Still on Windows XP? Here’s Some Bad Advice

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It is a disease and we all have it.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

I was an instructor at the local computer club (800 members) for several years. I finally gave up because people that had used PCs for 20 years knew nothing - even not the basics.

I think all those 800 got hired by my employer and moved on to make my life miserable

Years ago when I had time I did much more with the OS (I don't even want to know how many times I reinstalled XP because I "improved" it). But now I have to work with so much software (that also has to be learned) that the PC defaulted back to a platform to just enable the software that I actually wanted to use.

I haven't even tried out W8 because I didn't want to afford the downtime and learning curve and now I just wait for W9. Not to save $ alone, but not to have to spend time (on a questionable improvement over W7). when W8 came out my wife also still worked from home and if one single of her software would have looked or acted differently I would have been in hell. This is a wide departure from my younger years when I had XP installed before it was released.

 

[whs]

Why don't you try 8.1 in VMware Player. Runs great. Or buy a new PC. Then you get it included.

I bought one of the early cheap Win8 licenses and installed it in a virtual VMware Player partition that runs from an external SSD. This way I can attach it to any of my systems and have to maintain it only once. We also have 8.1 on an Asus Transformer tablet. Runs well there too. And the phone version on a Nokia phone. That one is really easy to use - much better than the PC versions. It runs even Office - e.g. PowerPoint shows.

 

[jimbo45]

Why don't you try 8.1 in VMware Player. Runs great. Or buy a new PC. Then you get it included.

I bought one of the early cheap Win8 licenses and installed it in a virtual VMware Player partition that runs from an external SSD. This way I can attach it to any of my systems and have to maintain it only once. We also have 8.1 on an Asus Transformer tablet. Runs well there too. And the phone version on a Nokia phone. That one is really easy to use - much better than the PC versions. It runs even Office - e.g. PowerPoint shows.

Hi there

Most Android phones can read Office documents -- Kingsoft office for example -- but would you REALLY want to CREATE a spreadsheet / power point demo on a Mobile phone !!!

(Maybe the Human race is evolving so the younger generations have longer but thinner and thinner fingers).

Even office on a touch only tablet is a pain for content creation. I haven't seen ANYTHING in the last 20 years that even comes NEAR the convenience of a mouse for cutting / pasting large slices of text or pictures and a keyboard is still faster than writing -- even for "One fingered typists".

The "Office for phone" IMO is just a gimmick. You still need a PC or a tablet with a NON touch keyboard and mouse to use it for anything other than simply reading documents -- and Kingsoft office (Free) does that quite nicely on Android.
Try creating a spreadsheet of around 20 lines on a PHONE even on an iPad that has some complex formulae and a macro or two in it --in DEBUGGING MODE !!!. Your iPad will probably after about 5 mins end up in the NEAREST BIN. !!

cheers
jimbo

 

[whs]

I absolutely agree. There is no way you can produce anything in Office on the phone. But for running my PowerPoinr shows are reading a .docx document it is OK. Here is one of my PP shows I really like.

Carneval in Venice - Updated Ppt Presentation

 

[MrWhoopee]

But now I have to work with so much software (that also has to be learned) that the PC defaulted back to a platform to just enable the software that I actually wanted to use.

IMHO, this is where M$ has gone off the rails. The OS is supposed to provided access to and support for the software you use to accomplish the things you want to do. All the pretty, fancy crap is just that, CRAP! Whether you use your computer for gaming, video creation or web surfing, the OS should give you quick, easy access to those applications with a minimum of fuss and fluff.

The OS is not the destination, it is the vehicle.

 

[Nigsy]

the OS should give you quick, easy access to those applications with a minimum of fuss and fluff.

The OS is not the destination, it is the vehicle.

And if all I want to do is Facebook ; internet ; twitter and G+ then surely in Windows 8 Microsoft have clearly achieved that?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

the OS should give you quick, easy access to those applications with a minimum of fuss and fluff.

The OS is not the destination, it is the vehicle.

And if all I want to do is Facebook ; internet ; twitter and G+ then surely in Windows 8 Microsoft have clearly achieved that?

If that's all you want to do, you don't even need a computer. A tablet or a smart phone would meet your needs.

 

[SimpkinX]

I actually quite like Windows XP, I have a Virtual PC with it and although its going obsolete it did kind of leave a mark on the fact that it was one of the most successful operating systems.

 

[whs]

But now I have to work with so much software (that also has to be learned) that the PC defaulted back to a platform to just enable the software that I actually wanted to use.

IMHO, this is where M$ has gone off the rails. The OS is supposed to provided access to and support for the software you use to accomplish the things you want to do. All the pretty, fancy crap is just that, CRAP! Whether you use your computer for gaming, video creation or web surfing, the OS should give you quick, easy access to those applications with a minimum of fuss and fluff.

The OS is not the destination, it is the vehicle.

Very well said. Those MS guys forgot that we can care less about their OS, it's our applications that count. The OS is only a convenient vehicle to access our applications - and that should be as straight forward as possible. People don't want to major in OS navigation plus having to deal with their crappy stuff from their store.

Interesting though is that they did a very good job for the W8Phone. That is really easy to use and straight forward. They are only missing an Explorer, but there are a couple of good apps.

 

[Britton30]

Damn right MrWhoopee and whs!

 

[King Arthur]

Very well said. Those MS guys forgot that we can care less about their OS, it's our applications that count.

While I agree with you in principal, I think to say we couldn't care less about the OS is like taking a shotgun to a precision sniping competition.

I personally do care about the OS: How does it behave, especially behind the scenes? For whose benefit was the OS designed, the individual users or Microsoft? What can I do with the OS? Am I using the OS or is the OS using me? And so on and so forth.

Again, while I do agree with you that ultimately I run Windows to run my favorite Windows software (all hail Win32/64!), I would be lying if I were to say I didn't care about Windows.