Posted on 12/26/2007 7:40:03 PM PST by CedarDave
It’s official, manufacturers are starting to dump Windows XP support entirely and some new models won’t even have Windows XP drivers or any kind of support available, anywhere. One reader, “Mark” contacted us regarding installing Windows XP on his HP V6610 (AU) laptop which is the V6620 in the US.
“Mark” said when he went to the HP driver/downloads section that very few Windows XP drivers were available for it and he was right, there were almost no useful drivers for the laptop there.
His call to HP support didn’t get very far as “HP is no longer supporting Windows XP on the newer PCs.”
Almost all new computers will ship with a version of Vista be it Basic, Premium, Business or Ultimate and deciding to install Windows XP might be problematic if not all the drivers are available. It’s also doubtful that the drivers will ever be available so you may as well stick with Vista.
Personally, I’ve not had that many problems with Vista, sure I had issues in the past but most of those have been resolved now and I would also have all my hardware working, despite the operating system.
Of course, those of you with Windows Vista and older hardware can attempt to install XP drivers, sometimes they take, sometimes they don’t but its a guarantee that Vista drivers do not work on Windows XP.
If you are not aware, Windows XP OEM will cease production in early 2008 so many manufacturers see no reason to provide Windows XP drivers for their newer hardware which will likely be running on a PC with Vista installed.
My guess is that other manufacturers are going to follow this model sooner rather than later. Models that shipped with Windows XP should be unaffected just don’t expect driver updates.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.blorge.com ...
PING!
BEND OVER! HERE COMES VISTA!
Worries like that ended for me when I finally bought a Mac
Guess I’m finally going to have to dump Micro$oft. I’m a little short on research time - do you recommend Mac or Linux?
No recommendation from me. But your question will no doubt start a mini-computer war here. My suggestion? DUCK!! [grin]
That’s nice, but many financial trading programs won’t run on the Mac OS.
Mac, unless you're into playing -with- the computer as much as -on- it. I love Linux too, but it does engender a more geeky mindset.
With either one, get VMware and you can also run Windows XP whenever you want to, for as long as you want to, without driver worries (because the hardware is virtualized, so no driver issues!)
Screw Vista. I'm running XP in VMs and Windows will never touch the bare metal of my computers again.
.
.
XP Drivers from big manufacturers who want to sell mainly new PC’s is different than whether parts manufacturers will provide drivers for parts they want to sell.
And like Dell, HP will give in if there is enough market demand. Dell got pressured into making Linux drivers too.
1. On your platform of choice (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.), install VMware.
2. Make a Virtual Machine (VM) of Windows XP.
3. Run it FOREVER without driver issues.
I fail to see why anybody is upset, except the manufacturers who are bending to Microsoft's will and designing "Vista-only" hardware. How stupid can they be?!?!?
This is an easy and inexpensive answer!
Is that going to be the solution so that individual machine drivers will become unnecessary?
You answered my question before I asked it! Sweet...
> Is that going to be the solution so that individual machine drivers will become unnecessary?
You still need some sort of drivers for whatever operating system you run on the host hardware. My personal choice is currently the Macintosh (the small MacBook, and a Mini), because the hardware is slick and no driver issues there either. But I've got legacy hardware running Linux and Windows and it runs VMware just fine, so I run my VMs on whatever I feel like powering up that day.
My notebook (the MacBook) runs OS-X native, but I have VMs on it of Windows XP, Linux (Fedora Core 4), NetBSD, and MS-DOS. None of them even know they're inside a Mac, no driver issues period.
Get a computer you like, I don't care what OS comes on it, install VMware, run XP in the VM. DONE.
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