Windows XP, the venerable Microsoft operating system, died today after being taken off of life support. It was 13 years old.
XP was the child of pillar-of-the-community NT and town-drunk ME. This unlikely amalgamation lead to a rocky start for XP. In its early days XP would allow anyone into its life and couldn’t keep a stable relationship. But after completing its second Service Pack, the young operating system became a (mostly) respected workhorse and long-serving member of the business community.
XP is survived by its children: Vista, 7, and 8.1, and also by cousin “Windows XP for Embedded Systems”.
In lieu of flowers, Microsoft asks that you kindly purchase Windows 8.1.
My XP machines run third-party firewall and anti-virus, are backed up regularly, and don’t download Windows updates anyway. Nothing will change, the computers are just as functional today as they were yesterday. If I wanted to be extra-safe I could run my web browser in a sandbox, I would think my web browser would be the most likely attack vector.
That said, for those that don’t know much about computers and security and browse with Internet Explorer, I’d think about upgrading.
I just bought a new computer this weekend to replace my 8 year old XP. A friend transferred all my stuff for me. He also downloaded a classic start menu so the transition has not been that bad.
I’d call it more like “Taken off life support, but not quite dead yet.”
Seriously though, Windows 7 is fine. Vista sucks, 8 sucks, but 7 is fine, and not even so very different from XP as to cause anyone who’s not a total chump much, if any heartburn at all.
I wouldn’t even call it that, as the activation servers still work. I’d say it’s closer to XP signing a “do not resuscitate” order. Or that the doctors have said they’ve done all they can do and can just now ease the pain.
Which is a totally odd decision, because supposedly it’s so popular because it’s been widely pirated, and some 70% of users in China don’t install security updates.
Actually one of the few that I don’t consider shitty. I remember when I started uni and was getting fed up with Win 9x so I considered switching to Linux. Then XP came out and was received positively. It was the only time I bought an OS in a box. (still have it!)
When they announced the end of support, I installed Linux on my next laptop, and haven’t used Windows at home since the summer of 2011. I never liked Vista/Win7 and haven’t even seen 8 live yet.
