Posted on 04/07/2015 10:54:12 AM PDT by dennisw
Intel's recent results suggest a slowdown in firms leaving the ancient OS behind and upgrading to new systems. Why won't they update?
Most interesting detail that emerged from Intel's lackluster first quarter financial results had nothing to do with mobile, the company's white whale. Instead, it concerned something so old that it almost seems laughable in the same week that the very 21st-century Apple Watch dominated headlines. Per ZDNet's own Larry Dignan:
In a statement, Intel said it cut its first quarter outlook because of "weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain."
Intel cited for that weaker demand: a slowdown in companies upgrading from Windows XP systems. What's particularly interesting about this is that the move away from the ancient OS helped drive some of Intel's better results in 2014. Read this
What that suggests is a potentially intractable problem for both Intel and Microsoft: businesses that still manage to operate fine, thank you very much, with an operating system that's nearly 15 years old. It's the desktop equivalent of the guy who still uses a flip phone and doesn't care if you have an app that can identify a song on the radio in three seconds or can stream the Super Bowl live on your smartphone.
But it's even worse, actually, because that inertia isn't one guy: It's firms with potentially dozens or hundred of employees that have their productivity disrupted while new systems are installed and training is implemented. Then there's the issue of the need for an updated OS. What does Windows 7 or 8 (or 10) do that compels these stragglersto upgrade?
Microsoft's decision to emphasize its new Start screen over the old desktop when it launched Windows 8 did it no favors,
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com ...
Windows 8 was horrible for it’s interface. No reason to upgrade what works.
What was the switch to digital TV if not a government forced “upgrade” that benefited business?
The world market for TV was saturated,everyone who wanted a color TV had one ,or a dozen.Sales falling.So with stroke of a pen make users replace hundreds of millions of fully functional,useful devices;pretty cool!Especially if YOU stand to get filthy rich.
By the way, many programs that do what the user needs and wants are never released in new versions compatible with the newest OS.
I have 2 different hard drives in the computer I built and can boot to either one I want. One has XP the other 7 Ult64. I use XP all the time. The Windows 7 is a FLAT OUT POC!! I Never use that Garbage!! Even from one time to another I have booted into it, it changed my screen resolution on it own! The only time I have used it is when I send something online that needs to be more secure because stupid Mircocrap won’t update XP anymore.
You might want to look into the XP mode that comes with Win 7 Pro.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7
I have a small business also with three employees whose computers all run XP, are not connected to the internet and contain the software and data we need to do our day-to-day work which pays the bills. We did add one computer last year with Windows 7 but no software other that what is minimally necessary to allow internet access and for our Vonage land line.
We also all have flip phones and do just fine. The software we use is specialized and fits our needs, the companies that originally made it went out of business long ago but everything works fine. The day that I’m forced to spend the $15,000 to upgrade to new software is the day I close the doors.
Whistles and bells may be fine for the younger generation - wish they would leave the stuff for the rest of we working folks alone.
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There are two big stumbling blocks that will never go away:
1. Speed and control of the OS.
2. A massive amount of DOS based engineering software that would cost billions to replace, and there exists no valid reason to do so.
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There’s something about giving up XP, and my cold dead hands.
XP, works.
It doesn’t crash.
Ever.
And while there are newer versions of “Flash” for example that won’t work on an XP machine, I have to believe there will be dozens of “third party” developers that provide a solution.
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>> “I have a small business also with three employees whose computers all run XP, are not connected to the internet and contain the software and data we need to do our day-to-day work which pays the bills.” <<
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And there are millions in that same boat!
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This laptop I’m posting with came with Windows XP. Upgrading to Win 7 wasn’t cost effective as 7’s requirements were just barely being met. For what it’s worth, I installed Linux Mint on it and it runs like a top. Linux seems to be a great alternative now that XP is not being supported any longer.
XP is still the most convenient system for the desktop, ever.
With every update, 7 gets worse.
I like the search feature in Windows 7. Works way faster than the search in XP!
Why change from my Windows 98 — it runs my Unix software copyrighted in 1980 quite well!
why switch to a system that sells your profile, snoops about your shopping, and uses you as a commodity?
And there are millions in that same boat!”
You bet. I doubt seriously if any software supplier gives any consideration to any us though. They seem to be only after the younger generation which seems to think that all upgrades are necessary and will make their life a whole lot better. BTW, we also have Quicken on our XP computers. At last count we had failed to add at least the last 17 upgrades and updates. Guess what - our original version still works fine for us.
Kind of like the healthcare issue - it should be about individual choices rather than one size fits all.
The VHF and UHF analogue transmission bandwidth requirements were extremely wasteful to continue to be used for a mere 140 or so channels. By repurposing those frequencies, much more could be accomplished. . . but to do that those TVS frequency channels had to be phased out. Ergo, channels 2-13 VHF and the high VHF channels had to go. The first step was digital TV, allowing much more data in much smaller bandwidth.
Sarcasm?
Of course XP is slower because it actually finds the stuff you are looking for
Search in XP, up comes the dumb dog and you get one line to enter if you just want to search file names and one line if you want to search file contents.
Since Vista, you have no choice and just one line and it searches God knows where, because it certainly isn't always searching the computer you are using.
I will take the dumb dog any day, Hell I will take a dancing Obama if 7 would just find my dam files.
All those menu changes on the Windoze and office are crazy and I’m a guy who uses macros.
I have even begun hating the touch screen.
for years I would blow a gasket if anyone so much as touched my screen. Now, I am obliged to touch it so I can quickly access programs and features.
I hate finger prints on my screen.
Yup. My private cloud server runs Windows 2000.
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