Windows XP Sucks! I'll Never Leave 2k!

Err... wait...

Published on January 17, 2008 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Wow, it's like we've been transported back in time to 2001 and the Windows XP launch. Who here remembers what that was like? Every tech-head online and offline was going on about how XP was just an incremental upgrade to 2k, but rife with incompatibility issues, and forcing users to relearn where basic system utilities were. No one was going to upgrade. Windows 2000 and 98 were going to be it forever. Those all worked just fine for what everyone needed... and didn't require as powerful a machine. XP was doomed to failure.

Now, 7 years later, we're going through the same process, only this time the OS versions have changed. Now Vista is the reviled OS and XP is the golden child that can do no wrong.

How quickly we forget.

Steve Parker over at Neowin sums up the situation quite nicely with a walk down memory lane, recounting the dark days of hardware and driver incompatibility with XP, the hoops you had to jump through, and how long it took to get proper support. The point? It's the same song and dance for Windows Vista.

Comments (Page 1)

WebGizmos

on Jan 17, 2008

Yeah yeah yeah....Vista sucks!

Seriously though....I honestly have not seen a compelling reason to move up to Vista...especially when I have to upgrade other things in the process...thanks...but no thanks. Haven't tried it...I'm perfectly happy with XP...does everything I need it to and it runs great. I very very very rarely have problems with it....and when I do it only because "I" messed something up. So...I'll continue using it until I am forced to move on to Vista. I'm just not one to jump on every bandwagon that comes along.

Quentin94

on Jan 17, 2008

It's the same song and dance for Windows Vista.

So true

I remember that and also the little war between 95 users and 98. Too funny how people can forget these things.

ramayudhistira

on Jan 17, 2008

Vista really sucks my hands!

Now I'm back to Windows XP!

Let's wait for my new skin!

nicksick

on Jan 17, 2008

I keep seeing these articles on WinCustomize saying how we are doing to vista what we did to xp. I can't help but notice, though, that I see these articles nowhere else on the internet. Coincidentally, Stardock and Wincustomize have new applications that have brand-new vista features and some are vista-only like deskscapes. I just can't help but think its dirty to try to change public perspective just to suit your own ends.

Quentin94

on Jan 17, 2008

I take my Vista computer cause my XP one was almost to die (severals crash a week in last months before i bought the new one, 4 years 24/24 and 7/7 well what say more) i take a Vista one cause it was a good deal.
But now the XP one wouldn't die at all

(no more crash, no BSOD, simply amazing)
Well now i've both it's not a problem

ZubaZ

on Jan 17, 2008

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 is still a viable OS and all this new fangled crap is jsut that.

Bah Humbug!

Zoomba

on Jan 17, 2008

Good theory. Wrong, but a good theory nonetheless.

I actually remember the XP vs 2k fight. I was one of those people who held out for two years before going to XP because I thought it was a resource hog, a useless upgrade etc. While Vista introduces a few new wrinkles to the situation, it is pretty similar to what happened with XP.

Personally, I'm still running XP at home and will continue to do so for some time to come. I even have a free copy of Vista sitting on my shelf, so it's not an issue of price. The issue is it will take another year or two for Vista to settle down, just like it took a while for XP to get its feet. When that happens, I'll upgrade.

It's a cycle with Windows OS releases. Release, 1-2 years to work out kinks, general wide-spread adoption.... New Release... repeat.

MindlessPuppet

on Jan 17, 2008

To be honest... I recall that people seemed fairly embracing of XP when it first arrived. I'm sure eventually we'll have no choice but to make the switch to vista, but that really lays in the hands of the third party developers. Vista seems pretty strange to me, it's riddled with annoying features targeting ma's and pa's who don't quite get these computer things and scare easily, but at the same time it has requirements that I don't think many of this groups systems could handle.

And while it has a nice face lift, and some new features, it's still seems far more practical on system resources to run XP with third party software that adds such functionality. That in combination with compatibility issues seems to put vista out of question for any self respecting 'power user'.

WebGizmos

on Jan 17, 2008

My Etch-A-Sketch never crashes....so there!

JDavidHarper

on Jan 17, 2008

Another way of looking at it: Stardock seems to be one of the few companies actually taking advantage of Vista's new features. Until more developers start using the awesome parts of Vista, everyone's going to look at Vista and say "why should I upgrade when I can do everything I want to on XP?"

ALMonty

on Jan 17, 2008

It's been about a year that Vista has been out. We should have a poll to see how many different OS are used. I know there was a poll last year. I'd like to see the comparison from the last one.

warreni

on Jan 17, 2008

Hm. Well, I remember the transition to XP too. However, I remember it differently. Specifically, I was running Windows 98 at home because that was the latest and greatest prior to XP (if you note that I'm leaving out the so-called "Millennium Edition," it wasn't an accident). However, 98 was buggy as hell and that was the only reason I even contemplated the possibility of upgrading to ME, which was purely an aesthetic makeover.

Having used 98 for years, I hated it with a passion, because for all of 95's shortcomings, it was profoundly more stable. I never used Windows 2000 at home (or much of anywhere else), although I had friends who praised it in their work environments. When XP came out, it struck me as the bridge between the "home" line of MS products (3.1,3.11, 95, 98, ME) and the "business" line (NT in its various incarnations and 2000). I couldn't wait to upgrade to XP, but it was quite a while before I could afford an upgrade. Because I was teaching a few night classes at the local university at the time, I was eventually able to pick up a copy of XP Pro for the academic price at the university bookstore.

On the other hand, I'm actually happy with the OS I'm using now (XP MCE, came preinstalled on my two-year-old Compaq). It's very stable, and it has plenty of bells and whistles. Moreover, I can tweak it to run really old software if I have to (but I very rarely do). Like WebGizmos, I've yet to see a compelling reason to make a standalone upgrade; while Vista also has some nice bells and whistles of its own, to get them to function well I would need to buy memory and processor upgrades too (I have 1GB and a single-core Athlon 64 processor). When you factor all of this in, as much as enjoy puttering around in my computer's innards, it's not worth all of the extra scratch versus buying a new machine, which I can't afford to do now either. So that's my story.

Philly0381

on Jan 17, 2008

Yes, it is a true statement that history does and will always repeat it's self.

For myself though more important factors influence my decisions which I make on a day to day basis. I like to sometimes say simply that it's my choice whether I stick with item A or move on to item B. We all know that more things enter into that decision.

What does amaze me is the amount of time and effort expended in looking at why people don't just except item B. Does it really matter?

Must just be another one of those mysteries of life that I'm just not able to grasp. (

MetalHellssAngel

on Jan 17, 2008

I personally run vista, and while yes it took some getting used to and there are a few bugs, I really have no major complaints with the O.S. itself. Most of my complaints are very 3rd party related. It's just a matter of waiting for the world to update their software/hardware.

Aquamonkey

on Jan 17, 2008

I started using XP when it was in beta 3 and it ran better than Vista does at this point in time.

I run Vista Ultimate at home (due to wanting media centre) and XP at work. Take a guess at which one gives me less trouble???

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