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I just wanna say I liked the article.
  
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486
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As another thought(hence new post)
MS have said that Xp users will be allowed to to use the OS forever.
They have not said that they will be able to re-install it forever.
How long before it becomes impossible to re-activate XP?
Another reason to consider open-source solutions.
You can still install W98 or ME or W2k, and use it.
But activation allows the supplier to decide a cut-off point.
Several software companies that I know have already set that cut-off point at 4 years.
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Pentium
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wyliecoyoteuk (26/07/2008)
As another thought(hence new post)
MS have said that Xp users will be allowed to to use the OS forever.
They have not said that they will be able to re-install it forever.
How long before it becomes impossible to re-activate XP?Saying that we can use it forever infers (to me personally) that we can reactivate it forever. I guess that once the OS is no longer of any financial value to M$, they may well just allow everybody to activate with no checks taking place. After all, it wouldn't actually cost them anything to allow this to happen. I suppose the question is, how long will people want to stay with it? I remember being very reluctant to leave Win98SE due to it being 100% stable at all times and blindingly fast on the hardware I ran it on. I only moved to XP very reluctantly when none of the newer hardware I bought came with Win98 drivers. Regardless of which OS we choose, we're ultimately in the hands of the hardware manufacturers and which OSes they decide to support (or not). Short of being fortunate enough to find satisfactory third-party drivers, hardware obsolescence is largely OS-independent in that respect.  Cheers, Slipstreem. 
System specs: "Phoenix" - Intel C2D E4500 overclocked to 3GHz with ACF7Pro HSF on Volt-modded ASRock 775Dual-VSTA mobo (modded BIOS rev 3.10A and VNB=1.65, Vagp=1.8), 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM (3.0,3,3,8,1T @546MHz), Sapphire ATI HD3870 512MB GDDR4 PCIe graphics card overclocked to 850MHz GPU & 2.4GHz RAM. Powered by Hiper Type-M 580W PSU. Guess who likes overclocking on a budget. 
MP3 Encoding for Audiophiles
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| I may be wrong guys, but I remember reading about a certain mobo manufacturer including a basic linux os? It seems to me that this may be the future worming its way in. A hardware os, enough to get the machine up and running, online and a few basic tasks, then the user has a choice of using online packages to work with, or to download onto computer to use (paid or unpaid). If this is going to happen, if Ms want to stay in the running, they will need to write a cut down version of their os to do this. I may be wrong, but such an os would probably be much more secure that what we use at present - especially if it has to be flashed to upgrade it, and the control for that is completely in the hands of the user. Thinking about it this way, I see MS slowly strangling as I get the impression that it is too much of a leviathan to adjust to such radical changes.
Varies on an almost daily basis depending on what I have lying around & want to play with (Comes of being a disabled volunteer with a facination for computers!!!)
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486
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BigT (27/07/2008)
I may be wrong guys, but I remember reading about a certain mobo manufacturer including a basic linux os? It seems to me that this may be the future worming its way in. A hardware os, enough to get the machine up and running, online and a few basic tasks, then the user has a choice of using online packages to work with, or to download onto computer to use (paid or unpaid). If this is going to happen, if Ms want to stay in the running, they will need to write a cut down version of their os to do this.
This has actually been happening for some time, some media-centre PCs have done it since 2003.
I may be wrong, but such an os would probably be much more secure that what we use at present - especially if it has to be flashed to upgrade it, and the control for that is completely in the hands of the user.
Thinking about it this way, I see MS slowly strangling as I get the impression that it is too much of a leviathan to adjust to such radical changes.
Windows XPe is the latest embedded version of Windows (following on from WinCE), so they already have!
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486
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Slipstreem (26/07/2008)
[
Saying that we can use it forever infers (to me personally)that we can reactivate it forever. I guess that once the OS is no longer of any financial value to M$, they may well just allow everybody to activate with no checks taking place. After all, it wouldn't actually cost them anything to allow this to happen.I suppose the question is, how long will people want to stay with it?
Well, MSN music servers were extended to 2011 after protests, but they originally planned to just turn them off last year.
I expect that activation servers will eventually go off-line. Microsoft want you to buy new product, there is little gain in supporting old stuff forever.
Probably device drivers for XP will become a problem before then. Some laptop products for example, are already shipping with Vista only hardware, so by the time they are turned off, it is likely that very few people will notice.
On the open-source side, more legacy hardware is still supported Under Linux than even under XP, and I can't see that changing much.
Whereas if a company goes out of business, or is taken over,, there is no-one to write new drivers for new versions of windows, the OS community continue support for Linux , BSD etc.
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Pentium
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The real killer for Microsoft isn't on the operating system side but the Office suite side, that's why they moved heaven and earth to get OOXML ratified as an Open Document Format.
That way there will always be the possibility of anew Office suite which makes use of the latest upgrade open standard, roughly at about the same time the upgraded standard is launched. Its probably Microsofts only hope of retaining its real money making market, as Government and Enterprise baulk at the cost of supporting proprietary standards.
Mad Malc
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Slipstreem (26/07/2008)
wyliecoyoteuk (26/07/2008)
As another thought(hence new post)
MS have said that Xp users will be allowed to to use the OS forever.
They have not said that they will be able to re-install it forever.
How long before it becomes impossible to re-activate XP?
Saying that we can use it forever infers (to me personally)that we can reactivate it forever. I guess that once the OS is no longer of any financial value to M$, they may well just allow everybody to activate with no checks taking place. After all, it wouldn't actually cost them anything to allow this to happen.I suppose the question is, how long will people want to stay with it?
I remember being very reluctant to leave Win98SE due to it being 100% stable at all times and blindingly faston the hardware I ran it on. I only moved to XP very reluctantly when none of the newer hardware I bought came with Win98 drivers.
Regardless of which OS we choose, we're ultimately in the hands of the hardware manufacturers and which OSes they decide to support (or not). Short of being fortunate enough to find satisfactorythird-party drivers,hardware obsolescence is largelyOS-independent in that respect.
Cheers, Slipstreem.
Though Microsoft says Windows Product Activation (WPA) was introduced to stop piracy it also gives Microsoft the power to stop activating fresh installations. It costs money to run activation servers and Microsoft make money from users upgrading their software. It should be clear where Microsoft's interests lie in WPA - and users do not benefit from WPA at all. Fortunately Windows 98 and Windows 2000 do not require activation, which is one of the reasons many users continue to run Windows 98. You'd be well advised to look at neowin and msfn.org forums where users find ways around awkward hardware support and drivers for Windows 98 if you want to continue running it.
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