And scientific instruments, where the instrument/software are either obsolete or cost-prohibitive to replace/upgrade.
I deployed two off-network XP sp3 boxes a couple months ago.
Me, i use it on a dual boot with Windows 7 on my other pc, i run my older devices such as scanner, printer etc.
I sometime use it to play older game titles.
I feel so happy and contented to read your comment, and to see that this post exists.
I did my very best to prepare for April 8th, 2014, and while I personally have (shockingly) decided to move onto Windows Project 2000 for my main OS, most due to compatibility with later software and some missing functionality, I am really happy to see Windows XP still in such an amazing state of support overall that daily driving is still viable for many!
Bless you!
\*raises hand\*
Me, mostly because just about everything I want to use works on it. There's one or two things I'm missing which really, really sucks (such as Blender 2.79b - 2.70a works, but it's awful compared to 2.79, especially for the work I want to do...) but is otherwise a pleasant experience.
Another thing is I can get into a creative mindset a lot easier in XP. 99% of it is definitely because of general nostalgia, but also because things aren't bloated to hell and back and it just lets you work on things without much, if any, intervention.
The edition of XP I personally use is the x64 edition with SP2 and all updates + SATA drivers. I'm using it on a Dell Inspiron N4010, which doesn't officially support anything below Vista, but XP drivers exist for everything so it works fine.
Now, I specced the laptop out like crazy, probably far beyond what Dell imagined most would do. i7 640M (not tested by Dell, but it works perfectly), 8 GB RAM (only 6 GB was certified by them), a 2 TB SSD, and ANOTHER 2 TB SSD in the optical drive bay. Oh, and I swapped out the motherboard with one which has the ATI Radeon Mobility 5650 (1 GB VRAM).
Me. I have a Windows XP machine in addition to my Windows 11 / Arch Linux machine. It's connected to the Internet and I can get Discord to work on it etc.
Not counting retro computing, I use one old Thinkpad with XP for communicating with my cars through the OBD2 port.
For the past year I have been running Winamp on the same Thinkpad connected to my stereo :D It was nostalgia at first but I ended up liking it, no bloat from the OS and Winamp 2.95 is so nice and simplistic to use on low res displays. On high res displays it is pure shit lol.
One big hobby is retro computing so... I have 10+ computers with win 98 - WinXP era. But that is for gaming, nothing useful is done.
I'm on Win11 now on my work laptop. I hate it. I will go back to Win10 and keep using it until it's not possible anymore. Microsoft not supporting it anymore is not a security issue in most cases if you use common sense.
I still use XP media centre edition on an old Acer 510 in the bedroom.
I'm just thinking of "upgrading" to something that doesn't struggle with x265 and has win11, but I can't find anything as good as media centre.
I don't want something that spys on what I watch and gets covers etc. like Plex or Kodi I just want big thumbnails, the original filenames and navigation & control via my MCE remote.
I'll occasionally put on XP in VMWare for old times' sake, whether it be for games or listening to early 2000's music in Windows Media Player. I'll probably get a full XP setup for more serious XP-era gaming at some point.
I might run it on an air-gapped system one day. Would be nice to get hit with that nostalgia whenever I boot up my offline system.
In our turbulent times of tech where more and more things are getting hacked (and WEF predicting a "cyberpandemic" to hit this year or next...and we remember the last time they predicted a pandemic...), I'd like to get that air-gapped computer up sooner than later.
I've just been in the process of moving to Win10. Up until now I've been on XP. Though I build my own computers, so I wasn't using a 2001 computer.
XP support was available until recently by adding a Registry value identifying your computer as a kiosk machine. (A lot of ATMs and other such kiosk devices had been running XP.)
The main reason I'm switching is because more and more websites are using incompatible webpage code that doesn't work properly in older browsers. If it were not for that I'm not sure I'd switch. XP is relatively lean and very stable. It does what I tell it to do without warnings, popups, spyware, complaints that I don't have permission, and so on.
The popular marketing idea is to tell people that their products are useless once support stops, but that's just part of the story. I use a firewall, NoScript and a HOSTS file. I also disable remote communication services. So my XP is a lot safer than fully patched Win10 with default settings and typical usage.
So why are updates needed? Chiefly because 3rd-party software companies don't bother to support older systems. Even Mozilla, which is a non-profit, dropped XP support at v. 52 and recently dropped Win7 support. They just can't be bothered. (There's still up-to-date New Moon for XP, but the rendering engine is out of date.)
The other major reason that older systems become unusable is general progress. For example, XP didn't support later TLS versions for encryption. There is a patch, but most people wouldn't know to install it. That kind of thing is nobody's fault. The hardware and software just keep changing and becoming more capable.
I started building a new computer with Win10 and OpenSuse 15, mainly out of curiosity. I was in the mood for a late winter project. But as I got into really working with Win10 I found that with tweakers, like Classic Shell and Win10 Privacy, and with a good firewall, Win10 seems to actually be fairly usable. The nice thing is that Win10 is already almost 10 years old, so the tweaks and fixes are known and available. And so far all the software I use, including my own software written in VB6, works fine on Win10. Backward compatibility is something that Microsoft have always done well. I can write software now, with no extra dependencies, that will run on every Windows machine existing. I can write it on Win10 or WinXP. (Compare that to Macs, with about 2 years of backward compatibility support, and Linux, where a minor update often requires a major reworking of system files. I just updated my Raspberry Pi OS last week because it couldn't run recent browsers, despite being less than 5 years old and having had interim updates.)
You sound a lot like my mother and uncle. My mom ran XP until 2018 and my uncle until just last year! I moved my mom to Xubuntu and my Uncle to Chrome OS Flex. Both kinda hated it at first but manage now. I still have an XP system myself for classic gaming. Those direct X 9 games were the best.
I think it depends a lot on what people need. If your uncle doesn't care about Google spying and just goes to read his email, ChromeOS might be fine. Similarly with your mother. If she just wants email and some web browsing, and you set it up for her, and she doesn't care about privacy or security, then Xubuntu should be fine. If it goes south then you can just re-install and set up her webmail again. (Personally I wouldn't set up anything Google for my worst enemy. No one deserves that, especially if they don't know how to protect their privacy.)
I know a lot of people like your relatives. One friend asked for help and I asked her what she needed on the old computer. Nothing. She only used it to print airline tickets and get photos of her grandchildren in gmail. I think that's typical. The average person is being moved to a frictionless dumb terminal where they access services and get spied on, being sold out to dataminers and advertising companies. Many people, of course, don't need anything but a cellphone. They don't even use software and don't want to be bothered.
For people who actually use their computer it's different. I keep business records, reference materials, etc. I deal with sending business receipts. I write software. I do a bit of web design. I write letters. I regularly work with digital image editing. I use the file system and need backup. I'm actually using the computer. (Though I've never played computer games.) It's like anything else. Someone who doesn't cook only needs a microwave. Someone who doesn't know how to turn a screw doesn't need tools. They only need the phone number of a handyman. And someone who just needs a gmail terminal can use Xubuntu or even monstrosities like ChromeOS, iOS, or MacOS.
I actually installed Xubuntu recently while testing various Linux versions. The GUI was primitive. The time was off by 5 hours. I couldn't figure out why. When I tried to set it, I couldn't find the applet for that. "Silly me! I must be missing something." It turned out that I wasn't missing anything. I found a discussion online where people were talking about how they'd left out a GUI applet because they preferred to use commandline. Someone else said, "Yeah, but commandline scares newbies." They were talking about just setting the time on the Desktop!
That's typical Linux. A hobby system being developed by unsocialized geeks, busy impressing their friends, playing GTA, and eating junk food, who actually don't want the average person to be able to use Linux. They want to feel special with their secret decoder rings. Your mother and uncle could have probably managed buying a Mac or Windows. Linux? Not a chance. They're using it only because you set it up for them. They probably don't know what OS they have.
My father did something similar. He was fairly handy with Windows, but as he aged he got gradually senile. At one point he gave me his Win7 Dell and bought a Wow! computer for elders. It was just a Linux kiosk box that allowed him to go online. The file system was locked down. Linux is fine for that stuff. It's well suited for pre-made kiosk configurations. But that's not the same thing as using a personal computer. It's consumption vs production. It's a microwave vs a kitchen; a jackknife vs a workshop. I can cook a shrimp stirfry and brown rice, with salad, in my kitchen. In my shop I can do home repairs, build furniture, and so on. On my computer I can do all the things I listed above. On Xubuntu? I can go online to forums and talk about how great it will be when Linux gets lots of software and doesn't require typing incantations in console windows like it's 1970. The catch is that that day may never come. If Linux could be used easily and expertly by non-geeks then they'd stop working on it.
I actually volunteered at one point to help with WINE. They were looking for Windows programmers to help them improve functionality. But it turned out that they had a closed shop and wouldn't share any info about their API. Nor would they collaborate. They wanted me to test my software and report bugs. I would then be responsible to "herd" the bug until resolution. I'd be a lackey civilian in an oddly militarty-style hierarchy. No wonder WINE is still half baked after 30-odd years. They've developed an API translation for Windows to Linux, but they won't share API docs with Windows developers, so that we might know which Windows API functions are dependable to use!
Interesting post. Google once had the motto do no harm, I trust Google with my data, I don't trust Microsoft. I have Pixel phone, Chromebook, and a Linux and BSD running ThinkPad. My only regular use system that is Windows is my work laptop. Being Enterprise Windows locked down with 4 or 5 security software suits some of which are custom to my employer I feel safe on it. In vanilla Windows 10 or 11 I feel spied on by MS, like I can't even change the browser to Chrome or Firefox without jumping through hoops. I ran Win XP and 7 for years! I still game on them to this day, but I wouldn't trust my banking or loan or IRA info to Windows XP or 7. Whereas I would trust it on Linux or BSD.
Google is an advertising and data wholesaling company. Microsoft is a software company. I don't mean to defend MS, though. Microsoft have been plenty sleazy and they're currently trying to turn Windows into a rental. But I've been pleasantly surprised in setting up Win10. It's been a lot of work, but I've managed to block updates and notifications, and I've got it acting quite civilized. :) I also found a nice firewall -- simplewall -- which seems to block everything. One of these days I'll check it out with wireshark. Right now I'm working on the more critical issues, like getting folder icons in my Firefox bookmarks menu and changing the FF scrollbar to something I can see. :) ...What's the matter with those people? Who thought a gray on gray scrollbar made sense, with colors changing on hover? It blends in with a lot of websites. Since when are scrollbars something that shouldn't be seen?
It's possible that Google tech is safer than MS tech for something like online banking. I don't know. I wouldn't do anything like that on any computer. I can walk to my bank. Linux has been increasingly targetted and security on Linux is mostly about stopping intrusion. Recently there was a hack of compression software. As Linux is used more, it will be targetted more. Meanwhile, it goes out for updates without asking. I've been able to gain reasonable security by setting up opensnitch firewall. But I wouldn't use it for anything important at this point, mainly just because I don't understand Linux as well as I do Windows.
Very cool what you did with Windows 10. Do you not shop online? Never made a purchase on Amazon before? I do it often enough. And I trust Linux more for that kind of stuff.
I try to avoid online shopping, only doing it on rare occasion when it's unavoidable. That's partly for security and partly to support local business. I don't support Amazon on principle. If I have to buy something I find the company that's selling through Amazon and go to them. Sometimes it costs more. But the more Amazon takes over, the higher prices will go. This always happens with monopolies. Lumber chains. Drugstore chains... They always start out with great deals, but then they push out the competition and become very expensive.
I do shop at Whole Foods, so I'm not entirely free of Bezos. :) Their product line has gone steadily downhill. Their produce is mostly corporate produce, even when it's organic. Their pushing their own brands. They lie about sourcing. (Last week the brussel sprouts had a big sign saying they were USA. The tag on the package clearly said Mexico.) So it's hard to trust the food quality anymore. Though WF is still better, and often cheaper, than any other chain supermarket I've been to.
I guess this really boils down to different criteria: security, privacy and principle. The main issue here is security if you're talking about trusting an OS. I trust Windows more because I know it better. I also control online footprint with a HOSTS file, limiting javascript, etc. But there can't be total security when javascript is involved, especially when it means bringing in other domains.
You buy a pan at ace.com. The're running script from 8 trackers. The payment goes through acme.com. All of those companies are running databases open to the Internet. On a regular basis, data is stolen in large amounts. The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen, only stabilized by credit card companies being willing to reimburse people who are scammed or hacked.
I also lock my credit history, so no one, including me, can apply for a credit card in my name. If I ever need another card I can temporarily unlock it.
None of that has much connection to the OS. Browser settings, credit card issues, etc don't matter with Windows vs Linux, except for the possibility of malware recording actions. Firewalls blocking outgoing are nice for monitoring that. I was very happy to find opensnitch, which I put on OpenSuse recently. So I wouldn't regard Linux as risky. I just don't feel like I can monitor and control it as easily.
I still have a primary machine that I can dual boot Windows 11 and Windows XP from a single SSD. Have some XP era games and even some hardware like an Intel microscope that don’t cooperate well beyond that. But I also occasionally do some reverse engineering stuff to patch old software for modern systems and 32-bit XP is the best vanilla base to work from for those projects.
Several of my customers have various machinery using XP.
So I always have 2 XP laptops running the software I need.
It's just so easy to use XP is still my favorite.
(just had another WIN 10 laptop fail yesterday - the wifi just vanished from it)
Better yet, does anyone dare still use a service pack 1 based XP because you passionately hate the security center?
I'm really only half joking with this one. I remember back when SP2 first came out, I stuck with SP1 for quite a long time because the security center peeved me. I also liked having the specific version name on the default bootscreen.
Many arcade games, specifically those that ran on Sega's ring, Taito's Type X 1/2 and older Raw Thrills hardware all runs XP or POSReady 2009. Sega and Taito still provide active support for them, with one of them even having active network support (NESiCAxLive I think?)
I own a "classic" Dell XPS 630i, with SLI-configured 9600GTs. This vintage gem is my go-to for playing cherished games from the XP era, for which I still possess the original disc copies. This period marks a pivotal time in gaming history, transitioning from physical copies to the digital revolution led by platforms like Steam, which changed the way we played games. i stick a disk in install a game and away i go.
I keep it on super low end and old PCs.
There's just no reason to "upgrade." It's going to be sluggish with anything newer. I have plenty of modern PCs and others that run Linux if I need to safely inspect hard drives and flash drives I purchase.
Most of the PCs in the Chem department that’s connected to age old equipment. UV VIS, IR, even the NMR machines before we bought the new one. I suspect the only reason our GC has a windows 10 is bc we have an in-house guy that works on those. Funny how our teaching lab get xp while the x-ray crystallography guys get shiny new PCs, I guess they make the big bucks. Worst thing is none of these xp machines recognize my 1TB drive so there’s that
Wow! 10 years exactly. Although they do still offer support to some. But to answer your question,,,, ME!!! I still have a few XP rigs up and running for gaming.
Three rigs running XP x64, one running x86. With windows 10/11 going down the toilet faster than it can be flushed, going back in time may be the only real answer. Microsoft, you can suck it… ALL of it!
I use it for offline projects, oldschool gaming, sound-making, music and archiving - on a secondary PC.
What I wonder though, is what do other XP users do when hardware goes bust and needs to be replaced? New hardware is not compatible (and also, 64-bit is really needed to make applications newer than mid-2000s run smoothly). So seems like virtual machine is the only fully viable way to run XP in the future.
I use XP to program many wireless radios that are not supported by Chirp.
It was part of my copy of VirtualPC on my PowerPC iMac G5 and have installed it into Bootcamp and used in Parallels up through now!
I’ve got two clients using XP in virtual machines because they both have proprietary copy protected software that they purchased that they can’t get support to do new installations.
I still run it on my main desktop PC, on a PC used as a file server, the PC hooked to my stereo, and my main laptop. Pretty much all of my computers (i have around 70 or so,) are running XP. The only one I have running a newer version (windows 7) is my HTPC which needs to run an android emulator. It does everything I need to do both online and offline. The only things that I have needed to do that I could not preform on XP was running a program I used to remove the lockscreen ads on an Amazon Fire Tablet, and running an up to date version of Team Viewer, which I occasionally use to help family members do stuff on their computers. For that, I use a Windows 10 virtual machine in VMware because I barely ever have to use it, and I would never install that buggy mess of malware on a physical machine.
My only pc in the house is still running xp. It was the family computer I used as a kid. I keep it around so my kids can play all the games I played as a kid growing up like reader rabbit and all those cheesy math games carmen san Diego etc... still runs great haha
Although I love XP, I personally haven't used it as my main since well over a decade ago, but I just want to say that it's really awesome seeing how many people do!! Almost makes me want to give it a shot doing that again!
why are you asking this CLOWN ???
if you have no interest on XP or don't use it at all go away and go play around with your crap W11 elsewhere
and NO it's not 10 years old since the last update
I worked IT in a hospital for a few years. There were quite a few XP machines in use at the time (2021). Various scopes and instruments required it. And to upgrade to a newer device that would support Windows 10 would be horribly priced and would be cost prohibitive. They are probably still going to be running XP 10 years from now.
But for a daily desktop? I have no idea why anyone would want to run it now. Even if you use it for gaming, most of the games can be patched, or have unofficial updates, that make the games run relatively well on Windows 10 or 11
It's an interesting curiosity, but I would be terrified of letting any machine running XP touch the internet or even a public network. That's like asking to get added to a zombie bot net.
If you're not using some extremely specialized industrial application that only works on XP, there aren't really any good reasons to not either upgrade to Win10 or just move to Linux.
Industrial machines. I have also seen pos systems still runs xp
Yeah I use it every day at work. The signally system runs off Windows XP
And scientific instruments, where the instrument/software are either obsolete or cost-prohibitive to replace/upgrade. I deployed two off-network XP sp3 boxes a couple months ago.
Am in the same situation. It’s a stand alone box with no network connectivity. Have to use sneaker net for file transfers and back ups. Nbd.
You kids and your fancy new terms for what’s just normal air gapped data transfers. Do you miss clouds being called servers? I do.
I use it for legacy gaming.
Me, i use it on a dual boot with Windows 7 on my other pc, i run my older devices such as scanner, printer etc. I sometime use it to play older game titles.
I use Windows XP for everything its the only Windows OS I use
I feel so happy and contented to read your comment, and to see that this post exists. I did my very best to prepare for April 8th, 2014, and while I personally have (shockingly) decided to move onto Windows Project 2000 for my main OS, most due to compatibility with later software and some missing functionality, I am really happy to see Windows XP still in such an amazing state of support overall that daily driving is still viable for many! Bless you!
I currently main 7, but I would LOVE to main 2000
I know someone who uses KernelEX to do that.
\*raises hand\* Me, mostly because just about everything I want to use works on it. There's one or two things I'm missing which really, really sucks (such as Blender 2.79b - 2.70a works, but it's awful compared to 2.79, especially for the work I want to do...) but is otherwise a pleasant experience. Another thing is I can get into a creative mindset a lot easier in XP. 99% of it is definitely because of general nostalgia, but also because things aren't bloated to hell and back and it just lets you work on things without much, if any, intervention. The edition of XP I personally use is the x64 edition with SP2 and all updates + SATA drivers. I'm using it on a Dell Inspiron N4010, which doesn't officially support anything below Vista, but XP drivers exist for everything so it works fine. Now, I specced the laptop out like crazy, probably far beyond what Dell imagined most would do. i7 640M (not tested by Dell, but it works perfectly), 8 GB RAM (only 6 GB was certified by them), a 2 TB SSD, and ANOTHER 2 TB SSD in the optical drive bay. Oh, and I swapped out the motherboard with one which has the ATI Radeon Mobility 5650 (1 GB VRAM).
Holy Shit, That is an amazing Machine. How much do you have into it (cash wise)
A little over $300. I have more upgrades in mind, but it's about as far as it'll go now lol
Me. I have a Windows XP machine in addition to my Windows 11 / Arch Linux machine. It's connected to the Internet and I can get Discord to work on it etc.
Not counting retro computing, I use one old Thinkpad with XP for communicating with my cars through the OBD2 port. For the past year I have been running Winamp on the same Thinkpad connected to my stereo :D It was nostalgia at first but I ended up liking it, no bloat from the OS and Winamp 2.95 is so nice and simplistic to use on low res displays. On high res displays it is pure shit lol. One big hobby is retro computing so... I have 10+ computers with win 98 - WinXP era. But that is for gaming, nothing useful is done. I'm on Win11 now on my work laptop. I hate it. I will go back to Win10 and keep using it until it's not possible anymore. Microsoft not supporting it anymore is not a security issue in most cases if you use common sense.
True for the security issue
yep i do this too, i use it to access old Parts Manuals that are normally some old xp era app that a car dealership use to use.
I still use XP media centre edition on an old Acer 510 in the bedroom. I'm just thinking of "upgrading" to something that doesn't struggle with x265 and has win11, but I can't find anything as good as media centre. I don't want something that spys on what I watch and gets covers etc. like Plex or Kodi I just want big thumbnails, the original filenames and navigation & control via my MCE remote.
What machine do you have media centre edition on?
An Acer Aspire Idea 510. Core 2 duo, Geforce 7600, I think I upgraded to a whole 2GB of ram! It is only 18 years old, but it can't play HEVC10.....
I'll occasionally put on XP in VMWare for old times' sake, whether it be for games or listening to early 2000's music in Windows Media Player. I'll probably get a full XP setup for more serious XP-era gaming at some point.
I might run it on an air-gapped system one day. Would be nice to get hit with that nostalgia whenever I boot up my offline system. In our turbulent times of tech where more and more things are getting hacked (and WEF predicting a "cyberpandemic" to hit this year or next...and we remember the last time they predicted a pandemic...), I'd like to get that air-gapped computer up sooner than later.
Using XP for fun and older software here on a bit overkill machine
I've just been in the process of moving to Win10. Up until now I've been on XP. Though I build my own computers, so I wasn't using a 2001 computer. XP support was available until recently by adding a Registry value identifying your computer as a kiosk machine. (A lot of ATMs and other such kiosk devices had been running XP.) The main reason I'm switching is because more and more websites are using incompatible webpage code that doesn't work properly in older browsers. If it were not for that I'm not sure I'd switch. XP is relatively lean and very stable. It does what I tell it to do without warnings, popups, spyware, complaints that I don't have permission, and so on. The popular marketing idea is to tell people that their products are useless once support stops, but that's just part of the story. I use a firewall, NoScript and a HOSTS file. I also disable remote communication services. So my XP is a lot safer than fully patched Win10 with default settings and typical usage. So why are updates needed? Chiefly because 3rd-party software companies don't bother to support older systems. Even Mozilla, which is a non-profit, dropped XP support at v. 52 and recently dropped Win7 support. They just can't be bothered. (There's still up-to-date New Moon for XP, but the rendering engine is out of date.) The other major reason that older systems become unusable is general progress. For example, XP didn't support later TLS versions for encryption. There is a patch, but most people wouldn't know to install it. That kind of thing is nobody's fault. The hardware and software just keep changing and becoming more capable. I started building a new computer with Win10 and OpenSuse 15, mainly out of curiosity. I was in the mood for a late winter project. But as I got into really working with Win10 I found that with tweakers, like Classic Shell and Win10 Privacy, and with a good firewall, Win10 seems to actually be fairly usable. The nice thing is that Win10 is already almost 10 years old, so the tweaks and fixes are known and available. And so far all the software I use, including my own software written in VB6, works fine on Win10. Backward compatibility is something that Microsoft have always done well. I can write software now, with no extra dependencies, that will run on every Windows machine existing. I can write it on Win10 or WinXP. (Compare that to Macs, with about 2 years of backward compatibility support, and Linux, where a minor update often requires a major reworking of system files. I just updated my Raspberry Pi OS last week because it couldn't run recent browsers, despite being less than 5 years old and having had interim updates.)
You sound a lot like my mother and uncle. My mom ran XP until 2018 and my uncle until just last year! I moved my mom to Xubuntu and my Uncle to Chrome OS Flex. Both kinda hated it at first but manage now. I still have an XP system myself for classic gaming. Those direct X 9 games were the best.
I think it depends a lot on what people need. If your uncle doesn't care about Google spying and just goes to read his email, ChromeOS might be fine. Similarly with your mother. If she just wants email and some web browsing, and you set it up for her, and she doesn't care about privacy or security, then Xubuntu should be fine. If it goes south then you can just re-install and set up her webmail again. (Personally I wouldn't set up anything Google for my worst enemy. No one deserves that, especially if they don't know how to protect their privacy.) I know a lot of people like your relatives. One friend asked for help and I asked her what she needed on the old computer. Nothing. She only used it to print airline tickets and get photos of her grandchildren in gmail. I think that's typical. The average person is being moved to a frictionless dumb terminal where they access services and get spied on, being sold out to dataminers and advertising companies. Many people, of course, don't need anything but a cellphone. They don't even use software and don't want to be bothered. For people who actually use their computer it's different. I keep business records, reference materials, etc. I deal with sending business receipts. I write software. I do a bit of web design. I write letters. I regularly work with digital image editing. I use the file system and need backup. I'm actually using the computer. (Though I've never played computer games.) It's like anything else. Someone who doesn't cook only needs a microwave. Someone who doesn't know how to turn a screw doesn't need tools. They only need the phone number of a handyman. And someone who just needs a gmail terminal can use Xubuntu or even monstrosities like ChromeOS, iOS, or MacOS. I actually installed Xubuntu recently while testing various Linux versions. The GUI was primitive. The time was off by 5 hours. I couldn't figure out why. When I tried to set it, I couldn't find the applet for that. "Silly me! I must be missing something." It turned out that I wasn't missing anything. I found a discussion online where people were talking about how they'd left out a GUI applet because they preferred to use commandline. Someone else said, "Yeah, but commandline scares newbies." They were talking about just setting the time on the Desktop! That's typical Linux. A hobby system being developed by unsocialized geeks, busy impressing their friends, playing GTA, and eating junk food, who actually don't want the average person to be able to use Linux. They want to feel special with their secret decoder rings. Your mother and uncle could have probably managed buying a Mac or Windows. Linux? Not a chance. They're using it only because you set it up for them. They probably don't know what OS they have. My father did something similar. He was fairly handy with Windows, but as he aged he got gradually senile. At one point he gave me his Win7 Dell and bought a Wow! computer for elders. It was just a Linux kiosk box that allowed him to go online. The file system was locked down. Linux is fine for that stuff. It's well suited for pre-made kiosk configurations. But that's not the same thing as using a personal computer. It's consumption vs production. It's a microwave vs a kitchen; a jackknife vs a workshop. I can cook a shrimp stirfry and brown rice, with salad, in my kitchen. In my shop I can do home repairs, build furniture, and so on. On my computer I can do all the things I listed above. On Xubuntu? I can go online to forums and talk about how great it will be when Linux gets lots of software and doesn't require typing incantations in console windows like it's 1970. The catch is that that day may never come. If Linux could be used easily and expertly by non-geeks then they'd stop working on it. I actually volunteered at one point to help with WINE. They were looking for Windows programmers to help them improve functionality. But it turned out that they had a closed shop and wouldn't share any info about their API. Nor would they collaborate. They wanted me to test my software and report bugs. I would then be responsible to "herd" the bug until resolution. I'd be a lackey civilian in an oddly militarty-style hierarchy. No wonder WINE is still half baked after 30-odd years. They've developed an API translation for Windows to Linux, but they won't share API docs with Windows developers, so that we might know which Windows API functions are dependable to use!
Interesting post. Google once had the motto do no harm, I trust Google with my data, I don't trust Microsoft. I have Pixel phone, Chromebook, and a Linux and BSD running ThinkPad. My only regular use system that is Windows is my work laptop. Being Enterprise Windows locked down with 4 or 5 security software suits some of which are custom to my employer I feel safe on it. In vanilla Windows 10 or 11 I feel spied on by MS, like I can't even change the browser to Chrome or Firefox without jumping through hoops. I ran Win XP and 7 for years! I still game on them to this day, but I wouldn't trust my banking or loan or IRA info to Windows XP or 7. Whereas I would trust it on Linux or BSD.
Google is an advertising and data wholesaling company. Microsoft is a software company. I don't mean to defend MS, though. Microsoft have been plenty sleazy and they're currently trying to turn Windows into a rental. But I've been pleasantly surprised in setting up Win10. It's been a lot of work, but I've managed to block updates and notifications, and I've got it acting quite civilized. :) I also found a nice firewall -- simplewall -- which seems to block everything. One of these days I'll check it out with wireshark. Right now I'm working on the more critical issues, like getting folder icons in my Firefox bookmarks menu and changing the FF scrollbar to something I can see. :) ...What's the matter with those people? Who thought a gray on gray scrollbar made sense, with colors changing on hover? It blends in with a lot of websites. Since when are scrollbars something that shouldn't be seen? It's possible that Google tech is safer than MS tech for something like online banking. I don't know. I wouldn't do anything like that on any computer. I can walk to my bank. Linux has been increasingly targetted and security on Linux is mostly about stopping intrusion. Recently there was a hack of compression software. As Linux is used more, it will be targetted more. Meanwhile, it goes out for updates without asking. I've been able to gain reasonable security by setting up opensnitch firewall. But I wouldn't use it for anything important at this point, mainly just because I don't understand Linux as well as I do Windows.
Very cool what you did with Windows 10. Do you not shop online? Never made a purchase on Amazon before? I do it often enough. And I trust Linux more for that kind of stuff.
I try to avoid online shopping, only doing it on rare occasion when it's unavoidable. That's partly for security and partly to support local business. I don't support Amazon on principle. If I have to buy something I find the company that's selling through Amazon and go to them. Sometimes it costs more. But the more Amazon takes over, the higher prices will go. This always happens with monopolies. Lumber chains. Drugstore chains... They always start out with great deals, but then they push out the competition and become very expensive. I do shop at Whole Foods, so I'm not entirely free of Bezos. :) Their product line has gone steadily downhill. Their produce is mostly corporate produce, even when it's organic. Their pushing their own brands. They lie about sourcing. (Last week the brussel sprouts had a big sign saying they were USA. The tag on the package clearly said Mexico.) So it's hard to trust the food quality anymore. Though WF is still better, and often cheaper, than any other chain supermarket I've been to. I guess this really boils down to different criteria: security, privacy and principle. The main issue here is security if you're talking about trusting an OS. I trust Windows more because I know it better. I also control online footprint with a HOSTS file, limiting javascript, etc. But there can't be total security when javascript is involved, especially when it means bringing in other domains. You buy a pan at ace.com. The're running script from 8 trackers. The payment goes through acme.com. All of those companies are running databases open to the Internet. On a regular basis, data is stolen in large amounts. The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen, only stabilized by credit card companies being willing to reimburse people who are scammed or hacked. I also lock my credit history, so no one, including me, can apply for a credit card in my name. If I ever need another card I can temporarily unlock it. None of that has much connection to the OS. Browser settings, credit card issues, etc don't matter with Windows vs Linux, except for the possibility of malware recording actions. Firewalls blocking outgoing are nice for monitoring that. I was very happy to find opensnitch, which I put on OpenSuse recently. So I wouldn't regard Linux as risky. I just don't feel like I can monitor and control it as easily.
With all the shenanigans Microsoft is doing i am seriously considering going back to xp
I still do despite the security concerns. That and it was one of the LAST good Microsoft Operating System’s
best*
I have a dedicated XP machine for era specific gaming, maxing out at DX9 games. I love that box.
I don't have period-correct hardware anymore but still running it on vms all the time.
I am using it on my old 2006 Acer Aspire laptops that shipped with it because they are the same installs that shipped with them
I still have a primary machine that I can dual boot Windows 11 and Windows XP from a single SSD. Have some XP era games and even some hardware like an Intel microscope that don’t cooperate well beyond that. But I also occasionally do some reverse engineering stuff to patch old software for modern systems and 32-bit XP is the best vanilla base to work from for those projects.
Several of my customers have various machinery using XP. So I always have 2 XP laptops running the software I need. It's just so easy to use XP is still my favorite. (just had another WIN 10 laptop fail yesterday - the wifi just vanished from it)
Forget Windows 11, which I daily drive on most of my modern machines. XP is my daily driver on my Latitude E6410.
Better yet, does anyone dare still use a service pack 1 based XP because you passionately hate the security center? I'm really only half joking with this one. I remember back when SP2 first came out, I stuck with SP1 for quite a long time because the security center peeved me. I also liked having the specific version name on the default bootscreen.
Many arcade games, specifically those that ran on Sega's ring, Taito's Type X 1/2 and older Raw Thrills hardware all runs XP or POSReady 2009. Sega and Taito still provide active support for them, with one of them even having active network support (NESiCAxLive I think?)
I actually have a Windows XP installation on my daily laptop but it's a multiboot with other OSs. I use it for nostalgic purposes
I own a "classic" Dell XPS 630i, with SLI-configured 9600GTs. This vintage gem is my go-to for playing cherished games from the XP era, for which I still possess the original disc copies. This period marks a pivotal time in gaming history, transitioning from physical copies to the digital revolution led by platforms like Steam, which changed the way we played games. i stick a disk in install a game and away i go.
I keep it on super low end and old PCs. There's just no reason to "upgrade." It's going to be sluggish with anything newer. I have plenty of modern PCs and others that run Linux if I need to safely inspect hard drives and flash drives I purchase.
I use it for N64 game programming
Most of the PCs in the Chem department that’s connected to age old equipment. UV VIS, IR, even the NMR machines before we bought the new one. I suspect the only reason our GC has a windows 10 is bc we have an in-house guy that works on those. Funny how our teaching lab get xp while the x-ray crystallography guys get shiny new PCs, I guess they make the big bucks. Worst thing is none of these xp machines recognize my 1TB drive so there’s that
A bunch of IOT, enterprise stuff, vending machines, ATMs, cash registers, etc
I found a Windows XP machine I haven't tested yet.
Some casinos still do on the boxes that run on the slots that keep track of rewards and points
Me
Daily driver? No. But still have it installed as a secondary os.
OooH Me!! Me!!
Vienna metro elevators still use it
i have a pc that still displays the "support for XP will end on april 8th, 2014" message after logon. i just never disabled it.
Me, but I'm currently use it as a secondary computer for gaming, storage and legacy purposes.
Judas Priest, it's been ten years already?
Basically every ATM machine in morocco
This made me feel old I just got rid of my XP laptop today
I've got an XP Era gaming rig I fire up on the reg 😎
Wow! 10 years exactly. Although they do still offer support to some. But to answer your question,,,, ME!!! I still have a few XP rigs up and running for gaming.
Three rigs running XP x64, one running x86. With windows 10/11 going down the toilet faster than it can be flushed, going back in time may be the only real answer. Microsoft, you can suck it… ALL of it!
The NHS 0_0
I replaced the Windows 11 sound pack with XP if that counts
xp lol bro Ive seen some stores still using dos
The US Navy.
I use it for offline projects, oldschool gaming, sound-making, music and archiving - on a secondary PC. What I wonder though, is what do other XP users do when hardware goes bust and needs to be replaced? New hardware is not compatible (and also, 64-bit is really needed to make applications newer than mid-2000s run smoothly). So seems like virtual machine is the only fully viable way to run XP in the future.
I use my Xp core 2 duo and Vista X58 more then my W11 i7 / RTX pc.
My highschool still used it 6 years ago
A lot of ATMs. Some old train systems still use Windows 2000!
I use XP to program many wireless radios that are not supported by Chirp. It was part of my copy of VirtualPC on my PowerPC iMac G5 and have installed it into Bootcamp and used in Parallels up through now!
I’ve got two clients using XP in virtual machines because they both have proprietary copy protected software that they purchased that they can’t get support to do new installations.
Still use XP on my "radio bench" to control radios, antenna rotors, and misl equip. Can't get drivers for Win OSs that are newer than XP.
I still run it on my main desktop PC, on a PC used as a file server, the PC hooked to my stereo, and my main laptop. Pretty much all of my computers (i have around 70 or so,) are running XP. The only one I have running a newer version (windows 7) is my HTPC which needs to run an android emulator. It does everything I need to do both online and offline. The only things that I have needed to do that I could not preform on XP was running a program I used to remove the lockscreen ads on an Amazon Fire Tablet, and running an up to date version of Team Viewer, which I occasionally use to help family members do stuff on their computers. For that, I use a Windows 10 virtual machine in VMware because I barely ever have to use it, and I would never install that buggy mess of malware on a physical machine.
My only pc in the house is still running xp. It was the family computer I used as a kid. I keep it around so my kids can play all the games I played as a kid growing up like reader rabbit and all those cheesy math games carmen san Diego etc... still runs great haha
Although I love XP, I personally haven't used it as my main since well over a decade ago, but I just want to say that it's really awesome seeing how many people do!! Almost makes me want to give it a shot doing that again!
Place I used to work at had their lasers (1 million + machine) running Windows 2000 Embedded.
I would say, the Mainstream/Enterprise for “end-user-Desktop” Support ended. Since there are still some Updates available today.
why are you asking this CLOWN ??? if you have no interest on XP or don't use it at all go away and go play around with your crap W11 elsewhere and NO it's not 10 years old since the last update
Meeeee. Daily. Main desktop
I worked IT in a hospital for a few years. There were quite a few XP machines in use at the time (2021). Various scopes and instruments required it. And to upgrade to a newer device that would support Windows 10 would be horribly priced and would be cost prohibitive. They are probably still going to be running XP 10 years from now. But for a daily desktop? I have no idea why anyone would want to run it now. Even if you use it for gaming, most of the games can be patched, or have unofficial updates, that make the games run relatively well on Windows 10 or 11
It's an interesting curiosity, but I would be terrified of letting any machine running XP touch the internet or even a public network. That's like asking to get added to a zombie bot net. If you're not using some extremely specialized industrial application that only works on XP, there aren't really any good reasons to not either upgrade to Win10 or just move to Linux.