is XP obsolete?

edited December 2014 in Software
Not asking if it's abandonware, but would you consider it to be a usable OS nowadays?
«13

Comments

  • Yes. I would consider it obsolete. However, it's still usable depending on how you use it. There's lots of old OS's that are still usable for certain tasks.
  • No, it's still technically supported (therefore current) until April 2014.
  • I wouldn't. I use it on a couple PCs still that wouldn't be worth running W7 on; I prefer XP anyway, if not for DX9...
  • I no longer run XP on any real hardware. I do have an XP VM in case I need it for anything and the last time I booted it up was more than 6 months ago.
  • I would say it is obsolete as well but many people still run it on computers just fine.When Xp came out there were still people running WIndows 3.1 at the time for things like basic internet and word processing, Although most people were using WIn95 or WIn98 unless they had bought a newer machine which had ME on it. Why? it still did what it needed to do and was what they knew. XP has had the same thing happen to it and Win7 will have the same thing happen as well.
  • I have xp running on a old compaq evo 510d. It's the media center version of xp. The last time i turn it on was week ago to let it update itself. I also use it to run some old 16bit and 32bit stuff that windows7 64bit won't run.
  • Obsolescence isn't definitive. Somewhere, people draw the line, i.e. I believe in most cases Windows 2000 is considered to be obsolete, but I still know of some business applications (e.g. embedded stuff, like cash registers) that run Win2K as a legacy O/S.

    Just because it's not the latest doesn't mean it isn't usable. Over time, computers become increasingly powerful, and their operating systems increasingly heavy and complicated. If I recall correctly, Windows 3.1 in its entirety fit onto 6 or 7 floppy disks. That's like 10MB at most, which was a lot at the time, but if you think about it now people are shocked that an entire operating system could be transferred in such little space. And now we have Windows 7 which requires DVD media to install and what, 20GB of hard disk space?

    I'm not saying that's bad - useful features have obviously been added over the course of Windows' evolution as well; however, I for one use old operating systems because the hardware to run them on costs approximately nothing, and I admire their utilitarian simplicity, compared to more modern OSs.
  • There's a lot more hardware now than there was when 3.1 was around. There's more applications, more resource intensive applications. Of course Windows got bigger.

    But a lot of the bloat is by MS trying to maintain backward compatibility. If they took a page from Apple's book and said to hell with all the old stuff, they could probably cut down Windows considerably.

    Actually, they have. Look at Windows RT.
  • XP does need to die but people will keep using it until their machines fail. We have faculty at work that refuse to upgrade their 3-4 year old laptops so that they can keep their horrifically out of date XP image. The warranty is out on that hardware and its only a matter of time before it fails and then they are forced to get with the times.

    Its had a great run but 7 is simply a better OS if you have good hardware for it.

    Alas, I remember when people were sticking to Windows 2000 because XP didn't offer them anything worth wanting. That and the whole online activation thing was new and freaking people out.


    Like BlueSun I also keep an XP VM around, its great for doing quick things that would otherwise be a pain to accomplish in our poorly implemented environment (no print server support for 64-bit OSes)


    When I first got hold of a thinkpad tablet I installed AnDOSbox cause it seemed cute to install windows in it to get office, 3.1 and office 4.3 ftw, so even ancients still have their place.
  • I still run XP on a machine which one of my work friends gave me. I still also have my old XP machine, but thats in the attic. As it's for pure XP era gaming thats all I do with it. For the moment though the WIn98 machine is hooked up as I am playing through original release of C&C. Although the first decade is installed on the XP machine as well.

    It is obsolete but then agian so is a landline telephone according to most people.
  • I'm using Windows XP now officially. My system is running a little bit better now than it did with 7, especially since I don't have 4GB of RAM.. I honestly think this is a better OS for non-64-bit systems.
  • I'm using Windows XP now officially. My system is running a little bit better now than it did with 7, especially since I don't have 4GB of RAM.. I honestly think this is a better OS for non-64-bit systems.
    Almost everything in the past decade can qualify for a 64-bit system. Tells us more about your system specs?
  • Obsolete to me is when something is completely unused.
    Lot's of children tend to have windows XP desktops in their rooms for doing homework or just playing a pre-owned game they got for a pound or something.
    And another thing, software developers still tend to list their new software as XP compatible.
    So I don't think that it's obsolete.
  • XP Obsolete?

    Is banning people Obsolete? Must not be. :)
  • I'm using Windows XP now officially. My system is running a little bit better now than it did with 7, especially since I don't have 4GB of RAM.. I honestly think this is a better OS for non-64-bit systems.
    Almost everything in the past decade can qualify for a 64-bit system. Tells us more about your system specs?


    I only have 2GB of RAM.

    Which might be fine for some people under 7, but it's the absolute minimum, I would never use that again.

    Or maybe my desktop's 16GB of RAM spoils me.. XD
  • I have a system with 1 GB of RAM that runs 7 just fine. Ok, it's not going to win any performance awards, but it's quite usable.

    My mom's system ran 7 with 2 GB of RAM for a while until I upgraded it, it was just fine. I don't think there was any performance boost at all from the upgrade.
  • No, XP is not obsolete. It runs great and supports most things. I don't really think obsolete is the right word to use with operating systems, it is just to widely argued what obsolete is.
  • There were netbooks at my old job with 7 starter @ 1GB RAM. No issues. Aero was knocked down but the technicians didn't care. It got the job done.
  • Nope, not yet. Only a matter of time though. April 2014 is when extended is due to expire, mainstream expired in 2009, and downgrade is until Windows 7's lifecycle ends.
  • Microsoft stopped selling retail copies of XP on June 30th, 2008. They stopped selling it on OEM computers on October 22, 2010. It is supported until April 8, 2014.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... /lifecycle
  • I'm running windows 7 Pro with VMware workstation 9 installed. I have Virtual os''s from win 1 to Vista.I enjoy all of them.
  • XP is outdated, 10 years eh folks adhere to less than 10 years most of the Microsoft stuff, ah, XP is old he left to our memories go
  • I agree. He got so old that he died. I miss that old man, XP. :(
  • Guest wrote:
    Why can't anyone miss old man ME?
    .....fucking hypocritical people.

    If I'm not mistaken, GOW, stitch told you to LEAVE and NEVER COME BACK.
  • Can i remind you that Stitch approves these few posts i still make here.
    If he approves it, I doubt your small status here can do anything about it.
  • Guest wrote:
    Why can't anyone miss old man ME?
    .....fucking hypocritical people.

    If I'm not mistaken, GOW, stitch told you to LEAVE and NEVER COME BACK.

    If I am not mistaken, you need to learn your place. You don't have access to post IP's so I'm not sure how you drew that conclusion. Let the administrators do their job.
    Guest wrote:
    Can i remind you that Stitch approves these few posts i still make here.
    If he approves it, I doubt your small status here can do anything about it.

    Just behave. I am absolutely not in the mood for you to be a childish brat again.
  • XP isn't obsolete, I still see it used in a lot of places. Hell, I use it too.

    And guys, let Stitch handle that stuff. He's the admin, not us.
  • Don't put yourself into a situation where you find your internetz broke again, GoW. We wouldn't want mommy and daddy to find out what you're up to :D
  • I still use XP. M$ would sure like it if it was. I tried uploading it to Vetusware, but my upload speed was too slow. :cry: If anyone wants, I can make a torrent, then, say Stitch could download it and put it in the mirrors. Just a thought. :)

    I also have a hard-to-find Linux Central Mandrake 8.0 Traktopel if anyone wants it.
  • There are nearly 60 systems in my office running XP. I am a netadmin in a media company and we saved few jobs just by not updating our software from XP. And can say XP tweaked down will save a lot of power and will run smooth on lightweight hardware like Atom and VIA Mobos.My old office had 4000 employees and everyone of them was on XP. It isn't obsolete but is being made by hardware vendors and M$ just to push their new products.I know someone who uses it to create fake traffic to sites. ;) runs light and smooth on Vbox.
Sign In or Register to comment.