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Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

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Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#31
post #3

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level computer? Nothing really worth paying for. I am surprised MS doesn't get more credit for XP which could be seen as a relativity dependable workhorse. Problem is for MS of course they ended the need for the users to upgrade.

Improved security is a major feature that most people should care about (but they don't).

If my computer is letting me to play solitaire on my free time, I don't care which bot net it is contributing on its free time

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#33
post #22
post #18

Time to upgrade to GNU/Linux! :)

I could just imagine that conversation with my CTO... Me: CTO, we're switching to Linux instead of Windows 7 CTO: Great! How much functionality will we lose with our applications? Me: All of it! CTO: Let's do it!

Then again, a lot of corporate software is Java or .NET, which means a much smaller porting effort. Trying to run native Windows software under Wine, OTOH, doesn't end well (in my experience).

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#34
post #2

The Chinese government should try and switch the Chinese faster to the new national OS, Ubuntu. http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/03/ubuntu-to-become-the-offi...

Faster? It's taking the French Gendarmerie a decade to transition to Ubuntu. It'll take much much longer to transition the Chinese government to Ubuntu (if that ever happens). The first linux distro designed to be used by the Chinese government was developed in 2001, and UbuntuKylin is a loose continuation of that, so we'll see how that goes.

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#35
post #3

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level computer? Nothing really worth paying for. I am surprised MS doesn't get more credit for XP which could be seen as a relativity dependable workhorse. Problem is for MS of course they ended the need for the users to upgrade.

I just travelled through Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) for two months and, indeed, everyone still uses Windows XP. I was actually pleasantly surprised when i used XP again after many years in internet cafes and noticed it to be good in terms of user interface. Things 'just work'. Maybe because i've used XP for many years, but i had the impression that many things were in logical places, little bloat or silly stuff that you get in Windows 8 and, most important at all, very fast and responsive even on the old machines they had there.

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#36
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that they wouldn't - software incompatibility, browser incompatibility... It's similar to getting grandma to run Linux.

Software incompatibility certainly. But I don't think most people will notice browser compatibility issues if they move to Firefox or Chrome on Linux.

Why do so many commenters on tech sites believe "mum" or "grandpa" only run a browser?

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#38
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Improved security is a major feature that most people should care about (but they don't).

If my computer is letting me to play solitaire on my free time, I don't care which bot net it is contributing on its free time

Until it steals your important data, or crashes your system, or sets your laptop on fire from maxing out your cpu for bitcoin mining.

Depends on the specific malware obviously.

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#39
post #35
post #3

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level computer? Nothing really worth paying for. I am surprised MS doesn't get more credit for XP which could be seen as a relativity dependable workhorse. Problem is for MS of course they ended the need for the users to upgrade.

I just travelled through Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) for two months and, indeed, everyone still uses Windows XP. I was actually pleasantly surprised when i used XP again after many years in internet cafes and noticed it to be good in terms of user interface. Things 'just work'. Maybe because i've used XP for many years, but i had the impression that many things were in logical places, little bloat or silly stuf…

I was using Windows XP last week to make sure I didn't break compatibility and I miss little things like snap[0]. It is remarkable how quickly we build muscle memory because I really didn't use Windows 7 until about the third quarter of 2010. I was either on Tiger on my personal computer or XP for everything else.

[0] http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/feature...

Re: Millions in Asia still on Windows XP

#40
post #3

For the avg user that only needs internet, office, and music/movies Windows XP is good enough. What does Vista/7/8 offer a person using a Pentium 4 level computer? Nothing really worth paying for. I am surprised MS doesn't get more credit for XP which could be seen as a relativity dependable workhorse. Problem is for MS of course they ended the need for the users to upgrade.

Windows XP extended support ends in April (2014). Having your computer hacked due to unpatched OS and browser should be worth paying to avoid. If you don't feel like paying, there's always linux distros, *bsd, nexenta OS...

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/default.aspx?LN=en-us...

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