Windows XP driver support begins to end

TECH.BLORGE.com ^ | December 21, 2007 | Jonathan Schlaffer

[CedarDave]

PING!

[dayglored]

Uh, oh, here it comes.

BEND OVER! HERE COMES VISTA!

[shuckmaster]

Worries like that ended for me when I finally bought a Mac

[nina0113]

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?

[dayglored]

VISTA -- the most effective marketing campaign ever devised for a computer product... the Macintosh

[CedarDave]

No recommendation from me. But your question will no doubt start a mini-computer war here. My suggestion? DUCK!! [grin]

[garyhope]

That’s nice, but many financial trading programs won’t run on the Mac OS.

[dayglored]

> 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?

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!)

[VOA]

Windows XP driver support begins to end

Unless MSFT engineers a graceful and economic transition to "whatever comes
after Windows Vista"...
they're on their way to at least accelerating the "slippery slope" of
folks that dump Windows/PCs for Apple and their operating systems.

I've been with Microsoft since "the dawn". I'll probably stick with them.

But if the Cluster-F___ continues with the coming transition for
MSFT systems, they'll be eating lower stock prices for the foreseeable future.

[dayglored]

Get VMware Fusion for the Mac, run Windows XP inn it FOREVER because there are NO DRIVER ISSUES in a Virtual Machine.

Screw Vista. I'm running XP in VMs and Windows will never touch the bare metal of my computers again.

[kimmie7]

.

[kimmie7]

.

[gondramB]

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.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"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!)"

Yes. Way to go. That's how I do it. Right now I have two XP virtual machines and a Linux virtual machine running. Sweet.

[VOA]

VISTA -- the most effective marketing campaign ever devised for a
computer product... the Macintosh

As a guy that leans to the Windows side of the PC highway...
I'd say you are about on-target.

Even if the "Mac guy" is a less-than-appealing slacker!

[dayglored]

Folks, this is a NON-ISSUE.

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!

[CedarDave]

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!)

Is that going to be the solution so that individual machine drivers will become unnecessary?

[CedarDave]

You answered my question before I asked it! Sweet...

[dayglored]

>> 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!)

> 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.