Windows XP: Still the One

[Cygnus X1]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2210387,00.asp



Windows XP: Still the One

10.31.07

discuss Total posts: 2

Sascha Segan

We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

by Sascha Segan

All day long, I swivel back and forth between multiple screens running multiple operating systems. I do my writing on a Mac and my testing on a Vista machine. But every day, I find myself swiveling back to get tasks or hobbies done on the greatest operating system out there right now-Windows XP.

I know, you?re wondering if I?m out of my mind. But it?s true. We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

I love Mac OS. It?s more stable, secure, and elegant than XP. It?s built on a more modern foundation, and Apple?s consumer media applications are very close to perfect. For basic users, Unix geeks, or people willing to use Apple?s apps as directed on the box, it beats the pants off XP. I?ve recommended Mac OS to my mom (who took me up on it) and my grandma (who didn?t). I reorganized my whole home computer setup in order to organize my photos in iPhoto ?08?the app is that good.

But almost every day at PC Mag, I run into various applications that I need but can?t find on the Mac OS platform. In a recent week, these apps included an affordable consumer video-editing program that handles MPEG2 files as input; the software to transfer music and videos to the Firefly flyPhone kids? phone; a browser fully compatible with our ON24 conferencing system; a way to activate a Sierra wireless 595 PC card; and an actual copy of Microsoft Outlook.

Those are odd applications?well, except for Outlook. But a lot of people have a few odd applications. That?s why, even on Apple?s hardware, many technical types have chosen to dual-boot XP.

And here we get to XP?s strength: its ecosystem. XP?s huge driver library and developer base are what keep me coming back to my XP box. If it?s been dreamed of in the world of PCs, by now it?s been dreamed of on XP.

Dozens of manufacturers build a wild range of XP boxes to satisfy all sorts of niche tastes. Don?t like any of them? Build your own. I love to mix and match parts and define my own PC experience, right down to the choice of the case and the fan. That?s an option that Mac OS doesn?t really offer. While building your own Mac is possible, you put yourself in an uncomfortable legal position by doing so, and usually end up with a substandard experience compared with a brand-name Apple product.

There are two other players, of course. Vista is basically XP with Microsoft clones of a bunch of third-party add-ons, minus a lot of driver and program compatibility. It?s like your old best friend with an embarrassing and expensive new haircut. Yawn. Want a desktop search engine? Rather than use the one built into Vista, with XP I can choose among at least three.

Linux is beautiful and stable, but the applications problem on Linux is even worse than it is on Mac OS. And even in this age of Ubuntu, desktop Linux users are expected to be comfortable with the command line and to forego online media stores like Amazon Unbox and iTunes. XP isn?t for dummies, but the culture around Linux demands that you join the Linux community to stay in touch with what?s happening on the platform. That?s too much for many people.

Yes, XP has security issues. But here?s the thing about XP: With choice comes responsibility. Rather than including one preset solution for a problem the way Mac OS does, XP demands a little more of you. It demands that you go out there, weigh competing options, and enhance your system accordingly. Yes, it?s a little tiring to choose among three desktop search engines, five antivirus programs, and six DVD-burning programs. Then you discover that only one of those DVD-burning programs fits your own particular workflow, and you?re glad to be running the only OS with so many options.

Ah, but Vista is the future, you say. Maybe. Vista is the future only because Microsoft is giving consumers no choice, slapping Vista by default on new PCs. It?s a "success" only in situations where people have no alternative. Vista?s new features just aren?t enticing enough to compel people to spend money on them, and Microsoft made no changes to major core underpinnings of the OS. Vista will slowly creep over the world?s desktops in a weirdly lethargic way, with users neither welcoming it nor working very hard to fight it.

You?re probably a technology influencer, a relatively techy person who gives tech advice to others. So take mine. Recommend that your mom get a Mac. (You?ll thank me when she doesn?t call you for tech support.) Recommend that your IT department?s Web server run on some variant of Unix. But for your own PC, and for the PCs of people like you?it?s XP all the way.

 

[Cygnus X1]

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[Cutthroat]

I know, you?re wondering if I?m out of my mind. But it?s true. We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

XP does not satisfy me anymore, I get kinda annoyed actually when I have to use it.

There are two other players, of course. Vista is basically XP with Microsoft clones of a bunch of third-party add-ons, minus a lot of driver and program compatibility. It?s like your old best friend with an embarrassing and expensive new haircut. Yawn. Want a desktop search engine? Rather than use the one built into Vista, with XP I can choose among at least three.

The columnist has no idea what they are talking about.

Microsoft made no changes to major core underpinnings of the OS

LOL, the most ignorant statement I've heard yet from somebody who should know better.

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, that's one persons opinion. Just because it's printed doesn't make authoritative, or even correct. I'll take Vista over XP any day.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

I know, you?re wondering if I?m out of my mind. But it?s true. We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

XP does not satisfy me anymore, I get kinda annoyed actually when I have to use it.

There are two other players, of course. Vista is basically XP with Microsoft clones of a bunch of third-party add-ons, minus a lot of driver and program compatibility. It?s like your old best friend with an embarrassing and expensive new haircut. Yawn. Want a desktop search engine? Rather than use the one built into Vista, with XP I can choose among at least three.

The columnist has no idea what they are talking about.

Microsoft made no changes to major core underpinnings of the OS

LOL, the most ignorant statement I've heard yet from somebody who should know better.

Maybe you should make your own magazine since you seem to know everything...

 

[Bateluer]

The author obviously hasn't bothered to complete even the most basic research. About the only thing he gets right is that servers should run on a unix variant.

 

[Pabster]

Author is an idiot. "Microsoft made no changes under the hood..." ... what a tool. :laugh:

This "XP is still the one" nonsense always gives me a good laugh. Vista is where it's at. You can either get with the times or be left in the dust, the choice is yours.

 

[Nothinman]

Maybe you should make your own magazine since you seem to know everything...

Being published doesn't automatically make you intelligent on a subject and the line about MS not making any major changes to the "underpinnings" of the OS in Vista removes any semblance of credibility that the author may have had.

 

[PrinceofWands]

While I agree XP is infinitely better than Vista, the real 'One' has to be abandoning the tired old business model and draconian control efforts of Microsuck altogether. Whatever issues Linux has it really is the obvious future. Vista is just clinging to a dead mythology, and in my own opinion Mac is just a shadow or reflection of that mythology.

Open source, outside of government or corporate controls, developed for purpose and not revenues...*nod*, yup, that's the way.

 

[HopJokey]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
While I agree XP is infinitely better than Vista, the real 'One' has to be abandoning the tired old business model and draconian control efforts of Microsuck altogether. Whatever issues Linux has it really is the obvious future. Vista is just clinging to a dead mythology, and in my own opinion Mac is just a shadow or reflection of that mythology.

Open source, outside of government or corporate controls, developed for purpose and not revenues...*nod*, yup, that's the way.

Can I play Crysis on Linux though?

 

[manowar821]

I actually just switched back to x64 XP last night... It's so... functional.

 

[Mem]

XP is only number 1 due to how long it takes most users/business companies to move over to a new OS ,ie slow process.

As a XP and Vista x64 user/owner I can say that I prefer Vista x64 in virtually all areas to XP,infact my XP is only used for updates now ,RIP XP.I'll probably be saying same thing about Vista when Vienna arrives,end of the day its progress and we got to move with the times or get left behind.


Yes that guy does not have a clue, don't know how he can write that article, sure he's entitled to his opinion but end of the day I disagree with him in most of what he says.


Btw I remember seeing same sort of article when XP first came out,funny how history repeats itself.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
While I agree XP is infinitely better than Vista, the real 'One' has to be abandoning the tired old business model and draconian control efforts of Microsuck altogether. Whatever issues Linux has it really is the obvious future. Vista is just clinging to a dead mythology, and in my own opinion Mac is just a shadow or reflection of that mythology.

Open source, outside of government or corporate controls, developed for purpose and not revenues...*nod*, yup, that's the way.

Linux may be a choice in the future but it will never be the future. The limitations the GPL places on Linux is what will keep it from being the future. The fact is that end users are never going to migrate to Linux in large numbers simply because they want things that Linux can not provide legally out of the box. Another road block is the lack of applications people want/need on Linux. Most GPL/open source applications just are not as good as the commercial variants or do not exist.

The future is both open source and proprietary platforms fulfilling needs of end users and businesses. Windows will loose some of it's market share to Linux but will be the dominant platform for some time to come.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Yea, that's one persons opinion. Just because it's printed doesn't make authoritative, or even correct. I'll take Vista over XP any day.

:thumbsup: No doubt. I much prefer Vista over XP, especially Media Center and the better security.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

I know, you?re wondering if I?m out of my mind. But it?s true. We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

XP does not satisfy me anymore, I get kinda annoyed actually when I have to use it.

There are two other players, of course. Vista is basically XP with Microsoft clones of a bunch of third-party add-ons, minus a lot of driver and program compatibility. It?s like your old best friend with an embarrassing and expensive new haircut. Yawn. Want a desktop search engine? Rather than use the one built into Vista, with XP I can choose among at least three.

The columnist has no idea what they are talking about.

Microsoft made no changes to major core underpinnings of the OS

LOL, the most ignorant statement I've heard yet from somebody who should know better.

QFT. And that last statement? hahahahaha that statement ALONE disqualifies him as providing ANY relevant info, on ANY review on ANY software. Amazing.

And I agree. XP friggin blows. After using Vista for 11 months, I switched back to an old HD with XP Pro on it. Holy shit terrible. Not to mention it failed to recognize the same two pieces of hardware it had always failed to recognize that Vista saw natively.

Oh well. We all have our opinions I guess. I still see people driving AMC Pacers around too.

 

[Modelworks]

I think its going to get harder and harder to push a new OS on the public.
The average user wants there pc to do what they want when they want it.
They don't care whether its 32 bit/64 bit, could care less what runs in kernel space or user space, most think the only kernel in the world is in an ear of corn.

When promoting a new os, you got to give people something they can't get already, just like with every other consumer item.

People don't care to switch to vista because xp does all that they need it to.
Its like trying to sell people a new tv when the only difference between the one they have and the one you want them to buy is the new one is a different color.

Yes I know there are lots of improvements in vista, but to the average pc user they don't see them, and they are not going to take the time to research it.

People that read the forums here need to realize they are in the minority when it comes to learning what os they should use. The general public just cares that there email, web browsing, music downloads work.

MS needs to give vista a feature that makes people go "wow, I want that"
DX10 isn't it, the hype is about gone on that one.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: blackangst1
I still see people driving AMC Pacers around too.

:laugh:

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Modelworks


When promoting a new os, you got to give people something they can't get already, just like with every other consumer item.



MS needs to give vista a feature that makes people go "wow, I want that"
DX10 isn't it, the hype is about gone on that one.

I think you make a pretty good point there. Vista is a great evolutionary step in the Windows family, but not much really jumps out as a "must have" feature. If MS wants to get the average person to upgrade, they're going to need to come up with a gee whiz gimmick that makes people want to upgrade. Of course you'll have the geeks complaining about bloat, and reminiscing about the good old days of the DOS prompt , but I think that's what's needed to get the average consumer interested. I'm not sure what that feature would be... I don't really feel like I'm missing anything, but maybe a study of your average WalMart shopper, would give a good idea on what to improve for the general population.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Maybe you should make your own magazine since you seem to know everything...

Being published doesn't automatically make you intelligent on a subject and the line about MS not making any major changes to the "underpinnings" of the OS in Vista removes any semblance of credibility that the author may have had.

LOL! No duh. I laugh my ass off at Maximum PC every time I flip through one That's not my point, you seemed to have completely missed it. Oh well.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

The reason businesses aren't jumping to Vista? Simple. The last major OS rollout was XP, and back then most businesses didn't even have broadband! Networks...REAL networks, were in their infancy, the internet was the "latest thing", and the biggest threat was the simple virus, which was easily thwarted. Even firewalls were just starting to pop up.

Since then, everything has gotten more complex...FAR more complex. The time and effort involved in making such a move is amazing in today's world.

As for Mr. Segan, he is way off base here. He touts Mac? Come on. If any Windows shop had a choice of upgrading from XP to either Vista or Leapord/Tiger/Kitty, I guarantee that upwards of 90% would opt for Vista. I mean, really....95% of our apps work on Vista now, and the only Mac compatible app is MSFT Office!

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Hurricane Andrew
The reason businesses aren't jumping to Vista? Simple. The last major OS rollout was XP, and back then most businesses didn't even have broadband! Networks...REAL networks, were in their infancy, the internet was the "latest thing", and the biggest threat was the simple virus, which was easily thwarted. Even firewalls were just starting to pop up.

The other reason businesses aren't jumping to vista is because they don't need it.
An office that has its applications all running nicely on XP is not going to move to anything else unless they absolutely need to. If its not broken don't fix it, type of thinking.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

I know, you?re wondering if I?m out of my mind. But it?s true. We?ve all got a love-hate relationship with XP, but it?s the only PC OS that can satisfy 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time.

XP does not satisfy me anymore, I get kinda annoyed actually when I have to use it.

There are two other players, of course. Vista is basically XP with Microsoft clones of a bunch of third-party add-ons, minus a lot of driver and program compatibility. It?s like your old best friend with an embarrassing and expensive new haircut. Yawn. Want a desktop search engine? Rather than use the one built into Vista, with XP I can choose among at least three.

The columnist has no idea what they are talking about.

Microsoft made no changes to major core underpinnings of the OS

LOL, the most ignorant statement I've heard yet from somebody who should know better.

QFT.
as much as i dislike MS vista is far superoior to XP. if only becasue it doesn't run everything as root. there are more drivers (both my gfx card and mobo lan and my wireless driver) were there by default. it generally prettier and the DPI scaling rules. sure something don't work but frankly i've used macs and the first time i couldn't even figure out how to do anything. took me half hour. (this is not a tech noob, this is a guy who has used linux daily for months, has setup tons of VMs using vmware, linux vserver and xen etc etc)

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: HopJokey

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
While I agree XP is infinitely better than Vista, the real 'One' has to be abandoning the tired old business model and draconian control efforts of Microsuck altogether. Whatever issues Linux has it really is the obvious future. Vista is just clinging to a dead mythology, and in my own opinion Mac is just a shadow or reflection of that mythology.

Open source, outside of government or corporate controls, developed for purpose and not revenues...*nod*, yup, that's the way.

Can I play Crysis on Linux though?

it not just that. linux is a pain in the ass to use when your tired and just wanna get your work done. that why windows is so succesfull. it plain easy to do the stuff you like without consulating a million forum and docs.
and honestly vista is easier than even XP.

 

[randym431]

One more thumbs up for vista.
Its articles like his that made me hold off on vista.
Then I decided to take maters into my own hands and install it.
Works "flawless" and fast, and a dream to use.
I do have all vista compat hardware (btw). That makes the difference.

Hardware can be an issue. But what gets me are folks that buy new pc's or laptops
with vista, and revert back to xp just cause they are afraid of learning anything different.
Kinda sad.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: randym431
One more thumbs up for vista.
Its articles like his that made me hold off on vista.
Then I decided to take maters into my own hands and install it.
Works "flawless" and fast, and a dream to use.
I do have all vista compat hardware (btw). That makes the difference.

Hardware can be an issue. But what gets me are folks that buy new pc's or laptops
with vista, and revert back to xp just cause they are afraid of learning anything different.
Kinda sad.

It is mostly geeks and gamers that switch back to XP after buying a computer. It seems that many geeks are afraid of change on any platform. You see this a lot on Linux also when new features are added to their operating system to make it easier for non-geeks to use. The geeks throw a big fit and accuse developers of just adding bloat for no good reason.