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Time To Dump XP?
An anonymous reader writes "Gartner is saying it's time to plan your migration now (if you havent already done it). I for one know my company still has loads of users still on XP, citing training costs (time and money) rather than software license fees. Is my company alone in wanting to stay in the 1990s or is Windows 7 the way forward?"
Just to get the ball started... yes, I agree... it is time to dump Windows XP and change to OS X or one of the BSDs or heck, even one of the mature Linux distributions like Ubuntu.
Moderators: start your engines... am I Flamebait, or am I Insightful? Informative or Offtopic?
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
Well, it's a way, but it may not be forward...
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Mods, please explain how a first post can possibly be "Redundant"? Extra credit if you can explain this as something other than censorship, since the OP actually has a valid point that applies to TFS ...
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Whatever it is, it's long been time to dump Gartner if you haven't already :).
I once had a user request training when their keyboard was replaced.
To be fair, the old keyboard was a basic 101 key model, and the new one had some media control(start, stop, pause, little volume knob) buttons on it.
The user was informed, as politely as shock allowed, that the function of each key on the new keyboard was the same as that of the old, save for the additional keys, whose use was optional, and not required for the performance of any job-related function.
so migrating to Win7 won't help your company. Stay on XP, keep trying to get by with IE6, and UPDATE YOUR RESUME! Oh yeah, have you pulled your money out of the employee stock plan yet?
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
I'm still on 2000, you insensitive clod! I'm planning to *upgrade* to XP in the next year or so. Provided my hardware can run it, that is. Everyone knows that XP is a resource hog. :)
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
Because we don't have an "-1 Obvious" mod.
Although in this case it's both obvious and significant, so it's a little harsh.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I don't think anyone can confuse Windows XP with Windows ME. :-)
New things are always on the horizon
A future?
A cat is no trade for integrity!
I had the same problem. It was "open source crap". So I did the natural thing. I installed it on the prettiest employee's desktop and within a week of her lauding this "Audacity thing" there were official requests to install it on any desktop that had to manipulate audio. We would be on Asterisk by now if she hadn't left.
BUt then most /. stories are redundant.
There, fixed that for you.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I can confuse Windows ME and Windows Vista. :)
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Apple?
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law
Dude, how could you forget Plan 9 from Bell Labs? It's the perfect operating system for the office environment!
I used WinME back in the day... mostly because I got it for free from an MS employee.
Wow, they sure made a mess of that "the first hit is free" policy. That's like a cocaine dealer trying to get you hooked by giving you a free hit that's been cut with ground glass and lye...
but were you pleasantly surprised?
As someone who purchased Windows ME to do their first Win install I can tell you that there is a massive difference, but IE is about as useful as it ever was.
I must be new here.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I work at a company that every reader of slashdot would know, and we are still using XP
You, Sir, work for Microsoft, don't you?
Canonical
You beat me to it.
I've upgraded one machine to W7. Don't see much of a reason to upgrade the other. Aside from a few minor improvements, there really isn't all that much in W7 that is compelling. And in all the things that matter to me - user friendliness, software available, performance, in that order - it is just as bad as the other crap out of Redmond.
Yes, MS has put in incentives - IE8 (which I don't use), DX10/11 (which really doesn't make all that much of a difference so far) and probably a couple others.
It still doesn't handle misbehaving applications well, it is still obnoxious in everything it does (where is the "I know, you've told me 500 times, now fuck the fuck off and leave me alone!" button?) and the UI is at least as much an abomination as every other version.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Ill challenge the notion that end-users will need retraining. Have you tried to use anything under a Linux Desktop? There would not need to be any retraining as it works the same as the XP, 2000, etc. desktop.
Sure it does. If all you do is click on the little icon on the desktop. I hope you like tickets, because you are going to get a hell of a lot.
Of course he won't get a lot of tickets. He's not porting the icon users use to create tickets! (That would be crazy.)
Linux user here (so much for disclaimers)...
XP cold boots in under 2 minutes on... ehm... a very old Dell Pentium4 laptop with a horribly slow HDD. But maybe you are not only booting XP but also a whole cargo load of extra's along with it, like additional services, systray diver apps, potentialy malware (which you, of course, do not have because you have a virus scanner, right? *bonus points if you can see what I did here*).
Here be signatures
How safe do you feel driving your 1960s car down the freeway at 80 mph?
Good point. I'd have a hard time restraining myself to 80mph in a 1968 Camaro SS.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
I bid one competent Python programmer in a beach house, 3 months.
Parent post incorrectly rated "Funny".
Should be rated "Insightful".
Will