WilksNet

Alright I’m going to do a little tech editorial for you.  I wanted to talk about Windows XP and its imminent demise.  Look, the bottom line is that Windows XP has been in operation far too long already and it is an outdated operating system that needs to be shelved by Microsoft and users alike.  Real quick, the reason XP was alive so long anyway is because Microsoft had to shift focus to fix XP with service pack 2.

So we had five good years with Windows XP.  Well I should say that we had a very rough first year with XP, and until SP2, XP had a whole huge big dump truck full of security issues.  Now, during this time everyone, including me, complained about XP and how crappy it was.  Then along came Vista, an OS designed around security (not without its flaws) and everyone jumped on the “I hate Vista” bandwagon.  Although, I shouldn’t say everyone.  It seems to me that you don’t hear about people who think Vista is fine and that it works well for them.  They stay silent.  The only howls you hear are from those who complain about how Vista is not like XP.

Well, Microsoft had to do a major OS upgrade sometime.  And Vista does have quite a few issues it has to deal with.  Internal memos have surfaced that high ranking managers at Microsoft even thought Vista was not ready for the public.  However, Vista has enjoyed quite a few successes since its release, especially in the security and stability arenas.  Vista is inherently more secure than Windows XP and it has addressed many of the security problems XP had.  UAC is annoying, but if you don’t like it, turn it off.  Vista also is a very highly stable OS that rarely crashes and is compatible with thousands of drivers and software programs.

Another funny thing is that Mac people and Windows people alike were crying out “Man, Microsoft needs to release an OS with cool visual effects that utilize the graphics card!”  Well Vista does EXACTLY that, and now everyone is complaining that Vista takes up more system resources….  Well, that’s what you get.  Inevitably, new versions of operating systems are going to have new features, and fancy effects (like OSX) and they are going to take full advantage of new computer system hardware.  I used to think that the better hardware got, the quicker Windows would boot.  A long time ago I thought, man when we have these dual core and quad core CPUs with 4 gigs of RAM, my computer is going to boot in 5 seconds and everything will run great!  Well, that’s not how it works.  As the OSs progress, they take advantage of these hardware elements to give the user a richer, more robust experience.  So, should you put Vista on a 5 or 10 year old computer that you had Windows 98 or XP on?  No.  So just keep that on there, or just install Linux and stop crying about how Vista doesn’t work fast on your computer.  If you want Vista to work, look up the recommended specs, investigate the hardware that is certified, and build or buy a computer that will exceed the requirements for Vista.

Bottom line there?  If you have a PC that can only handle XP – use XP on it.  If you want a new computer, get Vista.  There’s no reason to keep XP forever, it’s just not practical.  When Windows 7 comes out, hopefully we’ll get a taste of what Vista should have been.  I’m sure that they will be able to work the bugs out and we’ll get something roughly like Vista 2.0.  Either way, I’ve put XP behind me.  I have Windows Vista business on my main (powerful) desktop, and I just got rid of XP on my Dell that I bought in 2003.  I’ve replaced XP with Ubuntu 8.04 because it can do everything XP can do and it runs faster on the machine.

All in all, the point of this is to emphasize that sooner or later, whether people like it or not, Windows XP will die and will cease to be supported.  So with RAM prices dirt cheap these days, and dual core processors dirt cheap from AMD, and fast computers available from the major computer manufacturers, doesn’t it seem kind of foolish to hang on to XP for dear life??  Move on people, move on.

Linux + Vista = happiness