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The final curtain . . . for XP/Firefox and Alternative Advice

Started by TelePlay, April 08, 2014, 07:59:44 AM

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TelePlay

Microsoft ends support for XP today. As such, my WiFi USB receiver will be detached from my main, desktop computer and my work shop computer to keep them off the internet, forever. Anything I do online will be with a smaller laptop and any files down loaded transferred to my desktop for processing, and back to the laptop for uploading. I never upgraded to Windows 7 because of the major hassle factor involved thanks to Microsoft's failure to provide good upgrade software. This new hassle will keep me from being as active as I was on the forum. The news people this morning claimed there are 500 million computers still running XP in the world today. What a mess.

LarryInMichigan

Any PC which runs XP can run Linux.  Linux is free and much less demanding on hardware than Windows 7 or 8.  It might be worth considering.

Larry

dsk

I have done some tests with some Linux variants, and yes it works well. (Ubuntu seems to be my favorite ) BUT! I am not able to find a driver for my Canon 5050n printer!
So it is trouble-free, but it is definitely my solution for keeping my old PC alive.
I'm online, I have found software to cover my needs, and I email what I need to a newer PC.

Just a question, the stop of support is one thing, but it should not stop working even when you are on net?

You may need to run another software for antivirus and firewall to get updates, but I guess that's still available.

Regards
dsk

TelePlay

I have several complex and high priced audio and photo software programs that were designed to run on XP. Yes, my computer is old, as is the software, but I can not justify spending $2,000 for new software to run on a new computer that will run the software. A big hassle, cost and days of time to switch everything just to go online. Easier to retire from everything I was doing at this point in life, for me at least, than to "upgrade" stuff that was working perfectly fine on XP.

I'd bet Microsoft could find plenty of those 500 million computer owners willing to pay $20 a year for continued support of XP.

LarryInMichigan

It might be worth investigating WINE (http://www.winehq.org/) for running your Windows applications on Linux. 

Larry

DavePEI

Quote from: TelePlay on April 08, 2014, 08:59:32 AM
I have several complex and high priced audio and photo software programs that were designed to run on XP. Yes, my computer is old, as is the software, but I can not justify spending $2,000 for new software to run on a new computer that will run the software. A big hassle, cost and days of time to switch everything just to go online. Easier to retire from everything I was doing at this point in life, for me at least, than to "upgrade" stuff that was working perfectly fine on XP.

I'd bet Microsoft could find plenty of those 500 million computer owners willing to pay $20 a year for continued support of XP.
What I don't understand is why you feel that ou can't use the Windows XP machine online? It will continue working just as it does now. The only thing you will have to do is use aftermarket Antivirus and AntiSpyware products to make up for the updates you will not get in the future.

End of life means you just will no longer get the automatic updates.

The machines will still work on-line and your old software will continue working just as they do now. Of course Microsoft would love you to think it would go up in a puff of smoke if not updated to Windows 7 or later, but that isn't the case. People are still running machines back to Win 98 online (course I wouldn't want to put up with a slow old system myself)....

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
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twocvbloke

My P4 desktop (that used to be my gaming computer many moons ago) is running XP Pro still, it's acting as a file server so can't be disconnected from the network, plus I use it to download content onto so needs web access...

Of course, it's got antivirus (Avast, my present choice since AVG got too resource-heavy to sit there doing nothing), it's got AdBlockPlus in Firefox, it's all up to date including the final patch M$ recently released, I have no worries about it going belly up any time soon, continued careful web-use will ensure that XP will remain a well-used OS until it gets to the point where it is overwhelmed by websites that demand what it cannot supply, kind of like my Windows98SE computers, they still work, but can't use the web due to the changes that have gone on in the past 16 years... :)

16 years, has it been that long already? I remember when there was that big rush in stores to buy Windows95 when it was first released... :o

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on April 08, 2014, 09:40:24 AM
It might be worth investigating WINE (http://www.winehq.org/) for running your Windows applications on Linux. 

Problem with WINE is it emulates windows a little bit too well, flaws, security issues and stability and all, as they based it on a pre-patched Windows environment, and can't really apply M$'s updates to patch the holes as they're closed-source software... :-\

WesternElectricBen

It's really too bad about them dropping support, honestly I haven't tried out a WIN XP computer out yet.

In my mind, XP was pretty great, ugly, but good. I know not a lot of people liked Vista, so maybe they should have figured a way to 'sort of' update XP, while killing Vista. Though, lots of semi newer computer run Vista.

Ben

TelePlay

Quote from: DavePEI on April 08, 2014, 11:47:05 AM
What I don't understand is why you feel that ou can't use the Windows XP machine online? It will continue working just as it does now. The only thing you will have to do is use aftermarket Antivirus and AntiSpyware products to make up for the updates you will not get in the future.

Oh, I can go online and I do have aftermarket programs running to catch and check for viruses and malware and spyware but how good are they to stop hackers from getting in by a back door when online with a high speed connection?

Quote from: DavePEI on April 08, 2014, 11:47:05 AM
End of life means you just will no longer get the automatic updates.

Yes, I understand that they will end and maybe I am wrong with what I thought those updates were all about. I always thought service-pack updates from Microsoft were patches and fixes to close back doors as problems or hacks became known to keep hackers and hackers running bots out of my machine - I thought the service updates were meant to repair XP at a level above the malware and spyware and virus problems.

Quote from: DavePEI on April 08, 2014, 11:47:05 AM
The machines will still work on-line and your old software will continue working just as they do now.

Yes, the reason I would not want to loose that machine to malicious software. As long as it stays off line, it will work for a long time with my 3rd party software. The inconvenience to me in staying off line is not being able to download sound files, music tracks and other stuff I need to create theatrical sound effects. Doing that in live time is far superior to downloading to a stick on a Windows 7 machine and moving it to the desktop for processing. I have done 50 to 100 downloads in the space of an hour or so to create one sound effect.

Then, again, I could just quit doing sound for theaters - problem solved. Theater egos have been getting to me over the past few years anyway.

DavePEI

Quote from: TelePlay on April 08, 2014, 08:47:19 PM
Quote from: DavePEI on April 08, 2014, 11:47:05 AM
What I don't understand is why you feel that ou can't use the Windows XP machine online? It will continue working just as it does now. The only thing you will have to do is use aftermarket Antivirus and AntiSpyware products to make up for the updates you will not get in the future.

Oh, I can go online and I do have aftermarket programs running to catch and check for viruses and malware and spyware but how good are they to stop hackers from getting in by a back door when online with a high speed connection?
That is what your firewall and backups are for. Don't forget, after Microsoft declares end of life, there is no advantage for hackers to continue developing new hacks for older windows. If you have a properly set up firewall, the hackers can't get back into your computer.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

DavePEI

One suggestion... Use an external firewall such as the Edgerouter  Lite to protect all of your machines. It is a Linux based router/firewall, fully configurable, and will prevent any incursion into your system so long as you don't randomly set out opening up ports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0vGVLeIFQA

Hackers will never get into your system.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

Scotophor

The machine I'm on now was a Win98 machine until fairly recently, and was only "upgraded" to XP for a hardware-compatibility reason. There is or was a group online which discussed and provided ways to add several forms of XP-compatibility to Win98 machines, including browser user-agent spoofing for enabling access to the plethora of websites which started blocking 98 for no apparent reason, and large hard drive support, so up until I ran into the hardware issue, I wasn't missing much.

This one will remain an XP machine until there's some must-have new thing that it can't do, at which time I plan to make it dual-boot. WinXP is the last MS OS that is compatible with a piece of hardware that I have which connects through the 15-pin Game (MIDI) Port, and I'm not ready to give up using it yet. I have all of MS's security patches installed, the MS Security Essentials anti-malware and firewall software (which continue to be updated for at least another year), plus my router's firewall. I have also disabled or removed a long list of services that hackers could use to gain access (which Microsoft so helpfully enables by default). There's no compelling reason as yet that I'm aware of, for a savvy user to keep an XP machine offline or accept the "forced" OS upgrade path.
Name: A.J.   Location: LAPNCAXG, EDgewood 6

dsk

I have a friend who has the responsibility of the PC's at a school, and they keep their older PC alive for as long as possible, he has just made the last backups on the XP machines and will let them run for as long as possible.

dsk

twocvbloke

I have a feeling XP will be around for a long time to come, it's used in a lot more systems than just home computers (I.E. banking computers, EPOS systems, security systems, scientific equipment, military equipment, etc.), we all use it every day whether directly or indirectly, anything with a computer in it is most likely running XP, as it's an OS that just works, it has the most hardware and software support, it isn't as resource heavy as the present Windows 7 and 8 OSes (I skip Vista, that was a Windows7 Alpha as far as I care!!!), and doesn't need a lot of power to run, I remember running it about 12 years ago on a Pentium 166MHz (or was it 233?) with 128MB of RAM, and on a 2GB HDD, of course back then it wasn't as patched up as it is now, and software has gotten rather bloated taking up so much more storage space, but still, for 13 years it's been a good OS, not the best, but good, which being an M$ product is quite surprising... :)

Mr. Bones

     I have XP Pro SP3 on most of my computers, and have just loved it, for many years, after all the fighting, and re-re-installing, to keep previous versions working. Ugh. :o :o :o

     I have no immediate intentions of upgrading my OS's, despite the fact that the media pretty much made it sound like the "XPocalypse"! ;D Very reminiscent of the Y2K hype, what I watched on the morning of the 8th.

     I'm not even too certain that my computers will run newer versions, so I've enclosed a few pics: what say ye, oh tech-savvier-than-I? ;)

Best regards!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus