Windows 9 Expected To Push Consumers Off Windows XP
It's time to go people. The Windows XP party will be over soon.
Windows 9 is probably one of the most talked about topics as of late. So far we've heard two release windows for the rumored platform: Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. The latter date has lingered around for a bit, while the Fall release window suggests that Microsoft may be itching to move away from Windows 8.
Regardless, even Dell is talking about Windows 9, indicating that the unannounced platform, which may be revealed in April during the BUILD conference, will likely convince Windows XP customers into upgrading to the latest Microsoft release. The "cool factor" of the Modern UI will eventually win everyone over.
Is Windows 8 really that horrible? Definitely not. The problem Microsoft has had in the past is that the platform is too different from the norm. Walk into an electronics store, and the average desktop consumer sees touchy tiles on every screen. There's a desktop underneath all that flashy content, but the average buyer may not realize that, and instead seek out a solution with Windows 7 still installed.
Windows 8.1, launched in October 2013, definitely made the platform feel more like a single unit than the previous Desktop/Modern UI double-feature. Windows 8.1 GDR1, scheduled to launch in April, will supposedly help merge the two together. Windows 9? Even more.
As previously reported, the problem with Windows XP for many may not be with fighting off a Windows 8 upgrade, but replacing legacy software that doesn't play nice with the likes of Windows 7. For businesses that could be a big expense.
Still, Dell believes that Windows 8.1 and Windows 9 should pull businesses and consumers away from the dying, cobwebbed platform. "When Windows 9 comes out, we're also seeing a lot more interest around developing the transition strategy for their OS," explains end user computing marketing chief Margaret Franco.
"There is a pressure point in order to start accelerating OS migration because in April, that's when the support for XP ends. We're seeing much more interest around OS planning and strategy planning, such as finding out what the benefits of touch are," Franco added.
In a recent report from the IDC, Lenovo was the worldwide leader in the fourth quarter, owning 18.6 percent of the PC market. Hewlett Packard came in second with a 16.8 percent market share, down 8.5 percent from the same quarter in 2012. Dell ranked as third with a 12.2 percent market share, Acer in fourth with 6.7 percent and Asus with 6.1 percent.
Here in the United States, Hewlett Packard was in the lead with 24.6 percent of the local market share, down 12.3 percent from the same quarter in 2012. Dell came in second with 21.7 percent, and saw a 6.6 percent growth year over year.
This is just the weekly "dump XP" article by Tom's in-house Microsoft public relations representative, Mr. Kevin Parrish. He used to be just annoying, now he's becoming disgusting.
I agree Windows 8 isn't horrible. It functions on the PCs with which it ships, making it better than ME or Vista. It is relatively secure, making it better than Pre-SP1 98 or post-April XP. It just has one minor issue that belies all positives: No one likes it! The charms, the tiles, the hot corners--these are all functions that lowers usability and enjoyment. Considering that an OS only serves to operate the PC to its intended purpose, not be the machine's usage itself, failure to provide ease and enjoyment of interactivity is crippling.
Hopefully Windows 9 resolves this, I do not want to be stuck with 7 forever and ever.
Humm, no.
Last I heard, Win9 will be 64bits-only so if your hardware does not have 64bits drivers, it is as good as dead and buried for Win9 - you can still run 32bits programs with WoW32 but not kernel-space drivers. Also, Microsoft changed a bunch of things in their driver model between XP and Win7 to improve things such as security, reliability, performance and DRM so going back is not really an option.
If your hardware is too old to have 64bits Win7 drivers, it most likely won't be able to handle Win9 too well even if it could run it.
Off-the-shelf PCs from the XP days only had 512-1024MB RAM. Today's bloaty Linux distributions require 512MB just to install and are only barely usable with that little RAM: load Firefox or Chrome with 3-4 tabs and between the browser, Gnome and Xorg, over 1GB of RAM is already gone - my Fedora 18 PC has 3.5GB in use with little more than that loaded excluding the 2GB used by the disk cache. (5.5GB total in use out of 8GB installed.)
People keep bashing Windows for being a resource hog but some Linux distros can be a fair bit worse. I'm sticking to Fedora simply because it is the distro I have personally consistently had the fewest grievous experiences with.
I'm pretty much certain vandalizing people's PCs and equipment would be illegal and Microsoft would likely be found directly liable for all losses attributable to it. Depending on exactly who still uses XP for what, those liabilities could be quite steep.
All this talk about old OSes and software that does not run on newer OSes reminds me I still have a PC running Win98SE because FF7PC does not run properly on anything newer.
This is just the weekly "dump XP" article by Tom's in-house Microsoft public relations representative, Mr. Kevin Parrish. He used to be just annoying, now he's becoming disgusting.