The XPocalypse is upon us!!!

[Spacenut]

Well, tomorrow, to be exact.

I know it will probably go unnoticed by most of you, as I am sure you will have migrated to something more modern some time ago, but in my case, having used my own money to buy a copy of XP Pro in 2008, I quite reasonably feel that I haven't got my money's worth out of it yet

So I have disconnected my Windoze OS from the Interweb and will continue to use my centuries old copy of Photoshop 4 and Canon EOS utilities in isolation.

And having been traumatised enough by Billy Microsoft's Windoze 7 "ribbon" at work, I thought I would take the plunge and try a Linux distribution for my Interweb browsing and email.

So I am speaking to you today via an Ubuntu Linux 12.04.4 LTS OS, with Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird already included. It is completely free, open-source software, highly resilient to virus and malware, and did I mention it's completely free?

12.04.4 is supported until at least 2017, so hopefully I will be able to maintain a presence on the Interweb for some time to come!

Happy XPocalypse everyone!

Lauren

[Nige005]

Well I'm still here on XP and Firefox.........

Been reading all the horror stories about how my house is going to catch on fire, cars explode and the cat get pregnant 'cos I'm still using XP.

Never use IE and had Updates turned off for a few months now as I was getting problems with 100% CPU usage which seemed to be caused by the Updates trying to do the impossible and update my old IE.

Frankly non of the alternatives look good to me. Don't fancy Vista or 7 and what I've seen of 8 doesn't appeal to me one bit. Perhaps the Linux route with the XP simulator ? may be the way to go but having read about Disc Partition and how to achieve Boot Up and things when using Linux me 'ead started 'urting and so I gave up.

So I'm left in a quandary. Think I'll do the usual and keep my head firmly planted in the sand until such time as I can no longer get on line and the PC cras

[AlfaCorseChris]

Just last week I installed windows XP on 2 old pc's with SP3

They work a treat and updates were all done as well ! :/

[Joe1968]

Been having this warning for a week now .. It did as the little window suggested and checked my system to see if I could upgrade to what ever the new one is ... alas not, I do not have the requirements ... I only ever use this net book for here and other forums and fb ... cant be assed .. i'll just make sure I have the latest Norton or similar , probably niaevity on my part .. but i'm sure others are having the same issue ... I think Microsoft should get there head out there bot and continue, there are so many users who have XP still ... seems a little unfair .. not everyone has the cash to go and replace there machine or even upgrade .. but that my opinion ...

[KevJTD]

i don't understand the difference between XP, vista etc.
my pc has vista, but i couldn't tell you if that's worse or better than anything else.
uploading pics is my limit, and sometimes that goes wrong, ask john about me helping him

[Joe1968]

All it is , they are just phasing out the old to make way for the new ... its unfortunate that so many use XP still ...


Why, what did you do ... or shouldnt I ask ...

[Spacenut]

Think I'll do the usual and keep my head firmly planted in the sand until such time as I can no longer get on line and the PC cras

Oh dear - I hope it hasn't gone wrong already

I was worried about the partioning thing too. Backed up my Windoze files and finally took the plunge on Sunday (just enough time to re-install XP before support ended); absolutely no problem - new partition created automatically, dual-boot is easy (reminds me of Windows 3.1, for those of us with long memories).

Glad to see its not just me that's sticking with XP. Uninstalled MSE this evening as it was annoying me with splash screens. Firewall set to block all incoming and outgoing comms.

My worry is that with so many people (large institutions as well as individuals) still using XP, there will be a large influx of new exploits and viruses now that the OS is vulnerable to attack. One of the reasons why I chose to isolate my copy from the Interweb.

This whole OS update thing is just a rat race; I agree with Kev, life is too short...

Lauren

[Spacenut]

i don't understand the difference between XP, vista etc.
my pc has vista, but i couldn't tell you if that's worse or better than anything else.
uploading pics is my limit, and sometimes that goes wrong, ask john about me helping him

According to my colleague, who has a computer science degree, Vista is just an evolutionary OS, rather than a completely updated system. But you will be pleased to hear that Vista will be supported for a little while longer, but XP? That's it - you're on your own!

As has been said, the world doesn't end today for XP users. But if my previous experience of running W95 beyond its supported lifetime, and then W98, things will start to get a bit flakey, and finding effective anti-virus gets more difficult too. Especially if, like me, you are averse to paying for it!

Lauren

Ubuntu!

[Sud 145]

Now I know why my poor old Dad rang me up saying his computor had gone mental. How can I help him with my very limited computor knowledge or is it now too late?

[Spacenut]

Hopefully it is just a load of warning messages from Microsoft themselves. The XP OS put up a message tonight saying that support for this OS had ended, and I noticed Microsoft Security Essentials also went from orange (potentially unprotected) to red (unprotected), with a more prominent message.

For the non tech-savvy there probably isn't much you can do to secure XP in an unsupported environment - it will continue to run, but if third party software like Java, Flash plugins and Acrobat are not updated regularly they can harbour all sorts of nasties (I was caught out by some threatware virus that transported itself in on an old version of Acrobat - Malwarebytes freeware saved the day on that occasion).

So I would say the most obvious solution for maintaining safe Interweb access would be to upgrade to a supported version of Windoze... unfortunately

Good luck!

Lauren

[AlfaCorseChris]

cd\
cd windows\internet
dir classicalfaforum.exe
cls
edit classicalfaforum.bat
"cd\
cd windows\internet\classicalfaforum.exe
cls"
- file - save - exit

cd games
Hopper.exe




Yeah... it works

[Nige005]

Think I'll do the usual and keep my head firmly planted in the sand until such time as I can no longer get on line and the PC cras

Oh dear - I hope it hasn't gone wrong already

I was worried about the partioning thing too. Backed up my Windoze files and finally took the plunge on Sunday (just enough time to re-install XP before support ended); absolutely no problem - new partition created automatically, dual-boot is easy (reminds me of Windows 3.1, for those of us with long memories).

Glad to see its not just me that's sticking with XP. Uninstalled MSE this evening as it was annoying me with splash screens. Firewall set to block all incoming and outgoing comms.

My worry is that with so many people (large institutions as well as individuals) still using XP, there will be a large influx of new exploits and viruses now that the OS is vulnerable to attack. One of the reasons why I chose to isolate my copy from the Interweb.


This whole OS update thing is just a rat race; I agree with Kev, life is too short...

Lauren

Still here Lauren !

Must admit that it is all a bit of a worry really and I don't know what to do other than carry on carrying on. I don't feel confident about trying to modify what I have already.

As Joe said it just smacks of Microsoft cashing in. I wouldn't mind upgrading as my PC is only just sufficient for what I use it for anyway but I really don't like the only alternatives on offer. Seems to me that W7 might be the best of a poor bunch as W8 seems to be designed for mostly Touchscreen applications and as I already have enough snot and other bodily fluids type stuff on my Tablet I don't really want to spread that to my PC !

Perhaps a better bet would be to stuff MS and go for an Apple but not sure. Used Apple for work when I was in the Middle East and found them acceptable but slightly annoying, especially as I couldn't do my own things with files copied from my own Windows PC during my busy working day..........

Also found them not as reliable as the hype would have it. Had a really high spec one in the Studio Editing Suite and it was a constant pain in the neck, got fed up with seeing the cartoon like fizzing bomb in the top left hand corner warning me that the World was about to end.

So the quandary remains.......

[PETROLHEAD]

Its a shame XP isn't supported anymore, most tech heads i know love it because it so darn reliable, and easy going on the pc hardware too.

Vista, by joint opinion of the same tech heads was a total fubar abortion in comparison! they all hate the fact that it is so heavy on resources, in other words, although it was annonced as the new fandangle way forward kind of thing, it actually made 99% of computers run slower and less relaible. Great!

I use 7, personally, and find it very good, probably what a new XP should have been in fact.

keep things simple, google chrome, avg free edition and keep the crap off it. weekly defrag and clean up, keep things in tidy folders etc etc


I won't be moving onto 8, as it sounds as much of a clanger as vista was!

[Spacenut]

cd\
cd windows\internet
dir classicalfaforum.exe
cls
edit classicalfaforum.bat
"cd\
cd windows\internet\classicalfaforum.exe
cls"
- file - save - exit

cd games
Hopper.exe




Yeah... it works

Oh yea - I forgot about MS-DOS

Only trouble with it these days is that MS-DOS actually runs within a Windows OS shell, instead of outside of it!

There's always machine code I suppose - hexadecimal anyone?

As a general browsing/email tool I am liking my Ubuntu Linux a lot. It seems to be a generally held view that Linux is written by geeks, for geeks, whereas Windoze OS is for normal people. While Linux may be written by geeks, I must say I haven't had to do anything at the code level yet, leaving me free to post fatuous messages like this one!

Lauren

[Spacenut]

Its a shame XP isn't supported anymore, most tech heads i know love it because it so darn reliable, and easy going on the pc hardware too.

Vista, by joint opinion of the same tech heads was a total fubar abortion in comparison! they all hate the fact that it is so heavy on resources, in other words, although it was annonced as the new fandangle way forward kind of thing, it actually made 99% of computers run slower and less relaible. Great!

I use 7, personally, and find it very good, probably what a new XP should have been in fact.

keep things simple, google chrome, avg free edition and keep the crap off it. weekly defrag and clean up, keep things in tidy folders etc etc


I won't be moving onto 8, as it sounds as much of a clanger as vista was!

I quite agree - like Windoze ME before it, W8 and Vista are just stop-gaps, intended to generate revenue. But while I agree that W7 is pretty stable, robust and resource-efficient by modern standards, I just don't like using it. All the IT people at work kept banging on about how wonderful it was, but all it did for me was introduce confusion and reduce productivity, mainly thanks to that bloody ribbon. But that's the difference between using a PC as a means to an end, and the PC being an end in itself, which is all the IT people see.

Lauren

[PETROLHEAD]

MSdos

code



has your dashboard glue been getting to you Lauren, or is it me on another planet? ha ha!


way beyond me that stuff, but i admire folk who can do a bit,

particularly those that can fabricate, weld, design and build a car too!


unlike a proper nerd that needs slip ons because there wasn't a course in shoelaces!

[AlfaCorseChris]

As if you never played Hopper !!!

with the "TURBO" button on the tower which converted the 8mhz of the pc into a mind blowing 16 !!!

and made everything feel as if you were in fast forward mode !!!

For me, jumping from the 2-86 keycomp I had (have) to the massive 4-86 was a huge leap !
I can still hear the sounds of the 5 1/4 floppy disc drives trying to read the sectors, and the brilliant sound of the 28 800 US Robotics modem which dropped the connection every 4 mins.

[Alfasixnut]

Oh I do feel OLD at times....my first home computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 16K (I couldn't afford the 48K!)...and that needed a tape player - with just the right Bass and treble settings to load the programs!!

[Joe1968]

I remember we had a Commodore 64 and a Commodore plus 4 ... blimey ! ... how times have moved on ... ...

[AlfaCorseChris]

As in Vaxhual ???

[Johnboy]

[Joe1968]

Oh dear ....

[Spacenut]

MSdos

code

has your dashboard glue been getting to you Lauren, or is it me on another planet?

Probably the glue, although I my first experience with computers was programming Commodore 6502 and later on Motorola 6800 and 68000 machine code, very similar to your vaporators in most respects...

And I can speak Bacci

Lauren

[STEVE5M]

Its a shame XP isn't supported anymore, most tech heads i know love it because it so darn reliable, and easy going on the pc hardware too.

Vista, by joint opinion of the same tech heads was a total fubar abortion in comparison! they all hate the fact that it is so heavy on resources, in other words, although it was annonced as the new fandangle way forward kind of thing, it actually made 99% of computers run slower and less relaible. Great!

I use 7, personally, and find it very good, probably what a new XP should have been in fact.

keep things simple, google chrome, avg free edition and keep the crap off it. weekly defrag and clean up, keep things in tidy folders etc etc


I won't be moving onto 8, as it sounds as much of a clanger as vista was!

What was that you were saying about Microsoft the other day Shrew?

[PETROLHEAD]

That its better than a fruit stand, not that its perfect!


they can all drop clangers, just some more than others.


My (ours, shared with sister, Grrr!) first computer was a Commodore Vic 20, with a whopping 3583 bytes to play with!

you guys n gells with your sinclairs, Yuppies and toffs, the lot of yer!




I think it lasted 6 weeks before i got the Binatone Tennis console out again as it was more fun and easier to load!

[Joe1968]

Anyone had any issues since the support stopped?

[Nige005]

Plenty, but the PC has been OK.

[Spacenut]

I guess there was bound to be some scaremongering on the part of Microsoft to make you go out and buy their latest product. I'm afraid they can say goodbye to my custom, I've been trying to get to grips with W7 and Office 2010 at work for more than a year now, and it's still really annoying

But I'm very happy with my Ubuntu now that I have downloaded some nice new themes and copied across all my old fonts - I guess the threat of an XPocalyse was the excuse I needed to try a Linux distribution...

Glad to hear it's business as usual in XP world!

Lauren

[Joe1968]

Plenty, but the PC has been OK.

... oh Nige .. that made me chuckle! I could say the same ....

[Nige005]

I guess there was bound to be some scaremongering on the part of Microsoft to make you go out and buy their latest product. I'm afraid they can say goodbye to my custom, I've been trying to get to grips with W7 and Office 2010 at work for more than a year now, and it's still really annoying

But I'm very happy with my Ubuntu now that I have downloaded some nice new themes and copied across all my old fonts - I guess the threat of an XPocalyse was the excuse I needed to try a Linux distribution...

Glad to hear it's business as usual in XP world!

Lauren

So far anyway !