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AMD/ATI Drops Windows XP Support
Billly Gates writes "The latest beta drivers for the Catalyst drivers control suite only list Vista as the lowest version they will support. We still have almost a year before Windows XP support finally ends. Will NVidia follow? So if you own a AMD system you will not receive audio, chipset, video, or any other drivers for your XP system and must upgrade or use an outdated legacy version. Looks like another death knell for this very long lasting platform."
If you're buying the latest and greatest gaming cards, you're probably going to want DirectX 10 or 11, good multicore support, and an OS that can handle more than 3-ish GB of RAM.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Total non-issue. If you're still using Windows XP, then you're also stuck on DirectX 9 and all the other outdated technologies. New code means new risks, which you're avoiding by sticking to Windows XP, anyway. Also, the submission is wrong; this affects only the Catalyst drivers, which handle video and HDMI audio.
Then I noticed that this is a timothy story. Sometimes I think he posts the most inane story submissions just to get the Slashdot readers all riled up and posting comments, thus generating hits and ad revenues.
Have a nice time.
If you have an XP system, you either:
1. Have an old hack that you are never going to update, since it just works, or
2. Are a corp user with (hopefully) a decent tech team which will ensure you don't buy & support hardware where this will be an issue...
Or (obscure security-related issues aside) am I missing something?
XP systems are older systems. You haven't been able to buy XP for years.
How many people have XP systems and are buying new graphics cards?
If it still works, who cares.
If you've hit something where the graphics drivers are obsolete, there's probably a lot more wrong.
keeping up with advances and supporting older systems is EXPENSIVE. AMD made a cost decision, it's not worth it.
It won't really be a problem if you're not running into security problems. However, if someone finds a way to use the video driver to get SYSTEM or Administrator access to your computer, you'd really want the vendor of said video driver to come with an update. Since MicroSoft is still supporting the OS in terms of security updates, you'd expect the video driver vendor to do the same.
Mind you, just because there's no XP support in the latest beta driver doesn't mean AMD won't fix security flaws if those would arise. It's pure speculation to suggest that something like that might or might not happen. I have a gut feeling that the people at AMD would be smart enough to at least just fix the bug and do a minor version bump if something like that would happen in the period that MicroSoft still supports XP.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
..and at least one of us is a myopic projectionist who is unable to see past his own shit.
You wanna blame somebody don't blame AMD, blame Intel. Intel owns the patents on HDCP and because AMD doesn't have access to the fabs that Intel does they can't afford to put HDCP support on a separate part of the chip so its baked into the heart of the GPU.
And for those complaining about the Windows drivers? i honestly don't know what you are complaining about as i have used probably over a hundred at the shop and since AMD bought the company the drivers have been nothing but solid. Now are the cards buggy when you buy the bleeding edge? yep but that is true of nvidia as well, there is a REASON why they call it the bleeding edge after all and i have found BOTH companies take about 6 months from the time of a new chip rev before they are good and stable. Good rule of thumb? stay at least one version behind, that way the drivers have all the beta bugs out and are ready for prime time.
But AMD has handed all the specs they can without tapdancing into a patent minefield, so if all you care about is Linux and video decoding? You should probably buy Nvidia although if recent headlines are too be believed we may see Nvidia go the way of 3DFX, man I always said they should have bought Via when they had the chance.
And finally as for XP? Good Lord guys, just let the damned thing DIE already, okay? Running as admin is stupid, trying to get XP to behave without always admin is a PITA and a lot of programs just won't run,its patches have patches, it suffers winrot, it just wasn't that damned great guys, it really wasn't. Now XP X64? THAT was a great OS, as was 2K in its day but we have Windows 7 now which is the new XP, so let us just let XP quietly die. Hell I have Win 7 running on Pentium D systems and lets face it anything older than that is gonna be more trouble than its worth, just let it go.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Why would anyone buy a newer version of Windows if they can have XP forever. Microsoft could never compete against a free version of XP. Very few people would upgrade beyond it.
Exactly. This is why my Linux systems are all still running kernel 2.2.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
That would be true of Win 7, hell even Vista, but XP had a serious flaw you just can't easily fix, and that is the entire OS and ecosystem expecting you to be running as Admin 24/7/365 which is just BAD design friend.
With XP there are just too many programs, hell too many drivers, that expect admin and will choke and pitch a fit if not outright crash if you try to run as a limited user and even if you manage to get it working the number of permission pop ups will drive you nuts, it'll make Vista look quiet in comparison.
Look I get wanting to keep some of the old stuff, i really do, but XP is just waaaaay past its prime. its had patches on top of patches, 3 service packs, you can run a clean install for a week and then run something like CCleaner or Comodo system cleaner and find the registry already starting to pile up the orphan links and crap,its just not that good to begin with and now that hardware has passed it by (hell the $100 specials at a lot of places have more RAM than XP can handle without hacks) it really is time to let it go.
I mean for the love of Pete we are talking 14 fricking years by the time MSFT pulls the plug, in OS terms it might as well have come on 8-track.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.