50 Open Source Replacements for Windows XP

Datamation ^ | 16 April 2014 | Cynthia Harvey

[asinclair]

One comment on the Red Hat offerings: Fedora is Red Hat's "bleeding edge" offering -- this is where everything new gets a trial spin before Red Hat accepts it long-term. Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS, and a couple other distributions are intended for long-term use. "Long term" means that the software will be supported for a number of years. I have a mail server that's got spider-webs running CentOS 4, and support was withdrawn in September after 10 years. (I'm updating with CentOS 6 *and* all new hardware, for another decade of service.)

I gave up on Windows a long time ago. Indeed, my Windows XP machine will need a new motherboard battery if I ever want to turn it on. For a particular client, I bought a laptop (used) and loaded Windows 7 onto it. I paid more for the RAM upgrade and the OS than I did for the laptop itself, by the way. I turn it on only when forced. Which is seldom these days. And my client wants me to move them away from the Windows-centric system they had.

Don't get me wrong, Windows has its place. But that real estate is shrinking faster and faster.

[expat_panama]

...you can have Windows XP as a “guest” OS...

Thanks for the thought. Actually, that's what I was looking for, a 'guest' XP OS for a VirtualBox appliance so I can run XP programs on my Win7 desktop.  Getting drivers to agree is a chore w/o good support.

[GingisK]

Why do people continue using a twelve-year-old operating system that would put them at risk?

Because I have expensive applications that will not run on Linux, the new Windows crap, or in a virtual machine under either operating system. Those applications are the tools of my livelihood.

[Bikkuri]

After your install of whatever Linux version, install VirtualBox. Then you can run any other OS at the same time inside of Linux (works the other way too)..

I have Win7 on my left screen and Linux on my right screen, both running on the same PC (XP would be just as easy to run in VB, but I would recommend making sure there is not net connection for XP, although, since it IS in a VB, your main hardware and software is protected (in a sandbox)).

[Bikkuri]

Missed this post before I posted... Like I mentioned, Oracle’s (forgot to mention the brand) VB is also able to run in Windows.

[Bikkuri]

1 correction, my FRiend ;)... RedHat is NOT free ;^)

[Bikkuri]

Mint KDE has recognized ALL of my hardware starting from install boot.. I have read there is 1 wireless that is an issue (also did I check on that piece... there are work-arounds to get it working too, but, luckily, I didn’t have that wireless ;^)

[ShadowAce]

The code is--the support is not. Finding the code, though, can be tricky.

:)

[Pearls Before Swine]

My not-Windows partition has been through a lot of different Linux flavors.

Fedora, IMHO, is quite variable in useability between different versions, depending on how bleeding edge the latest things are.

Linux Mint is nice, although I’ve had occasional hardware problems. Linux Mint also has a distribution that is Debian based, called LMDE. The nice thing about that is that it is a “rolling” distribution—meaning you don’t have to update your system every six or nine months to stay on top of things. You just do incremental updates.

So, I asked myself, “Why not go right to Debian?” And, that is another viable choice. Right now I’m running the Debian “testing” distribution with the lightweight XFCE desktop. Very nice, and aside from incremental updates, I expect it to have a life of several years. As a bonus, it’s easy to change the desktop system to KDE, Gnome, or whatever.

[Rebelbase]

I finally converted to Ubuntu from XP and am kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

Simple to use, fantastically stable and don’t have to run script killers anymore.

[ShadowAce]

Your comments about Fedora are spot on.

I've been running Fedora as my sole environment on my laptops since 2003--Fedora Core 1. A few versions I have totally skipped due to reviews. F20, though, seems to be just about perfect so far.

[minnesota_bound]

After looking over the 50 OS I have decided on Windows 8....

[ShadowAce]

I can already tell you didnt actually look over all 50.

[Clay Moore]

Any recommendations on what to put on the kids computer? They seem to download every game they come across and mash every “CLICK HERE”to download the latest adware bot. I am quite tired of wiping it in order to disinfect it.

[RckyRaCoCo]

bfl

[ShadowAce]

I don't have a specific recommendation. Just try several distros using this method.

[all_mighty_dollar]

bttt

[minnesota_bound]

Windows 8 is soooo good I did not have to : )
btw I tried it and also upgraded to 8.1 (3.6gb download that you could not save) and learned to despise it. Lasted about 1 month before going back Windows 7.
Linux Mint is the one if I were to choose as I have used it. It is laid out well. You have to wonder what was in the coffee in Redmond for them to even consider Windows 8.

[Mears]

” You have to wonder what was in the coffee in Redmond for them to even consider Windows 8.”

---

Reminds me of much frustration I was having about 10 years ago with Microsoft customer service.

I said to the genius rep,”Am I going to have to call Redmond,Washington to correct this problem?”

He replied,”I’m sorry ma’am,I don’t know who he is.”

.

[ShadowAce]

LOL! OK. I misunderstood your previous post.