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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 01 2014, @02:42AM
I saw ahead to XP running out when Vista bombed and 7 became very invasive and acting quite homesick (calling Redmond, a lot). It was more like: "After XP, no more Wndows or anything from Microsoft. So now where to?"
That was around 2009. At that point had tried various Linux distros for over a decade but found it quite flaky. By 2009 Ubuntu looked functional, but I soon ran into some issues. Someone suggested Mint and I got off to a realistic start with the then-current release, "Felicia". I ran dual-boot for a while, kept up with the releases and re-learned the ropes I needed. Having worked with Unix/Linux for years helped. I could finally run things at home the way I wanted to.
By 2011 my old desktop was, old. I found a used laptop that had 7 on it - replaced that with Mint and switched more processes over.
Even if things may look wierd the 1st time around, I prefer using Libre/Open Office over being held ransom to MS-ware. For graphics / photography there are some wonderful choices. It has taken 2 years but I am fully weaned off of PhotoShop!
BUT - the gaping holes still exist. No proper CAD, though there is a whole specialized distro around that very thing, CAE-Linux. I would prefer having my favourite distro and adding the apps on top, but at least *A* solution now exists.
Looking forward over the next 5-10 years, I see MS falling apart and people will move to Android or Apple. Nobody should miss them. Life will (i) go on, and (ii) improve. Those with the particular skills or knowledge might move to Linux - or are most likely already there.