SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the can't-resist-that-minty-freshness dept.
prospectacle writes:
How to best replace Windows XP has become interesting to a much wider group of people, due to the end of official support for the product. (a previous story mentioned an Indian state government that urged its departments to use India's home-grown linux distro "BOSS Linux").
Some people may be using XP because it came with their computer and they never gave it a second thought, but there are probably plenty of others who don't want to spend the money, don't like the look of Windows 8, have older hardware, or are just used to the XP interface.
To these people, ZDNet humbly offers Linux Mint as a suggestion to replace XP.
They provide fairly compelling arguments to their target audience like:
- You can make it look almost exactly like XP
- It's free
- You can boot the live CD to try before you "buy".
- Decent, free alternatives exist for email, office, book-keeping and web-browsing.
- Virtually no need for any anti-virus for home users.
- Installation is quite easy these days.
- Works on fairly modest hardwar
Ending free support for a 12 year old product seems like a sensible policy for a for-profit entity like microsoft. In the past they've been able to count on people upgrading from old microsoft products to new microsoft products, and so any measure that would encourage (or pressure) people to upgrade would increase their sales.
Seems like a winning formula.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by michealpwalls on Monday March 31 2014, @02:54PM
In what warped universe is Linux Mint a suitable fit for a Windows XP user in 2014?
Are we all drunk today at Soylent? LOL... Lets think for a moment. It's 2014 and there is a user running Windows XP. Hrmm.. Insantly you know the most fundamental aspect about this user:
This is the most fundamental thing everyone seems to have missed. ZDnet rarely gets things right, so that's no surprise. But I can't believe the #1 rated comment here at Soylent isn't pointing out the blatantly obvious thing here... Linux Mint pulls from the Debian Testing repositories.
If anything, these users will appreciate a Stable/Enterprise distribution, like CentOS or Debian Stable. Anything else would be a complete waste of time or, as Linus would say, "Mental Masturbation"!
Even LTS is not suitable for an XP user... Again, XP was released in 2001 people.. This is 2014. These are users who have resisted updates actively for ~13 years! Do you seriously think an LTS will please them?! They want a "tool". When they're not using this "tool", it should stay in the "tool box" for however long it needs to. When the user returns, this "tool" should look and function exactly the way they left it / remember it. Nothing more, nothing less.
As a software developer it took me a long while to even grasp this concept, but.. One of the biggest things these XP users dislike about "new" systems is epitomized by Windows 7 starting up. Often, before you are "allowed to log-in and use your own computer" you have to sit and watch, waiting for it to update "your" computer. The quotes and emphasis I added here for readers, but they were said to me exactly like this by an elderly woman. Think about it, though.. I think she made a good argument.
The more I try and explain this user perspective, the more I favor CentOS over even Debian Stable. Besides RedHat Enterprise and CentOS, I'm not sure what else really fits this use-case.
(Score: 1) by jomcty on Monday March 31 2014, @07:34PM
I replaced my father's Windows XP with Linux Mint LTS and for awhile all was great until one day, an update changed something that caused a GUI SSH login prompt to appear before being presented with the desktop.
After that I said frack it, and got him an ASUS Chromebox. I had it shipped to him, along with a DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter. He unplugged his old PC and set up the Chromebox in its place.
Balance is restored in the universe and he is happy as a clam; he has access to his favorite web sites, email, word processing and can perform video Hangouts with us.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by number6 on Monday March 31 2014, @07:37PM
^ Good insight there ++++
Personally, I am a power user and still use XP ...I prefer the XP classic details view interface ...I prefer the look, feel and total control of NT5 Windows Explorer (EXPLORER.EXE) ...I prefer the configurability and minimalism of it all; how I can disable all visual cruft, unnecessary features, services and drivers and get really bare bones with it all.
I have thoroughly played with ALL NT6 versions (Vista, Seven, Eight) and they are a 'PITA' to control and insult my intelligence when it comes to laying out my visual and behavioral preferences.
As far as I am concerned, Microsoft are FULLY TO BLAME here and not the their loyal users who stuck with them and XP for so many years. If MS had half a brain they would have noted that the XP user interface is a "classic timeless" design and they would have packaged it as a user-choosable "theme" for future Windows versions---this includes the EXACT look and feel of NT5 EXPLORER.EXE !!! .......BUT NO this is not possible, because the "new" Microsoft are a bunch of disloyal arrogant selfish dogs who don't give a fuck about the culture and ecosystem they created over all those years .......It's all about quick money now; engineering a proper operating system takes too long, so let's just force feed the masses quick shit using marketing and lockdown techniques, and hire a bunch of ex-Apple-fag-employees having the title of "UX Designer"---PROFIT!
(Score: 1) by emg on Monday March 31 2014, @09:22PM
"Even LTS is not suitable for an XP user... Again, XP was released in 2001 people.. This is 2014. These are users who have resisted updates actively for ~13 years!"
Not that crap again.
XP was installed on my netbook when I bought it a few years ago. The XP machine we have used to belong to my girlfriend's mother, and she probably bought it in 2009. I believe Microsoft still sold XP to OEMs until 2010 or 2011.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 31 2014, @11:26PM
Or maybe, just maybe, they do not need FEATURE updates. What does Win 7 or 8, Linux Mint, or some other distro, provide in the way of features that some of my users need? None. Sure, some of the features might be nice, but needed? And before spouting "better security than XP has!", we have security locked down tight. Different security software on our external email server, our network security appliance, our internal email server, our proxy server and our workstations. No caching, no file downloads, all attachments are quarantined by default, strict web filtering, etc. If there's something that can get past that gauntlet it will still have to fight me a la Tron.