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Numbers Show Windows XP Still Rules The World

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Die XP.

I know I'll be downvoted for this, but sticking with an ancient operating system isn't good for business or the home. The only people it helps are hackers.
 
I know that XP has millions of lines of code, by it seems unnerving that they haven't found / fixed all of the bugs yet. It's been what, more than 10 years? I'm just amazed.
 
[citation][nom]Robert Pankiw[/nom]I know that XP has millions of lines of code, by it seems unnerving that they haven't found / fixed all of the bugs yet. It's been what, more than 10 years? I'm just amazed.[/citation]
well they officially ended the support for xp a long time ago so 10 more years and you will not get them fixed from ms.
 
...but there's speculation that the slow growth [of Windows 8] is due to the enormous backlog of Windows 7 stock that needed to be weeded out before Windows 8 could fully bloom
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm sure that was the reason. lol
 
The only problem with this is that the UI of Windows 8 is not really a business-friendly. I guess maybe they could get everyone to upgrade to Windows 7.

Our company is still primarily on Windows XP. Vista had problems with UAC hosing up software, We have maybe 1/4 on windows 7, but now we can't get our users to use Windows 8 because they have work to do and don't want to memorize hotkeys and find hidden secret pop out menus.

 
After April 8, 2014, I will likely go to Kubuntu as my main OS and WINE to run Windows applications in Linux.
 
Could have posted some numbers for linux there, I can see linux getting much bigger in the coming years, especially with steam on their side, now it has 99% of the programs anyone would ever need and WINE just incase, if the game support is high enough, then I will use Ubuntu on my next gaming build, will probably use it for my small machine very soon!
 
I bet some other company will step in. Leave a vacuum...and someone will fill it. Legal issues? They will still do it...they will take the risk.

The problem is that Windows 7 is still less friendly than XP. Well, it is not that unfriendly, but still more unfriendly. Functionally, it has a lot going for it. But most users just want a more friendly computer. The customization options of ME was the best (but functionally it was crap), then I would say XP. 7, ho hum to bad and 8, forget it. I am not touching 8!

I think the best is Windows XP Pro 64-bit. It really is not an option for a new machine though because it is not easy to find drivers. I was basically forced to use 7. The new machine does not get much love. Sad too as it is a massively overclocked 8-core duel screen monster. It just plays chess by itself in the corner.
 
To each his own... Whatever they feel most comfortable using.

Funny thing is, nobody is complaining about this "fragmentation"... which is fine, because there is nothing to complain about.

[citation][nom]jupiter optimus maximus[/nom]After April 8, 2014, I will likely go to Kubuntu as my main OS and WINE to run Windows applications in Linux.[/citation]

What happens on that particular date? For you, I mean? Likely your PC is not going to bite the dust exactly on that day.
 
Why is XP still #1?
Because businesses don't upgrade, or need to upgrade....
Businesses are not interested in the lasted and greatest EYE CANDY...

They are interested in what WORKS...

And usually, once they get a setup that works, they don't upgrade it unless they absolutely have to, updates be damned, because not getting updates doesn't break the system....

So, in other words, it will be a very long time till xp goes away...
 
It's not hard to understand why it's still popular it does about 97% of what Windows 7 does with about 1/10th the bloat associated with it.
 
[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]Why is XP still #1?Because businesses don't upgrade, or need to upgrade....Businesses are not interested in the lasted and greatest EYE CANDY...They are interested in what WORKS...And usually, once they get a setup that works, they don't upgrade it unless they absolutely have to, updates be damned, because not getting updates doesn't break the system....So, in other words, it will be a very long time till xp goes away...[/citation] April 8, 2014 will probably be the starting point when businesses consider changing over from XP to something newer and probably a bit later then that because the system isn't going to just go to pot the day Microsoft stops supporting it.
 
Forgot to say my old machine which is still the one I sit in front of and use daily is Windows XP Pro 64-bit. With a dozen or so modifications it is the greatest.

Shortcuts added to the bar quick launch for: task manager and show desktop. And change to "Classic Start Menu"

And just put 60 of the most used programs and folders in the Quick Launch Start Bar. You quickly memorize where the icons you are looking for are and poof it is open.

Yes, those particular things are possible with 7. There are others though. ME used to allow you to make backgrounds in folders sort of like a desktop with your icons on top. If you copy one of those to XP 64-bit it will retain that background. 7? Nope.
 
The first reason is because Windows XP just works it's pretty stable, compatible with a lot of software and works on a huge range of hardware.

The second reason is because updating is hard. Vista is a no go, and there's no way to easily upgrade to 7.

The third reason is there's no real reason to change. Almost all software works (windows 7 can't get very old software to run, and counting out games, there's no software that doesn't run on Windows XP) and almost all hardware too. If something works fine, why change it? The only reason is getting a newer hardware, but most people keep their computer in use until it breaks.

And the fourth reason is corporate. Most business prefer windows xp because they know it well, and most of their software tools are certificated for XP. Certificating them for 7 takes time and money. Most companies i know they're slowly replacing their machines with Windows 7, but it takes time.
 
I still have a customer running win 95 on an old 486. He will never move from that ever, his custom application works on the machine, deals with his 50k contacts and invoices and that's all it does. Stand alone it is pretty sweet, I've had to take a Soldering Iron to it more than once replacing Caps as well as Rebuilding the PSU, but it is going strong and we will keep it running for as long as its repairable.
 
It's funny how everyone is saying that XP works so well, but it got 3 service packs to get there. It was a bit bumpy in the beginning and it was hard to pry users away from Windows 98. :) How things change but remain the same.
 
How would microsoft expect me to switch over to the slower windows 7 when my 7-8years old laptop is still running strong on winXP? That laptop has only 512-1GB RAM running on 1.5-1.7GHz Pentium M. With windows XP, those spec are fairly decent enough to run it as a web surfing computer + word doc.

The last thing u need is run a newer OS that slow ur computer further.
 
[citation][nom]Robert Pankiw[/nom]I know that XP has millions of lines of code, by it seems unnerving that they haven't found / fixed all of the bugs yet. It's been what, more than 10 years? I'm just amazed.[/citation]

XP has something like 1,000,000,884 lines of code, do you have any idea how long it would take to find and fix all the issues found within?

(This data is from ~2001) The rough industry standard is 15 - 50 errors/defects per 1000 lines of delivered code; and the average for Microsoft is roughly 0.5 defects per 1000 lines of code in released products. The space shuttle had about 0.1 defects per 1000 lines of code in the final released product.

So using this you could venture a safe bet that there's at least 500,000 errors/defects to be solved within WinXP (A defect being as mundane as a more efficient way to get something done to just flat out errors).

At some point it's more worth your time, effort and money to get a better built product (Win7 anyone?) out the door instead of trying to patch up all the problems in something completely outdated and unable to leverage modern technology and securities.

It's also worth people's time and effort to upgrade their systems to run an OS that was at least made in the last decade, running such an incredibly outdated OS is only good for the spread of malware and viruses (unless of course you're not connected to a network).

[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]Why is XP still #1?Because businesses don't upgrade, or need to upgrade....Businesses are not interested in the lasted and greatest EYE CANDY...They are interested in what WORKS...And usually, once they get a setup that works, they don't upgrade it unless they absolutely have to, updates be damned, because not getting updates doesn't break the system....So, in other words, it will be a very long time till xp goes away...[/citation]

While I understand what you're getting at and some business software is archaic and requires XP, it's not a very solid argument. It's not just 'eye candy', it's security. It took me years of arguing with the boss, but when I finally convinced him to upgrade everyone from XP to 7, I no longer had to go around every week and clean all the crap out of everyone's computer and complaints dropped drastically. When I have to go out to fix our customer's computers as part of our customer service, 99% of the time it's businesses that are still using XP.
 
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