7 ms·
While I don't blame Microsoft for ending support (they have been very accomodating already), but I find it strange of them to leave so many users stranded. Espe
by jenscow 13y ago
While I don't blame Microsoft for ending support (they have been very accomodating already), but I find it strange of them to leave so many users stranded. Especially now there's several alternatives to Windows, all requiring a similar learning curve and migration pains to that of moving to Windows 7 or 8.
Personally, when people have asked me about it I usually point them to Linux Mint, using their existing computer - not because I'm a fan of Linux, but I'd feel bad advising them to spend 100's on a new computer, when their current one works perfectly (physically).
Apart from someone who plays The Sims 2, I've had no complaints.
- serge2k 13y agoIt's been more than long enough already. People who haven't upgraded yet fools at this point.
- kefka 13y agoThey are either fools or computers are not their lives. I know plenty users who Linux would be an ideal fit: web browser? Check. Office suite? Check. Device drivers for hardware Vista/7/8 dont have? Check. WINE layer for common XP apps? Check. Better security and malware defense? Check. And it's free, and wouldn't require any new hardware. Getting 7 on XP hardware would be mighty uncomfortable, if possible at all.
- keithpeter 13y agoI teach adults. In my classes, I now have 3 or 4 people out of 20 who rely on tablets for all their Internet use, i.e. they don't own a laptop or PC. About half use a phone/phablet/tablet a lot but also fall back to a laptop/PC for some uses (e.g. Flash based learning materials). I'd agree with one of the more 'automatic' GNU/Linux distributions for casual use on an XP era machine. I suspect the future will be disposable tablets however. I'm now talking to students about backups...
- scholia 13y agoWindows 8.1 runs pretty well on XP hardware, and Update 1 will run even better (minimum 1GB). You might have to buy a cheap graphics card. It browses much faster than XP on the same hardware. Otherwise, if you have people who wouldn't pay for a cheap Windows upgrade (launch offers), they probably don't want to spend a huge amount of time and effort figuring out a "free" Linux with all the other complications you mention. On their own. From scratch.
- xtracto 13y agoJust a couple of weeks ago I got for free a Pentium IV PC with 514MB of RAM and Windows XP. I changed the cmos battery, the AGP card and did a clean XP reinstall in an SSD drive. The computer is blazing fast. Any newer version of Windows would make the computer slow as shit. Here in developing countries, we people tend to use our stuff for a LONG time. You see 30yr old cars running around; 20yr old washing machines, which have been re-re-re-re-patched. Buying a new computer just because of some magical limit date, just doesn't cut it. Is it unsafe? maybe, but why throw something away when it is 100% usable!.
- FollowSteph3 13y agoMost people don't realize it but Apple does this all the time. Goos luck running most 5+ year old mac on the latest Mac OS X ;)
- FollowSteph3 13y agoAnd going the other way apple only supports each individual Mac OS X version at most 2-4 years...
- oneeyedpigeon 13y agoOS X Mavericks today runs on some machines that are 7 years old. True, that's still not great, but better than you claimed.
- scholia 13y agoDoesn't run on 32-bit machines, doesn't support classic apps. Doesn't run on PowerPC-based machines, obv.
- FollowSteph3 13y agoDefine "some". The percentage is very low even at the 5 year mark ;)
- oneeyedpigeon 13y agoSeriously? More than the "none" which the original post implied.