Friday, November 28, 2014

Annoying complaints about Windows XP

I got the following e-mail from a vendor:
Due to increased security, we will NOT be supporting Windows XP in 2015.

Windows XP is 12 years old—that’s pretty old for an operating system.

In the past 12 years you’ve probably gotten a new phone, maybe a new TV, and possibly even a new car. Maybe it’s time for a new PC too, so you can make sure you have more memory and storage, faster processing speeds, and a higher-quality display (some even come with touch). And they’re less expensive than you might think.

Besides the condescension in the last paragraph, as much as Microsoft would like that story to be true, it just isn't. If you were buying your machine up to 2007, you got XP. It was the top, shiny new operating system. That puts us at 7 years, not 12. Then who can forget Vista - as much as Microsoft would like to. Nobody was upgrading to that, they were purchasing XP, and continuing to purchase XP. That is until 2009, so 5 years ago (when Windows 7 came out). So a computer you bought quite reasonably just over 5 years ago is now getting that message. And I didn't even get into the netbook fiasco which means that you could buy a netbook with XP up to 2010. So someone could have bought a perfectly reasonable netbook 4 years ago, and Microsoft abandoned them, and it is their fault. So bottom line - I understand any vendor abandoning XP support. It is now a security nightmare. Especially an online vendor like this one (they provide a website to access). I get that. But be honest about it, and cut the condescension.