Who Says We can’t Keep XP?

With my own running of the Windows 7 beta, and not liking much of what I see, I started wondering to myself about keeping XP on my machines for the next few years.

Since Microsoft has stated that, in some form, Windows XP will continue to be supported until 2014, that’s another 5 years for a flavor of Linux to become big enough to challenge developers of commercial products to write software for the operating system.

Right now, I have everything I need to run my systems, with no real need for any new software. All I really need is an antivirus program that continues to get updates, and I’m set. Since there are companies that still offer antivirus programs and updates for DOS, I think I will be alright there.

People who write about the ‘wonders’ of Windows 7 are still among the first to explain that there is no new application, either individual or class, that forces anyone to upgrade.

Hardware will continue to change, and as I’ve stated, I’ll probably either obtain a 64 bit version of Vista, or a 64 bit version of Windows 2003 Server, and use it on at least one machine. The thing that hasn’t made me make the purchase already (besides money) is the way that Fedora worked so smoothly for a few hours when I first built that machine. It was very nice to use, looked absolutely slick, and not once did it give me a ‘chung’ when I tried to open a folder, such as Windows 7 does on my test machine. As I write this, I am tempted to say that I’m done with this Windows 7 garbage, and put Fedora 10 (64 bit) on the test machine, to see what it can do on that less powerful machine.

In the mean time, I plan to start downloading all the fixes and drivers for XP available from Microsoft, and burn a few DVDs full of drivers, fixes, and updates for all popular hardware. Actually, I’d like to see a start to do this by a few people, because I’m busy, and when I’m not, I’m somewhat lazy about things not immediately dire in nature. (If enough people did this, a source of community help would be there for a number of years, and the lack of new sales to this stubborn group could just force a change in Microsoft, or cause a faster change in the Open Source community.)

if allowed, Mr. Ballmer would have us changing operating systems like we used to change our vehicles, without ever asking ‘Why?’

Actually, I wonder what will be the very first thing to move some of my machines away from Windows XP. Will it be that Microsoft finally gets it, and develops something that allows me to be the master of my machine once again? Probably not, Ballmer is too much of a blowhard, self-congratulating, self-absorbed pinhead for that to happen.

Could it be the loss, and replacement of, a piece of hardware not then supported by XP? Probably, and because the average hardware maker is as pushy about change as Microsoft, I will then have to move to software that supports the hardware.

I can hope that, with the move toward being more green, the printer (because that is what it usually is) that fails could be cost-effectively repaired? Maybe. If less things were designed to be replaced rather than repaired, we would be better off as a planet.

I can hope. Not out of some desire to prevent change, but to wait until something really worthwhile comes along! (think using your analog cell phone, well past the advent of digital, until the bugs/coverage in pure digital service were taken care of)

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