Slashdot Mirror
The Death of Windows XP
bsk_cw writes "Although many Windows users intend to hold onto their copies of XP until it is pried from their cold, dead fingers, Microsoft fully intends to phase out the OS in favor of Vista. If you're unwilling to move to one of the alternatives, and really don't like Vista, the least you can do is be aware of what's in store. David DeJean offers a rundown on Microsoft's timeline for Windows XP, why the company does things that way, and what you can do about it."
I really don't think Vista is going to take hold of the market as a whole. I think(Been proven right thus far) that more and more people will simply Migrate to the Mac as they replace their machines rather than going to Vista. Mac gives users the flexibility of running Windows if needed and it has higher stability to boot. Sure, you pay more. But you get more value in return. You get server quality hardware on the inside. And, since no server level hardware manufacture is going to be caught dead with crappy drivers. You'll get better driver support to. With the end result getting you a high stability, smoother running machine.
Windows XP is far from dead, Microsoft will still be supporting existing installs when they usher Windows 7 out the door. In this regard they are similar to the support given by Ubuntu on some releases. Vista is simply better however. I have had it installed for about three months now and the transition from XP to Vista was a heck of a lot less painful than moving from 98se to XP. Vista is XP mark II, at its core it provides at least as much as XP and in addition it overhauls or adds new systems. Memory utilization is high compared to XP but thats because Vista actually puts wasted memory to use as cache (like an article for a Linux subsystem the other day). Aero is a nice facelift, Direct X 10 while questionable as a Vista exclusive also adds some nice new effects, prefetch and other cacheing mechanisms automatically tune the system over time, and the new security model while minorly problematic with older software (sometimes an old program needs to be run as administator) is a welcome addition to the number one target for malware. As Windows 95 wouldn't run well on a 486, Vista won't run well on hardware that is sufficient for XP. I have a dual-core 3.0Ghz, 2GB RAM, and an HD2600XT and it is the equivalent of Win95 with 16MB and a Voodoo 1. Quake in that mixture is replaced with Bioshock. Objectively Vista when run on appropriate hardware represents progress - I'm sure a decade from now the operating system of that time will have hardware requirements that dwarf what exists today and be very shiny but for now Vista on a new machine isn't a bad thing. Especially with Service Pack 1.
Shh.
I shouldn't wonder.
The 2008 laptop at mid line is dual core with 2 GB RAM, a 360 GB HDD, and NVIDIA DX9l/DX10 graphics with 256 MB of dedicated RAM. You were not buying that kind of power in 2001.
I strongly suspect that Vista is more competent in handling this much muscle - and what are mid-line specs today will be entry level tomorrow.
While the Slashdot geek still hasn't quite grasped the notion that RAM and other resources are there to be used, not hoarded.
Guys, really you need to work on this. You need a consultant. This crap is totally transparent.
Why use the free office package when your friendly neigborhood geek will install a hacked copy of Office from some random website? Really? Do you need to push the platform that hard? I don't think so. It makes you look weak.
So. I can be had for money, it just takes a lot of it. I'll teach you how to do this properly. Think about it. ;-)
Help stamp out iliturcy.
If enough of us (at least those of us fortunate enough not to be forced to use Windows or support people using them) do this, then even that "neighborhood geek" will realize that he can "help" only so many people this way.
It's not enough that we don't use MS Office ourselves or recommend alternate programs to others. We have to refuse to "help" (I use that word in the sense of giving cocaine to someone suffering from withdrawal symptoms) those who actively undermine the establishment of thriving free and open source software culture.