Posted on 06/05/2017 8:34:41 PM PDT by dayglored
Windows XP is an operating system doggedly hanging onto life. Nearly 16 years after its launch, at least tens of thousands of XP machines remain in use.
One percent of the 4.6 million devices—smartphone and computers—examined by Duo Security were found to be running XP, with a large number of business PCs still using the OS.
Windows XP persists despite being released back in 2001, and, in most instances, Microsoft not having patched the OS to fix flaws that could be exploited by hackers since 2014.
"While support for the ancient OS ended in 2014, thousands of endpoints used in the enterprise still run on the legacy system," says Thu T. Pham in the 2017 Duo Trusted Access Report.
The statistics echo findings from a separate poll earlier this year, which found 52% of firms were still running Windows XP on at least one machine. Duo found XP remained more popular in Europe than in the US and Canada, with the OS on 2% of devices in EMEA, compared to 1% in North America. Meanwhile, other statistics estimate that XP remains especially widespread in China relative to the rest of the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at techrepublic.com ...
Good.
At least in Windows 7, you can simulate XP with XP Mode. but that won’t work with 10. (And BTW, what happened to 8 and 9?)
I’m running vista on this machine and like it a hell of alot better than W10
My wife has W-9 that morphed into 10 on her laptop and it's a pain to operate. (maybe because I'm comfortable in my old ways)
You really must play around with some of the newer Linux distro's. My Win7 'puter doubled its speed by just loading Linux Zorin and it acts so much like Win7 there was hardly any learning curve and the "Wine" emulator runs Windows programs but since it also came pre-loaded with LibreOffice to replace MS Office and Gimp to replace Photoshop or just think of it as Paint on steroids; there was no need to install more than a couple of free Win programs I happen to like. A bulk photo resizing program (Mihov) and an app that changes the camera photos name to the date and time (Namexif).
Not having to concern myself with the latest MS virus/malware is kinda cool too.
Don't get me wrong, I like Windows, but geez they're so vulnerable and bloated plus all the programming commands keep the CPU's hoping a lot more than they need to thus slowing down the system for the user. I've often wondered why MS didn't take some ques from Linux and lean out their OS's for speed and reliability. I get they are targeted by hackers more than any other OS but they should be able to make their OS leaner. If Linus Torvalds could do it in a dorm room back in the early 90's with no budget at all; MS should be able to do it with their billions and their teams of assets. Linus didn't reinvent the wheel; he took his inspiration from Unix then made it open source. Linux could have been the Windows killer but he chose, and still does, to keep it open source. He still oversees all distro's. I think I read somewhere that Debian was his fave.
Anyway; pardon me if I'm stepping on any toes. I, as a previous MS certified tech, understand loyalty to a brand.
Windows 8 was just a horrible mistake. It was a good NT operating system "under the hood", but the new smartphone-inspired user interface ("Metro") was beyond the pale on a desktop. It was denounced and rejected almost universally.
Windows 8.1 addressed a few of the most egregious flaws in Win8, but didn't begin to fix the overall problem.
Windows 9 never happened. They went directly from 8.1 to 10.
There is precedent for this. When Windows NT first came out, it was version 3.1 to match the then-current MSDOS-based Windows 3.1. There was never a Windows NT 1 or Windows NT 2.
MSDOS-based Windows:
My XP desktop machine is still running fine. starting to see some weird issues like not being able to access my bank web site via Chrome but can get there via different browser. I keep XP because of 1000s of dollars of antiquated music recording software and it will be a huge deal for me to replace all of it. I have Win10 devices as well.
That sounds like a condemnation of 10. I have not used Vista by wife has it on her laptop and hates it.
8 and 9 are somewhere out there with Vista.
Yep.
I still use Windows xp.. Love it..
Dose works fine.
You mean Duze works fine...
Although technically correct, Windows NT 3.1 was based on OS/2, its predecessor. So although there is no direct correlation about a numbering scheme of NT version 3 following OS/2 versions, indirectly one might say there is (very loosely). I'm a former NT/Windows Server admin and supported OS/2, NT, and Windows (in addition to flavors of DOS back to version 1) and still have various copies of the software including a shrink-wrapped new box of OS/2 version 2.0 (early 1990s) that I never opened.
Two of my fave programs won't run on Win-7 64 ... Photodex CompuPic, which was never ported into 64bit, and Micrografx Picture Publisher which was bought out by Corel and then subsequently killed by them ... sigh ...
And so I attempt to maintain my old XP 'puters just for those programs
Just had to repair a couple netbeui errors on one of my cnc controllers. XP works just fine for that. I even have my old workstations for software I never wanted to upgrade and works fine. I always tell the people who say I should upgrade or move to Mac feel free to buy me some new cnc machines and a new cmm and I would be happy to.
Amen.
Windows XP was a very fast version that had a good combination of classic Windows and Windows NT. The Classic Windows that sprung from the very popular Windows 3.1 was commonly used on most Intel computers. While NT was used for those who needed connectivity like file serving or connections to advanced devices. But what made XP so good was the same thing that makes it so bad. It was very fast compared to later versions. And it was open to adaptation. Which was great for programmers. But some programmers are hackers. So viruses quickly and easily spread on XP machines after the OS spread through the world.
Versions of Windows after XP were just versions of XP with more features and security causing them to be slower. And only modestly more secure. Not until Windows 10 came out with Microsoft Edge, was there a full rewrite. A new OS from beginning to end. Windows 10 dramatically reduced viruses. And sped up the Windows environment which had been dogged by clunky patches over previous versions.
XP persists out of etrophy and certain “hacks” from thousands of programmers over the years who wrote some low level code to make “everything work”, then left the company without anyone who understands the code. Engineers that followed did not touch the machines because “they worked”. And so they have been quietly running in closets and the back of computer rooms for 15 years. At least until a virus found them.
I have a very expensive piece of hardware from the late 1990s that has software that will only run properly on a 32-bit XP system (I would assume 95 and 98 as well). Actually, it is a DOS application that has a windows-like GUI.
So, I’m stuck with XP (though my XP box is banned from Internet access, except in dire emergency).
But every time I fire up that system, I am reminded how nice XP really is.
My understanding is that they skipped "9" because of existing code in the OS, utilities and some apps that checked for the Windows version by only looking at the first numeric digit. So Windows 9 would have been confused with Windows 95 and 98 in some cases.
I’m on the road and missed FR, so I bought a laptop that’s running Win10. Not too bad but I prefer my WIN7. I may have to get a buddy who has a computer shop to build me a machine with LINUX and put Virtual Machine on it to run Windows so I can let my wife use some of the apps she likes and to be able to play with some Access databases until I can convert them to the Open Office database because my wife informed me that the home machine with WIN 7 on it started acting up and won’t boot - mother board beep indicates it finally died. Will have to use the laptop until I decide on a replacement home machine.
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