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Time To Dump XP?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wasn't-that-ship-date dept.

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?"

4 of 1,213 comments (clear)

  1. XP is the 90's? by jamesborr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Could have sworn that XP was not available before Windows 2000 -- but what do I know...

  2. Any concept of what's involved in migration? by kenh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Windows 7 has hardware requirements that many, many otherwise capable WinXP boxes can't meet either technically or economically.

    It's easy to say well, upgrade your 1 Gig RAM 2 GHz P4 desktop to 2 Gig of RAM, but if you have to pitch 2x 512 Meg sticks and buy 2x 1 Gig PC3200 sticks it can get expensive fast. And that IDE drive will suffice, but it won't be very speedy - an upgrade may be in order, but unless your desktop includes a SATA port, will it really be cost-effective? Oh, and you can toss in a ReadyBoost USB flash drive to improve performance, but this is starting to get expensive...

    PC3200 RAM is about $40-50 a Gig, a 4 Gig ReadyBoost USB flash drive will cost another $10 and where does that leave you? With an investment of $100/desktop plus labor in performing the hardware upgrade, or half the price of a new low-end Dell OptiPlex which will blow the socks off the 5-7 year old P4 you are investing in.

    OR you could just sit on WinXP boxes for another year and start saving up for a forklift upgrade next year...

    --
    Ken
  3. Re:Pfff... by arb+phd+slp · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am not the typical idiot user. I'm the guy most people come to when they have a question.

    I didn't realize that the circle with the Windows logo in upper left was a menu for almost a month.

    --
    There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
  4. Re:Pfff... by ultranova · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sadly you can get a comp sci phd without knowing how to properly work with a computer, it's not hard given how abstract and math centric the curriculum are at many schools and universities.

    As well as it should be. Computer science isn't about using any particular existing computer, it's about the theory underlaying computing and algorithms.

    "Sadly, you can get an engineering degree wiihtout knowing how to drive a tractor" doesn't make any sense, for the exactly same reason your statement doesn't.

    In many of those schools graphics is relegated to reams of algorithms and theory and anything UI related is pushed off to the graphic design departments.

    Good. That's where it belongs. Or possibly to a whole new department - "User Interface Science"?

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.