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Anyone still using Windows XP as main OS?


Stefan43

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Having several systems, I use a variety of OS' suited to the task they perform: 

 

- Pentium 4 system gets Windows 2000 as I personally prefer the slightly lower RAM footprint and performance that is generally more acceptable than XP. XP seems to get slower as more updates are added on, which I really dislike. 2K is "frozen," as it were and is thus far less likely to slow down

 

- HP/Compaq TC1100 tablet gets XP, I tried Windows 7 on an IDE SSD, but it just didn't work all that well. Machine has 1.5GB of RAM, so I'd have expected more. XP has a similar feature set and just works a heckuva lot better

 

- "Gaming/High Performance" system gets Windows 7, and it works nicely for this. Has a Core 2 Extreme 3GHz, 8GB of RAM, a lot of hard drives and stuff. 

 

- HP DC5100 File/Active-Directory/VM server gets W2K3. This is self explanatory

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Windows 2000 would have been a better supported system, had it not been limited to one year on the market before XP was released.

 

Today, I stream video on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, which effectively obsoletes Windows 2000 as a realistic choice for a "be-all end-all" operating system. Windows 2000 does not support Silverlight 5. It also is not natively supported by current programs like Chrome, Firefox, Flash Player, Adobe Reader, etc, all of which are still written for Windows XP.

 

I think this last point is critical, since XP is no longer patched. Browsers and Flash Players are the main vector through which viruses compromise the OS. I do not mind using an "obsolete OS", but I prefer a browser that receives security vulnerability updates.

 

I can generally use an OS for at least 10 years before a replacement becomes necessary. Considering XP will be 15 years old next year, it has aged extremely well and I will continue to use it for my main OS as long as is feasible.

Edited by sdfox7
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Windows 2000 would have been a better supported system, had it not been limited to one year on the market before XP was released.

 

Today, I stream video on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, which effectively obsolete Windows 2000 as my choice for a "be-all end-all" operating system. Windows 2000 does not support Silverlight 5. It also is not natively supported by current browsers or Flash Players.

 

I think this last point is critical, since XP is no longer patched. Browsers and Flash Players are the main vector through which viruses compromise the OS. I do not mind using an "obsolete OS", but I prefer a browser that receives security vulnerability updates.

 

I can generally use an OS for at least 10 years before a replacement becomes necessary. Considering XP will be 15 years old next year, it has aged extremely well and I will continue to use it as long as is feasible.

In that case you should try the unofficial updates for Windows 2000.

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Windows 2000 would have been a better supported system, had it not been limited to one year on the market before XP was released.

 

Today, I stream video on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, which effectively obsolete Windows 2000 as my choice for a "be-all end-all" operating system. Windows 2000 does not support Silverlight 5. It also is not natively supported by current browsers or Flash Players.

 

I think this last point is critical, since XP is no longer patched. Browsers and Flash Players are the main vector through which viruses compromise the OS. I do not mind using an "obsolete OS", but I prefer a browser that receives security vulnerability updates.

 

I can generally use an OS for at least 10 years before a replacement becomes necessary. Considering XP will be 15 years old next year, it has aged extremely well and I will continue to use it as long as is feasible.

In that case you should try the unofficial updates for Windows 2000.

 

 

Yes, I think I was still editing my post when you posted your response. There are unofficial updates for operating systems, but it's nothing short of a miracle that XP is supported by developers nearly 15 years after its release!

 

As of this November, Google has delayed its support cutoff for Chrome on XP for the third time. The original plan was until at least April 2015 (http://chrome.blogspot.com/2013/10/extending-chrome-support-for-xp-users.html), then got delayed to at least the end of 2015 (http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/04/providing-updates-for-chrome-for-xp.html), and now it stands at April of 2016 (http://chrome.blogspot.com/2015/11/updates-to-chrome-platform-support.html).

 

The fact of the matter is that 10-12% of the world's computers run XP, which amounts to millions of machines.

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  • 2 months later...

1. I use Windows XP SP3 with recent XPE fixes and PAE >4GB patch on my upgraded machine core i7-2600k / 4GB RAM as primary OS. I also use XP at work because we need at least one PC with older OS to be able to use some specific HW which doesn't have drivers for Vista and newer systems...

2. I don't have serious problems, I only found that XP is not capable tu utilize hyperthreading even worse it makes some apps run slower. I experienced some apps (usually singlethread but WinRAR too) run some tens % slower than with HT disabled. Compared to Linux where I got about 20% faster compilation with HT enabled and use make -j8.

3. I never used IE8 on XP as I never upgraded IE6 from basic install. I was always IE hater from ancient times of Win 3.1 where I installed Netscape Navigator and later go with Mozilla till now...

Edited by xrayer
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I still use it on several PC's, runs great.  Also run Windows 2000 with unofficial updates, and LXLE X64.  Windows XP runs fewer services and has a memory overhead almost as low as Windows 2000.  I am currently investigating full OS's with low memory requirement for older hardware, and Windows XP seems to have the edge for now.  More to follow.

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Win XP in P3 1 Ghz 256 Mb RAM PC over here, dual boot with Puppy Linux Lucid. With XP services tweaked, no antivirus and connected. Runs like a champ, no virus, no blue screens, running SeaMonkey as browser.

 

I also have two laptops, one with Win 10 and the other with Debian, but for some reason still prefer the old PC.

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  • 3 weeks later...

"Does anyone on MSFN still use Windows XP as main OS?"

 

No I relegated XP SP3 to secondary OS a few years ago. I now use Slackware Linux as my primary OS. XP was used primarily for Windows games that won't run under Linux with Wine due to the D3D requirement. Currently I am in the process of replacing XP with Windows 2000 as I can do pretty much the sames things that I was doing with XP after installing the community based unofficial SP's and updates.

 

"If yes, did you experience any problems with hacks after the EOL of Windows XP?"

 

Never tried any, so I can't comment on this.

 

"And do you still use Internet Explorer 8?"

 

No. I used primarily Firefox and Opera secondarily.

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1) Yes, I'm using XP on several PCs and have numerous friends asking me even to make fresh install of XP instead Vista or 7.

 

2) Still ot sure about what you name 'hacks' - it seems that you are talking about malware intrusion not about tweaks for making XP updated or smth like that. So I hadn't such probs for years and still haven't now. My setup makes my Win life safe and unobtrusive.

 

3) No I don't use IE8 (except some times when several apps do open web exclusively in IE). You've asked about safe browser? I use K-Meleon and it's my first defense line due to its rarity, native portability and lack of support for all the active things like toolbars or standard extensions. Being precise, you can install and use part of Firefox XPIs, but no one program (incl. malware) cannot.

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urgh last time I used IE for web was in version 5.5 on win 98SE hahaha

don't see the point of using it for anything

 

as for main OS, some weaker configs still do, plus you can use POSr09 patches till 2019 ?

so why not... 

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I still use it in a VM mostly to mount virtual disks from backups create with the Windows Image creator. It saves me taking owner ship of user directories thats why I don't just mount it in my win 7/8 machines. 

 

on another not I have been seeing more activity in the XP forum about unofficial patches and tweaks to get things running that is boosting my interest in using Win XP again!

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I still use it in a VM mostly to mount virtual disks from backups create with the Windows Image creator. It saves me taking owner ship of user directories thats why I don't just mount it in my win 7/8 machines. 

 

on another not I have been seeing more activity in the XP forum about unofficial patches and tweaks to get things running that is boosting my interest in using Win XP again!

 

Please see my post here to get the service packs for 2000/XP.

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