Windows XP still as common as Windows 7 !

Digital Doctor

Well-known member
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Interesting how popular Windows XP still is.
:)
 
Windows 7 actually passed Windows XP

Ironically, Max OS has passed Windows Vista. Making it the 1st time that Max OS has passed a recent copy of Microsoft Windows
 
Our University has literally just moved our centralised computers from XP to 7. I suspect a lot of offices haven't yet and if that graph was plotted for home users it'd look VERY different.
 
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Interesting how popular Windows XP still is.
:)

It is very much still in enterprise use. It is a major undertaking for larger companies to switch OSes, especially since they have to worry about support from other parts of the enterprise (the network, servers and attached hardware on the network, user training, etc.). I know that IT departments were always reluctant about Vista, hence not many of them latched onto it. There is also older hardware out there that does not support Win7. Of the four computers in our house, Win7 is only installed on two of them, and as for other two, one could possibly almost run it (but with some hardware restrictions, especially graphics), and I'm sure the other one (a Dell, built within a year of the other one) would struggle as well. Both have the maximum amount of memory installed and ample disk space, and I think even the CPUs are supported (albeit at the bottom rung of the ladder, if you will).

When I worked at a company a dozen years ago, XP was pretty much the new player on the block, yet the company I worked for had just upgraded to 2000 shortly before XP was introduced. 2000's predecessor (was it NT 4.5?) reminded me too much of Win95. :D
 
I loved Windows 2000. I found little difference between it and Windows XP.

XP is to 2000 like Win7 is to Vista. XP just built on 2K's core OS and refined it. I've used both and XP had both new user features (not a lot) and more administrative control, yet the underlying OS was pretty much the same. I believe internally, 2K was NT 5.0 and XP was NT 5.1, which is why (beneath the "skin") they really did not differ much. Vista was NT 6.0 and Win7 is actually NT 6.1. (You can actually see this shown in system properties as "Microsoft Window 6.1".)

I did not use 2K all that often on one of my own systems, but I remember it being far more stable than any DOS-based Windows (Win95/98/ME ran on top of DOS).
 
In a weak economy, the IT department in most companies is generally cut the most. So it makes perfect sense XP is still popular. Also if it still works and you don't lose money on it (or think you don't) why bother? Especially knowing how easy it is to upgrade Windows...
 
Imagine a big company has to change few thousand computer just because a new operating system is launch.
Unless it is very critical to change, no company will make a big move ;)
 
They do make big moves, but there are always other big moves to make first. I was almost employed at a large attorney's office in downtown Detroit (over 100 attorneys) and they were on the verge of moving all desktops to Win7 and getting their servers up to Server 2008 R2. Not a small undertaking, as they had network issues and remote users they had to deal with (via VPNs, using all different types of devices and computer OSes). And there was also desktop support, user and administrator training, etc.

For support reasons, though, the old OSes need to be phased out. End of life for XP is 4/8/2014, last I heard. At least that gives these large companies time to start migrating upward.
 
I still use XP. But I don't think I'll be using it for long.

Money problems are plaguing our family, so we're going to have to use XP until we can't anymore.

I was going to buy Vista, but I have been using it at my College, and what a #@^&ing resource hog! Then not to be outdone, I see a lot of reports of Vista crashing, riddled with bugs enough to have it eventually at blue screen of death, and other stuff such as viruses for Vista.

I've seen both blue screen of death on Vista, and virus spreading.... at a college computer. WTF.

Seems like Win 7 was M$'s best product since XP. Win 8 seems to follow suit because M$ is listening.
 
Is MAC OS linux enough for you ?


Mac OS is NOT Linux, but like Linux it is based on Unix, making them similar but definitely not the same.

Also, OSX is not Open Source, and I'm pretty sure this is the main reason many people like Linux.

I long for the day Windows will not be the goto corporate OS anymore though. It frustrates me terribly when a web development company still uses Windows and Exchange/Outlook, just saying those names makes me shiver in horror and disdain.
 
Mac OS is NOT Linux, but like Linux it is based on Unix, making them similar but definitely not the same.
Linux isn't based on Unix, it is a separate development. It is inspired by Unix, or popular term is Unix-like, but not based on or a derivative of Unix. Though many refer to them as *nix, as they look and feel the same on the top, but are very different below the hood, or at least so I am told.

BTW, if you really hate Windows, you should try working on it through a remote desktop (using WMWare viewer), that is what we have at work. In fact, they only deployed WMWare last year, before that it was the Windows default RDP. It is a painful experience, and when I said I can't work like this, I need my email account out of that they said to me that the security wasn't good enough. IT stopped liking me when I suggested they should do a better job.....
 
Linux isn't based on Unix, it is a separate development. It is inspired by Unix, or popular term is Unix-like, but not based on or a derivative of Unix. Though many refer to them as *nix, as they look and feel the same on the top, but are very different below the hood, or at least so I am told.

BTW, if you really hate Windows, you should try working on it through a remote desktop (using WMWare viewer), that is what we have at work. In fact, they only deployed WMWare last year, before that it was the Windows default RDP. It is a painful experience, and when I said I can't work like this, I need my email account out of that they said to me that the security wasn't good enough. IT stopped liking me when I suggested they should do a better job.....

TIL, thanks for the info :) I always thought it was based on Unix, which as I understand is still partly true, though not in the way that I was thinking :)

As for Windows, I basically have the same setup as you describe. My main development environment is Mac OSX and I have Windows 7 running on a VirtualBox VM. For my gaming needs I bought a dedicated gaming rig which just runs windows for gaming purposes and only because there simply is no alternative.
 
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