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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: 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!