Running Windows XP and 7 on Linux Mint
Summary: Here I show boot times using a cut-down version of Windows XP and full licensed copy of Windows 7, using VirtualBox.
Often times I get asked how well does the Windows operating system run and operate in VirtualBox. On my computer, I have installed all the virtual images on a separate 10k rpm hard drive, with the drive formatted to the XFS file structure. According the wikipedia entry, XFS is a high-performance journaling file system and is particularly proficient at handling large files and at offering smooth data transfers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFS
I have VDI images of Win2000, XP, 7 and I rarely use them, save for when I am instructing someone on what to click over the phone versus logging onto their machine or given a screen demo of some specific Windows software.
In addition, I booted both images with composting working to show that there was no serious lag apparent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing_window_manager
IE6 Addiction Inhibits Windows 7 Migrations
The use of key, custom-built IE6 applications is likely to slow some the migration to Windows 7 at some enterprises due to the time and money needed to upgrade some applications.
Enterprises addicted to Microsoft’s nine-year-old Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) browser are having a tough time migrating to Windows 7, an analyst has stated and although Microsoft has made it clear it wants IE6 dead and buried, the company needs to help solve a problem it created when it released the non-standard browser, then pressed businesses to develop IE6-specific applications, said Michael Silver of Gartner.
“Microsoft would rather put the non-standard browser technology behind it,” Silver said in a recently published research report. Easy for Microsoft to say; it doesn’t have to deal with the IE6 fallout.
According to Gartner, IE6 compatibility problems will cause at least one-in-five organizations to take longer than expected or spend more than they budgeted for their Windows 7 migration projects.
“Microsoft needs to explore all avenues that could ease the transitions away from IE6,” Silver added as he spelled out ways the company could lower barriers to Windows 7 adoption, something obviously in its interest.
The latest statistics from Web metrics company Net Applications pegged IE6′s usage share at 15.6%, which means it’s the world’s third-most-used browser edition. Many of the holdouts are enterprises locked into IE6 because the commercial software or home-grown applications they use work only in that browser. Organizations running IE6 have told Gartner that 40% of their custom-built browser-dependent applications won’t run on IE8, the version packaged with Windows 7. Thus many companies face a tough decision: Either spend time and money to upgrade those applications so that they work in newer browsers, or stick with Windows XP.
But Windows XP won’t live forever. Microsoft will retire Windows XP from all support in April 2014, forcing businesses to abandon it or risk running an operating system vulnerable to attack.
Fixing homemade applications so that they run in IE8 is the surest solution, but also the most expensive. And every temporary workaround has a downside, said Silver.
The most promising of the latter is to use application virtualization tools to virtualize only IE6 — not, as in OS virtualization, an entire operating system — so that it can be run in Windows 7.
But Microsoft opposes IE virtualization because it says the process violates licensing agreements. The stance hasn’t been tested in court — Microsoft hasn’t sued vendors like VMware and Symantec that provide application virtualization tools — but the uncertainty make companies jittery.
“It’s ironic that Microsoft would oppose methods that would help organizations accelerate the move to Windows 7,” said Silver in his research note. “Microsoft must do more to help organizations with their IE6 problems that Microsoft helped cause.”
If Microsoft doesn’t want customers virtualizing IE6, then it should help out in other ways, perhaps by heavily discounting or even giving away Windows Server 2003 and associated client licenses so that companies can access IE6 — and only the browser — through April 2014 using Terminal Server.
“Organizations need to resolve IE problems and begin their migrations to Windows 7 as soon as possible,” said Silver “And Microsoft needs to do more to help.”
As anyone in the industry will tell you, a lot of money went into developing web applications specific to IE6. And corporations can’t leave Windows XP for Windows 7 until IE6 runs (in some way) on Windows 7. Microsoft wants to leave that non-standard browser mess behind them, but as the article notes, ‘Organizations running IE6 have told Gartner that 40% of their custom-built browser-dependent applications won’t run on IE8, the version packaged with Windows 7. Thus, many companies face a tough decision: Either spend time and money to upgrade those applications so that they work in newer browsers, or stick with Windows XP.’ Support for XP is going to end in April 2014. In order to deal with this, companies are looking at virtualizing IE6 only (instead of a full operating system) so that it can run on Windows 7 — even though Microsoft says this violates licensing agreements. IE6 is estimated to have roughly 16% of browser market share, and due to mistakes in the past it may never truly die
Microsoft doesn’t want you to know this, but paying the price for Windows 7 migration is also an issue with organizations. A press release like this one tends to present reality as it is viewed by Microsoft.
Any mention of the fact that Microsoft’s customers are disappointed with the failure of Windows to meet expectations (read here ‘promises’) as to security over the long term and feel cheated whenever Microsoft announces end of life for a product tends to be kept hush-hush.
Face it, software is not hardware. Security problems with software are built into the software from the very beginning or added later during updates — they do not result from the software ‘wearing out’.
If the operating system market were not a monopoly, Windows would be sold to us rather than conditionally licensed. Delivery of the promised level of security in a perpetually useful product would be a fundamental requirement of doing business.
On the other hand, with Microsoft what we get is controlled obsolescence. Windows is perpetually insecure the day it is sold to you, completely flawed, and no admission of this is forthcoming.
Now Microsoft wishes to force companies to stop using critical IE6 applications developed on long lead times in order to bolster sales of their latest product. This is shameful behavior for a monopoly.
Microsoft’s answer for this problem? Lets offer virtualized IE6 running under Windows XP, how nice of them.
However it isn’t as easy to get set up and pushed out on an enterprise basis as a single app file. Another downside is that because XP Mode is complete VM that can easily get compromised, it requires an instance of antivirus for corporate IT reasons. Having a single executable that runs in a “jail” is a lot better performance-wise, and means one doesn’t have to set up virtualization on company desktops.
Probably the simplest solution for a company that needs IE6 on desktops for one task or application would be to use Citrix or Terminal server, and just keep a well locked down copy of IE6 on a dedicated server.
These are internal corporate apps that the general public does not see. Stuff like customer service, order entry, etc. The thing is that companies don’t like to keep writing their software over and over. They are not in the software business. They want to do it once and get on with things. Really can you blame them? So Microsoft told them to code for IE6 and promised companies a stable solid platform. Well now MS is screwed because they cannot keep their promise.
Look at companies like HP and IBM. They have kept their compatibility promises. HP still supports VMS and HPUX and Tru64. IBM still supports mainframe apps from the 60′s. Microsoft is learning the hard way that you have to KEEP making your customers happy.
In order to deal with this, companies are looking at virtualizing IE6 only (instead of a full operating system) so that it can run on Windows 7 — even though Microsoft says this violates licensing agreements.
Big business go big on Linux
Linux is continuing to play a larger and larger role in big business, but it’s always nice to see cold, hard proof that this is true. The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating Linux’s growth, published “Linux Adoption Trends: A Survey of Enterprise End Users.” This report shows that Linux is continuing to grab market share from Unix and Windows, and it’s doing it with mission-critical applications.
Admittedly, the 1,900 people surveyed were both from The Linux Foundation’s Enterprise End User Council as well as other companies and government organizations, but I feel the results still were valid. And, unlike similar surveys, sponsored by proprietary software companies where you have to dig to find out who paid for the research and who’s actually being surveyed, the Linux Foundation comes right out and tells you “
In particular, the Foundation and its partner in the survey, engineering and management firm Yeoman Technology Group, focused on larger enterprise companies and government organizations — those with $500 million or more a year in revenues or greater than 500 employees.
These businesses are moving to Linux far faster than they are to Windows or Unix. Given that we already knew of their interest in Linux, that’s not too surprising. What was surprising was that conventional wisdom is that Unix users are the most likely to switch to Linux. While it’s true that Unix users are migrating to Linux, it turns out that, by a few percentage points, Windows users at 36.6% are more likely to be heading to Linux than Unix, 31.4%.
What’s bringing big business over from Windows? The flip answer to this question used to always be one word: cost. Linux is cheaper than the alternatives. But while total cost of ownership (TCO) remains a strong number two, the first reason these days for people to switch to Linux is its perceived technical superiority and features.
Curiously, while the recession played a role in people moving to Linux, 58.6% of users said the recession hadn’t played a role. I guess it really is the features!
In addition, there’s also security, which came in third on the list, followed by in-house IT Linux staff experience, and not being locked into a single vendor.
I think that last point isn’t given enough weight by many companies. If you don’t like your Microsoft support and service contract, what are you going to do? It’s not like you can quit Windows Server 2008 R2 cold-turkey. If you use say Red Hat’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle really wants to talk to you about their take on RHEL. There are also open-source communities like CentOS with their RHEL versions that will be happy to support you. In short, you really do have a choice and that means lower costs in Linux are here to say.
While most of this study focused on the server, which is Linux’s strongest point, I was interested in seeing that 36.4% of businesses reported some Linux desktop use in their company. The survey didn’t dig into this any deeper, but I was reminded once again that it’s almost impossible to get accurate number on desktop Linux users. The usual numbers show Linux having no more than 1% or so of all users. I strongly suspect though that there are many more Linux users out there if you only counted technically adept users, developers, and IT staff rather than everyone and their grandma still running Windows 2000 at home.
Looking ahead, the future looks brighter than ever for Linux. When it comes to the cloud, this group isn’t jumping into the cloud, but if they are already there, or they plan to sometime soon, over 70% of them plan on using Linux. Windows comes in a distant second at 18.3% with Unix in the rear at 11.4%.
London Stock Exchange smashes world record trade speed with Linux
Summary: New system double speed of rivals, LSE says.
Two years ago, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with its TradElec Windows-based C# and .NET programs crashed and took out the Exchange for almost 7-hours. That’s an eternity in stock market terms. Months later, the LSE’s CEO was history, and the LSE announced that it was dumping TradElec. Last year, the LSE announced that it was going to move to Linux. Now, the LSE is just about ready to switch over to Linux. Not only does it work, the new Linux-powered LSE runs faster than any other stock exchange on the planet.
I’m not surprised. If you want real speed and stability, you want to run Linux. The LSE has moved to Linux for the same reason the vast majority of supercomputers run Linux — it’s faster and better.
The LSE’s new system, Millennium Exchange, is based around Linux. It also uses Solaris and Oracle databases. Besides TradElec’s failures, the LSE also wanted to catch up with its rivals, as in today’s stock exchanges, transaction speeds are everything. Even when TradElec worked, LSE trades could barely make it under two milliseconds. That’s turtle-like speed compared to the hare’s, such as Chi-X Europe, with its sub-0.4 millisecond speeds, or the Tokyo Stock Exchange and NYSE Euronext (NYX), which achieve their speed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
With its new Linux system, the LSE claims it can deliver world-record transactions with down to 126-microsecond trading times. This is “twice as fast” as its closest rivals. We’ll soon seen if it can keep up its pace in the real world when Millennium Exchange goes from trial mode to production on November 1st. I expect the system may not be that fast on average, but I do expect most transactions to take about 200-microseconds.
But it’s not just about speed. In an interview with the UK publication IT Pro, LSE spokesman Alistair Fairbrother said that the LSE buying MillenniumIT, the company behind Millennium Exchange, “not only gives [us] a new high performance trading platform … that we will be migrating onto, but it also gives us control over future development releases.” In addition, the move to an in-house Linux platform would save the LSE 10 pounds million per year from 2011 and 2012.
While Fairbrother played nice with Microsoft, saying that it wasn’t that the LSE was moving away from Windows to Linux, that’s actually exactly what the LSE has done. The LSE had made the move, not because they love Linux and open-source software for some abstract reason, but because it makes good dollars and cents sense. It’s cheaper, faster, and the LSE, not some outsider, gets to call the shots of its development.
I’m reminded that, from people on the street using smartphones running Android to Web users doing searches on Google to stock traders wanting nothing more than the fastest possible trades that we’re all becoming Linux users. It hasn’t happened the way we thought it might — with Linux desktops booting out Windows PCs — but it happening none-the-less.
Remember, Linux is not always the fastest, as no operating system on Earth can generate a Blue Screen faster than Microsoft’s.
For a refresher, check an older post I did on who is using Linux these days.
Good-bye Windows, Enterprise Linux is Taking Off
The Linux Foundation says Linux is poised for significant growth in the enterprise, some of it at the expense of Windows servers. 76.4% of companies surveyed are planning to add more Linux servers in the next twelve months. 41.2% are increasing their Windows servers, while 43.6% will decrease or stay the same. Over the next five years 79.4% of businesses surveyed plan to add more Linux servers compared to other operating systems, while only 21.3% plan to add more Windows servers.
Migrations from Windows to Linux are accelerating, surpassing Unix to Linux migrations, and 66% of Linux deployments are “green field”, or brand-new. This is one of the more interesting findings; in the past both Linux and Windows have been replacing Unix servers, and past reports from other sources indicated that Unix to Linux migrations outnumbered Windows to Linux. Over 60% of respondents say they are increasing their use of Linux for mission-critical tasks.
You might think that cloud deployments are everywhere doing everything, but it seems they are fueling tech news more than tech. Only 26% of respondents are planning any cloud deployments in the next twelve months, and 70.3% of those are Linux-powered.
IT Considerations
Finding qualified Linux admins is a problem for some shops, but they feel that providing training is worth it because it is “more cost-effective than purchasing licenses.” Over 58% say they have been moving towards Linux for several years, and the recession has not changed that. Some of the reasons cited are technical superiority, reliability, lower hardware requirements, lower software and operating costs, security, escaping vendor lock-in, and openness.
Desktop Linux
Over 36% of respondents say they already have some Linux desktops in their organizations, and are planning more. Developers are the usual early adopters, and push adoption throughout their companies.
Obstacles to Linux Adoption
The two top concerns about Linux adoption are hardware drivers and interoperability. The Linux Foundation believes that driver concerns are more perception than reality, with excellent support for everything from servers to storage arrays. The Linux Driver Project has over 200 developers.
Interop, of course, is almost entirely one-sided, with the bulk of the effort coming from Linux and Free/Open Source software, and little but obstacles from Microsoft, Apple, and other proprietary vendors whose business models are fundamentally dependent on lock-in.
66% of All Windows Users Still Use Windows XP
Almost one year after the introduction of Windows 7, it appears that the hype surrounding the operating has faded. The overall market share of Windows has turned into a slight decline again. Windows 7 is gaining share, but cannot keep pace with the loss of Windows XP and Vista. Especially Windows XP users seem to be happy with what they have and appear to be rather resistant to Microsoft’s pitches that it is time to upgrade to Windows 7.
It is no secret that Windows users have learned that change is something Windows computers don’t like. Often, it is much easier to leave the Windows version that came with a PC as it was and avoid the pain of upgrading. Vista may have been an exception as the operating system itself was worth the extra pain (or not), while Windows XP was a solid software that works well for the majority of computer users worldwide even today.
New market share data recently released by Net Applications puts XP’s market share at 60.03%, down from 60.89% in the month before. Windows Vista fell from 14.00% to 13.35%, while Windows 7 gained 1.25 points to 17.10%. It is interesting to see that Vista and XP lost a combined 1.51 points in September: The difference between the gain of 7 and the loss of Vista/XP represents 100% of the Windows market share loss, which was down 0.25 points to 91.08% in September.
Since the launch of Windows 7 in October 2009, the operating system was able to post a net gain of market share in only three months, according to Net Applications, and was hit with a net market share loss of 1.44 points over the past 11 months. If we believe the data published by Net Applications, then Windows 7 has not been able to stop the market share bleeding of Windows, even if it has slowed a bit: In the past 9 months, Windows lost only 0.92 points, while Windows lost 1.14 points in the 9 nine months directly preceding the launch of Windows 7.
Windows XP has dropped in market share from 70.48% to 60.03% since the launch of Windows 7. When Windows 7 was introduced, Windows XP had a 76% share among all Windows users; now it is estimated at 66%. Windows 7 has already a 19% share among all Windows users and is likely to overtake Windows Vista in this discipline within the next two months: Windows Vista never had a greater share among Windows users than 20.35%, according to Net Applications. Vista had a share of 14.66% among all Windows systems that have been counted by Net Applications in September.
Windows XP drops less than 1 point in overall market share every month. Given the fact that it still has about 60% of overall share it could take another year until the operating system will drop below 50%, unless some miracle happens or we are finally seeing ancient computer systems in business environments being replaced. It is simply amazing that an operating system that will celebrate its 10th birthday next year is still, by far, the most popular operating system worldwide. To be fair, I should mention that Windows XP is still actively sold and will be kicked to the curb, this time for real, this month: The deadline is October 22.
It is unlikely that this will change something dramatically for the market share of Windows XP in the short term and the fact that Microsoft thoroughly screwed itself with a crappy Windows Vista release doesn’t help. You could always send Microsoft your ideas how to get rid of those stubborn Windows XP users and convince them to upgrade to Windows 7. I personally believe that it was a mistake to pitch Windows as a new operating system, as we know that it was simply a massive patch that finally brought up Windows 7 to the level it should have had in the first place. It was a brave move to sell Windows 7 as a new operating system release, but if Microsoft really wanted people to upgrade, it would have needed to offer Windows 7 as a free or nearly free update. Sort of a service pack. A smoother upgrade process would also help. Many users are just tired of upgrades that require a lot of effort and come with the notion that the computer may not boot after the upgrade.
Net Applications’ data does not reveal who gains from Microsoft’s market share losses. Both MacOS X (5.03%) and Linux (0.85%) are stable and the only operating system that shows gains is Apple’s iOS, which is now at a share of 1.18%.
Honestly, there is no need to upgrade to Windows 7. You can run a solid operating system such as, Ubuntu 10.04 or Linux Mint and run Windows XP in a virtual session. The thing is, it’s a bad idea to just keep running an old system, even if it still works just fine for you. I see this all the time, people calling looking for help because they can’t get on their bank’s web site anymore. (java out of date, OS issue, NOT browser) Or they bought software that says it can’t install. (not enough memory or OS too old) Or they have a special piece of hardware that broke, bought a replacement, and the newer software it came with won’t run on their OS.
I tell people, “You really need to get a new machine. Yes, I know, it still works just fine for you, but eventually you’re going to be forced to upgrade, and the longer you wait, the bigger of a problem it’s going to be”. I’ll tell you a few stories of businesses that didn’t listen to me, and paid the price:
Story 1:
Local designer. Designs posters, not sure what for, maybe movies, he’s apparently pretty good, customers all over the usa. Anyway, he has a fancy machine that looks like a giant printer. It cuts poster-board to exacting size, for use in his big printer. Cuts perfectly straight long lines on the really heavy stock, both side and end. Brought in the computer and cutter, the computer had an OS meltdown due to dying hdd. It was 10 years old. He was lucky I even had experience with an OS that old. But although I could fix the OS, the software that ran the cutter had draconian DRM on it that made it require reinstallation when moved to another hard drive. I was unable to crack the protection, and he was unable to find the original discs. So he had to buy new software. (several thousand dollars) Come to find out, the new software wouldn’t run on the old computer, NOR would it run the old cutter. He went from cussing over having just put in a new set of $250 blades, to REALLY cussing for having to buy a new cutter. (10 grand) And a new computer of course, which ended up being the cheapest angle.
Story 2:
Audio recording man. Does high end audio mixing and CD mastering. Had problems with a reinstall of his pro audio software. Come to find out he’d been with them since the start version 1.0, 1995′ish. He tried to reinstall the software, and it was an update and failed to find the older software so it wouldn’t install. (and it wasn’t the type to ask you to insert the older disc or type in the older license code, it required the previous version to be installed)
It took several days of scrounging around to find ancient machines and MEDIUM DENSITY FLOPPY DRIVES so we could start the installation chain from his version 1.0 floppies on Mac OS 7, and work forward, to vers 2, 2.,5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and finally to his version 7. This wasn’t so much a case of living in the past, but his software sure was.
Story 3:
Local newspaper. 7 machines about 8 years old, including server. Running old versions of adobe, quark, and pagemaker products. Kept telling them this is a bad idea holding off on upgrades so long. Editor was a penny pincher and refused to listen. Put more memory in. Upgrade/replace that hard drive. Who cares if the server has no video, it still works.
One of their desktops dies. Unrepairable, parts not available. So they bought a new machine. Whoops, it comes with a new os, won’t run the old pro software. So they buy one set of licenses for it. Whoops, it can import from the old software but not exportback to it and they have to be able to share. So they buy more licenses. Whoops, those won’t install on the older systems, OS is too old. Looking further, whoops, their hardware is too old to install the reuqired OS.
So, all at once, they had to buy a new server, 8 new desktops, tens of thousands of dollars in software, and spend the next several months in the hell that is doing an import-open on everything they double click, requiring proofing and corrections/adjustments. I’m amazed the editor didn’t have a heart attack.
Story 4:
This is one I see retold several times a year, so it’s a generalization. Customer comes in with ancient computer, 7-12 years old, “I hate to get rid of this but I need to do xxx with it and I can’t”. So we get them a new machine. Copy all their files over. Documents made in word processors that are 10 years old. Not just text files, they have formatting information in them. Imagine trying to open a Word document in an old version of Notepad. Not pretty. They always seem to have about 10,000 of these word processor and spreadsheet files too. Conversions are slow, unreliable, and sometimes there’s just no option if the software was uncommon. People that have been writing short stories for a decade can’t easily access their old material. Home businesses that have been using custom database and spreadsheet software for a decade and have suddenly lost easy access to previous years’ information that they need periodically.
Time to get a new printer. Time to get a new scanner. Time to get high speed internet. Time to learn how to use a flash drive instead of floppies. Time to learn a totally alien looking new operating system. Even when it’s not terribly costly, it’s just so much to have to absorb all at once, it’s really hard on these people that felt they were just getting comfortable with computers, and now they feel they’ve been thrown to the wolves.
Moral of the stories: Stay Reasonably Current. Yes, you. Yes, even if it still works fine. Keep your software current. Keep your hardware current. Abandon old technologies and embrace new ones. (floppy->flash, modem->dsl, etc) Or pay the price.
Sure, sure, that’s the *practical* moral, but now some *dogmatic* morals:
- Don’t buy expensive hardware that requires DRM-encumbered software.
- Avoid products and file formats that are not forward and backward compatible between versions.
- Learn to use virtualization for legacy software; it works.
Note: the standard I see often is XP, and Office 2007. Right now XP simply handles everyone’s needs. There is nothing offered with Windows 7 that really justfies upgrading for businesses in general.
The Economist Says “Migration From XP to Windows 7 Has Been Little More Than a Trickle”; Windows News is Still News About Flaws
Summary: The unpleasant side of Windows, which includes expiries, lack of security (with no remedies), and even large-scale abandonments
MICROSOFT is trying to move users not just to Vista 7 but also to Fog Computing, which gives Microsoft control of these users’ data. The Economist advertises this and it also contains this reminder that Vista 7 is not selling better than Vista. It’s just a load of hype and Microsoft’s usual game with numbers that are meaningless — or worse — highly misleading (we provided an explanation before).
And yet the migration from XP to Windows 7 has been little more than a trickle. While Microsoft may not like to admit it, the majority of Windows 7 adoptions have come from people buying new computers with the latest operating system already installed, rather than purchasing an upgrade for their tiresome Vista computers, let alone old XP workhorses.
Looking at Google News for the past week, we found nothing about “Vista” (in the headlines) and almost nothing about “Windows 7″ (and none about “Silverlight” for example), except one Microsoft booster talking about SP1 and a couple of press releases. It’s almost all silence. The marketing blitz is more or less over.
“Even users who move on to Windows XP SP3 are still exposed.”Microsoft is now officially dumping Windows XP SP2 [1, 2], which means security headachs for those who don’t move up (original here). Windows Server 2000 is named among the expired products, but it has not actually been patched for a long time. Microsoft may have already violated its agreement.
Even users who move on to Windows XP SP3 will still be exposed. There are those who resort to blaming Google for Microsoft’s incompetence here (notably InformationWeek [1, 2] and Forbes blogs). It’s an exercise in more blame-passing, making Google the “bad guy” for revealing a Windows weakness that needs fixing. Even Murdoch’s press wrote about it amid controversy.
The incident—along with another episode last week where a Google Inc. researcher went public with a security flaw in some Microsoft Corp. software before the company fixed it—have revived debate in the technology industry over how exactly people should go about disclosing security problems.
This critical security problem is actively exploited [1, 2, 3] and there is no solution to it yet. As IDG puts it (also here):
Anyone running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 needs to update their registry ASAP.
Yes, registry hacking seems to be the only solution (however temporary). Try telling one who is a computer rookie to do this (without breaking the entire operating system) or come under attack [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Yet Microsoft insists that Windows is easy to use and that registry hacking is not ever necessary.
It’s really no wonder that Google keeps raving about its abandonment of Windows (also on all desktops). This is the kind of trouble some of them have had to cope with. Windows reduces productivity and imperils actual work.
Speaking of Google, Microsoft still pretends that it invented the “background image”. We wrote about it last week, but it’s still in the news.
Microsoft took a potshot at Google’s bid to spice-up its search page by adding a feature to add background images.
Google was probably doing it better anyway (it’s not hard to just place an image from a stock that’s nice looking).
In conclusion, Windows has serious security problems that dominate the news. Other than that, Windows news seems to be about lackluster response from the public and lost market share. All Microsoft can do is point fingers at companies like Google and resort to ridicule. It’s rather pathetic.
Last chance to get XP
Windows 7 has been around for almost a year now, but lots of people are still sticking with Windows XP. Microsoft may tout Windows 7′s growth curve, but the truth is that Windows XP rules the desktop, and will do so for many years. The most recent report shows that Windows XP has more than twice the market share of Windows 7 and Windows Vista combined. Add Mac OS X to Windows Vista and 7 numbers, and XP still far outpaces them.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10
Windows XP has proved to be an exceptionally stable operating system that makes efficient use of what is now considered low-end hardware. It’s not prone to unexplained system crashes or oddball slowdowns. Year after year, it keeps plugging away. As the old Timex ad says, ‘It takes a lickin and keeps on tickin’. Many people figure there’s no reason to upgrade to a new operating system if their old one works fine.
Windows 7 features some exceptional eye candy — Windows Aero, Aero Flip 3D, live taskbar thumbnails, and smoother desktop animations. But does all that make you more productive or make life better at the keyboard? For many people, the answer is clearly no. So they’re staying with XP.
Today the most interesting apps for computers are on the Web, not the desktop. You don’t need a fancy new operating system to take advantage of them. A browser and basic hardware work just fine. So people don’t need to upgrade from XP if they want to run them.
Enterprises are by nature and necessity conservative organizations. They don’t like to court risk. If they’ve built a computing infrastructure and applications around XP, they need a compelling reason to risk to upgrade to a newer operating system. Many have yet to find that compelling reason and are happy to stay with XP.
Now, Microsoft is getting ready to pull the plug on Windows XP sales. No! Really! They mean it this time. Would they lie to you?
Just because Microsoft has extended XP sales over and over again doesn’t mean that they’ll keep selling XP forever. Well, yes, they are supporting XP for years more to come, but this time — cross their hearts and hope to die — Microsoft really is killing XP sales on Oct. 22, 2010. Some companies, noticeably Dell, are pulling the plug on XP even sooner.
If you’re running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), then this is you reminder that support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) ended on July 13, 2010. If you’re running one of this version after support ends, you won’t get security updates for Windows. You need to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), a free update.
However there’s no SP3 for the 64-bit version of Windows XP. If you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows XP with SP2, you have the latest service pack and will continue to be eligible for support and receive updates until April 8, 2014.
Microsoft spokesperson Brandon LeBlanc has written that most Windows users may “not notice much change.” I disagree.
I know lots of Windows users, and even now, they really don’t want any part of Windows 7. For some of them, it’s a matter of finance. They look at the cost of moving their business PCs from XP to Windows 7 and get the shakes. In this economy, who can blame them?
Others just don’t like or trust Windows 7. I can sort of see this one. I’m no Windows fan, but my favorite version of Windows is still XP SP3. I can also come up with lots of reasons to hold off moving to Windows 7.
All that said, if you must use Windows, I think Windows 7 is actually quite decent. Yes, I’m still a Linux user, but I’m not blind. Windows 7 actually has several good points in its favor. For example, I like all of its new network features. Windows 7′s security is still a stinker, but then security holes come built-in with Windows. Still, if you really are joined at the hip with Windows, Windows 7 is a fine upgrade.
Well, not upgrade really. You can move an existing XP system to Windows 7, but it’s not easy. The best way to handle going from XP to Windows 7 is to bite the bullet and buy a new PC.
No matter which path you take, you end up spending more money. Maybe you’ll end up spending a lot of money. So, I’ve been finding that people are either sticking with their old PCs, or if they do buy new, they’ve been asking for XP. After all, XP is more than good enough and it doesn’t require any additional training or expense.
But now, it’s a different story. If you really like XP, and you know you’re going to need new PCs, dig into your budget and order XP systems today. They’re not going to be around much longer.
An alternate solution, is migrating to Linux and running Windows XP in a virtual session. This is far safer, as current anti-virus software cannot keep up with existing exploits floating around on the web these days and with Linux, the following things become unnecessary.
- Registry cleaning
- Defragging one’s hard drive
- Anti-virus scans
- Spy-ware scans
- Malware scans
Microsoft Making Windows XP Illegal for Use on the Internet?
Summary: As ISPs may prepare to require full patching as a precondition to connecting, what does Microsoft’s refusal to patch actually mean?
THE PREVIOUS post showed that Windows is now at risk of being kicked off the Internet if it cannot be properly secured (it hardly can). This gets worse though.
Mentioned the other day was the fact that Microsoft is leaving Windows XP vulnerable with no intention of patching known security bugs. That, by definition, may render Windows XP unsuitable for use on the Internet; it cannot ever be made fully patched and since there is no access to the source code, only one company rules on the matter. As the debate carries on, Slashdot reveals that Microsoft is indeed saying “no” to patching of XP.
Microsoft says it won’t patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4. ‘We’re talking about code that is 12 to 15 years old in its origin, so backporting that level of code is essentially not feasible,’ said security program manager Adrian Stone during Microsoft’s monthly post-patch Webcast, referring to Windows 2000 and XP.
Here is the newly-cited report.
Microsoft late last week said it won’t patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4.
[...]
The bugs in question are in Windows’ implementation of TCP/IP, the Web’s default suite of connection protocols. All three of the vulnerabilities highlighted in the MS09-048 update were patched in Vista and Server 2008. Only two of the trio affect Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft said in the accompanying advisory, which was refreshed on Thursday.
[...]
During the Q&A, however, Windows users repeatedly asked Microsoft’s security team to explain why it wasn’t patching XP, or if, in certain scenarios, their machines might be at risk. “We still use Windows XP and we do not use Windows Firewall,” read one of the user questions. “We use a third-party vendor firewall product. Even assuming that we use the Windows Firewall, if there are services listening, such as remote desktop, wouldn’t then Windows XP be vulnerable to this?”
Amazing!
Does that mean that Microsoft intends to stop sales of XP on all machines? What about the fact that Vista 7’s principal feature is virtualisation of XP? How can that be secured? What about the many existing users?
“What about the many existing users?”“Since Linux is faster and easier to use on the netbooks,” tells us a reader, “Microsoft is still shipping XP in order to hang on to the OEM monopoly. Yet at the same time the official party line is that there will be no patches for XP.
“Do you suppose Microsoft employees managed to lose or erase the source code for that part of XP?”
Could Microsoft be trying to urge people to abandon XP? If so, Vista 7 sure seems like a problem because not only does it rely on XP but it is already a problematic downgrade/upgrade (no genuine consensus or verdict on whether it’s an “upgrade” yet). Ars Technica claims that it can take an entire day just to move to this operating system, even on a fast machine. The source of the claim is Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft: Windows 7 upgrade can take nearly a day
[...]
The biggest thing that stands out about this chart is the very broad range of the upgrade time: from 30 minutes to 1,220 minutes. That second extreme is not a typo: Microsoft really did time an upgrade that took 20 hours and 20 minutes. That’s with 650GB of data, 40 applications, on mid-end hardware, and during a 32-bit upgrade. We don’t even want to know how long it would take if Microsoft had bothered doing the same test with low-end hardware.
Assuming a wage of roughly $100 per day, the price of Vista 7 sure is higher than the price tag suggests. And what about the cost of insecurity?
Why switch to Ubuntu?
Most people probably have never heard of an operating system different than Windows. Most of them are not as widely advertised as Windows either. I have completely switched to Ubuntu years ago and I must say I do not regret one single bit of doing so.
I was using Windows XP as my main operating system and I couldn’t help but notice how slow it was at times. Especially when I had all the needed applications installed. It was so frustrating to wait for it to boot up in the mornings when I needed it to boot up fast, because all I needed was Firefox. Right then I found out about Ubuntu and seeing the train wreck that Vista was becoming in 2006 I made the switch.
A friend of mine started talking about how Ubuntu is giving away free CDs and I thought “Hey why shouldn’t I order one as well?” I received my free CDs about a week after the order. I put it right in without any further hesitation and started setting up a dual boot system (Ubuntu and Windows).
After finishing the set up I found Ubuntu faster than any version of Windows that I’ve used before. The boot up time was surprisingly short. I was able to access the web and my mail in a matter of seconds! Ubuntu also came with a pre-installed set of applications, saving me time searching around the internet for software. I thought I will also have to find most of the drivers on my own, but surprisingly Ubuntu already had a pop-up ready for me. It even had a driver for my EMU10K1 sound card. It’s a pretty old card and it does not work with Windows Vista (no 5.1 surround), but Ubuntu managed to pull it off. It had everything I needed – support for all of my hardware and speed.
A lot of people fear Linux, because of the compatibility. People tend to think that Microsoft Office is the ONLY set of office applications out there. Well it’s not. Ubuntu comes with a pre-installed Open Office package. And guess what, it’s compatible with the document formats that Microsoft Office uses. And it’s not just for office applications. Ubuntu comes with a built-in IM client and a built in mail client!
Ubuntu is free, fast, functional, customizable and user friendly!
