Microsoft Backtracks AGAIN!

[netguyjoel]

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/530 ... /198371/0/

[nightscope]

Excellent. I shall remain fashionable for a few more years yet.

ns

[dawman]

XP64 is what most PC guys are using anyways.
The whole 6GB SATA, and SSD support won't show much benefit anyways.
Just like the supposed better Multithreading and core assignments in Vista, etc.
If yours apps aren't supporting this unproven technology, I personally see no need for it.
There are dedicated workstations using XP64 that will be around for a while.
Besides I think M$ will even release better, more refined updates for XP.
Remember the conveniently timed release of the 3GB Switch after releasing Vista?
These profiteers can do a lipstand as far I am concerned.
I prefer playing and creating sounds and tracks over tweaking a new O.S. for little gain anyways.
Some people just love tweaking, I prefer getting my money's worth from the monopoly makers before I give them more money for something that I consider uneeded.

[valis]

That won't include Xp64, which is actually an offshoot of Win Server2003 codebase with the Xp 'UI' tacked on. Xp64 is now essentially EOL and only gets a handful of critical updates. You can bet it will get almost no driver support beyond what is available now, the 64bit driver models for Vista & Win7 are changed enough that things won't necessarily 'just work' for Xp64 as well (although Xp64 drivers that exist can be ported forward.)

I've officially moved my 3d & print software off of Xp64 to Win7-64 now, and am actually kind of glad for it. At the same time I have 2 computers here that I have little need to install Win7-32 on (my old Xeon box hosting the Scope cards and a laptop) as neither have more than 1GB of ram and are functioning perfectly well as things are. And my main DAW still runs Xp32 for music due to 3 of my devices not having 64bit drivers (am slowly replacing them). I have no real urgency to upgrade my audio environment to be '64bits' but I do have 8GB of ram here and half of that is unused when doing music. Still it's nice to know MS will continue to patch Xp32 for a while yet to support these OEM versions.

Also note that this article doesn't mention what happens with the retail Xp32 channels (even the 'system builder oem' boxed versions).

[netguyjoel]

It's the business community is fuelling this backtracking over & over again...
Businesses need new hardware with more RAM, to handle the thicker, multiple apps that users run congruently, and they only want to buy hardware with XP Pro...what options do they have left...piracy??? Dell, HP, Gateway, Micon and other beige box mfgrs, need to move units, and they placed enough pressure on MS, to have them take yet another extension on the demise of XP.
So many apps from numerous business vendor software, will not run, can not run, on Vista or Win7, let alone drivers for legacy hardware, pervasive throughout the business world. We tested Vista, and Win7 beta, on certain user groups in our company...including many that were savy...and the backlash was immense. I had to downgrade 3 laptops for executives, that HATED the new interface.
I don't mind it, I'm IT..the curve is very short, for guys like me and many here...but, in the mass majority of our employees, they simply struggle with such a swing. The swing from 2K to XP pales in comparison to XP to Vista/Win7

IMHO

[pollux]

It's the business community is fuelling this backtracking over & over again...
Businesses need new hardware with more RAM, to handle the thicker, multiple apps that users run congruently, and they only want to buy hardware with XP Pro...what options do they have left...piracy??? Dell, HP, Gateway, Micon and other beige box mfgrs, need to move units, and they placed enough pressure on MS, to have them take yet another extension on the demise of XP.
So many apps from numerous business vendor software, will not run, can not run, on Vista or Win7, let alone drivers for legacy hardware, pervasive throughout the business world. We tested Vista, and Win7 beta, on certain user groups in our company...including many that were savy...and the backlash was immense. I had to downgrade 3 laptops for executives, that HATED the new interface.
I don't mind it, I'm IT..the curve is very short, for guys like me and many here...but, in the mass majority of our employees, they simply struggle with such a swing. The swing from 2K to XP pales in comparison to XP to Vista/Win7

IMHO

For "normal" office applications, which are the "normal" use of let's say 80% (being gentle) of the corporate / business PC park out there, a Core 2 pc with 2 gigs of Ram and a 36 GB SATA drive is more than enough, and win XP runs perfectly on that. Most companies out there are still using office 2003, and only starting to use Office 2007... office 2007 can easily trash Office 2003 documents

Why bother with 64 bit crap, 12 GB of RAM, ultra fast disks, and vista, if at the end of the day a smaller (and cheaper) pc with XP will do the same job. Keeping a single operating system for the whole park greatly reduces maintainance costs

[netguyjoel]

yeah...that 2003 to 2007 made some of our users more confused than Paris Hilton in a spelling bee

We have stuck w/ XP & 2003...no need to upgrade as of yet in our environment..

[valis]

It's funny how people outside of the corporate sector (where the desktop apps are more rigidly controlled) will get Office2007, decide they hate it and try 'Open Office', then decide how much worse that wasy, go back to Office2000 or 2003, then realize they can't open Office2007 documents that they created and receive from others and wind up going back to Office2007. I've seen literally dozens of people I know do this, all in an effort to resist having to relearn things (that seem so simple to me.)

Sooo many computer users function by rote memorization in the age brackets above 25...

[netguyjoel]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

I agree...learning 2007 for me...was snap...so, the link above was used for those baby boomers in our company that barely know which end of the mouse to use...

[Shroomz~>]

yeah...that 2003 to 2007 made some of our users more confused than Paris Hilton in a spelling bee

I don't think of Paris in that way myself, but that's just me.

[netguyjoel]

She's just gross...

[Shroomz~>]

I'd marry her.

[netguyjoel]

EEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!!

[Shroomz~>]

Only if I didn't need to sign a pre-numpt'.

[netguyjoel]

WE BOTH WOULD!

But I have the best wife I could possibly ask for...for shure the better half! (Paris is still not that attractive in my eyes)

There are different things, that make people beautiful in my eyes......when you find her...you'll know.....

[valis]

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

I agree...learning 2007 for me...was snap...so, the link above was used for those baby boomers in our company that barely know which end of the mouse to use...

I actually use the 'compatibility pack' on several machines here, MS Office is banished to the laptop where it can't interfere with other things I have going on, open office suffices on the rest.

My issues with MS Office have to do with using it in a non-MS-centric workflow, and I do indeed have some disdain for it there. If I don't mind sticking with applications that 'do it all for me' and forget low-level control, everything is great. But when I get documents that I need to convert to other formats (html/xml/pdf/etc) it seems that there's always some need for the proper converter or plugin as an additional cost. I haven't tried the new native PDF exporting the most recent Office2007 service pack, but I've never had good luck getting it to export content that was both editable by Adobe apps and retained a close enough layout to care to bother (either content is done in highly messy vectors or the text styling is a mess, etc). And the html output...every generation it gets more tedious to clean the styling off of every element (since it keeps changing so I have to code new scripts.) Most people don't care, but it bloats typical output at least 3-10 times larger than what it really needs to be (and makes it highly unreadable/difficult to debug by hand.) There's also problems with activation of course, as I typically have 2-3 Windows OS's on my main PC alone these days.

Anyway I digress. I will most likely be entirely off of Xp32 by 2011 for my main work machine(s), but since Scope is happily puttering along on Xp it's good to know we'll still be getting OS patches (especially since when idle that box runs my IM/IRC/email etc.)

[netguyjoel]

it bloats typical output at least 3-10 times larger than what it really needs to be

I do cgi & php in TextPad and I agree...converting anything in MS turns it into Dom Delouise at the buffet line...