Ever since the release of Vista, there has been some sort of widespread nostalgia for the days of Windows XP - to the point that many vendors still offer the old operating system to meet with the demand from customers for it. Having used XP from the day it was released up until 2005, I am a little curious as to where the fondness for the old operating system comes from. While I never had any real problems with XP such as viruses or spyware, I did have issues with it slowing down over time, needing the occasional reinstall after a year or so of constant use, and always struggling to keep third party applications from installing themselves in my system tray. The experience I had with XP was acceptable but not good enough to keep me from always looking for something better - I went through various distributions of Linux in an attempt to find something that was more stable, faster, and less susceptible to problems. I have now landed on OS X and, having used Vista, I can say that it feels an awful lot like XP only shinier and with more noises and pop up windows. With that in mind, the main problem people seem to be having with Vista is largely an issue of third party drivers and incompatible programs that need to be updated - so why keep XP around so those companies can put off developing the needed drivers and updating their software? Microsoft and other vendors have merely been postponing the inescapable truth that XP has been replaced by Vista and it is time for them to pull the plug on the old operating system and let those third parties focus on Vista rather than hanging on to the idea that XP will somehow last until Windows 7 comes out.