On June 30th, Windows XP Will Be No More? Say It Aint So!

I have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft, actually come to think of it, most of my relationships are love-hate I've been using Microsoft's OSes since MS-DOS. My first Windows OS that I had installed on my home machine though was Windows 95. Wow, that was many moons ago. I was always excited about upgrades to the new versions...I was always among the first. But, when Vista came along I didn't bother. Forking out more cash for an OS when mine works just fine? Not worth it. XP works great, well, as good as you can get for a Windows OS.

HP Notebook Users Don't Dig Vista

I worked for a telephone technical support company last year. I was part of the HP Notebook team. Among the numerous calls we received because of crashed hard drives, software issues with the pre-installed software, backlight issues, etc....were calls asking how the heck to get Vista off of their machines and install XP! The answer I was supposed to give... buy a copy of XP from us but you are on your own to do the downgrade and your warranty is void after downgrading....the bastards! The answer I gave? Visit this web site: {I gave them a link to my web site where I sold XP retail}
I gave them brief installation instructions, gave them a heads up on the SATA drive issues, and told them if they ever call in the future for hardware support just say they have Vista installed when asked. The calls were recorded and I knew my days were numbered but I ended up "quitting that bitch". I don't miss it one bit.

Ubuntu To The Rescue

I love XP, there's no doubt, but I think that I'm hopping over to a Linux OS for good. It's free. I can do practically everything in Linux as I can in Windows, and it's free, oh yeah I already said that. Plus it's stable! I love XP like I said but to call any Windows OS stable is laughable. Just like I migrated from Classic ASP (with VB Scripting) to PHP, I may be migrating to Ubuntu (a flavour of Linux) from Windows XP. We'll see. Definitely not MAC though...well I should do a bit more research before making that statement.

Grab XP While You Can

XP is still available for now. You can buy a copy of any version of XP, including XP Pro at TigerDirect . That's a link to TigerDirect Canada but you can follow over to the US one I believe.

Well, decision making time and some more learning...but that's what being in this field is all about. I still have time though...just because XP's coming off the shelves doesn't mean I can't still run the one I have...besides, the software and utilities I use run quite well on XP. I have everything I need (PC-wise)...for now.