Hi Dark,
Which are all very good valid points. There are certainly advantages in
upgrading and using Windows 7, but its hard to argue the point if those
advantages do not effect you personally.
For example, on Windows 7 you can burn music CD, data CDS, and data DVD
through Windows Explorer directly. Obviously, its a nice feature to have
as you can just drag and drop all your data to a blank DVD and select
Write DVD from the File menu. However, for a person running XP and has
Nero, Roxio CD Creator, or a free CD/DVD writing tool the ability to
burn CDs and DVDs with Windows Explorer is not really a convincing
argument to upgrade because the person already has a tool to perform
that task.
In the case of something like Direct3D 11 you can only get that with
Windows 7, but not too many games are using Direct3D 11 for that precise
reason. Most game developers are using Direct3D 9 which ships with XP,
Vista, and Windows 7 for compatibility reasons. So again, its hardly a
convincing reason to upgrade.
Fact of the matter is, and I'll freely admit this, that there isn't
anything you can do on Windows 7 that you can't do on XP already. You
can get .Net 4.0, Internet Explorer 9, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live
Messenger, Live Windows Writer, Windows Media Player 11, Security
Essentials, etc all for XP currently so there really isn't anything for
Windows 7 you can't get and run on XP too.
However, here is the problem. If you buy a new PC and try and install XP
on it you may find it difficult to obtain hardware drivers for the new
PC that are XP compatible. Plus if you have a new 64-bit PC and only a
32-bit version of XP you will only be able to use a fraction of the
memory and CPU power available.
Windows 7 supports up to 128 GB of ram. Many new computers ship with 4
GB of ram and can be upgraded to 8 GB of ram. Windows XP only supports
up to 4 GB of ram max, and if you have a PC with 8 GB of ram XP won't be
able to use it. Granted if you don't need that much ram its hardly a
convincing argument, but the point is that XP is falling behind in terms
of hardware support and it is going to get harder to find new PCs that
XP will run on without problems and issues.
The other thing to think about long term is 64-bit support. Right now we
are in a transitional stage where developers are still producing 32-bit
apps or both 32-bit and 64-bit apps, but give the industry five years or
so to become fully 64-bit compliant and XP will be out of date. You
can't run new 64-bit apps on 32-bit versions of XP, and that is why I
call XP the technical dark ages. Its fine for now, but five years from
now it could be a totally different story if there is a game or some
other program you want that is 64-bit only and you are still running XP.
XP users are living on borrowed time as far as I am concerned as
eventually the changes in Win 7 will become standard and XP will simply
not be able to keep up with those changes.
As for ?Firefox I've always found it rather stable. I'm using Firefox 10
with no issues. However, that said, I know there are certain extensions
and plug ins that will cause Firefox to crash. If you install a plug in
that isn't compatible with the version of Firefox you are using it will
sometimes hang and crash, but removing the offending plug in will make
Firefox run fine. So I caution you to not make blanket statements like
"Firefox crashes so much it isn't worth it" because Firefox is widely
regarded to be the very best web browser on the market. It has been
praised by PC Magazine, PC World, and various other respected technical
professionals, and I can't help but feel you are being far to bias
towards Firefox based on some bad experience likely caused by your
personal setup rather than the software itself.
Anyway, I do understand and respect your point about Windows 7, because
in the main you AR correct. If XP is doing everything you need it to do
there is little need to upgrade at this point. However, there may be a
day when you buy a new laptop where you might need Windows 7 or Windows
8 to run that PC do to driver issues, better support for memory, support
for larger files, support for 64-bit apps, and plenty of other things
that don't effect you now but might be an issue five years from now.
Cheers!
On 3/11/2012 10:16 AM, dark wrote:
Hi Tom.
The funny thing about windows 7, is how few reasons there are that I
should! upgrade.
For instance, I'm writing my phd thesis in word 2007, and there is
absolutely nothing in word 2010 or later that would make that task of
writing my phd easier, ---- quite the reverse in fact.
All the games and such I play are quite runnable on xp, indeed the
only game I've ever seen that requires windows 7 is airik the clerric
and even that is going to be fixed.
The latest version of winamp, ---- my favourite media player are fine
with xp, and indeed from what I've seen outlook express beats
microsoft outlook or windows messenger hands down as a quick and
useable E-mail client.
I'm using ie8 for brouser the net, ---- I've tried firefox but it
crashes so much it isn't worth it, and though various websites like
sendspace tell me things like "you are using an outdated brouser" I've
found very little that won't work with ie8 for all that.
Back in 2004 I was using a windows 98 laptop, and I kept running
accross applications and games that required xp, indeed this was why I
never tried galaxy ranger or the self voicing sapi interpreters and
mush clients until I upgraded my machine.
i thought that was what would happen with wndows 7, that eventually
more and more applications would use it, so at the point I was forced
to get it with a new computer, there would be more new stuff I wanted
it for.
This however simply hasn't happened!
So "the dark ages" as you put it really ain't looking so dark from
where I'm standing.
I'm not saying I will attempt to install xp if this pc breaks, but it
would be something I'd seriously considder, sinse rather than being an
upgrade windows 7 looks like it'd be more trouble than good over all,
and just because microsoft say it's "better" that doesn't mean it
actually is so for the things I wish to use a pc for.
So the security might be better, ---- well that only really makes a
difference if the current security was causing problems, and thanks to
avg it certainly isn't.
So outlook express doesn't have all the fancy conference options of
windows messenger, ---- do I want them? hell no! I want to read my
mail quickly and reply quickly, and outlook express is absolutely fine
for that.
If windows 7 has nothing to actually offer me but a screwy interface,
program incompatibilities and bad mail programs, and I'll be using
virtual machines, classic shell and just about every other trick in
the book to turn windows 7 into xp, ---- why should I bother with
windows 7 at all?
I'd actually be interested if anyone does! have anything good to say
about windows 7 that will actually affect my computer and what I do
and let me do it better, sinse from everything I've seen, ----
including the occasions I've had a go with Hal on other windows 7
machines, it seems there is no bennifit to me and just lots of cost,
--- -where as upgrading from 98 to xp had huge bennifits and no cost
at all.
Hay, maybe by the time my xp desktop bites the bullit we'll be in to
windows 8 anyway, and several of the more annoying stuff like ribbons
and incompatibility with 16 bit programs won't be such an issue, ----
and as for my laptop, I'm probably going to replace that with an
Iphone or Ipad anyway next time, sinse as a portable device there are
loads of advantages, and unlike windows xp vs 7, there are lots! of
fun things I'd like to do on an Ipad, ---- though I wouldn't want a
mac as a desktop sinse that would also stop me doing the windows stuff
entirely.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
