OT Win. XP sp3 life cycle

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

For those that may be interested and those that may be considering which new windows based system to purchase:

There was a post a little while back which meandered into the life cycle of Win XP. Yesterday one of the trade rags stated win XPp would be supported/sold (downgrade ability) until 2020. That article was incorrect.

Microsoft makes this stuff a little confusing, well they make a lot of things a little confusing, but I digress.

There are a couple of important things to consider. Sales life cycle and support life cycle. Then there is a home version and a business version of the OS.

Here are some important dates.
With Win7 being launched on October 22, 2009.

Windows XP sp3 will reach the end of it's support date in April 2014. (no more security updates released).

IF Microsoft can meet their 'on-time' release date, Win8 will be released in October 2012.

Windows 7 (business editions)will be supported until the end of 2019.

The following relates to buying a current version of windows then using a downgrade right to still use XP. However, the above 2015 date is an absolute dead date for XP. AS important if MS no longer is releasing updates for security the OS is useless if a system is open to the web - then the 2014 date is critical.

Here is a statement made by Microsoft yesterday.

... "businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7."

and further it continued...
"OEMs can sell PCs with the previous OS pre-loaded for up to 2 years after, the launch date of the new OS. "

GG

Fidel · July 2010

For what it's worth, I bought my wife a new laptop last night with Win7 64-bit Home Premium version installed and it is a terrific OS. I was very impressed with it on the surface. Time will tell how it works but so far I am happy I didn't downgrade the new PC.

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

I recently installed Win7 pro (64 bit) on an older dual core system I have here. I also had found a deal on a loaded HP trimline which had Win7 Home Premium 64 bit for $249. I have only turned this machine on a couple of times but using that prompted me to update my main computer.

I wont downgrade to XP either.

Win7 is a huge improvement over XP running on the same machine. Very fast and there are some really nice features. I really enjoy the left side bar to navigate into my different folders as well as the resizing a window by dragging it left, right or to the top of the screen.

Gadfly · July 2010

Glad to see you guys like using it as much as we liked building it

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

Interesting... always seems to amaze me who ends up egging and on the forum. Thanks.

Now to find an employee discount so I can update the rest of the box's here.

Welcome to the forum.

GG

Gator Bait · July 2010

Hi Kent,

You state that "if MS no longer is releasing updates for security the OS is useless if a system is open to the web".

My question is, What if you are running something like Norton's Internet Security that is maintained and kept updated? Are you saying that MS security updates are the only security to rely on and because they (MS) quit supporting a product that product is no longer safe to use? I have always thought of Norton's as being better at protecting my machine then MS. Norton's constantly updates their protection where as MS is more sporadic in my opinion.

I run XP Pro and am not eager to change, I have better things to do with my money. As far as I can see XP is the best OS since DOS 3.1 and sometimes wish we had never advanced (?) past it. :laugh:

Then again for all I know I may have to replace this machine far sooner then I want to and my question will be a moot point.

Gator

Photo Egg · July 2010

I need to but a new PC based laptop.
I have for the most part gone Mac but still need to have a PC. My HP laptop that I use now is loaded with XPp. I loaded Win7p from scratch as instructed but some items such as my audio would not work. searched long and hard for drivers with no luck so I used ghost to clone my old image back. Kind of wanted to get a new laptop with Blu-Ray any how.
Always like to see your info posts on things like this.
Darian

Unknown · July 2010

Of course Ubuntu blows windows out of the water....

Unknown · July 2010

Gator,

If it ain't broke - don't fix it!

If, however, you want a new, fast, reliable awesome OS - try out Ubuntu. You can even use a 'Live CD' where you can try out the OS without actually installing anything first. Also, you can easily set up a dual-boot set up.

BigGreenDon · July 2010

As more and more system vulnerabilities are found, third party software finds themselves in a role of trying to plug a dyke full of thousands of holes if the OS vendor has stopped addressing things at that level. Also, once OS support is dropped, the third party vendors may follow suite soon thereafter. I ran Win98 for a long time on a P2 machine, then Symantec stopped supporting it after a while.

If you use your PC for what 90% of people use their PCs for -- web, email, and some office type applications, you can bring an older machine back to life by installing Ubuntu Linux and Open-Office. Linux has come a long way, and the Ubuntu version is easy-peasy to install. My P2 sits in a spare bedroom and surfs the web just fine since I resurrected it with Linux.

Microsoft is kind of unabashed about obsoleting your hardware.

Don

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · July 2010

i can't imagine that someone trying to write a virus is going to focus on an 'outdated' OS. much of the reason the MAC OS has fewer viruses is that the scammers go where the traffic is greatest. they write for the most common OS. i'd think a newer OS would have an even greater likelihood, since the newer it is, the more likely there might be exploits to, well, exploit.

FWIW, i had a virus on my MacPlus ca. 1986. My B-I-L gave me some shareware games for christmas, and one of them had a virus

but i bet if i ran that macplus today i wouldn't get any of the viruses that are out there. :laugh:

1.) update your OS
2.) update your security software (plenty of freeware)
3.) use an old machine for your pron :blink:

Gator Bait · July 2010

Congratulations Kent, that was your 12,000 th post!!!

Is there any thing you would like to say to all your adoring fans that you haven't said in the previous 12,000 post?

I'm looking forward to the next 12,000!

Gator

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

A DOS lover eh! I still go to the black screen once in a while too.

Until I used Win7 I wasn't going to go past XP (sp3) either. I hated ME and I never got used to Vista, until after using Win7.

One comment for folks reading this, make sure your older systems are compatible to Win7 should you think about upgrading.

After a few hours of the Win7 I was hooked. Moving this machine from XP to 7 was better than moving form older windows to XP.

There are some great new and very useful features. At first I really didn't understand or like the left side navigation window in 7. I spend a little time learning what it was and how it worked and for me that feature alone is worth making the change.

If I had the money I would upgrade every system I had. If the system wouldn't support 7 I would get rid of the system.

I don't think I would buy a retail box of 7 but the OEM price was somewhat reasonable.

To your point...
Running a bare OS is very dangerous and one is asking for a lot of problems by doing so.

Good point. Those dates are when MS will stop fixing bugs and deploying security holes in XP.

As far as virus protection from any vendor most of us have seen that none of the services have provided absolute protection.

My thinking is the MS updates/fixes are as important as running a firewall and virus protection and keeping those up to date.

Some time past someone posted here on the forum to use Microsoft Essentials protection which is free (for now). I left Norton some years back and moved to McAfee and since have uninstalled that as well as some of the other virus offerings. So far MS Essentials has been great and no yearly fees any more.

GG

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

Ubuntu is free and pretty nice but if one still has to live in the MS world not everything will run.

GG

Unknown · July 2010

True, but there are usually excellent replacement (like open office if that is what you are referring to) or you can always use wine which is always getting better and better. I run some pretty heavy windows only programs through ubuntu with wine.

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

:laugh: :laugh:

Didn't realize that, maybe I had better...

No wonder there is no 'A' left on the A key.

Kent

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · July 2010

let me know when you can run CS5 or maya, or maybe cinema4d with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM with no loss of performance.

my machines are here to work for me, and i'm not in love with them. it's purely a whorish relationship. i'm never sure which of us is the whore, but it works for us.

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

I have 4 or 5 programs that must run on windows, and a couple that require IE8. So I can't leave the MS world.

Open office works well but there it still isn't MS Office Suite. For example in Excel using a pivot table. Using some of the quick clicks and other features in Excel make working data much easier.

Probably to much of an extreme but Open Office as compared to MS Office is like saying a Lexus is the same as a Pinto. Both will get one to the same destination, but getting there will be a different experience.

With that said, I have set up a couple of systems using Linux and put on some software for the grand kids to use.

GG

Chubby · July 2010

That I was here to witnees this in "real time"!

Take note...those of us here, (now) in this thread! Brothers in Arms we have forever become!

Shurely...there will come a day...(ie...where you when Kenedy was shot?), that we here today, will look back on this moment, with misty memories!

Congrats Kent! :woohoo:

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

I was wondering if you would jump in with the software you use. I have the same situation with several packages.

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

hehehehehe

You know this event could of happened yesterday. Instead 2 and almost 3 phone batteries went dead. I got to thinking, with all those curly papers you might feel richer with a fatter wallet.

Take a look at your yahoo email. I might have a 350G HD that will work once I get the information back from you.

Kent

Gator Bait · July 2010

st!ke wrote:

let me know when you can run CS5 or maya, or maybe cinema4d with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM with no loss of performance.

my machines are here to work for me, and i'm not in love with them. it's purely a whorish relationship. i'm never sure which of us is the whore, but it works for us.

Hahahahaha, my first graphics program was called Slash! I think, I was delighted it would run in VGA. LOL. My used Tandy 3000 ran on two 5 1/4" floppies cause I couldn't afford a HD. HD's were like gold back then. My first HD was 40 meg, I think I paid about $400 for it. What happened? :laugh:

Gator

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · July 2010

maybe you and I are among the rare people who use these things for more than twitter, facebook, and email.

i spend as pantload of cash on my machine so that i can get my work done, not so i can play video games and organize my iPod. hahaha

Unknown · July 2010

I think calling office a lexus vs oOffice a pinto is a pretty harsh exaggeration. Both Excel and Ooffice is crap for manipulating date - for that you should really be using 'R' anyway.

Open office has all the functionality that 99% of users use anyway. If you are serious about writing documents - you shouldn't use word - you use use LaTeX, and if you are serious about data - you use R or SAS. Of course, most people (esp. governments) are stuck using Windows stuff for ease of collaboration. Oh well, such is like ef?

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · July 2010

i WROTE my first graphics program.
hahaha

was a rip off of the paint program in mac, and was written in BASIC. horrifically slow.
good lord, that was a long time ago. ca. 1983

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

Are you using an older version of ghost. Once Symantec took over the company Symantec required a single system install.

Supposedly there are a couple of free ghost type programs out there but I am not sure how well they work. I used to ghost all new installs so I wouldn't have to go through installs from scratch.

Was your problem a codec problem or a HP driver problem?

HP is such a pain to work with. One of my printers is an HP which is several years old. I can't get the HP to print from my 7 install through my LAN. I don't want to hook the HP directly to the 7 machine. Called HP and they wanted $40 to talk me though it - they did make a disclaimer that they may not be able to resolve the problem but the fee still had to be paid.

My problem wasn't 7 it's the HP install on the XP machine. The HP drivers on the XP won't allow/accept the print jobs sent from the 7 install. Rather than paying HP their fee I figured out a sloppy workaround.

GG

Gator Bait · July 2010

I skipped over BASIC and went straight to Quick BASIC. I was a few years after you at least. Quick BASIC was a good intro to Pascal and Fortran, they were fun. I probably should have stuck with programing, I might have a job now.

Gator

Gator Bait · July 2010

I'm glad to hear you have such good words to say for Win 7. It's nice to know that life after XP isn't going to be a major step backwards.

Gator

Grandpas Grub · July 2010

Started with Basic, DBase III (DOS) & Pascal here.

My first basic on the Apple was lost at system off or it had to be saved to casette tape.

My first 5" drive for the Apple cost me $500. That system ended up having 4 - 5" floppy's then I went to K-Pro & Compaq both sewing machine style luggable. At that time still only floppy's. I was writing & selling medical gas passers billing program written in DBase III.

IBM finally decided a personal computer wasn't beneath them. Green screen's, 1 5" floppy and a whole 5MB hard drive - $5,000 but it was IBM.

That was a funny time working with the main frame IBM guys. All the suits, with white shirts, red ties, wingtip shoes and carrying their plastic Monte Blanc pens. In the beginning they were mortified having to stoop and work with us lowly earthlings.

Eventually we ended up having to wear the 'uniform' and they ended up having to realize the PC was really a computer.

GG

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · July 2010

i quit programming altogether in highschool, and never did it again other than as a required class in highschool/college.

i cut my nose off to spite my face on that one.

had a 17 page program in basic that got overwritten during a save. the HD didn't have enough room, and only wrote the first ten lines or so. i had deleted all the earlier versions to clear up disk space, and when i saved it and tried to run it, the thing stopped at line 100 (or so).

i didn't know then that the file was 'still there". i thought it was truly gone. i shut of the computer and never turned it on again.

it was a Dec Pro350, worth I believe about $15k at the time. used to take it apart and lay it out on the floor to cool it down

Gadfly · July 2010

You guys make me feel young again!

OT Win. XP sp3 life cycle

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