See Ya, Windows XP

R.I.P.X.P.

Well, that's just effin' typical......

This happening the day after I finally got my XP box properly set up, to (maybe) start skinning again.....

*Kicks a kitten*

*Jumps off a cliff*

You can always skin for 7 snowy.

Bye bye XP.

Nope, ain't never happening. I jumped ship when the Vista/Windows 7 bits were added to SKS. I had enough trouble navigating around it as it was with just XP.

Not a particularly good thing for many (of us) small businesses.  Just finished throwing away 10 perfectly good machines that did exactly what we needed them to do* and replacing them at a cost of about $9000, not counting my time.

*Thank you, Bill Clinton & HIPAA.

I think we'd look at it differently if GM went out and cut the brake lines on all vehicles older than 10 years and said, "Sorry, replacement brake lines are no longer available, you'll need a new car."

I was with you, until you recommend Windows 8...

I don't use Windows 8 as my main OS, I use Windows 7, but there is nothing at all wrong with using Windows 8 if you install Start 8 and OldNewExplorer. You basically cannot even tell the difference. I was against Windows 8 too until it was possible to make it look and operate almost exactly like Windows 7.

The only reason I switched to win 7 64-bit was because I purchased an SSD drive......which doesn't play nice with XP. All my software is still 32-bit.

I've had way more problems with win 7 in the short 4 monthes of owning it than I ever had with win XP and the 12+ years of owning it.

I'm not against the new OS....oh wait....win 8 is the new OS now....and I am against that. I'm not against win 7; it's just that most software and hardware being used even today has more compatibility with win XP than it does with 64 bit technology. Microsoft should have waited another 10 years before releasing win 8 and instead released some kind of service pack for win 7 that provided the mobile effect they were hoping for.

Yup, good riddance!  Never liked you anyway, with your Fi sher Price UI and butt ugly colour scheme.  I only used you because Stardock offrered nice software that could pretty you up some.... and God, didn't you need it.  Admittedly, you did offer some advantages over Win 98SE, but as soon as Vista was released you were history on any PC in my house.

Oh, and I won't be coming to the funeral.  Nope, got better things to do than come p*ss on your grave... like celebrate the life of Windows 8.1 and await its older sister in Win 9.   I know we parted several years ago.... but goodbye.... again.

And Snowy, you can still skin for XP if you like, there may be some here at WC who would appreciate it, so not all is lost if Win 7 and subsequent OSes are not your cup of tea.  Heck, I might even appreciate it, if and when I get my XP gaming box up and running... needs some parts and I spent my PC budget on my new beasty earlier in the year.

I don't use Windows 8 as my main OS, I use Windows 7, but there is nothing at all wrong with using Windows 8 if you install Start 8 and OldNewExplorer. You basically cannot even tell the difference. I was against Windows 8 too until it was possible to make it look and operate almost exactly like Windows 7.

End of quote

I've been saying this like forever... Win 8 is exactly the same as Win 7 when you add Start8 and bypass the Metro UI.

Guess I'd better back this thing up.  Now where did I put those 5.25" floppies?

I had one of those once, but it shrank with age.... cos now it's only a 2.5 floppy.

In fact, I have two of them, though I may just throw them out as they're just taking up space among my bits n' pieces and I can see no further use for them, what with card readers and USB sticks pretty much making them obsolete.

As for when I get this XP box running, it will not be connected to the internet at all, so it'll be safe as a stand alone.  I wouldn't be bothering except that alot of games I have simply will not run on Vista or later, so it's back to old ugly if I wanna play 'em.

Well, XP is still my main OS since my laptop hardware can't run Vista, it 's still good enough for my job

<sarcasm> I'm not worried. I only use XP for banking, Facebook and online purchases. </sarcasm>

I think the only XP systems I have left now are in VMs .... 2 or 3 of those.

Hardware systems are 3 x 7s and one dog of an 8.1 on a laptop....;)

Same here. I have a few programs that refuse to run in an OS other than XP.

Besides, thanks to DRM, it's the last OS that allows you to record "What You Hear".

I've never had a worry with recording anything I wanted on Vista, Win 7 or Win 8... but then I don't purchase/download digital music since I have everything I like/want on CD and can just rip whatever to my music folder.... and I could never understand anyone buying music from fechen iTunes, with all its DRM and restrictions.  For mine, it's raylight dobbery... and just for a license to play it, they say.  At least when I come out of the record store I own the CD I just purchased.  Yeah, Apple, that's something else you can stick in your bronzed ginger.

I know, didn't make alot of sense to me, either, but don't worry, I'm having a bad hair day and hopefully tomorrow is a better day

Not so fast...

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/not-dead-yet-dutch-british-governments-pay-to-keep-windows-xp-alive/

What dipshits, paying MS to extend support on a butt ugly, obsolete OS that should have drawn its last breath about 10 years ago.  For the price they're paying to extend support for XP, they could replace every XP rig in their possession and have change left over.

Nah, they're not dipshits... they're fechen effwits.

Upgrade to Lubuntu, no more fees, you can keep your old hardware since it's not as demanding as modern bloatware (no HW accelerated GUI shiny chrome, etc.) You could probably run the critical XP software in Wine, many applications work, including games. Stable, regularly updated, secure, and most importantly FREE operation system. 

I've not tried Lubuntu as yet.  So, is it different to Ubuntu, and if so, how?  I've known about running Windows software in Linux using Wine, and RoboLinux makes it even easier, so I have no objection to running one or more Linux distros on my XP rig when it's up and running.  And I came a step closer to that last night with the freeing up of a 8800GTX graphics card

Lubuntu is Ubuntu with LXDE as a desktop environment. Light on resources.

Thanks for that, I shall look into it later to check out my best options.