End of Windows XP support

[Intaris]

By then ee may be running XP on FPGA.... 😮

[Intaris]

By then we may be running XP on FPGA.... 😮

[RobCole]

Still developing in Windows XP using XP Mode on Windows 7 now. I can't run around to a number of other countries just to update operating systems. I did ask Microsoft if they would cover my travel costs and I was promptly ignored.

I'm thinking of operating systems other than Windoze these days. Microsoft has released their roadmap for Windoze and it includes Windows 10 being entirely cloud based. No local storage and some functions run on MS servers rather than locally. It doesn't sound good for instrumentation work.

     Rob

BTW: the picture for my icon was created in MS-DOS.

[Ray.R]

My machines are all becoming Linux machines.  I have an XP machine that is dying (the OS, of course).  It will also become a Linux machine.  Even my wife's computer will become a Linux machine with windoze 7 as a virtual machine or using vine.   I hope to convert my customers to using Linux / Unix / somethingOtherThanWindoze..

The 3rd Linux server will be up this week.  The Solaris machines have been running longer than anyone can imagine...  They outlast the lifetime of windoze OS... Many times over!!  They only get rebooted if there is a hardware issue or the UPS dies after a prolonged power outage.

I still have 2 XP machines that I hope will survive for a few more years, after which, if the hardware is still good, and it should be, they will also become Linux machines.

I do have win 7 on a laptop that dual-boots into Ubuntu.  Win 7 is okay..  nowhere as solid as Linux..  But it does appear more solid than XP.  Maybe I need to abuse it a bit more.. LOL!!  😉  The other laptop is purely Linux Mint..  😄  My world won't end if microbesoft dissappears...  LOL!

[RTSLVU]

The warning of doom and gloom you are hearing is a lot of industry FUD and attempts to get peole to drop some cash on a new computer.

In reality if you have been running XP for this long then you are doing somethign right, like using third party AV software or not connecting directly to the internet and usign even a basic firewall/router.

Just a couple years ago I was still developing LabView on XP and deploying on Windows7-64bit with no issues.

Now I still frequently develop LV (32bit) on Windows7-64bit and deploy to XP without issues.

Migrating from XP to 7 was painless for me, but if you have test systens still running XP, I would not bother to rush out and upgrae them. Just be prepared to replace them at the next hardware failure.

[altenbach]

We have a double-reason to upgrade, though.

Most of our windoes XP computers are Athlon XPs, which do not support SSE2. This means that my newer LabVIEW programs won't run without disabling SSE2 support in the built specifications. I don't bother with this and thus these computers are simply not used for this. (they would be rather slow anyway).

[Ray.R]

I agree with RTSLVU.  If your network and PC are well protected, and your machine works fine, then you don't need to rush out and try to find win-7.   From win-xp... the transition to win-8 is not good...  especially if you have instruments communicating over the parallel, serial or USB ports.  If your XP crashes... try Linux or virtual XP machines through Linux...

[JÞB]

Actually I wound up bit on this myself.  The LMB's laptop died within a week of XP support dropping.  It was already planned for upgrade but we wound up doing the purchase a few months ahead of schedule when "Something" went wrong with the MS Office suite.

She is not all that thrilled with Win 8 but it a runs Office (Kind of important since the LMB's business, "Honest Bookkeeping", also maintains 8-Ball Consulting's books.)

[Ray.R]

I've been looking for accounting software that supports Linux and Canadian accounting.  Wine does not seem to pull through.  Hopefully a virtual machine will.

I will have to share (later) a story about the death of a hard drive....  Fortunately part of a RAID-5 setup. 

[RobCole@Work]

I know this is month out of date or so, but I read an interesting article today saying that Windows XP is getting more secure. The argument goes that as fewer people use it, it becomes less of a target for hackers. Much more productive to find a hole in a well-used OS.

Of course, they also claim that Windows 8.0 is the most secure,  because almost no one bought it.

     Rob