little bloat or silly stuff that you get in Windows 8 and, most important at all, very fast and responsive even on the old machines they had there.
- 3825 13y ago
  I was using Windows XP last week to make sure I didn't break compatibility and I miss little things like snap[0]. It is remarkable how quickly we build muscle memory because I really didn't use Windows 7 until about the third quarter of 2010. I was either on Tiger on my personal computer or XP for everything else. [0] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/snap http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/feature...
harshreality 13y ago
Windows XP extended support ends in April (2014). Having your computer hacked due to unpatched OS and browser should be worth paying to avoid. If you don't feel like paying, there's always linux distros, *bsd, nexenta OS... http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us&x=10&y=13&c2=1173 http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us...
- kunai 13y ago
  This notion that there will suddenly be 5000 gazillion 0days as soon as XP loses support in April, and that as soon as you go on the Google homepage on May 1st, is ridiculous and absurd. I've been running unsupported XP SP2 on one of my older machines for over a year now. It's connected, runs applications, email, and internet services. No hacks, no worms, no rootkits, no nothing. Just use a good antivirus and you'll be fine. AFAIK there hasn't even BEEN a 0 day patch for XP in more than 3 years.
  - hrjet 13y ago
    Just curious. How can one be sure that there is no worms or rootkits installed?
    - kunai 13y ago
      I'm not quite a security expert, ask tptacek for confirmation, but you can never be sure. However, signs do start to crop up, and I haven't had any of the supposed "symptoms" of something like TSS/TDSS.
    - Shorel 13y ago
      Sysinternal utilities for me. They even created the original rootkit detector.
  - viraptor 13y ago
    I think that if I had a 0day at this point, I'd wait until May to use it - exactly because the support ends and MS is unlikely to release a patch. Since lots of people will not care enough to upgrade, that could be a gold mine :)
bruceb 13y ago
I should add that XP also came out at a time when PCs were starting to come to a point that upgrading hardware began to offer only diminishing returns to this same set of people. P4 and first dual cores are fast enough to run the same 3 main things, net/office/music&movies with out being annoyingly slow (assuming you had a gig or more of ram). So perfect storm of good enough hardware and software.

by bruceb 13y ago

freehunter 13y ago

Improved security is a major feature that most people should care about (but they don't).

vezzy-fnord 13y ago
I'm not very familiar with Windows 8's security features (besides the inclusion of an improved Windows Defender and a sandbox by default). However, what security can one speak of when it's only (enhanced) security against uninformed third parties? With features such as SmartScreen snarfing your requests, security goes only as far as the will of the vendor or their cooperation with an institution of power. Windows malware threats still seem to be going quite consistent.
- superuser2 13y ago
  Windows XP will stop receiving security updates and 0-days will never be patched.
kunil 13y ago
If my computer is letting me to play solitaire on my free time, I don't care which bot net it is contributing on its free time
- Houshalter 13y ago
  Until it steals your important data, or crashes your system, or sets your laptop on fire from maxing out your cpu for bitcoin mining. Depends on the specific malware obviously.

bluecalm 13y ago

Weren't there some issues with 64bit XP version though ? I remember having trouble with it but maybe I was just unlucky. Would be interesting to see what % of those XP users have 32bit version still.

pmelendez 13y ago
As far as I remember... One of the service packs solved the 64-bit issues

huskyr 13y ago

I just travelled through Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) for two months and, indeed, everyone still uses Windows XP. I was actually pleasantly surprised when i used XP again after many years in internet cafes and noticed it to be good in terms of user interface. Things 'just work'. Maybe because i've used XP for many years, but i had the impression that many things were in logical places, little bloat or silly stuff that you get in Windows 8 and, most important at all, very fast and responsive even on the old machines they had there.

3825 13y ago
I was using Windows XP last week to make sure I didn't break compatibility and I miss little things like snap[0]. It is remarkable how quickly we build muscle memory because I really didn't use Windows 7 until about the third quarter of 2010. I was either on Tiger on my personal computer or XP for everything else. [0] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/snap http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/feature...

harshreality 13y ago

Windows XP extended support ends in April (2014). Having your computer hacked due to unpatched OS and browser should be worth paying to avoid. If you don't feel like paying, there's always linux distros, *bsd, nexenta OS... http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us&x=10&y=13&c2=1173 http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us...

kunai 13y ago
This notion that there will suddenly be 5000 gazillion 0days as soon as XP loses support in April, and that as soon as you go on the Google homepage on May 1st, is ridiculous and absurd. I've been running unsupported XP SP2 on one of my older machines for over a year now. It's connected, runs applications, email, and internet services. No hacks, no worms, no rootkits, no nothing. Just use a good antivirus and you'll be fine. AFAIK there hasn't even BEEN a 0 day patch for XP in more than 3 years.
- hrjet 13y ago
  Just curious. How can one be sure that there is no worms or rootkits installed?
  - kunai 13y ago
    I'm not quite a security expert, ask tptacek for confirmation, but you can never be sure. However, signs do start to crop up, and I haven't had any of the supposed "symptoms" of something like TSS/TDSS.
  - Shorel 13y ago
    Sysinternal utilities for me. They even created the original rootkit detector.
- viraptor 13y ago
  I think that if I had a 0day at this point, I'd wait until May to use it - exactly because the support ends and MS is unlikely to release a patch. Since lots of people will not care enough to upgrade, that could be a gold mine :)

bruceb 13y ago

I should add that XP also came out at a time when PCs were starting to come to a point that upgrading hardware began to offer only diminishing returns to this same set of people. P4 and first dual cores are fast enough to run the same 3 main things, net/office/music&movies with out being annoyingly slow (assuming you had a gig or more of ram). So perfect storm of good enough hardware and software.