I have a MAC laptop but my desktop is an older Dell with XP and hasn't missed a beat since I bought it 6-7 years ago.

Microsoft will not support XP after April 2014, bummer.

Their online site says to upgrade, even to Windows 7 will require a purchase of an external hard drive. Another bummer.

My desktop doesn't really owe me anything but I have design software that will be useless with 64 bit processor and Windows 8.1.

I hate to take it offline but looks like I have no other choice.

A couple years ago a guy at Radio Shack told me about some freeware operating system that was just as good as Windows. I can't find him now.

Any ideas?

The guy at Radio Shack was probably talking about Linux. There is lots more software for it now than in past years, particularly university-written software. Other software, no guarantees. There isn't a version of Altium for Linux that I'm aware of, but how bad is that?

So maybe the strategy is to take the XP machines off the internet, use a newer machine for that and continue to use the XP machine to generate design work for as long as the design software is competitive.

Maybe at this stage the barriers to market entry are just too high; only legions of free laborer have brought Linux to the point of marginal competitiveness for some applications. OS2 was the last serious run at the desktop market and that was a while ago.

In some ways, Microsoft is like the credit card companies, dictating the terms of surrender.

I ,too, am addicted to my Dell Xp. Have decided that I will do all my writting on it and just keep going 'til it dies. Windows XP is used by 15-20 % of all small businesses; Windows response to not supporting it anymore was " it will be better for you to have our newer systems ".
What I will miss most is Outlook Express for emailing without all that ad crap.
I have gotten too old ....

quote:

Originally posted by Ole Miss Guy:
I ,too, am addicted to my Dell Xp. Have decided that I will do all my writting on it and just keep going 'til it dies. Windows XP is used by 15-20 % of all small businesses; Windows response to not supporting it anymore was " it will be better for you to have our newer systems ".
What I will miss most is Outlook Express for emailing without all that ad crap.
I have gotten too old ....

Yes, my problem too. I don't need streaming video or on-line gaming. These are the only advantage I see to higher number Windows stuff. My eyes and thumbs don't do well with anything that doesn't have a real keyboard and bigger screen.

I'm getting use to my Mac with glasses. I'll just use it for online stuff.

Nutz. This year's Turbo Tax won't install on my 10-year-old HP laptop despite that fact that it came with XP. Now what.

I heard today that Microsoft has relented, and will continue to support XP until July 14, 2015. That gives us another 18 months or so, and should get us up to the release of Windows 9.

Apparently Windows 8 has earned the nickname "Vista 2" among Microsoft staffers. I'm sure hoping to avoid it altogether.

quote:

Originally posted by Tumbleweed:
I heard today that Microsoft has relented, and will continue to support XP until July 14, 2015. That gives us another 18 months or so, and should get us up to the release of Windows 9.

Apparently Windows 8 has earned the nickname "Vista 2" among Microsoft staffers. I'm sure hoping to avoid it altogether.

Good news
I hope what you heard is true. Probably by then either me or my XP based stuff will be "out of service" due to natural causes.

Do you have a source for what you heard? My wife has been talking about getting a new MAC laptop. I'd like for us to save the money.

I just found this article.

www.computerworld.com/s/articl...users_until_mid_2015

I went from XP to Win 7 with no problem.

It is my understanding that some of the major vendors will still provide a system with Win 7 if you order directly from the vendor.

HP is once again selling computers with "Windows 7 back by popular demand"

As a rule any computer that was originally shipped with VISTA
will run windows7, I can NOT say the same thing about computers shipped with XP.

Search for Ubuntu or Lubuntu. They are the same base platforms but Lubuntu is formulated for older computers with less memory and slower processors.
I have an old Pentium machine that I converted to dual boot DOS and Lubuntu and it is still working flawlessly. I can use the Lubuntu easily as it has a look and feel very similar to Windoze but has no crash issues or virus issues. The learning curve is not bad at all. The DOS side is also capable of web browsing and is a bit faster on all but the latest websites. I have a lot of software from back in the DOS days that I wrote or bought that works perfectly - even my old CAD software works - the only problem with it is printer drivers. You need an older printer or write your own driver.

All in all I use the Linux machine more than my Windoze machine.