Do You Think XP will be Phased Out Eventually- Alternative OS?

[zaq.sr163]

Hi Guys,

I run my PC on XP.

Do you think XP will be phased out eventually?

What would you say is a good alternative?

(Btw I hate Vista, did try it for a month or two, went straight back to XP).

What about Linux? Heard it's less resource hungry and faster, but not many
apps are compatible.

Was browsing this site: http://www.pclinuxos.com/?page_id=10
mentioned on the BBC Click Online programme.

They have a Linux desktop suite worth considering.

Any thoughts from the community welcomed.8)
Cheers.

 

[carl6969]

Do you think XP will be phased out eventually?

Phased out? Microsoft will eventually stop offering support and updates for XP. However, that does not mean the product will be unavailable. I have a copy WIN 3.1.

What would you say is a good alternative?

If you want to stick with then Microsoft WIN 7 would be a logical choice.
If you are considering Linux I would recommend Ubuntu 10.10 but there are some other good choices with Linux.

What about Linux? Heard it's less resource hungry and faster, but not many apps are compatible.

I switched from Windows to Ubuntu a couple of years ago and have been very pleased with the performance, security, and available applications. If you are a gamer you will want to stick with Windows. I am not a big game person so that is not an issue for me. The only other small problem I have had with Ubuntu is that Netflix streaming movies do not currently work with Linux systems, but a good quality Blu-Ray DVD with Internet apps built in will solve that little nuisance. If you find that there are Windows apps which you simply must have and cannot find similar Linux version of those apps you can install Wine or even setup a dual boot system with both Windows and Linux on the same machine.

 

[benleeder16]

The updates will stop April 8, 2014. Linux is well worth considering, I switched when Microsoft released Vista because I hated it. I recommend you download a couple of Linux distros and try them out by running them live from the cd before you install any of them on your hard drive. Ubuntu is my personal favourite, PClinuxOS is also meant to be very good but I haven't tried it. Another option is to dual boot With Linux and windows so you can run windows only programs if you need to.

 

[vol7ron]

Do you think XP will be phased out eventually?

Phased out? Sort of. The official license support will be dropped in 2014. A virtual WinXP comes with Win7, which is how the compatibility mode works. That is also why support is lasting out to 2014, it would be dropped sooner, otherwise.

What would you say is a good alternative?

Win7 if you use a lot of MS products or "game", and Ubuntu is a good free alternative. Really it depends on what you want to do and what kind of hardware you have. W7 might be less resource demanding than Vista, but it still requires more than XP.

(Btw I hate Vista, did try it for a month or two, went straight back to XP).

You're not alone. Vista was very resource intensive and poorly managed. Actually, I take that back. The early versions of Vista were bad. After the service packs Vista in its later days ran similar to Win7.

What about Linux? Heard it's less resource hungry and faster, but not many apps are compatible.

Ubuntu is a form of Linux. The "speed" is relative and it all depends on what you're doing. BTW apps might not be compatible, but Linux has a bunch of free apps, which make it similar to the Apple App Store. There is a learning curve with Linux if you want to do anything advanced - the power is in the command line.

 

[zaq.sr163]

Hey Guys!
Great feedback. :wink: Really great.
I think i will consider Ubuntu. Try off the CD first then see how it goes.

@carl6969 hi, what is the "Wine" app you mention?
And can you point or direct to please a step-by-step resource
that shows how to "setup a dual boot system with both Windows and Linux"

 

[carl6969]

Wine allows you to run many Windows programs on Linux.
Some good documentation on Wine including download links, installation, setup, etc., can be found here .
Information on Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows can be found here .

 

[badgehunter59]

Windows XP will definitely be phased out someday, just like Windows 98, 2000, etc have.
Most likely whenever Windows 8 comes out, Windows XP will be on it's way out. More and more people have been switching to Windows 7 already.

 

[techairlines]

I definitely think Windows XP will be phased out eventually. Even though its the favorite Windows OS of many, everyone will eventually have to move on.

Even if its phased out, there will still be a handful of people still using it, just like many people still use the long outdated IE6. My school just got a handful of new computers running Windows 7 and downgraded to XP...

About Linux, I have Ubuntu installed on my laptop and the performance is noticeably better than Windows, although a lot of the applications you're used to might not work. I bought the laptop during a Black Friday sale and it came with Vista Basic and having only 512 mb of RAM and an Intel Celeron processor, the performance was horrible and the trial software preinstalled only made things worse. The computer was nearly unusable and instead of trying to remove all the junk, I just reformatted the entire disk and installed Ubuntu.

 

[ravik]

Take a look at Linux Mint. Good GNU/Linux distro to start with. Transition from XP should be smoother. Bundled VLC player can play almost all media files . A little bit learning curve though. Specially the way programs/apps are installed.

 

[rolandr]

My laptop dual boots in Window 7 and Linux (Ubuntu). I would say 95% of the time I'm using Ubuntu due to the free apps.

The things I use Window 7 is my M-Audio Fastrack since M-Audio doesn't have driver in Linux although there's some scripts I could run in Linux that may configure my M-Audio Fast Track.
Another thing I miss Windows is Adobe PhotoShop. I'm proficient at this image editor. Linux GIMP is fairly powerful too but like PhotoShop, there's a learning curve. But GIMP is free while the Adobe PhotoShop is $500+. maybe I'll take a college course and get a student version.

I do miss doing Visual Basic Application (I'm a computer programmer analysts) on Office Apps.

But I needed to Linux for Apache, MySQL, PHP. Yes, I suppose I could have installed IIS in Windows.

... but there's so many free apps to play with Linux. ... and I do feel at home with Linux because I've learned computer with UNIX ... but Ubuntu is very "Window" like environment you should feel quite comfortable from the get go.

One thing, check your peripherals from digital cameras, printers, camcorders, etc ... if they have Linux drivers. If they don't, some Linux gurus wrote scripts to make these devices run on Linux.

Just something to think about.

 

[zaq.sr163]

Hey Guys, Kudos to you all, some great helpful feedback info!!

This thread is in my bookmarks and will serve as great reference.

@carl6969 thanks for the links on what is 'Wine' app and the tutorial on
setting up dual boot.

Cheers!

---------- Post added at 02:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:32 PM ----------

Btw Guys, Just occurred to me reading the Rolandr's last post on drivers.
When making the boot off CD for checking/reviewing the Linux OS out.
Will it automatically pick up my PC drivers? Or will i need to reinstall the drivers?

Also is it the case when hopefully migrating to the Linux and installing it
- dual boot or just main Linux OS, again how will PC drivers factor into it?

Just a bit hazy on that.

 

[letapk]

Btw Guys, Just occurred to me reading the Rolandr's last post on drivers.
When making the boot off CD for checking/reviewing the Linux OS out.
Will it automatically pick up my PC drivers? Or will i need to reinstall the drivers?

Also is it the case when hopefully migrating to the Linux and installing it
- dual boot or just main Linux OS, again how will PC drivers factor into it?

Just a bit hazy on that.

WinXP will not be phased out, it will just fade away over time. Once MS stops official support, and the hardware changes make the current drivers obsolete, it will become more and more difficult to run XP. Witness Win98.

If you need to run MS software, shifting to Win7 is the logical step, especially if what you need has no equivalent in any other OS.

However, most of the common MS apps have equivalents (or near-equivalents) in Linux, so that is the alternative OS you can explore.

Before you install it on your present machine, it would be better to try out one of the many "live" CD's of Linux, to get a feel of the waters before you jump in. However, a live-CD runs slower, and may not give you the real experience. Instead, you may try installing Linux in a virtual machine inside WinXP with the help of VirtualBox.

To come to your latest query: in general, drivers written for XP cannot be used by Linux. Installing Linux will not "pick up" and use the XP drivers. While a lot of the hardware commonly available is supported, there is the occasional piece which may not work in Linux as it does under XP, especially game-related stuff.

Personally I use Debian as well as OpenSuse (on different machines). Debian provides more software packages than any other Linux distribution today, without exception, so there is a good chance of finding what you need under Debian.

A point to keep in mind: When and if you shift to Linux it is possible, with the help of VirtualBox for Linux, to install XP (or Vista and Win7 for that matter) and run all MS software inside your Linux installation, without the necessity of a dual boot setup.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
K. Patel
http://kpatel.x10hosting.com

 

[apisds]

Microsoft IS phasing out XP. But a lot of users (like me) still use XP because of it's simplicity. I guess we really have no choice but upgrade to another OS because most hardware (desktops and laptops) no longer support installing XP. Heck, they dont even have official drivers for XP.

We at our company have started using Ubuntu and Windows 7. We use Win7 on computers where we still use Windows-based programs (AutoCAD, MS Office, some legacy applications). We use Ubuntu for all other computers (replacing XP).

 

[sharpzster50]

if you have too much OS/es on your dvd or some cd's , you are rich person )

 

[wongers]

i think everyones just about covered it so far, Win XP is going to be discontinued soon enough, they've already stopped selling it in stores (apart from what is currently left in stock). and its only a matter of time til its no longer supported, which i think was previously posted at 2014?

i have to agree with Linux being a brilliant option, get a version of Linux on a bootable CD first (i.e. Ubuntu) and just have a play around with it before you take the plunge, the key to switching to something like Ubuntu is to be VERY patient when getting used to it.

everyone i have had switch over to Linux (friends) have become frustrated with it because its a little bit different and obviously your not used to it and didnt have it drilled in from being the age of 8 years old (as an example). but once they get around the initial "teething period" all reports have been promising.

Linux is completely open source so everything is free, OpenOffice which allows you to open Microsoft Office documents is free, as previously mentioned GIMP is similar to photoshop - is free. it can sometimes be a bit tricky to find more bespoke drivers for less-common hardware (wifi dongles etc) but again if you are patient and do some google reading, someone, somewhere will have created the relevant tutorial in to getting this sorted.

example: when i switched to Ubuntu, it took me ages to get my Netgear Wifi dongle to work, as Netgear dont make Linux drivers and its a fairly old one so its less supported but some good old google searching lead me to a support forum with the answer

Wine: if you REALLY require a Windows app. you can usually access through Wine which in short is a Windows Application Emulator

otherwise, go for Win7, its pretty snazzy, or stick with WinXP for now and wait for "Windows 8" or what ever they are going to call it and see how that one pans out??

 

[Smith6612]

can usually access through Wine which in short is a Windows Application Emulator

I thought WINE stood for Wine Is Not an Emulator?

 

[rodpeterson48]

I think it also depends on your applications: if you are going to be using the same apps and never upgrade them... then stick with WinXP.
If you load Windows 7 on old machine, it will be extremely slow compared to WinXP.

 

[Jessica.C]

that's going to suck. XP isn't that bad, especially since you can actually change the sounds and stuff with XP...like 'Space' sounds ('Space' theme). Does Vista have it? no.

 

[Smith6612]

that's going to suck. XP isn't that bad, especially since you can actually change the sounds and stuff with XP...like 'Space' sounds ('Space' theme). Does Vista have it? no.

You can do such things on Vista. Have you tried to do such a thing?

 

[Jessica.C]

No. I've never had nor found an option