Report: Windows XP Still Dominates U.S. PCs

[cronik93]

I wish people would giving me that "XP is more stable and light" bullcrap.

Just upgrade, Win7 is FINE.

 

[phoenix2150]

Well I have both Win7 64Bit & XP 32Bit, lucky me I got both OS's free and both are totally legit. Cause I totally wouldn't pay MS for win7 as to even get it more or LESS the way I want it to work takes so much f-ing about it's not funny. I move heaps of files about & find it much harder to do this cause of the way win explore is now in win7. MS must have forgotten what a GUI interface is, Folders no longer run down in a straight line from the parent folders text above them there all offset/centered which is annoying. Also bring back the dotted lines from win98 in win explore.

 

[cookoy]

Milton Friedman said it best: Free to Choose! Use the OS that best suits your needs and abilities.

 

[terr281]

My workplace's desktops and laptops, around 1,000 or so, still run WinXP Pro 32bit. Why? Users are comfortable with the OS. And, with our IT dept, server/hardware sub-dept, only having a total of 15 employees, it would take us months of training and retraining the 4,000 or so employees to use a new OS. (Especially since most of them are non technical workers that share access to computer terminals for inputting and copying reports, using software that only runs on WinXP 32 bit , etc.) As a result, the company downgrades all newly leased pcs from Win7 Pro 32 bit to WinXP.

At home, my mate and I have a total of 7 computers between us. 3 use Win7 Home Premium 64 bit (main gaming x2 and HTPCs), 2 use WinXP 32 bit (old gaming pcs, still in use because some games will not run on Win7... even in compatibility mode), and 2 others run Win98 (again, some games will not run in WinXP compatibility mode). Why the old PCs? WinXP mode for Win7 doesn't allow 3D acclerated games to run... thus the WinXP computers will be kept for quite awhile. And, the 2 Win98 computers are kept for a select few older games that either A. Run in native DOS and only native DOS or B. Require 3d acceleration from the old computers' Voodoo 2s to run correctly.

OSs, as well as old hardware, have their uses and shouldn't simply be thrown away when something new arrives. As previous posters have alluded to, the "if it isn't broke don't fix it" and "why upgrade if this still works" thoughts are not bad ones. Imagine going to a car dealership and BUYING (not leasing) a NEW car every 3 years. If everyone did that, then all used cars would end up just being scrapped.

The same is true with computer hardware and software.

 

[sviola]

[citation][nom]volkov956[/nom]XP Mode sorry to say is useless for old games that require actual 3d Accelleration I rebuilt my AGP system so I dont have to worry about Win7/2k8 backward problems.[/citation]

You can use Virtual Box with guest additions, which lets you use 3d acceleration.

 

[tommysch]

[citation][nom]mindless728[/nom]XP just needs to die already, there should only be support and updates for businesses[/citation]

Your name fits you well...

 

[jgiron]

I bet half those PCs are running Pentium 4s.

Actually, my wife is running a 2.0 Celery chip with Win XP

 

[thechief73]

I think many people and businesses are in a position were their hardware is older but still doing its job fine with XP, and they are waiting for the right time to do a complete overhaul of thier hardware and software. Instead of bogging down older PC's with the resouce demands of Win7.

 

[syrious1]

you can its called disable aero. Really too many people are afraid of change, that or they have never tried win7 because they tried vista which is a cow of a program and vastly inferior to XP. Win 7 on the other hand..... and I'll leave it at that

 

[antilycus]

why try to fix, what is working? All the O/S updates are creating problems for something that already has a solution. YOu can dislike XP all you want but even with 8gigs of ram on your VISTA or WIN 7 machine, you are still getting the same performance out of the 3gig cap on a 32-bit XP O/S.

Again, all my customers and myself use XP because IT WORKS. You don't have go out and upgrade software and hardwaare for something that works, so why jump on the upgrade?

 

[nightcrawl3r]

Before Windows 7 was out, I always preferred XP over Vista because I could notice the performance difference between the two. XP was way lighter and faster than Vista in pretty much everything. Only one thing XP didn't have was DX10 during that time but it wasn't that great anyway...

 

[MU_Engineer]

[citation][nom]Travis Beane[/nom]Honestly, if you don't need to, I see no reason to upgrade.[/citation]

And that's why many businesses are still running Windows XP, frequently on P4s or early C2D machines.

 

[psychotek71]

yeah give win 7 a few years by than windows 8 will be out
lol

 

[furylicious]

Lol, this isn't that much of a surprise, for people like us, we find all the new toys and upgrades that we can find. The general consumer base does not like change and will be slow to, and the only reason why they will is because company IT groups will persistently persuade them to. Cell phones are different, but with computers, people are not inclined to change a process that they have known to use for years.

 

[Shin-san]

[citation][nom]elbert[/nom]Very few PC users need more than 3GB's of RAM which means they only need a 32bit OS. XP is still the best 32bit OS so its common sense really. It could take about 2 years before a large percent of the PC population is forced to 64bit. I'm on XP and there are no games or application software requiring more than my 2GB's of RAM. Microsoft has made the RAM limit the reason for upgrade and its going to be a bumpy ride.[/citation]
Even with PAE, 8 gigs will be the limit. Also another upcoming reason for 64-bit is 3 TB+ hard drives, since 32-bit won't support those. 64-bit Windows is actually nice and very stable

 

[eyemaster]

Ok, we got 35000 pc's with XP, about 8 with windows 7... Of course Windows XP still dominates! It takes a long time to upgrade.